Team Games and Artillery

Artillery.
The focus of most war documentaries/movies/books etc tends to focus on infantry, tanks, aircraft, ships, cavalry etc. But since the dawn of the industrial age artillery has been the biggest killer on the battlefield by a wide margin.

Back to COH2 - Artillery is in one of the best places its been since launch. Each faction has decent artillery options that can be used to great effect. It can lay waste to infantry, finish of snared tanks, smash emplacements, and deny whole areas.

So here's my question - how much does artillery actually help to win a game?

I've noticed with myself and other players that it's possible to get into an 'artillery rut'. Once you've got 2-3 pieces of whatever artillery you are using + whatever commander abilities you can just cycle from once piece to another and attempt to find the perfect target. All the while steadily ignoring the frontline. While artillery is great and can wrack up the kills it seems to me that it effectively changes the stance of players from aggressive to defensive. And rather than using artillery as an ends to a mean it because a mini-game all on its own while the bigger strategic picture is on the wayside. Sure, you're putting pressure on the enemy but you cease taking territory and moving the front line forward. I am wary of artillery commanders (as much as I enjoy using them) for this reason. Unless you are disciplined to not let the artillery side show derail your play style you should avoid artillery commanders.

If by "artillery commanders" you mean the ones that have static artillery emplacements, they have no use in large team games (3v3 and 4v4) since out of 3-4 opponents at least one will always have offmap commander that destroys every artillery emplacement with one strike.

It's possible to use these units in 1v1 and 2v2 after you make sure opponent has no offmaps, but here the cost of 600 mp is so big it may loose you the game straight away.

To sum up, static artillery is so situational it's usually best to look at commanders as if they didn't have that unit at all.

Well I don't just mean artillery commanders. But there are some commanders that provide mobile artillery. And there are still some situations in which static artillery can be used to some effect until the opponent builds up enough CP to flatten it.

I'm more talking about artillery in general: p-werfs, walking stuka, katy, Priest, Sexton, etc etc.

How it grinds the game in to slog and while you're killing units you are not necessarily taking ground and "moving the ball forward" so to speak.

Well I don't just mean artillery commanders. But there are some commanders that provide mobile artillery. And there are still some situations in which static artillery can be used to some effect until the opponent builds up enough CP to flatten it.

I'm more talking about artillery in general: p-werfs, walking stuka, katy, Priest, Sexton, etc etc.

How it grinds the game in to slog and while you're killing units you are not necessarily taking ground and "moving the ball forward" so to speak.

well 2 kat kill all soft target inside the zone and damage tank and in team game space is limited so unit are more clumped up so yea you can rack easy wipe bleed opener and let at deal with tank

Arty is there to support your other forces, not replace them. It has 3 main uses.

1: Support an attack by destroying or forcing the retreat of key units that form the linchpin of enemy defence.

2: A low-risk means of inflicting MP bleed.

3: Low-risk attrition of enemy defenses/base structures so that the enemy is preoccupied repairing those and can't mount effective moves elsewhere on the battlefield, and eventually either destroying those defences or weakening them to the point where your manouevre forces can finish the job.

So basically arty helps to win the game by tilting the scales of the game in your favour, either in a localised spot or as a general reduction of the enemy's strength over time.

That said it is a bit of a noob trap in that it's much easier for new players to wipe units with an arty barrage than it is via a coordinated assault with infantry & armour. This is especially the case when playing against AI/other new players who don't move their units away from the impact area.