Catapults, trebuchets, ballista, and the like are all artillery units, raining down destruction from ranges unmatched by other ranged units. This comes at a cost, as artillery units are slow, cumbersome, and highly vulnerable to melee attacks.
Special Features
Artillery units have a range increment for their attacks. A -2 penalty to attack is applied for each range increment beyond the first to the target. An artillery unit can fire on targets a maximum of 5 range increments distant, taking a -8 penalty to attack for doing so.
Artillery units attack tiles rather than units, and cannot score critical hits or glancing blows (though still deal double damage on a natural 20). All such attacks are made against a defense of 10. If an attack misses, it lands in a random tile adjacent to the one targeted. For each 5 points by which the attack misses, it lands one more tile away from the target.
Artillery attacks deal damage to any unit or structure in the tile struck by the attack. If a unit is within a structure that does not protect against artillery fire, they take the damage along with the structure.
Artillery cannot attack on the same turn that they move, nor can they take a double move or run action.
An artillery unit cannot take the disengage action, and cannot fire while engaged in melee.
An artillery unit that breaks abandons its equipment on the field, and is effectively shattered. After a battle, this equipment can be recovered and the unit preserved. Enemy units can also capture such artillery from the battlefield if given the chance, though they must provide their own skilled operators to use it in combat.
Many artillery units have the
Dial In Combat Unit Special Quality. This allows their accuracy to increase with each successive shot on the same target.
Artillery units upgrade differently from other units. They do not have weapon or armor types or tiers, only gaining bonuses through veterancy.
Artillery Units
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