Free shots for defending artillery

[Hurry]

I have noticed there are many different opinions about the "free shot" of units. Now, I just ask for a simple(?) answer. If I attack an enemy city with a number of defenders, and one (1) enemy artillery in it, can it fire on:

A) all my attackers
B) only the first attacker
C) on all attackers, but only until it misses

I myself would suggest C, but please give your opinions.

Also, if anybody can give some information of the chance of a hit occuring, I would be grateful.

[simwiz2]

i think its each artillery fires once. it seems that only the first unit gets attacked unually, and when 2 get shot at, when i capture the city theres usually 2 artillerys inside it just waiting to be captured by my superior forces. one time i captured 7 artillerys from a poor AI

[sophist]

In my experience, it's D) some of the attackers. As to how it's determined which get fired on and which don't, I do not know. It may just be one shot and I don't remember capturing multiple artillery pieces.

[Venger]

Each bombard capable land unit in a city will fire a single shot, one per enemy attack, and only one shot per unit outside it's turn. Hence, 3 artillery in a city give you one shot opportunities to damage three different attacks. If one misses, that doesn't affect future units. So you can attack the city, get damaged by the first shot, then attack again, get missed by the second shot, then attack again, and get damaged by the third shot, then attack again and not face any opposing artillery fire as the three defending units have each fired at an attacker in their off-turn combat.

Venger

[Hurry]

Thanks Venger. You made it perfectly clear.

Notice that the defensive bombardment is not the same as the "free shot" you sometimes get when units are passing by. My experience shows that there is a very high chance of a successful defensive bombardment, much higher than for free shots.