Artillery serves an important role in war and it serves an important role in Diesel Tactics.
While artillery weapons technically fall under the category of Infantry within the game rules, they tend to have two things that set them apart from the standard rank and file troopers.
First, artillery weapons are able to fire across huge distances, often the entire battlefield! On top of this, they usually fire over everything until their attack reaches the target, and therefore ignore cover and line of sight.
Second, these weapons have an area of effect and can hit more than one enemy unit at a time, and in fact can hit and possibly kill every soldier in an enemy squad!
‘That seems pretty powerful’, you might say somewhat concerned that they may dominate the battlefield, but they do have some disadvantages. They tend to have a minimum range and therefore can’t attack units that have gotten close to them; they aren’t very good in close combat situations; and, possibly most importantly, they are somewhat inaccurate. It is very dangerous to fire artillery anywhere near your own troops, unless you are a particularly apathetic general!
Take a look at some concept art for an artillery piece in the game:
Stay tuned for more information about unit types and combat!