Organ Guns...?

[Seven.the.Hun]

just wondering how they have been used by others...

i seek the most practical and effective use thereof...
as i have only used them 2 or 3 times and didnt master the use as the rest of my army was more than sufficient for victory...
i can only assume that used properly they might/can rack up a good body count and decimate enemy moral...
so what type of battle and situation is best?...placement???

thanx for input...

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-juggle.gif

[Seven.the.Hun]

i'll try out some custom battles in meantime to test the things out more thoroughly...thanx peeps

[Imperial Buffoon]

I've used an organ gun to great effect in my last battle vs the Horde. Campaign is Aragonese/Early/Hard and I defend vs some 4000 mongols in Syria.
I camped on a hill with my left flank at the edge of the map with this placement:

PA - PA - OG - PA
FS - Halb - Longbows (merc) - FS - CMAA
Various cav

3 Pav arbs can do some damage but will not stop more than 2 units of MHC, as the mongols approach to shoot at the less armoured troops (FS and jinettes in cav), I retreat a bit, so that eventually MGC(including the gen) commits to an uphill charge. One shot of the OG routs the general and at that time all my heavy cav flanks on the right side... Some 450 prisoners only on the first wave, plus all the dead from arrow/bolt fire for only about 100 casualties. A bit risky for the pavs, it may be better with faster archers but in any case you need a bait, because of the short range of the gun.

[Oleander Ardens]

I use them only to defend nice defensive positions and for brige battles. They are simply devastating there as they can kill with ease 150 enemys in a very short times. If they finished their ammo simply withdraw and get other ranged units http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Divine Wind]

I only use organ guns regularly in 3 situations:

1st. Bridge Battles. Firing the organ gun into the highly dense concentrations of enemy units causes carnage. High death rate and huge morale loss for the enemy.

2nd. Taking out the enemy General. Obviously this all depends if the enemy general commits himself into the range of organ gun, but if he does, this is one sure fire way of taking him out.

3rd. Bottlenecks. If there is a natural bottleneck on the field with mountains to the side etc, then organ guns can do devestating damage to the enemy.

The usually formation i use the organ gun is this.

Infantry Infantry
Organ Gun

I try to put the gun slightly behind the infantry but also as close as possible to provide some protection against enemy charges, while not hitting your own chaps in the process.

[katank]

I use them exclusively in castle defense or bridge defense.

try to have them right next to the plug and set up a nice cross fire with 2 of them.

two of them next to the bridge in Kiev racked up quite a body count amongst the MHC packed tightly onto the bridge.

with the organ guns providing devastating close in hit and also morale penalty with arbs covering, it was practically instant rout when the glorious khan disappeared.

I like to turn off fire at will until the enemy are all stationary and turn it on when the enemy is engaged.

I had some naptha and javs in that battle too so the khan disappeared in a blaze of glory.

I woudl love to see the look on his face.

BTW, elevation is very important.

the only way I see good use of them in field battles is parked on a big hill, preferably just below the crest.

I like to pin with a buffed peasant and/or spear just to kill the enemy.

the rest o fmy army is usually elite/disciplined so the morale penalty from that 1 or 2 routing units isn't bad.

besides, 1 MHC for 1 peasant is a pretty good trade as both units get sent to kindom come with a whiff of grapeshot.

[HopAlongBunny]

Bottlenecks can be devastating. Spear anchored by woods on either side; organ gun tucked into the woods on each flank (or just one). One well placed shot with the organ guns and a charge by your flanking troops is often all you need :) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-party2.gif

[Seven.the.Hun]

cool stuff, any more?

[Defensor Pacis]

They work best for me alongside the Laser Gun (Star Wars mod) or the Flubber Gun (Eddie Murphy mod). http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[katank]

I personally like them to complement my culvs and serpentines.

serpentines for accuracy shots, culvs for power and range.

the organ gun will provide the close range massacre necessry for instant rout to already wavering troops.

[soibean]

Quote[/b] (Divine Wind @ June 09 2004,17:04)]1st. Bridge Battles. Firing the organ gun into the highly dense concentrations of enemy units causes carnage. High death rate and huge morale loss for the enemy.
How do you know when your army is going to fight in a bridge battle? I dont like wasting unit space in an army and lugging them around for what I see as a chance encounter for a bridge battle doesnt seem worth it.

[Cazbol]

Quote[/b] (soibean @ June 14 2004,00:19)]How do you know when your army is going to fight in a bridge battle? I dont like wasting unit space in an army and lugging them around for what I see as a chance encounter for a bridge battle doesnt seem worth it.
Right click on a province to get an information sheet on that province. With the inforamtion sheet still visible, move the cursor over an adjacent province. At the bottom of the province information sheet there is a heading called waterways. It will either say None or River. If it says river then you'll get a bridge battle attacking that province from the province you right clicked.

Note that attacking province A from province B may give a bridge battle, while attacking province B from A may not mean a bridge battle.

[Demon of Light]

I just spent a long time writing a very long informative post on this and hit the post button. I was told I would need to log on to post (I was logged on. How else could I have even started?). I hit the back button and got the same message. Now, as I understand it, I was likely logged off automatically because I spent so long writing that I was counted as inactive. My question is: how do I get the text to my post back and how do I prevent myself from getting logged off automatically?

[Ar7]

Well i always select the whole text and click copy on all forums to avoid such cases. If you get a problem you can easily log back on and paste the text you had http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[KukriKhan]

Don't know how or why that happens (involuntary log-off), but I do know that it does.

Sadly, after composing one's post, hitting back effectively erases the content - so I'm afraid your informative contribution was lost DoL. Sorry, mate.

I've been a victim of this in the past. In self-defense, when I know my post will be long (for a Play-by-eMail post, for example), I compose it in Word or Notepad, then copy/paste here.