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 XII - Know the Units

Offensive Advice -- Finally!
Given the feedback I've received, I should probably make the title larger and italicize it.  However, this article may not cover the 'tactics' everyone is interested in, but again, we must start with the basics.

Know the Units
Knowing the individual units is critical to any form of offense and defense.  In some games, there is little to no difference.  For example, in the game 'Here I Stand', all units are effectively the same based on type.  All Naval Units have the same value, all ground units have the same characteristics.  Only the Ottomans have any different 'types' of units with their Cavalry and Pirate ships.  This does reflect the organizational units of the time.

For most games, units exhibit significant differences.  Regardless of era, these can usually be categorized in the following way:

Infantry - Infantry form the basic unit of every army.  Infantry perform nearly every task equally well, except for naval actions.  Infantry can hold a position defensively, and are expected to assault enemy positions with equal vigor.  Normally, the basic infantry are better at defending a position than attacking a position and so in infantry 'Quantity beats quality' tends to exist.

Armor - Armor units represent units with heavier armament and usually take more effort to bring down.  In modern usage, armored units consist of tanks, self propelled anti-tank guns, and armored personnel carriers.  However, I would argue armor has always existed.  In ancient times Chariots could be considered armor.  During medieval times, Heavy Knights would constitute as armored units.  When looking at ancient Greek city-states, the Greek Heavy Infantry (Phalanx)  could be considered armored units.

Armor units usually do well in offense and not so well on defense.  Usually armored units must travel in larger groups for safety, and so they don't do well where terrain would force the units to space out too much.  Forests, Mountains, and Broken Terrain are anti-thesis to armored units.

Cavalry - Cavalry units perform the role of recon, scout, and follow up after an attack.  Cavalry rarely engages in fights until the battle is over, or nearly over.  Cavalry units tend to move fast and perform 'hit and run' tactics.  Left on their own, cavalry forces will fall to any other unit quickly if it is a sustained operation.  This makes cavalry effective as an attacking force, but not in a 'head-to-head' way.  Cavalry should strike behind enemy lines, at the baggage train or supply lines of the enemy.  They move faster than other units and should strike quickly.  Cavalry can operate over most terrain types effectively.

A common misconception is 'units on horses = calvary unit'.  Heavy Knights often lack the long term speed and endurance necessary for cavalry.  They may execute a 'cavalry charge', but that does not make them cavalry.

Sappers/Engineers - Sappers, or Engineers, perform very specialized roles.  Their combat ability is often rudimentary, if not worse, than common units.  However, they make up for it by having better fortifications or being able to assault fortified positions.  In game terms, these units often have superior attack and defense values than other units in the game.  Sappers require extensive training and specialized equipment to perform their job.  Sappers/Engineers usually fortify a position, or prepare the assault on a position, and then other units perform the defense/assault.  In proper use, Sappers/Engineers will be committed to a battle only after all other units have failed and success hinges on sheer numbers.

Skirmisher Units - Skirmishers, at their most basic, are slower moving cavalry.  They move quicker than the main body of infantry, but are not as strong in either attack or defense as other units.  Skirmishers operate best in difficult terrain and over longer distances.  Skirmishers don't 'hold the line' but 'extend the line'.  A common use for Skirmishing units is to fill in the defensive gaps of the main units.  However, this is not how they are designed to be used.  Skirmishers should harass the enemy from the sides, provide flanking attack bonuses for other units, or exploit a newly created hole and attack unguarded artillery.

Archers/Snipers (Ranged) - Archer units are units with exceptional attack range which are not armored.  Archer units are often weak up front, but their power is to support the main units, bringing fire to bear from a distance.  In the case of modern warfare, where every unit carries guns, the Archer can be considered 'snipers'.  Snipers typically can shoot from much further away than their rifle armed comrades, and with great accuracy.  There is a fine line between Archers and Artillery units, usually depending on the era.  In Ancient times, bowman may be considered as Artillery, whereas in medieval times bowman would be Archers and canon fill the role of artillery

Artillery - Artillery units are another unit I would argue have always existed.  The primary duty of Artillery is to fire from a distance on enemy units.  Later uses for Artillery include the ability to assault, or soften, fortifications.

Traditionally, artillery units affect large areas of space over a long distances, and are weak, or useless, in a close fight.  In some ways, ancient bowman fit this bill as they were used to rain down arrows over an area from a distance.  English Longbowman could be considered an artillery unit of its time, although they also performed the Sniper role.

Siege - Siege units perform the roles necessary to assault enemy fortifications.  Many other types of units may perform the siege role, including artillery and sappers.  Regardless, siege units are required for the taking of fortified objectives.  Catapults, Trebuchets, explosive barrels, and towers are all forms of siege weapons.  Siege units need extra protection from attack.  Even Sappers, which may be a good fighting force normally, usually require extra protection when they constructing tunnels (sapping) under the enemy walls.

Naval - Naval units move on, or under, the water.  That seems pretty basic, but usually naval units are critical to a war plan either as fire support or to protect the supply lines.  Naval units come in many types, but often they perform the same role as an equivalent ground unit (ex: Battleships = artillery, destroyers = Cavalry, etc.)

Air - Air units move through the air.  Like naval units, they may perform other roles (helicopters = cavalry, bombers = artillery/siege, etc.).  There are two major distinctions with Air units, however.  First, Air units normally require a base to which they must return, whereas naval units can remain at sea for extended periods of time.  Secondly, Air units are very responsive and have an incredible reach.  Terrain does not affect movement of Air units, although weather might.  However, Weather affects ground, sea, and air units.

Submarines form an interesting blend of naval and sea units.  Submarines travel beneath the waves, much as aircraft travel above them.  Submarines can remain at sea for extended periods of time, unlike aircraft.  Submarines perform the duty of skirmishers and sniper.  Unlike other units, submarines rely on stealth and the ability to slink away unseen.  They are the only unit which may be completely bypassed without incident, moving unseen to strike without warning.