Slitherine

lost a good mp game, 'cause of art units.
It's worth a tooltip, that, when units get damaged in a turn, then they don't heal this round. That's very unlike to other games.
That's very powerful.
Yet, I don't have a final opinion on that. Have to play more mp games, but maybe the heal rate should only be lowered by 10%, so that in cities units still heal with 10%.

I like artillery as it is right now, it adds an interesting dimension to the combat system and provide the key to crack open city defenses other than nuke or black holes.

However there is currently no counter to artillery other than trying to attack it with conventional units or use artillery yourself. Sieging an AI city with artillery is pretty easy as the AI doesn't know how to use artillery and will let itself grounded down. Against human player I haven't tried yet an artillery duel but i guess the player scoring the first strike with 4 or 5 unit of artillery on the opponent stack will probably win.

A few thoughts, question and suggestion :

- Does city defense counts against the artillery? I haven't be able to figure out as the attack screen is not clear.

- Why can't we equip artillery on Mechs? It's seems to me as an appropriate chassis for that. You could also imagine planes being equipped with similar weapons to act as bombers which could only be countered by AAA unit?

- Why can't artillery counter attack against artillery? IRL artillery counter fire is a reality so it would make sense that if you bomb a tile occupied by artillery the strongest ennemy art unit would strike back, damaging the attacking artillery unit. That should take the edge off the first strike advantage and give a way to defend against it.

- AI should learned how to use artillery.

- I agree with OP healing being stopped by damage is a little silly as once you are pushed in an defensive position with all your units damaged and under artillery fire there is no way you are going to come back other than pulling back. Perhaps unit not moving/attacking/defending but taking damage should take a penalty to their healing rate but still be able to recover a little?

I find artillery strong against the AI but I expect a human player to snipe them with orbital barrage which makes them less useful.

Thing to keep in mind is that when artillery is defending from bombardment is that weapon is not used, so power of the unit is equal to chasis (if not armored), not less.

And you can always put armor on them.