I think your problem, Symphony D, is that you are still locked in a Civ3 frame of mind.
I don't think even in their "change stuff" mentality that Firaxis can change much about Artillery bombardments from "Click B, Mouseover Target, Left Click", in which case my logic applies, power stats changes and stack tactics changes be damned. It's a basic principle. "I'm going to fire all my artillery at you, then attack once you're critically weakened."
The point is that there are no longer perfect defenders, as their are no perfect attackers-a distinction which was arbitrary.
Irrelevent. Build a large number of defenders to defend the artillery. Add a small number of attackers to pick off units weakened by the artillery. Problem solved. I fail to see what bearing vs-unit abilities have on a stack with multiple unit types in it - you can toss in whatever additional units you want and vs-unit abilities get cancelled out. Make a 2-1-1 ratio stack of Artillery / Defenders / Attackers. You're proof against attackers of all shapes and sizes except something equally sized, and it only has the advantage if it gets to go first.
I doubt that artillery will be great stack killers for the simple reason that-collateral damage aside-they will probably do less damage, per unit, than a unit doing a direct attack.
Despite the fact Firaxis has said that's
exactly what they're supposed to do?
Firaxis has upped the effect of siege weapons, such as cannons, catapults, and artillery, by modifying them into stack killers.
That also doesn't change the fact that even if they do less damage, they do it to
more units. Solution? Build more artillery. Problem solved.
I also wouldn't be suprised if artillery were no good at actually killing units outright. Lastly, though it can do collateral damage to multiple units, I get a distinct impression that the number of units-and the damage inflicted-will prove to be quite variable. This means that stacks of artillery will ensure only one thing-and that is certain defeat, IMHO.
Numbers, numbers, numbers. Nobody uses 1 Catapult and expects much in the way of results. You build 10, 15, or 20. Have you tried this tactic in Civ III,
Aussie? I mean no insult but your attitude towards it leaves me with the distinct impression you have not. I am not talking about individual artillery units, which will miss, or do little damage. I am talking about large numbers of them guarded by plenty of units, in which case minimal damage done to a large number of units will add up
big time.
The distribution of damage over a large number of units or the lowering of overall damage does
not diminish the fact that a sufficiently large stack of artillery will inflict massive damage in the least.
Lets say you're right, and artillery does 10 damage to the initial unit, and 2 for every other unit, as absurdly low as that seems. Lets say you have 30 Artillery pieces and you're fighting a city guarded by 10 Spearmen, and lets also say you hit 6 units every time (so, one unit for 10, 5 for 2). 30 * 10 + (30 * 5 * 2) = 600 points of damage. So against 10 Spearmen, which is abnormally high for a city, you're going to inflict 60% net damage on the entire stack.
Now imagine if Artillery does 25 to 50 damage, and does 5, 10, or 15 for every other unit. Early units like Catapults won't surely be so powerful. But what about Cannons and Artillery?
A sufficiently large stack of artillery, guarded by a sufficient number of units, in a stack, will be able to decimate
anything else
short of a large group of Artillery, which will
also require a sufficent number of units to guard
it. What you wind up with is stacks of artillery roving the map guarded by large numbers of other unit types and engaging in titanic battles, just like
MeteorPunch describes, which sounds, frankly, fairly boring.
Even if you bring artillery and/or infantry to bear, I feel certain that there will be a unit which will carve both cavalry and infantry 'a new one'-so to speak.
AKA Tank. Solution: include a few in the stack just like you do Infantry or Cavalry. Problem solved.
If Artillery is strong at all, all it needs is to be massed, and allocated a sufficiently well-rounded force of units to guard it, and to attack what it fires upon, and it will be virtually unstoppable unless confronted by its equivilent, unless Firaxis has implemented
sweeping changes to the way artillery bombardment works.