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Artillery is at the heart of my industrial/early modern era strategy. When used in sufficient numbers on the offense, there is no way the AI can possibly defend. Artillery appear at a time in the game when the balance is generally tipped toward the defender, since there is no offensive unit at the time more powerful than the 10 defense of the infantry. I've seen several posters talk about how they generally pull back their forces upon the appearance of infantry, and then wait for tanks. However artillery can overcome this defensive advantage.
Let's say you're attacking with cavalry against infantry in a city. The key is to use artillery to get all the defenders down to 1 HP, and to get the city size below 7. Depending on how many defenders there are and how big the city is, a stack of 20-30 artillery should get the job done. Your cavalry are thus attacking against a defense strength of 11 (assuming the city is not on a hill or across a river, the infantry only get the standard 10% defense bonus). So you will take roughly 2 hits for every 1 you inflict. If the infantry are down to 1 HP from the artillery barrage, then even regular cavalry have the odds in their favor. Veteran and elite cavalry will almost always win.
Getting the artillery into position can be a problem since artillery is not mobile. However artillery's range of 2 definitely helps. Ideally there is a tile within your borders that is also within 2 squares of the target city, and also ideally that tile is railroaded. In this best case scenario, you can roll up your artillery and fire on the same turn, and then attack with your cavalry also on the same turn (since cavalry have enough movement points to cross the border and still attack). If not, then look for a tile within range of the target city that is only one tile into enemy territory. That way you can roll up in one turn and fire in the next. Preferrably the tile you fire from will be hills or mountains, but this isn't critical given sufficient numbers of artillery.
If the enemy's territory is railroaded, then you can easily conquer more than one city in a turn provided you have enough artillery. Use sufficient artillery to get the first city below 7 and the defenders down to 1HP, then take it with cavalry. Now his railroads are yours, and you can use them to roll the next set of artillery into range of the second city, all within the same turn. In fact if you have enough artillery, you can keep going like this for several cities in a single turn.
IMHO, artillery is an extremely powerful unit. And due to the AI's inability to use artillery effectively, it is pretty much an unbalancing unit. The AI simply can't defend against huge artillery stacks, and it doesn't know how to do the same thing to you.
Artillery is also very cheap - less than the cost of infantry or tanks. With a bombard attack of 12 and rate of fire of 2, artillery is clearly more powerful than a battleship (bombard 8, rof 2) and arguably more powerful than a bomber (bombard 8, rof 3). It is certainly cheaper then either of these other 2 units.
And of course artillery requires no resources. This opens up a resource-less strategy of using artillery and rifleman. Even rifileman attacking at 4 have a reasonabe chance of defeating infantry defending at 10 if the infantry are down to 1 HP and not receiving a defensive bonus beyond the standard 10%. Your rifleman will roughly inflict 1 hit for every 3 they take, so regular rifleman have an even chance of winning while veterans and elites have the odds in their favor. So no more complaining about lacking resources; a rifleman/artillery army can conquer a city defended by infantry and no resources are required.
I predict than when multiplayer comes out, industrial era warfare will turn into massive artillery battles, and attacking your opponent's artillery stack (or stacks) will become just as important as attacking his cities. If you take out his artillery, you take out his ability to attack you effectively until tanks.
By the way, make sure you always defend your stacks of artillery with infantry. There would be nothing worse than to have the AI capture a stack of 30 artillery!
Let's say you're attacking with cavalry against infantry in a city. The key is to use artillery to get all the defenders down to 1 HP, and to get the city size below 7. Depending on how many defenders there are and how big the city is, a stack of 20-30 artillery should get the job done. Your cavalry are thus attacking against a defense strength of 11 (assuming the city is not on a hill or across a river, the infantry only get the standard 10% defense bonus). So you will take roughly 2 hits for every 1 you inflict. If the infantry are down to 1 HP from the artillery barrage, then even regular cavalry have the odds in their favor. Veteran and elite cavalry will almost always win.
Getting the artillery into position can be a problem since artillery is not mobile. However artillery's range of 2 definitely helps. Ideally there is a tile within your borders that is also within 2 squares of the target city, and also ideally that tile is railroaded. In this best case scenario, you can roll up your artillery and fire on the same turn, and then attack with your cavalry also on the same turn (since cavalry have enough movement points to cross the border and still attack). If not, then look for a tile within range of the target city that is only one tile into enemy territory. That way you can roll up in one turn and fire in the next. Preferrably the tile you fire from will be hills or mountains, but this isn't critical given sufficient numbers of artillery.
If the enemy's territory is railroaded, then you can easily conquer more than one city in a turn provided you have enough artillery. Use sufficient artillery to get the first city below 7 and the defenders down to 1HP, then take it with cavalry. Now his railroads are yours, and you can use them to roll the next set of artillery into range of the second city, all within the same turn. In fact if you have enough artillery, you can keep going like this for several cities in a single turn.
IMHO, artillery is an extremely powerful unit. And due to the AI's inability to use artillery effectively, it is pretty much an unbalancing unit. The AI simply can't defend against huge artillery stacks, and it doesn't know how to do the same thing to you.
Artillery is also very cheap - less than the cost of infantry or tanks. With a bombard attack of 12 and rate of fire of 2, artillery is clearly more powerful than a battleship (bombard 8, rof 2) and arguably more powerful than a bomber (bombard 8, rof 3). It is certainly cheaper then either of these other 2 units.
And of course artillery requires no resources. This opens up a resource-less strategy of using artillery and rifleman. Even rifileman attacking at 4 have a reasonabe chance of defeating infantry defending at 10 if the infantry are down to 1 HP and not receiving a defensive bonus beyond the standard 10%. Your rifleman will roughly inflict 1 hit for every 3 they take, so regular rifleman have an even chance of winning while veterans and elites have the odds in their favor. So no more complaining about lacking resources; a rifleman/artillery army can conquer a city defended by infantry and no resources are required.
I predict than when multiplayer comes out, industrial era warfare will turn into massive artillery battles, and attacking your opponent's artillery stack (or stacks) will become just as important as attacking his cities. If you take out his artillery, you take out his ability to attack you effectively until tanks.
By the way, make sure you always defend your stacks of artillery with infantry. There would be nothing worse than to have the AI capture a stack of 30 artillery!
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