• What are people’s thoughts on the artillery piece?  They seem useless to me.  I can’t think of a single instance, other than not having an extra dollar, when I would buy one over a tank.  What are the communities thoughts on this?


  • Artillery is a niche purchase, mainly because it generally compares unfavorably to an infantry and tank mix. Artillery paired with infantry provide the greatest attack/cost ratio of any unit.

    The major drawbacks are:
    1.Artillery has the worst defense/cost ratio of the 3 units.
    2. Artillery also only projects the threat of deadzones one territory away instead of 2 for tanks
    3. Artillery attack ratio drops to 0.5 (below a tank) once infantry are exhausted.

    Artillery definitely have a place in purchasing, where these drawbacks are mitigated. Ignoring artillery completely is a mistake.

    Prime examples I can think of:
    1. UK amphibious landings. The battles usually conclude in 1-2 rounds with all UK land units dying or taking the territory in a dead zone. Artillery provide the same offensive punch as a tank at 1 less cost. Transport provide the mobility to project the artillery’s threat of deadzoning the same range of german territories as a tank.
    2. Germany or Russia situations where land offense is needed to trade Caucasus or Italy. This is the case when the country is forced back to the capital and only a couple territories. It’s critical to continue trading these territories as long as possible, or losing the capital is further accelerated. In this situation, you only need to project the deadzone one territory out and provides the most offense for least cost.
    3. Early R1-R2 buys for USA. It’s a priority for the USA to remove the axis from africa. Buying art in early R1-R2 rounds, then tanks later in R2-R4 rounds maximized the pressure on egypt on R5-R6.
    4. When a country has a leftover 1 IPC and wants some offense.

    attack/cost:
    infantry - 0.3333
    tank - 0.6
    artillery - 0.75

    defense/cost:
    artillery - 0.5
    tank - 0.6
    infantry - 0.66

    Note1: i’m aware that hits/cost ratio also matters, but analyzing it quantitatively is complicated. It’s fair to discount the tank and art ratios a little to reflect the differences in hits.

  • '16 '15 '10

    Artillery is weak compared to tanks in the Revised ruleset. Note that tanks are now $6 in recent versions.

    Generally you buy artillery shortly before you intend to attack a capital, in order to maximize your attacking punch and get the best value for your infantry.  Germany will sometimes buy artillery early in the game to go along with inf stacks, but pros buy them sparingly unless they control Cauc and plan to hit Moscow soon.  UK and USA players buy artillery in the run up to an assault on Germany.  Russia might want some artillery if they wish to pose an offensive threat to Germany stacks coming near Moscow.


  • Re: What is artillery good for?I use artillery with the Russians a lot same with Germany they give your infantry a much needed boost on the attack

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