Multiple Rocket Launcher is the only artillery you really need. But why is that? What makes Towed Artillery and Mobile Artillery so obsolete? And what changes could be done to give these units a purpose?
We are looking at the power of a ranged unit compared to other ranged units, not compared to tanks/infantry.
First of all, the Mobile Artillery outranges the Towed Artillery and the Multiple Rocket Launcher outranges both. There are few exception days when that is not the case. This makes the MRL inherently better than the other artilleries. However we can try to make MA and TA somewhat viable while keeping the range difference.
Secondly, another important difference are the building requirements, each type of artillery requires one more army base level to produce. An upgrade from TA to MA in terms of buildings cost 1.250 supplies, 750 components, 1.500 fuel, 500 electronics and 5.500 money (+1d 8h). Another upgrade to MRL (army base lv4) costs 2.000 supplies, 1.000 components, 250 rares, 2.000 fuel, 750 electronics and 7.500 money (+1d 10h). These are the cost to unlock the production of better artillery. Clearly these costs aren't that much of a deal. While it is not free I have never seen anyone say "the building requirements are too expensive, I will not produce this unit".
On the other hand, the construction time of these buildings is much more important. Around 36hours (including morale penalty) each, this is especially important at the start of the game as it means you get to produce MA 36hours after TA and after another 36hrs you get to produce MRL. In other words: by waiting 36 hours you get access to a considerably stronger artillery that makes the previous artillery obsolete. Can you win a war within 36 hours with 2-5 low leveled artillery? If you don't these artilleries will become wasted resources as they stand very little chance to superior artillery. This is why it is much more beneficial to work straight towards MRLs.
Third, mobility and transport is another significant aspect of units. However they are less important at the start of the game due to the small size of your nation removing the need for airlift. Small nation = less moving needed.
Here is a chart that shows at which day a mobility feature unlocks (european doctrine) to give us a general idea of the mobility of artilleries:
Speed in open terrain
While speed certainly isn't the most important attribute of artillery, it shouldn't be forgotten. The better the artillery the higher the speed, no surprise there. Interestingly enough, we see very little speed increase. 2 Artilleries have the same movement speed the entire game, while all other units in the game have some growth in that department.
Air transport is fairly meaningless in the early game, especially when playing without a team in publics, because not only is your nation too small for the need of air transport to exist, but also due to lack of airports. Thus having air transport from day 1 is only a minor advantage, barely worth a mention.
Airlift via helicopter on the other hand is very interesting, it grants the most possible mobility on a ground unit. But can you make use of it with artillery? In combat situations it is 60 mins - one entire combat tick - of doing nothing. For comparison: on day 15 the Towed Artillery has 65km range, thats more than enough for enemy infantry (1.3 speed) to reach the TA in enemy territory. In your own territory the enemy infantry won't reach you in 1 hour. We have to keep in mind that airlift via helicopter is unlocked on day 15, well beyond early game when the TA is supposed to have value.
Fourth, let's take a look at the cost efficiency of the artilleries: here are 3 graphs to show the production costs, damage values and how much each point of damage costs in resources.
An unit that deals 10 soft damage and costs 1.000 supplies to produce means each point of soft damage costs 100 supplies: 100supplies/dmg. The lower this number is the more damage-cost efficient the unit is. This helps us to compare the different units.
All numbers are taken from the European doctrine.
Key takeaways:
- Towed Artilleries are THE anti-Infantry artillery. Not only do they yield the highest damage but also the best cost efficiency. However, up until day 27 the difference in cost efficiency is very minor compared to the MRL: 33%. Up until day 27 the Towed artillery is only 33% more cost efficient than MRL. This is barely a difference considering how overall stronger the MRL is. Furthermore infantries are rarely the main target to kill. Infantries are often spammed in masses but they are also the least dangerous unit on the offense. Tanks, Anti Air and other artilleries are priority targets and they are hard targets, against which the Towed Artillery does badly.
- The longer a game goes the better are MA at destroying hard targets. They are also the only artillery to not use electronics.
- MRL don't differentiate between soft and hard targets. Excluding the day 27 comparison with Towed Artillery, MRL aren't that less efficient than their counterparts: Up to 33% less efficient. I gladly pay 33% more ressources for a unit that is good vs Infantry and tanks AND has the superior range.
