Artillery Through the Ages

Artillery is both especially powerful and particularly weak.   Artillery brings a decisively powerful punch to the battle.  Artillery can either soften up the enemy prior to an assault or finish off a weakened enemy.  This strength is countered by a decrease in mobility and 'set up' time before it may attack.

Antique Artillery Uses
From Antiquity to roughly the medieval era, artillery is primarily a siege weapon or used in defense of fortified positions.  In siege they were used to propel items over the walls, while in defense they were used to mow down assaulting infantry trying to climb over the walls.  During this time artillery is mostly a 'static' weapon, moved or constructed on-site, and needs to be protected by other units.

In antique-era games, Artillery provides a harassing effect during sieges, but by themselves artillery is easily dispatched.  On the battlefield, Artillery will not be found.

Early Gunpowder Artillery

Sometime during the renaissance period, from roughly early 1400's on, artillery became powerful enough to bring down castle walls on their own.  This changed the role of artillery from a siege 'nice to have', to a requirement.  Artillery was heavy and hard to move, but could be found in almost all European armies.

A disadvantage of the gunpowder weapons is the inability to build them 'on-site'.  Suddenly, the logistics of a siege became more complex as artillery units, and their ammunition, must be transported to the siege location.  On the battlefield, artillery was still too heavy to move and too inaccurate.  Given the size, unwieldiness, and cost of these weapons, a great tactic is to engage the weapon before it arrives at its destination.  As such, armies formed around the artillery pieces as protection for them to arrive at their location.

Late Gunpowder Era Artillery
From roughly the 17th century to The Great War (WWI), advances in artillery permitted them to become lighter, more powerful, and more accurate.  These, coupled with improved munition types, transformed artillery to a battlefield weapon.  Whereas before artillery was to be protected, now it could effectively fight on the battlefield.

Still, artillery never "held the line" without support.  Instead, artillery became a strong and powerful balancing factor.  Able to engage the enemy at long range, artillery demoralized the enemy.  At close range a few canon loaded with canister rounds could devastate an infantry or cavalry charge.  Once in place during a battle, artillery could be moved short distances effectively, but long advances or retreats were impossible.  This made Artillery a 'set-piece' unit on the battlefield.

The weakness of artillery at this stage is the low rate of fire and set up time.  Although some units could achieve fairly good rates of fire over short periods of time, it could not be maintained indefinitely.  Additionally, the setup time required to prepare artillery for firing meant the opposing forces could 'take cover' to reduce their exposure to fire.  As an example, during the American Civil War, only about 10% of battlefield casualties were caused by artillery.

Sea Artillery
Artillery was quickly adopted by naval units.  Prior to canons at sea, the primary method of taking a ship was to board it or ram it.  Ramming was as dangerous to the attacker as the defender.  Boarding usually meant the unit with the larger crew would win.

The introduction of canons permitted ships to attack from further away than the boarding and ram ships.  It also allowed ships to bombard forts and buildings on shore, purportedly in support of ground troops assaulting at the same time.

Modern Artillery
In the modern age, from WWI onwards, artillery came into its own.  Mobile artillery, what would have been an artillery canon on wheels, became the tank and self-propelled gun we know today.  Artillery hurls shells miles.


Rocket Artillery
Rockets were first used around the mid-1200s by the Chinese.  However, they were probably more an instrument of fear than a true damaging force, much like elephants were to Alexander the Great.  In World War II, with the German Nebelwerfer and Soviet Katyusha systems, rockets added the a capability of doing physical damage to their fear aspect.  The fear of rockets lies not only in their destructive capacity, but the fact a volley of rockets lands without warning and in a relatively small area.  Modern rockets are capable of traveling hundreds of miles, or around the world if the ICBM is considered a form of rocket artillery.  Modern conventional rockets can deliver a variety of payloads and, unlike their predecessors, can deliver it with precision accuracy.


Aircraft
Aircraft were the earliest "super long range" form of artillery.  During WWII, bombers could travel hundreds of miles from Britain to Germany, dropping thousands of pounds of explosives on the way.  In the wars of Korea and Vietnam, radio communications allowed aircraft to coordinate with front line infantry, filling the role of artillery by bringing heavy explosives to a points on the front lines.  In this regard, aircraft may be viewed as a form of artillery.

Hex War Games - Strategy Part XV - Protecting Artillery

Alluded to in the earlier article was the necessity of protecting artillery, particularly through 'pairing'.  I received some emails asking for examples of what I mean, so this article will explore the concept further.

For this article we will make the following assumptions:

• It is desirable to protect Artillery from attacks on the front and frontal-flank positions.
• Artillery has a minimum range of 3 hexes and maximum of 4 hexes

Unpaired Artillery
In the diagram below, the artillery is unpaired. each artillery unit has its own guard of 3 tanks each to prevent the enemy from attacking the artillery units.

Unpaired Artillery

An advantage for this configuration is each artillery unit and its guarding units are autonomous.  They may move around the board as needed.  The major drawback is the number of units required to protect the artillery.  In limited unit games, it is nice to have as many units assaulting as possible.  This configuration requires 6 units be used to protect the 2 artillery.

