Slitherine

Many medieval battles are described as opening with the fire of the artillery on the enemy artillery or troops.

Currently this is impossible in FoG. With only a 12MU range and the inability to move, Hvy Art can never engage the opponents Hvy Art and they can never engage anyone at the start of a battle. With Lgt Art, it will require numerous moves (and successful CMT's) before this can happen, even if deployed behind TF 15MU from the baseline - hardly what you would call opening the battle.

There are two solutions:
1. Increase the range of Art; or
2. Allow armies to deploy closer together (with all troops able to deploy up to the same limit). This would also have the affect of allowing troops to get into combat quicker for those who want to make a fight of it which would reduce the length of many games (and give more time to browse the trade stands). Those who want to skirmish are still free to deploy farther back with their battle troops and deploy a skirmish screen in front, they'll just have slightly less room to do it in as the enemies' battle line could be a lot closer. To allow Hvy Art to engage the enemy at the start, I would suggest all troops could deploy up to 18MU from their baseline.

I suppose that there is a third option which is a combination of the above - a slight increase in Art range (say to 16MU for Hvy Art, and possibly 9MU for Lgt Art) along with deployment up to 16MU from the baseline.

Which battles not sieges did heavy artillery do anything?

Light artillery you have examples. The opening of the movie gladiator, chinese frontier, romans, alexadner versus the scythians wasn't that at river?

I've used Lart and actually been surprised how useful they are as long as the fight is near them.

Again letting them deploy at 15 MU would make them worth it in my view.

hazelbark wrote:Which battles not sieges did heavy artillery do anything?

Light artillery you have examples. The opening of the movie gladiator, .......

Ahem. Examples, I have a friend who was there. Hankley Common, Surrey, late 20th century England. Wasn't as effective as it looked.

hazelbark wrote:Which battles not sieges did heavy artillery do anything?

Bosworth and Flodden are two which come to mind.

Here is a thought...

Did any army deploy heavy artillery for a battle in a position that wasn't something we would consider covered by fortifications? If the general practice was to fortify the artillery then perhaps heavy artillery could come in a "package deal" with TFs to cover the front with the TFs at a bit of a discount.

This would allow the artillery to deploy 15" in, which while not quite in range of hte enemy army is IMO close enough to have an impact from the start.

While I agree that Ancient artillery was generally useless & used mostly for long range harrassment, it still should outrange bows! Bows get a further range increase since they can move 4 " and still fire at full effect! Longer range is all I ask for.

I have used Hvy Art with my Burgundian Ordonnance army. Every time I take fortifications so that they can deploy 15" in. In almost every game in which I have used them, they have been almost useless. 2 dice at long range needing 5 or 6 to hit rarely causes a cohesion test and never causes a death roll. 4 dice at effective range is better, but it is too easy for the enemy to just avoid them as their field of fire is fixed. Deploying at an angle helps, but shortens their. They can also be blocked by an 8 element skirmisher unit which is almost invulnerable. I realise that artillery wasn't a battle winner in ancient and medieval battles - but if it was so poor, why did so many medieval armies use it. I like the suggestion that there should be no +2 against death rolls from Artillery shooting, but a slightly longer range and or closer deployment distancers would also help.

DavidT wrote: I realise that artillery wasn't a battle winner in ancient and medieval battles - but if it was so poor, why did so many medieval armies use it. I

Well not many medieval armies used heavy artillery in field engagements. When they did its role seems to be more of a historical foot note.

FoG allows players great manuverablity than a lot of historical armies in a nod toward game fun.

We have 1-2 examples of english armies
1-2 examples of French.
Most of the Ottoman examples I can think of are renaissance.

In almost every case the enemy deployed or was constricted to deploy and the heavy artillery could point straight at them.