How useful is artillery against infantry?

[evolvedbullet1]

I finally can build monster ribualts and now I wonder how useful they will be. I look at it and it looks very similar to a rocket launcher, are they at all similar? I built a Royal Arsenal near Antioch; the Mongolians attack and fail to capture settlements but I know that to eliminate the threat, they must be killed. I don't have an effective killing method of slaughtering their race other than station 6/8 armies blocking them on the map on hills/mountains. I wonder if the ribualt I have will kill many of them with good accuracy or I could just use many culverins and attack them from a range. What is a good way to kill them? Artillery, horse charges, or city sieges (I hate this choice!)?

[Greg89]

City Sieges are definitely the best choice, but if you think you can pull off ona charge then feel free, make sure u catch them on melee though, with some strong units (idk what faction you are playing) JHI or Quapakulus or Hashashim would do great. When on Sieges, get some Naffatuns and they will do the job,a s for artilery idk, since they have the rocket launchers which will pretty much slaughter your whole army if you are not careful.
I would stay on defensive since their archers are uber good.
And you can always use the assassins.

[The Walrus]

I thought only the Timurids had the rocket launcher. I think he is playing as Milan or Venice as I know they have monster ribaults. The best way to face the mongols are city sieges as their cavalry can't move as much. And if you are playing as Venice, you can then slaughter them with VHI on the streets. Do you have musketeers yet? They might be effective too...

[antaeus]

ribaults and monster ribaults are excellent defensive units when defending a bridge. a bridge is also an excellent place to destroy hugely outnumbering mongol armies. sit your army on a bridge, let the mongols attack. they can be up to 3 stacks to 1 and all will have to come across that bridge.

[STReetSamurai]

How well do you think you would stand up to a massive flaming and possibly explosive ball smashing threw your mates?

[delra]

Artillery is useless, it never hits anything, costs too much and is damn slow. Get two units of heavy cavalry instead, they will inflict much more casualties.

[Gabriel A]

For field battles, artillery is usually never worth the slot it takes.

Not very mobile (on the battle map, and the campaign map, where it slows down your stack), doesn't fire quickly enough, succumbs easily to attack, expensive, takes up a slot, etc.

However.

They're cool,,and for that alone I am an artillery junky ,, so build some and try them out if nothing else just to see them in action.

[kelvintyk]

For field battles, artillery is usually never worth the slot it takes.

Not very mobile (on the battle map, and the campaign map, where it slows down your stack), doesn't fire quickly enough, succumbs easily to attack, expensive, takes up a slot, etc.

However.

They're cool,,and for that alone I am an artillery junky ,, so build some and try them out if nothing else just to see them in action.

Lol i never bring them to field battles.

[Mr.Elendig]

Catapults are realy nice to have on bridge/river crossings. Block the bridge with some spear/pike/halbred, and set 2 units of catapults to fire on the bridge, from as close as you can get them, slightly off center. Use flaming ammo, and watch the enemy either get slaughtered, or flee. (usualy both) Just remember to also bring some light cavalery to capture the routing army.
The same strategy also works nicly in city/caste streets. Don't wory to mutch about friendly fire, since you usualy only need 1-2 units to block the enemy at any time. Just keep some spare ones closly.

The culverine (I thin taht's it's name. Smal gun that e.g. the danes get) and the balista are nice for trying to kill off the enemy general, or shoot down the enemy rank from the flank, once engaged.

The trebucket woud be alot better if you were able to attack the ground with it, and not just the enemy. Laying out some cows infront of your line woud be realy handy. When targeting the enemy lines I usualy find that the cows lands 50m+ behind them instead.

[Marto]

Like Mr. Elendig says, use catapults instead if you're going to use artillery.

Generally artillery is only really useful during siege attacks and a Monster Ribault will make extremely short work of a poxy castle door - or any other structure for that matter, but in the field artillery is pretty useless apart from scaring people and not worth taking at all unless you have the flaming/ explosive ammo option available.

I've found that the most useful artillery in the field is the catapult, particularly in defence. It fires a load of burning stuff into their ranks and can take 10 men out easily in one shot. If it is a very mobile enemy though they soon become a hindrance and can be swamped by enemy cavalry.

A simple rule I use is:

Siege attack = troops + artillery
Siege defence = troops + archers
Field attack = troops + cavalry
Field defence = troops + artillery

Obviously there's 1001 combinations and additions but this general basis for each army works for me.

[captainbloodloss]

To answer your OP, city sieges. Alot of Mongol (and Timurids later in the game) units wear no armour making them very, very vulnerable to your archer on the walls. Also, by forcing them to fight in city street or through a gateway you take away their greatest advantage: mobility.

Artillery is a very underappreciated unit type in my opinion. Artillery is not meant to kill masses of troops, it is meant to panic them and cause a rout right where you want it. Used in this fashion it can easily help win battles where you are outnumbered 2 or 3 to one because you can concentrate all your forces right were you know the rout with start.

Note: To overcome the general inaccuracy of artillery pieces you must have a battery of 2-3 units.

Finally, if you find your arty being surrounded constantly despite your best efforts to prevent the enemy from getting there then reverse the situation and use it like a trap. Withdraw the crew and have some of your units surround the units he sent to attack your artillery.

[evolvedbullet1]

How about an average ribualt on a bridge, let alone a monster ribualt. Would that be very effective or no?

[Chipp]

An average ribault is great on a bridge. Usually I place one on the right side of the bridge and more often that not, a shot will usually take out the enemy general. I also think some of you are underestimating the value of having artillery units. I usually have 2 Culverins in my stacks on field battles. Sure, they are not much use close range, but they aren't really designed for that are they? Protect your artillery with some defensive units, and with its massive range, it can scare enemies, or even rout them so that your troops would have a much easier time in dealing with them.

[evolvedbullet1]

I'm now having the problem of defending my seige engines though. I need them to have a clear shot at the enemy but then again I don't want to leave them in the far open. I'm testing artillery in my cities to see how enemies can magically flee but it has never worked; also testing bridge battles but I get the same result, negative.

*excuse me if I have bad English now, I just feel off my bike on a bike trail about 2 ft. Really nasty, bloody hand injures .