Loosely Paired
Moving the artillery units just two spaces closer together, the artillery becomes 'paired'.  Paired artillery share the same guarding units.  In this case, the center tank is a shared defensive unit.

Loosely Paired Artillery

Although it seems like the center unit would be a weak point, for if it were to fall than both units are exposed.  However, it is actually a strong point.  Both artillery units can call down fire onto that hex directly in front of it, subjecting the enemy to a withering fire.  Lastly, this defense requires only 5 units rather than the initial 6, freeing up an additional unit.

Tightly Paired 
Moving the artillery units closer by a single hex reduces the number of guard units by one yet again.  The artillery units are now tightly paired, but now the number of guarding units is 4, freeing up yet another unit for other duties.  If the enemy were to assault the two frontal units, both artillery could be used to protect either unit.

Tightly Paired

Compact Paired 
A final configuration for protecting artillery units exists, the compact paired.  in this case, the artillery units use only three guardians.  The artillery units must be in adjacent hexes for this configuration to work, as shown in the diagram below.

Compact Paired

Although the guarding units are shown in a non-symmetrical configuration, they can be arranged with overlapping ZOCs if desired.  However, the shown configuration above does allow for 'leapfrogging' artillery (by one space) and still maintaining the defensive arrangement.  To perform the maneuver, the center tank would "shift" one hex to the upper right while the rearmost artillery and its flank covering tank move up one hex.

Compact Paired Artillery - Leapfrog Moving 

Hex War Games - Strategy Part XIV - Artillery Use

Artillery suffers from unique weaknesses and strengths.  Artillery requires time to setup, map its exact location, measure wind speed, etc.  The advantage of artillery is it can bombard at a great distance and bring incredible firepower to bear.

In game terms, for most modern games, artillery cannot move and fire at the same time.  Unlike infantry and armor, where it is simply 'commit and go', artillery requires some forethought to use properly.  Additionally, artillery is also expensive compared to other units.  This article will review the use and tactics of artillery.

Artillery Screen

First and foremost, artillery is not capable of surviving without units protecting it.  Infantry or armor can provide adequate screening units.  The idea is to keep the enemy from being able to engage the artillery in close combat.  Use of ZOC to limit movement of enemy units can provide this protection.

Effective and Ineffective Screening of Artillery Unit's by Using ZOC

In some games, artillery has a minimum range at which the unit cannot fire on units.  In this case, the ideal screen forces the enemy units to be kept within the artillery unit's minimum and maximum range.  With artillery support, units can form a more spread out defensive position as the artillery will bring firepower to points of critical contact with the enemy.

Retreat

Unlike other units, which may retreat and advance at will, artillery requires knowledge of when an enemy assault will succeed and when it will peter out.  If an enemy unit or two advances within the artillery unit's minimum range and friendly forces cannot repel them, it is too late.  If the enemy attack would fail or be driven back, or if forces can be diverted to make it so, moving the artillery will waste at least two turns moving if it retreats too early.  This is situational, and requires experience in both the game system and the tactics employed, but the player must decide the right time to move.

Pair Artillery

One artillery piece is powerful, two is devastating.  Unlike other units, with the exception of air units, artillery should always be paired with another artillery piece, preferably two of the same type.  Pairing artillery provides many benefits including:

• Simplified Logistics,
• Leapfrogging Movement.

Simplified Logistics

Complex Logistics

In games with logistics, different artillery pieces may require different supply chains.  In these games, units with the same types of artillery may utilize the same logistics chain.  This means rather than protecting two independent logistics, a single chain may be protected.  In game terms, this means if a player has X units available to defend the logistics chain, all X may be used to protect the chain.  Alternately, if needed, some of the X units may be moved to the front line, replacing damaged or destroyed units and maintaining momentum at minimum loss to effectiveness.

Simplified Logistics

 Leapfrogging

A major disadvantage of artillery is the inability to move and fire in most games.  Using paired artillery, it is possible to maintain constant fire on enemy units.  This is done by using one unit to attack while the other moves, thus the term 'Leapfrogging'.  

Leapfrogging Artillery

Leapfrogging can be used during an attack or a retreat.  When used in attack, artillery helps to maintain momentum of the attack.  Many times an attack will eventually lose steam, usually as the attacking units become damaged or destroyed.  At the beginning of an assault, artillery is within range and bombards the enemy units, minimizing casualties.  As the units advance, they outrun their artillery support, and the front line units become less effective faster, and become damaged/disabled.

Soon the assault pauses as the player must move weakened units out of line, reinforcements must move into their place, and the artillery moves forward to support position.  All of this gives the opponent time to reorganize and launch a counter attack against these weakened units which now lack artillery support.  Leapfrogging artillery helps maintain a constant stream of firepower to assist where needed.

In retreat, leapfrogging artillery assures the attacking units receive constant damage.  The concept here is to force the opponent to lose important units at critical junctures.  The loss of a single enemy unit can swing the tide of battle by shrinking the line of attack, exposing a flank, or breaking the attack in two.