Medieval artillery - how useful and how many should I keep ?

Polkovnik · Post by **Polkovnik** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:22 am

I have 8 bases of medieval light artillery. The most I could ever use is 6 (low countries) so I'm definitely going to sell 2. So the option are :
1) Sell 2 and keep 6 to use in Low Countries
2) Sell them all 'cos artillery are rubbish in FOG
3) Keep 2 or 4 and sell the rest because 6 is too many.

Any thoughts ? Anyone had much experience with artillery in medieval armies ?

As well as Low Countries (which I can only do with minimum pikes) I can do 100YW English, French, Burgundian, WOTR. Would light artillery be useful in any of these armies ?

WhiteKnight · Post by **WhiteKnight** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:51 am

An opponent used a battery of 2 x bgs of light guns led by a general (and with a cheap 4-base bg as rear support!) against me and it was effective at keeping a fairly wide path clear in front of them, enabling him to deploy his smaller army in a better way. They trundled forwards on a regular basis and were effective at protecting some of his troops from flank attacks. I guess three bgs would do the same job but wider!

Martin

whitehorses · Post by **whitehorses** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:05 pm

I'd go for 2 BG's of Bombards with Earthworks in the centre;

This is because:

You can stash Heavy Arty in anything apart from Impassable & get no shooting minuses;
You can plant your Arty 15" in behind Earthworks(in the centre at least) & never have to worry about moving it;
Antidote to Longbows & massed archery;
Either the enemy avoids it like the plague in which case you can concentrate on the flanks, or they try to take it on & you can pummel them as they come in, at 12" range & then use your other troops to give them a slap

domblas · Post by **domblas** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:52 pm

considering the lenght of a the life of a rule. I'd keep them. Who knows what artillery will be in a second FOG version (if any comes) or in a new rule?

hazelbark · Post by **hazelbark** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 7:09 pm

domblas wrote:considering the lenght of a the life of a rule. I'd keep them. Who knows what artillery will be in a second FOG version (if any comes) or in a new rule?

Not likely to be a 2nd edition for a long while.

More likley to want them in the renaissance. But I suspect 6 bases is plenty there too.

timmy1 · Post by **timmy1** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:10 pm

My advice would be hang on for FoG:RW before making an irrevokable decision.

Polkovnik · Post by **Polkovnik** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:42 pm

Well I've not got any renaissance armies and since I'm supposed to be downsizing I won't be getting any.

I suspect artillery are the sort of thing where it's best to use none or lots - you need to have a general with them to have a good chance of moving them so you may aswell have two or three BGs with a general assigned to them. So I think I'll sell two and keep six for now. I'll give them a go with my Low countries and see how they fare. If they're rubbish I'll sell some more.

So onto ebay they go...

gozerius · Post by **gozerius** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:25 am

I've been using 3 BGs with my Low Countries army at 800 pts. First try I put them in the center behind earthworks and the enemy ignored them and rolled up my flank. Then I tried them interspersed between the Offensive spear BGs. With an IC in the center, the whole line could move as a group. The artillery did just fine, with the spear BG in position to advance and expand if things looked threatening, but since the enemy refused to attack it I had to drag it halfway across the battlefield leaving my flanks exposed. Since this army doesn't have much in the way of fast reserve troops, the enemy again screened the center and hit the flanks with the heavy stuff. Protected spear doesn't hold up to armored infantry, or to knights when softened up by longbow shooting. Maybe I should try the later period with pikes.

gozerius · Post by **gozerius** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:29 am

So you don't want to do Hussites? they can have 8 stands of light artillery and 2 stands of heavy.

vercingetorix · Post by **vercingetorix** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 9:36 pm

I've used artillery a lot with my French army, and I've found that they can be extremely effective if used in conjunction with other shooters.

I would never have more than one bg right next to each other because they are -2 poa against pretty much everybody.