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Has anyone noticed that neither siege engines nor artillery in MTW require line of sight to begin accurately firing on a target. They only require that the target be in range? While indirect artillery fire is not very historically correct for this period in time, it does make for some intriguing possibilities in the game.
In one recent battle, I actually felt like a real artillery forward observer again. I was on the last leg of my Almahad campaign when the Germans re-emerged in 4 provinces.
The forth battle was my very first real full blown winter battle It was one of those small Alpine valleys, but there was a full snow storm and visibility was zero.
I had 500 men, but unfortunately from my own carelessness, I only had 3 Almohad militia and the rest were all archers and crossbowmen. I also had one culverin crew.
The attacker had about 240 men--mostly royal knights and feudal sergeants, so to be safe I camped out as far up the side of a mountain as I could get. I clicked start and settled down to wait on the German attackers.
After about 5 or 10 minute of waiting, I got restless and went for a look-see.
I have to admit something here. I play with one small cheat, and that is that I play with an unrestricted camera. I don't abuse it, but I so love to pause the game---then roam around the battlefields looking at the scenery and action. It just adds to the immersion for me.
Anyhow, there were the Germans, just standing perfectly still, down on the floor of the valley. I don't know why they weren't looking for my army. Maybe it was on account the blinding snowstorm. ( I have actually won a battle in Shogun when the enemy could not find my camped army in a blinding snowstorm. )
As I moved around I noticed my curser turned green. I was too far away for my archers to be in range, but then I realized that I had my culverin crew selected. I clicked on an enemy unit. Boom, I heard my gun off in the distance. Blamo! The first shot lands right in the group or royal knights and takes out 3 men and horses. Boom!---the next round hits a group of feudal sergeants and kills 4.. Boom!-- the third round takes out a ballista. Wow! My boys are hot!
The Germans don't wait around for any more of this crap and start climbing up out of the valley. They climb to a point level with my troops but 500 to 600 yards away. The snow had finally stopped but there was still a foggy haze that limited visibility. There was also a red zone rock formation between my army and the Germans that prevented them from coming directly at me. My artillery continued to fire but never scored another hit because most of the rounds flew over the enemy's heads and down into the valley.
But I was able to move into archery range, though---I did so and turned most of the Germans into pin cushions--dead pin cushions. The balance finally routed.
It turned out to be a pretty lop sided battle. I killed about 190 enemy and lost 1 man. He must of got shot in the back because the Germans had no missile troops other than 3 ballista units.
Not much of a battle, but I thought that being able to call in indirect artillery fire was an absolute blast----pun intended.
Cheers
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Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
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[This message has been edited by Forward Observer (edited 11-05-2002).]
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And my response to the last line.....
Ha. Haha. Ha. *clickBLAM*
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hmm...I am sure if we could mod the artilleryto be lower trajectory then it would stop having its indirect fire role.
Actually thats got me interested in putting the trebs in positions in trees on reverse slopes so they fire from hidden emplacements as it were...
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Quote Originally posted by Whitey:
hmm...I am sure if we could mod the artilleryto be lower trajectory then it would stop having its indirect fire role.
Actually thats got me interested in putting the trebs in positions in trees on reverse slopes so they fire from hidden emplacements as it were...[/QUOTE]
This is how I use all my siege artillery - Though the big pieces will not actually go in woods, they can be placed on the reverse slope behind a hill.
Catapults will happily fire out of the trees though - & by the time they have accumulated a few valour points they seem to be really accurate....
