Artillery Units

The ballista, the artillery of the Iron Age

Artillery units () are the class of military units with longest attack range of all same age units. The only exception is the Microwave Blaster. They are like ranged units.

Bronze Age to Industrial Age

Up until the Progressive Era, artillery units are one of the last units unlocked in an age and they have the lowest attack, defense, and speed out of all the same-age units, but the longest attack range. They have attack bonuses on hills and class bonuses against heavy units.

Their low attack makes them rather not effective against light and fast units from the age, and only moderately effective against heavy units. They attack most effectively against ranged units, and the NPC will generally favor attacking ranged units to remove them from the field as quickly as possible. Having low defense makes them extremely vulnerable to attack, as they can be easily killed in two hits. Also given that a unit's attack power drops as it takes damage, artillery may be unable to effectively deal damage even if it should survive an attack. Another thing worth noting is that their low speed means that they will always be the last units to move in a given round of battle. This can allow other units to move into more favorable positions before they have a chance to attack, and also makes it very difficult for artillery to escape from or avoid being attacked.

In these early ages, artillery units have the significant advantage of being able to attack enemy units from the very first turn, requiring very little movement, if any, to be in attacking range, and being safe from all but other artillery units for at least the first turn. Because of their range and subsequent ability to take out or at least injure many units before they're ever in danger of being attacked, artillery units are very popular and relatively easy to use, especially with a high attack boost equipped. On the contrary, artillery units are overshadowed if the enemy have high boosts, as their low base stats make them significantly weaker.

Their only real problem comes in the Colonial Age and Industrial Age, where units begin to be immune from their ranged attacks, and the increasing range of other units does prove them very powerless against all other same age units, and only moderately effective against heavy units.

Progressive Era to Postmodern Era

Continuing the early trends of early artillery units, they still remain to have weak stats despite many bonuses against other units. Once again, they are best deployed against enemies with low boosts, and they remain very useful for selectively attacking enemy units, and finishing them before they are able to attack. With a good defense bonus equipped, artillery units will also take much less damage, especially against low damage units which the artillery actually has bonuses against. Likewise, they are best deployed without rogues, so that you can maximize the early damage much quicker.

However, they are in an extremely vulnerable position if the unit uses Stealth units, especially as the Mechanized and Rocket Artillery on auto battle will literally travel to the unit, causing massive amounts of damage to be done to them.

Contemporary Era to Virtual Future

From the Contemporary Era onwards, artillery units will start to have major weaknesses, due to the increased number of Rapid Deployment units and the introduction of Flying fast units. Both of these mean that artillery units can only be used in specific battles and cannot be used all the time, even if the enemy has low boosts. In the Contemporary and Tomorrow Era, the artillery units do become somewhat useless.

Artillery units only really begin to have competent attack and defense starting in the Future Era, and now they can be reliably used against encounters with heavy units (whereas before, heavy units usually sometimes beat artillery due to their much better attack and defense), despite the heavy units in the Future and Arctic Future having defensive capabilities that do sometimes limit the artillery's effectiveness. In the Oceanic and Virtual Future, the artillery units then gain a much better initiative value than their movement, meaning they become significantly stronger, as they can attack heavy units before they have moved. In addition to that, they also gain the Mortar ability, which greatly allows them to deal significant damage to enemy units. Arguably, artillery units from these eras are the best, though one should still watch out for miscellaneous Flying, Stealth and Rapid Deployment units. Likewise, they should be used as full armies of 8 to maximize their effects.

The Space Ages

In the Space Ages, with all the units being (somewhat) well balanced, the artillery units continue to have the longest range, being able to hit pretty much everywhere on the battlefield, and their stats are also very competent enough with other same age units. Their theoretical strengths are against light and heavy units, and they prove very strong against them due to their much greater initiative value than them (allowing them to move first) and deal significant damage to them before they are able to reach them. Likewise, their counters are once again Flying fast units, whom they are unable to attack, as well as ranged units who are able to move before them and attack them first round. They are also very useful in the last encounters of Guild Expeditions where there are many heavy units.

*In update of version 0.17(19.9.2012), Terrain gives a scaling bonus with unit strength.

