Best Overall Empire Artillery

[Joshwerds]

This is strictly for the campaign only.

Which artillery is the best? Mortars are excellent vs light units and in sieges plus they have an amazing firing arc but their lack of ap damage makes them somewhat useless. Great cannons have amazing damage and and are extremely reliable making them great in field battles but ironically their not that great in sieges. Helstorm rockets are actually surprisingly good at sieges and have good ap damage but as expected pretty unreliable in field battles. Helblasters are good but too niche to really be up for consideration.

I would say Helstroms are the best but their lack of reliability makes the somewhat less useful in field battles, but in the campaign I find myself fighting a lot of siege battles obviously.

What do you think the best artillery for the Empire is?

[Lampros]

Didn't we have a similar thread today with tons of replies? ;)

I prefer cannons; mortars are superior only when you are dealing with low armor infantry mobs, and they are not difficult to kill.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Not sure if there is a "best overall empire artillery". They have different uses and areas they excel at.

I like the normal mortar. Its cheap, easy to unlock, somewhat spam'able and does a number on light infantry.

p.s should also be noted that the new wagon version introduced in the latest DLC negates its previously biggest weakness, being stationary.

[Lampros]

Also, I wouldn't say that cannons are "useless" in sieges, as you claim; they can knock down walls. I find them invaluable.

[DarkFenix]

There is no best artillery, they each have their role.

Mortars are good for sieges, where their high arc lets them hit units just behind the walls, but in field battles are outclassed by hellstorms. Special mention for the elector count version, which has no friendly fire splash, thereby allowing you to freely fire into a melee.

Cannons are almost essential in sieges for knocking walls/towers down, but only reasonable in field battles targeting large/armoured units.

Helblasters are basically useless in sieges, but are incredible against any massed target in field battles.

Hellstorms are good in sieges but rather limited, since you need to carefully line up their low arcs, but deliver unparalleled pain in field battles to infantry.

Luminarks are of limited use in both sieges and field battles, useful primarily for lord/hero/monster sniping, but they do that role very well. Also in rare situations you can line up perfect shots where each blast will penetrate through dozens of models and kill them all.

Of the five, helblasters and luminarks are the most niche units and you can afford to leave those behind, the other three are all decent all rounders. Of those three, cannons and mortars are not something you need many of, but hellstorms benefit enormously from having multiple batteries, as it negates their randomness.

[Dreagon]

Personally I really like the hellstorms and mortars. Hellstorms are really powerful and provide nice fireworks while mortars are great early artillery weapons that are very accurate at close range and can actually provide fire support to your infantry.

[Sn3z]

Everything is useful, however the way Empire army compositions are structured really means that you should go for cavalry first and this is a important point, as with a decent flanking force its easier to first start implementing artillery pieces and then advanced Empire infantry units since they have no shields. Mortars allow you stay on basic infantry for longer but are replaced by rockets. Cannons are a-bit more harder to work into an army composition if you have Demi-anti large it leaves not alot of incentive unless your still on knights/Reiks, you could consider inflating artillery numbers which I don't recommend going above two units. Late game you can literally swap your artillery pieces for steam tank. The benefits of single models is they are making your backline stronger, I don't really use the luminark so can't comment on that. I wouldn't let sieges, open field battles decide on your choice just transition your army properly by using the tiers and adapt. You could always take two mortars and swap one for a cannon, once you hit T4.

[rlee87]

new wagon mortars are amazing units i tell you. a direct upgrade to basic mortars. you can literally have all your units in the far corners of the map and send out your wagon mortars including some cav + lord/heroes on mount to protect wagons from enemy cav/flying units. other than that what everyone else said.

[Atomsk]

Hellstorm rocket batteries are the most versatile and does the most DPS

[Empiro]

I think the new special Mortars that don't have friendly-fire are the best. You can fire them into crowds without worrying.

Besides that, Hellstorms at higher XP ranks can put out a ton of damage and are useful in most battles.