- Only in late game do the differences in cost efficiency become apparent. The same time players have an abundance of resource and worry less about economy and resource efficiency. The cost efficiency matters much more when resources are sacre: in the early game. The difference in cost efficiency is only about 33%. Compared to late game: 35-100%.
To conclude:
I like how each artillery has an identity, they are more than artillery 1, artillery 2 and artillery 3:
Towed Artillery: early and cheap Artillery, anti-infantry, high mobility: early air transport and later air lift.
Mobile Artillery: doesn't need electronics, anti-armor, tanky, unmobile.
MLR: all rounder of the artilleries, expensive
While we can clearly find strengths of Towed Artillery and Mobile Artillery, they are significantly weaker than the MRL. Mostly thanks to the range difference, but also because the MRL doesn't have clear weaknesses(compared to the other artilleries). Why go for TA or MA when the far superior MRL is available at little to no drawbacks? This is why I would like to suggest changes to the artilleries to make TA and MA viable options compared to the MRL.
We are looking at the power of a ranged unit compared to other ranged units, not compared to tanks/infantry.
First of all, the Mobile Artillery outranges the Towed Artillery and the Multiple Rocket Launcher outranges both. There are few exception days when that is not the case. This makes the MRL inherently better than the other artilleries. However we can try to make MA and TA somewhat viable while keeping the range difference.
Secondly, another important difference are the building requirements, each type of artillery requires one more army base level to produce. An upgrade from TA to MA in terms of buildings cost 1.250 supplies, 750 components, 1.500 fuel, 500 electronics and 5.500 money (+1d 8h). Another upgrade to MRL (army base lv4) costs 2.000 supplies, 1.000 components, 250 rares, 2.000 fuel, 750 electronics and 7.500 money (+1d 10h). These are the cost to unlock the production of better artillery. Clearly these costs aren't that much of a deal. While it is not free I have never seen anyone say "the building requirements are too expensive, I will not produce this unit".
On the other hand, the construction time of these buildings is much more important. Around 36hours (including morale penalty) each, this is especially important at the start of the game as it means you get to produce MA 36hours after TA and after another 36hrs you get to produce MRL. In other words: by waiting 36 hours you get access to a considerably stronger artillery that makes the previous artillery obsolete. Can you win a war within 36 hours with 2-5 low leveled artillery? If you don't these artilleries will become wasted resources as they stand very little chance to superior artillery. This is why it is much more beneficial to work straight towards MRLs.
Third, mobility and transport is another significant aspect of units. However they are less important at the start of the game due to the small size of your nation removing the need for airlift. Small nation = less moving needed.
Here is a chart that shows at which day a mobility feature unlocks (european doctrine) to give us a general idea of the mobility of artilleries:
Speed in open terrain
Research unlocked on which day | 1.00 Speed | 1.30 Speed | 1.50 Speed | Air transport | Airlift via Helicopter |
Towed Artillery | Day 1 | / | / | Day 1 | Day 15 |
Mobile Artillery | / | Day 3 | / | Day 24 | / |
Multiple Rocket Launcher | / | Day 5 | Day 13 | Day 17 | / |
While speed certainly isn't the most important attribute of artillery, it shouldn't be forgotten. The better the artillery the higher the speed, no surprise there. Interestingly enough, we see very little speed increase. 2 Artilleries have the same movement speed the entire game, while all other units in the game have some growth in that department.
Air transport is fairly meaningless in the early game, especially when playing without a team in publics, because not only is your nation too small for the need of air transport to exist, but also due to lack of airports. Thus having air transport from day 1 is only a minor advantage, barely worth a mention.
Airlift via helicopter on the other hand is very interesting, it grants the most possible mobility on a ground unit. But can you make use of it with artillery? In combat situations it is 60 mins - one entire combat tick - of doing nothing. For comparison: on day 15 the Towed Artillery has 65km range, thats more than enough for enemy infantry (1.3 speed) to reach the TA in enemy territory. In your own territory the enemy infantry won't reach you in 1 hour. We have to keep in mind that airlift via helicopter is unlocked on day 15, well beyond early game when the TA is supposed to have value.
Fourth, let's take a look at the cost efficiency of the artilleries: here are 3 graphs to show the production costs, damage values and how much each point of damage costs in resources.