Unit Properties

Age		Unit	Properties	Attack Bonus	Defense Bonus	Special Skill	Building
Bronze Age		Stone Thrower	3 2 12 6	+3 +1	+3		Thrower Camp
Iron Age		Ballista	4 3 13 6	+4 +2	+4		Ballista Camp
Early Middle Ages		Catapult	6 3 13 6	+5 +3	+5		Catapult Camp
High Middle Ages		Trebuchet	9 4 14 6	+6 +3	+6		Trebuchet Camp
Late Middle Ages		Cannon	13 4 12 6	+7 +4	+7	+14	Cannon Camp
Colonial Age		Field Gun	14 6 15 8	+10 +6	+10	+18	Field Gun Camp
Industrial Age		Breech Loader	18 9 15 8	+15 +9	+15	+22	Breech Loader Factory
Progressive Era		Rapid Fire Cannon	23 12 15 10	+25 +25 +12	+25 +25	+26	Ordnance Factory
Modern Era		Mechanized Artillery	32 35 16 16	+20 +20 +15	+20 +20		Mechanized Artillery Factory
Postmodern Era		Rocket Artillery	45 35 18 16	+35 +25	+35 +25		Rocket Artillery Factory
Contemporary Era		Missile Artillery	50 70 18 16	+25 +10	+25 +10		Missile Site
Tomorrow		Microwave Blaster	70 85 12 24	+60 +20 +30	+60 +20 +30	3 20%	Microwave Blaster Factory
The Future		Rail Gun	160 140 20 6	+120 +80 +50	+120 +80 +40		Rail Gun Range
Arctic Future		Plasma Artillery	180 140 20 14	+140 +100 +50	+140 +100 +60 +40	3 20%	Plasma Range
Oceanic Future		Turturret	170 160 20 10	+160 +120 +50	+160 +120 +30	2	Turturret Dock
Oceanic Future		Medusa	210 140 50 0	+180 +150 +50	+180 +150 +30	6	Medusa Silo
Virtual Future		Rocket Troop	300 200 24 12	+250 +200 +40 +30	+250 +200 +30	2	Rocket Range
Space Age Mars		Sniperbot	600 400 26 14	+250 +250 +100	+250 +250 +50	20% 50%	Sniperbot Facility
Space Age Asteroid Belt		B.E.L.T.	750 550 24 10	+300 +300 +50	+300 +300 +80	25% 8	B.E.L.T. Site
Space Age Venus		Power Dragon	700 900 24 12	+350 +350 +50	+350 +350 +90	30%	Power Dragon Firing Range
Space Age Jupiter Moon		Cavitation Tank	800 850 24 12	+400 +400 +100	+400 +400 +90	35% 10	Cavitation Assembler
Space Age Titan		Overclock Orbiter	1000 900 24 12	+450 +450 +50	+450 +450 +90	40% 2	Orbital Base
Space Age Space Hub		Dream Dust Blaster	1075 975 24 12	+500 +500 +50	+500 +500 +90	45%	Dream Dust Shuttle

Combat Strategy

Camping

Deployed Units: 2-3 Artillery Units, 3-4 Light Units, 2-3 Heavy Units.

If there is fast unit, position all of the artillery units close to each other. Then use all of the heavy and light units to position them exactly around the artillery units, so that there is no space left for attacking the artillery units. Then, once the fast units are destroyed, send the light units out in front followed by the heavy units. Use the light units to destroy ranged/artillery units that are left. Once all of those are defeated, let the light units fall back behind the heavy units and don't use them again. Then use the heavy units to clear out the light units and the artillery units to clear out the heavy units.

Fronts

Deployed Units: 2-3 Artillery Units, 3-4 Light Units, 2-3 Heavy Units, 0-2 Ranged Units.

Deploy the artillery units in position about a quarter of the map from your initial position to get effective attack range. Ranged units deploy 1/2 way across map. Both melee classes stay in their advantaged terrain in front of both ranged classes to get defense bonus. The main damage output would be contributed by both short range class and artillery class, and both melee classes are served as defense to distract enemies attacks and clear the on coming melee units. Same as above, the cavalry class has the highest priority to be eliminated. Followed by ranged classes as they can ignore the melee units to attack your ranged units.

Pure Artillery

Deployed Units: 8 Artillery

It may seems risky but still not impossible. It is only suitable for late ages artillery units as they have longest attack range and the enemies without fast units or mounted archers. It is effective against popular military combination as there are ranged units and both melee classes. Artillery units can stay in the initial position to have chance to launch attacks but it is recommended to move to hills to get attack bonus if hills is not far away from the initial position. Ranged units class has the highest priority to be eliminated, followed by artillery units class then light units class then heavy units class.

Diversion

Deployed Units: 6-7 Artillery Units, 1-2 Fast Units, 1-2 Light Units

This strategy is extremely effective, especially if the non-artillery unit is the strongest unit of your army. The fast unit/light unit(s) are probably going to die in this one, but it is better to waste 1 light unit than it is to waste lots of artillery units. It is the job of the fast/light units to draw the opposing army away from the artillery. This can be especially effective if your light unit has the ability Stealth, allowing it to hide. This will force not only melee units to chase it but ranged units as well, because they have to attack from an adjacent field. Lead the opponent on a wild goose chase with your 1-2 diversion units while the artillery pound them repeatedly. The addition of "diversion units" allows this army to eliminate opponents with fast units, unlike the Pure Artillery strategy mentioned above. You may lose some artillery, but casualties will be lighter than Pure Artillery.