Artillery - How to win vs. arty-camper

I play a lot 2v2, so this might be a little bit different from 1v1 or 3v3.

General

In 3v3 the room is a lot smaller, you cant really move a cav out of the range around, the question is, if all 3 player got some arty or if its only one. In 2v2 there is mostly a lot of space to move around. Due to the fact, that these guys have to camp next to their artillery or have to leave some units near it to protect that unit, they cant move too much.

My problem is, I dont got a replay to make a video, since those guys mostly alt-f4, once they got outplayed.

A mangonel can turn into any direction, but it needs time. You cant just turn a mangonel 180° in 1 or 2 sec, it needs probably 5-7 sec.
Also, depending on the unitsize you play at, you need the "full" men for each mangonel.

Example: If you play small unitsize a mangonel unit has 10 men, 5 men for each mangonel. If you kill just 1 men, the mangonel unit cant use the second mangonel anymore. If you drop below 5, than both mangonels cant be used anymore. This is extremely important to know, since a single shot from any archer can already drop the unit by 50% power.

Woods are more or less the only save spot, depending on the position of the mangonel, you can move a cav (to move cav is the best way, since the unit is quick) and let the cav get shot. Most arty-boys are not the best player, so they many times shoot on anything what gets in range. The bullets get stack in woods a lot!


Tactical gameplay. If we see a mangonel, we instantly stop army and stay out of range with the mainarmy.

Now it depends on the setup you took. If you meet a mangonel, you are not playing 5k anymore, 5k player dont got the unlocks yet and wont have mangonels. This said, you will play 10k or even 14k.
We play both with bowgen and we have mostly 1 bowcav with us.

As I mentioned already, the mangonels always face one direction, our job is it now, to place different mobile units, such as; bow gen, bow cav or normal cav, on different directions. It depends on the map, where woods are, dont try that without woods.
Somewhere are always woods.

Imagine the mangonel somewhere in the center and we now split our cavs. If you split them good 90° 90° 90° 90° (in the best case), they can only shoot at one. You need to zoom a bit into the mangonel and watch it, you always see where it is turning to and than you have to move the cav which is in this direction, make sure you can reach woods in time.

This takes time and patience, but the camper lack skills anyway (else he wouldnt come up with a mangonel) and will do mistakes.
You either get the chance to get a cav to charge the mangonel unit or you can shot at them with one of your bows.
This is of course more difficulty, if you dont got bow gen. If you dont use bowgen, than you should get at least 1 bow cav in your setup.

If you play vs. teams/player who you know for sure, that they dont use arty, you wont need the bow cav.
This is about MM battles, where you cant know what you will face.


Count the shots. A mangonel has 10 shots, you cant raise it, so count it. Also have a look at the bullets coming in, it has to be 2 each time, unless the unit have a delay somewhere. Ensure, you count it, so you know when the ammo is empty.


Cannonfodder. It also depends on your setup, I myself get always some cheap spears in my setup.
This and cheap archer are another way to get shots out of the mangonel. In the best case you can move this units in woods, its also fine to open formation and a single line and move the units into range. Give them something to eat. I noticed many arty-boys who seems happy to shot something and really get a few shot out on this units.



Summary.

Dont panic! Get your mainarmy out of the range and play around with some cavs or the cannonfodder.
Mangonels can change direction, so you cant outmove it. You need time, you simply need a lot of time, I cant remember a game vs. mangonels which was done below 30 mins.

Mostly you can manage to shot or charge the mangonel unit at some point. Count the shots and dont move your main army in, before the mangonel is killed or empty.

Dont lose all your cav, if this happens you are doomed!


I hope to get a replay, since frapsing 30 min+ is hardcore, once i got a good example, you will see a vid here.