Do you ever use Radar Artillery?

[denyd]

Has anyone ever used Radar Artillery beyond the first turn of a war?

With a speed of only 1, I find that they get so far behind my Modern Armor & Mech Infantry, they are of no use. If they moved at the same speed (3), I would be happy to upgrade my artillery to them, but as it stands, once MA's arrive, I use my artillery only during the opening salvo of a war and then send them to patrol my coastline looking for bombarding enemy ships to attack.

 

[steviejay]

Artillery is essential in my opinion. yeah ok, on the first round of a war they are really useful and if you had a huge thrust in mind then they can be pretty useful. but I would dare anyone to try and break into a 21+ city with Civil Defence and a few Mech Inf's without any form of art handy (Nukes excluded of course)

 

[dojoboy]

If the game gets that far, I do - definitely.

 

[Puzzlinon]

When I fall behind in tech, I build artillery. The further behind, the more emphasis on artillery. It's the equalizer. Radar Artillery I usually only use if I have Leo's, because all my artillery is built long before RA comes along, and I'd only bother to upgrade if it were cheap. An RA stack has a bit better hit rate than an Artillery stack, I think, but it's barely enough to notice imo.

When I'm fighting a war, if I have that artillery stack built, it comes along and reduces each big city in turn. If I'm in a hurry, I leave the railroad in place, and use the territory-flips to take successive cities or at least speed up the movement.

There's a trick to planning your artillery placements so that the artillery has rail-speed after the current city falls. Then it's usually at most a couple of movement turns before you're in range of another city, and often you can get the stack there for the next round.

This applies to wars that are close contests, as a sort of side-effect of the "behind-in-tech=build-artillery" habit.

So in a war where I'm using artillery, it's usually the case that I'd be losing the war without the artillery, and so, yes, in that case, the artillery gets used throughout the war. If that makes any sense at all

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

I'm with Puzzlinon.

I make an effort to keep my artillery mobile. While I don't often get Radar Arty (game usually far beyond over by the time I want to bother with robotics), the artillery stacks I do get I keep with my offensive force, save a small fraction with a cruise misslie or six if it's modern era to turn back enemy transports/destroyers from trying to get in and land troops on my mainland.

Later!

--The Clown to the Left

 

[The Last Conformist]

Unless SS Victory is turn off, I just don't see the game lasting to Robotics.

But if I were fighting a reasonably even war that late, I'd certainly use piles of Radar Arty. Head-on frontal assault with Modern Armour only pays if you're fighting someone markedly weaker - it's too expensive against an equal or superior opponent.

 

[Belisar]

Originally posted by denyd
Has anyone ever used Radar Artillery beyond the first turn of a war?

With a speed of only 1, I find that they get so far behind my Modern Armor & Mech Infantry, they are of no use. If they moved at the same speed (3), I would be happy to upgrade my artillery to them, but as it stands, once MA's arrive, I use my artillery only during the opening salvo of a war and then send them to patrol my coastline looking for bombarding enemy ships to attack.

Artillery is one of the big humans advantages over the AI on higher levels. Check out this one to get the idea:

How to use Artillery

 

[lord42]

Why use radar artillery if nukes do the same job only better?
If you manage to make it to robotics you can easily get the defensive grid and bombers.
Aircraft carriers and stealth bombers house artillery any day of the week.
Of course that's because the Ai rarely builds fighters in any real numbers.

 

[IKHAM]

I find Radar Artilleries most useful. It is true that they dont move quickly enough but if there is alot of railroad about, you can easily move them about in one turn.

In my last game, I declared war with rome who sent a stack of about 20-30 units into my territory. I simply activated every RA I had and bombarded the stack as many times as I could. Then I moved my tanks in to finish off the whole stack in just 1 move.

Then they are also useful for taking out resources and bombarding cities before you attack them.

I definitly find any kind of artillery useful and a must needed unit in battle.

 

[WickedSmurf]

Yeah, if the game last that long I certainly use it. Depends on my mood though, if I am feeling destructive I am more prone to use nuclear weapons... But generally I build and use them whenever I can.

 

[Shabbaman]

I like artillery very much, always have huge stacks. But I've never, ever build radar artillery. Didn't bother to research that. They don't have a clear advantage besides more damage either.
I'd expected a higher mobility at least.

 

[Ghostwind]

Well, this thread has proved extremely educational. I've never built a single artillery unit...ever.

In fact, the ones I captured from the AI I always disbanded to build improvements while the city was in resistance.

I do believe I'll be using some of these strategies. It should improve my warmongering abilities by quite a bit!

Ghostwind

 

[Chieftess]

Originally posted by denyd
Has anyone ever used Radar Artillery beyond the first turn of a war?

With a speed of only 1, I find that they get so far behind my Modern Armor & Mech Infantry, they are of no use. If they moved at the same speed (3), I would be happy to upgrade my artillery to them, but as it stands, once MA's arrive, I use my artillery only during the opening salvo of a war and then send them to patrol my coastline looking for bombarding enemy ships to attack.

Of course. It's also a great way to ensure your cavalry of defeating infantry. Although, I haven't gotten into the modern era much.

BTW, you could always post requests for artillery in the C3 Conquests forum... since a lot of players want the later eras improved...

 

[Clown2TheLeft]

I always thought Radar arty should have a longer range, but the same damage. What's it? 16 with a range of 2? if it was 16/3, I'd seek it out, but as it stands now, I usually don't get that far into the tech tree.

Later!

--The Clown to the Left.

 

[Shabbaman]

I recall a discussion on radar artillery where a US sergeant (or whatever) who actually operated the rl radar artillery described the difference between the rl and the civ version.