Artillery late in the game obsolete?

[player1]

Artillery is good if you rush to it.
It's good in both open and seige combat (yes they are on average better then infantry, since they do collateral). Also they take out those pesky Machine Gunners nicely.

Great thing to use before Tanks.
And good option to take enemy Oil, if you lack one yourself.

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by Fallenhero
One advantage of artillery over bombers is that if you're going for a space win it's right on the main path to rocketry but flight doesn't lead directly to any space componet techs. (weird when you think about it).

Artillery is not a requirement for Rocketry, you can also get to it through Flight. I often skip Artillery when I'm going for a builders win. Flight gives you Airports, which give you lots of income and allow you to airdrop troops, and you can often beeline flight before the AI gets to Infantry and thrash them with near-invincible air support.

[Fallenhero]

Isn't flight on the same tech level as rocketry? It costs about 1k more beakers to reaserch than artillery. Don't you need combustion and oil to fly bombers? True, artillery isn't the MOST direct way to rocketry, but I do feel it's less of a detour than flight. But it all depends on how you play.

I guess I have a blind spot when it come to artillery. I find Cats and Cannons to be essential and often have highly promoted units just begging to be upgraded.

Airports are good. I usually have to wait till after I get some hospitals built before I can take their health hit.

[Adagio]

I love cannons, but the artillery is just too late. Getting flight instead of artillery seems more worth it (bombers can do the same, but at a distanse)

[Yosho]

You can get artillery earlier. Last game I played, I was completly destroyed by an AI who had cavelry and artilery before he even had rifles; I did have rifles, but they weren't enough to stop a combined artillery and cavelry attack. I might have to try that beeline myself at some point.

[Warmaker]

The Catapults and Cannons are invaluable when introduced.

Artillery on the other hand is weak compared to late game units.

A good fix for this is some sort of "Modern Artillery" unit.

Maybe a MLRS unit for late game uses? It'll have higher strength and mobility to keep it up with the Mechanized Infantry & Modern Tank units.

Besides, it'll look real nice to have MLRS units shooting a salvo of rockets.

[uberfish]

Rifling is actually a prereq for artillery.

The AI does love its artillery though, I've had my tank/infantry stacks decimated by huge swarms of artillery and cavalry several times. It's gotten to the point where I will often declare war on an AI in the modern age and let them attack me first, just so that I can destroy their artillery inside my borders and take less casualties.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Originally posted by Warmaker Besides, it'll look real nice to have MLRS units shooting a salvo of rockets.

Did you play Rise of Nations? That had a *most* satisfactory animation for MLRS!

[curtsibling]

I stack my arty with some panzers and helicopters to create a city-busting blitz group.

I don't mind a slow and methodical march if victory is assured...

But Bombers do add good tempo and allow you to hammer
the enemy, without giving him a moment's chance to recover...

This stratagem has not let me down yet!