An unit that deals 10 soft damage and costs 1.000 supplies to produce means each point of soft damage costs 100 supplies: 100supplies/dmg. The lower this number is the more damage-cost efficient the unit is. This helps us to compare the different units.
Day 5 | Soft Damage | Hard Damage |
Towed Artillery Lv2 1.000 supplies 500 electronics | 4 dmg 250 supplies/dmg 125 electronics/dmg | 3 dmg 333 supplies/dmg 166 electronics/dmg |
Mobile Artillery Lv1 1.400 supplies 1.400 electronics | 4 dmg 350 supplies/dmg 350 components/dmg | 4 dmg 350 supplies/dmg 350 components/dmg |
Multiple Rocket Launcher Lv1 1.500 supplies 750 electronics | 4,5 dmg 333 supplies/dmg 166 electronics/dmg | 4 dmg 375 supplies/dmg 187 electronics/dmg |
Day 17 | Soft Damage | Hard Damage |
Towed Artillery Lv4 1.100 supplies 650 electronics | 5 dmg 220 supplies/dmg 130 electronics/dmg | 3,5 dmg 314 supplies/dmg 185 electronics/dmg |
Mobile Artillery Lv4 1.700 supplies 1.625 components | 5,5 dmg 309 supplies/dmg 295 components/dmg | 6 dmg 283 supplies/dmg 270 components/dmg |
Multiple Rocket Launcher Lv4 1.750 supplies 900 electronics | 6 dmg 291 supplies/dmg 150 electronics/dmg | 6 dmg 291 supplies/dmg 150 electronics/dmg |
Day 27 | Soft Damage | Hard Damage |
Towed Artillery Lv7 1.250 supplies 850 electronics | 8.5 dmg 147 supplies/dmg 100 electronics/dmg | 4 dmg 312 supplies/dmg 212 electronics/dmg |
Mobile Artillery Lv6 1.900 supplies 1.800 components | 6,5 dmg 292 supplies/dmg 276 components/dmg | 8 dmg 237 supplies/dmg 225 components/dmg |
Multiple Rocket Launcher Lv5 2.250 supplies 1.100 electronics | 7 dmg 321 supplies/dmg 157 electronics/dmg | 7 dmg 321 supplies/dmg 157 electronics/dmg |
All numbers are taken from the European doctrine.
Key takeaways:
- Towed Artilleries are THE anti-Infantry artillery. Not only do they yield the highest damage but also the best cost efficiency. However, up until day 27 the difference in cost efficiency is very minor compared to the MRL: 33%. Up until day 27 the Towed artillery is only 33% more cost efficient than MRL. This is barely a difference considering how overall stronger the MRL is. Furthermore infantries are rarely the main target to kill. Infantries are often spammed in masses but they are also the least dangerous unit on the offense. Tanks, Anti Air and other artilleries are priority targets and they are hard targets, against which the Towed Artillery does badly.
- The longer a game goes the better are MA at destroying hard targets. They are also the only artillery to not use electronics.
- MRL don't differentiate between soft and hard targets. Excluding the day 27 comparison with Towed Artillery, MRL aren't that less efficient than their counterparts: Up to 33% less efficient. I gladly pay 33% more ressources for a unit that is good vs Infantry and tanks AND has the superior range.
- Only in late game do the differences in cost efficiency become apparent. The same time players have an abundance of resource and worry less about economy and resource efficiency. The cost efficiency matters much more when resources are sacre: in the early game. The difference in cost efficiency is only about 33%. Compared to late game: 35-100%.
To conclude:
I like how each artillery has an identity, they are more than artillery 1, artillery 2 and artillery 3:
Towed Artillery: early and cheap Artillery, anti-infantry, high mobility: early air transport and later air lift.
Mobile Artillery: doesn't need electronics, anti-armor, tanky, unmobile.
MLR: all rounder of the artilleries, expensive
While we can clearly find strengths of Towed Artillery and Mobile Artillery, they are significantly weaker than the MRL. Mostly thanks to the range difference, but also because the MRL doesn't have clear weaknesses(compared to the other artilleries). Why go for TA or MA when the far superior MRL is available at little to no drawbacks? This is why I would like to suggest changes to the artilleries to make TA and MA viable options compared to the MRL.