Hello and welcome to my NATIONS AT WAR ARTILLERY GUIDE.

I'll be going over the basics of artillery for the Napoleoniconic Wars side of the game, as that's what the majority of the player base plays.

I've split the guide up into several parts, you can see what they are below and you can just skip right on over to the one that interests you. If you're a new player I'd recommend starting from the beginning.

• 1 - Basic settings
  
  
• 2 - Artillery classes
  
  
• 3 - Artillery pieces and ammo types
  
  
• 4 - Tips for Army Front / Public Servers
  
  
• 5 - Tips for Linebattles / Private servers
  
  
• 6 - Closing words

Before actually getting into a match, you want to adjust your game to the best possible settings.

Artillery does not require a very good PC, but it is recommended. You usually don't want your FPS dropping below 60.

BASIC SETTINGS

LOD QUALITY - You can find this option under the VIDEO settings, set this to the highest possible value, it can help you a lot for gauging your shots as it increases the level of detail in objects further away.

GRAPHICS - Highly recommended that you set everything to lowest for the best possible FPS, it's a bit of an eyesore at first but you will get used to it after a while.


HOTKEYS

SPYGLASS - Pressing F by default will bring out your spyglass, you can use this to gauge shots and see targets at a distance.

RAMROD - Pressing 4 by default will bring out your ramrod, use this to give you a slight boost when reloading your cannon.





After getting yourself familiar with all the hotkeys and changing your graphic settings, you are now ready to get into your first artillery match!

After joining a server and choosing a team, you'll be presented with 2 artillery classes that you can choose between. These are the CANNONEERS and ROCKETEERS



This is the class you'll be using most of the time. Cannoneers are armed with a saber and a musket, although you'll very rarely be using them.

Cannoneers have a specific buff that applies a 15% reloading bonus to cannons, they are also equipped with a spyglass and ramrod, both of which you can use to your advantage.














After a recent update, ROCKETEERS have been added to all factions.

If you're planning on using the ROCKET LADDER, this is the go to class. Much like the CANNONEERS, they have a 15% bonus when reloading the rockets, however ROCKETEERS are equipped with a pistol and a sabre, unlike the CANNONEERS.

There are 3 types of artillery pieces in Holdfast


This is the artillery piece that everyone starts with, it is the most versatile and can work on any type of map.

To use it effectively you will need to get it up to a high point on any map, a position where you can see the entire battlefield. This position is usually your team's spawn on most maps.

When using the ROUND SHOT on a CANNON, you will need to hit the enemy directly to get a kill. The rounds drop off quite heavily, but it's something you get used to with time.







This artillery piece is by far the hardest to master.

It is immovable and the shots take a very long time to land, however it can be very deadly in the right hands.

The mortar has an extremely long range, and it has a very large splash radius, meaning you don't need to get a direct hit to score a kill on the enemy.

Make sure you're using the orbit camera on the left side of your screen to see where your shots are landing.

It can also be very useful to have a spotter on maps where the mortar is in a bad position and you can't see most of the battlefield.

Coordination is key with this artillery piece.



This arty piece only really works on smaller maps and siege maps, the flight pattern is very unpredictable and is dictated by RNG, meaning you don't have a lot of say on where it lands.

It is essentially, a chaos tool. Use it to pin down enemies on one spot and keep them on their toes.
The ROCKET LADDER has a blind spot where you cannot hit enemies at all, thus you will need your team protecting you.

However, unlike the other artillery pieces, it is extremely easy to use. Set yourself up in a good position and keep firing rockets until you get a kill, simple enough.





ROUND SHOT - This type of ammo is used by CANNONS and MORTARS. You'll be using it 90% of the time. It has a very long range and can bounce if you hit the terrain at the correct angle


GRAPE SHOT - This ammo type can only be used by CANNONS. It fires 12 pellets in the general direction of your cannon barrel. It will shred enemies that are under 40 meters away from you, however, it is completely ineffective at any range over that.


LONG RANGE AND SHORT RANGE ROCKETS - These are used by the ROCKET LADDER, the effective distance of the SHORT RANGE rockets is 20 - 60 meters, and the effective distance of the LONG RANGE rockets is 80 - 180 meters.

I've split the guide up into the various game modes of the Army Front servers so you guys can know which artillery piece is useful in each scenario.


CANNONS are great to use on Open Plains maps, you want to stay in spawn and shoot at enemy fortifications. To help your team win the match go for enemy officers and prevent them from placing down reinforcement tents. You won't find yourself doing too well in urban maps, as the cannon doesn't have a great splash radius.

MORTARS aren't present on every Army Battlefield/Conquest map, and much like the cannons they excel in the Open Plains maps. You'll need a dedicated spotter to do well on the more urban maps.

ROCKETS can do well on Open Plains maps if you set yourself up in a good position and don't get focused by enemy cannons, but it takes a lot of coordination with your fellow rocketeers to do well. Urban maps are great for the Rockets, however, as the enemy can't move out of the way of your rockets due to the maps having tight corridors.



CANNONS are not very useful in Army Siege, if you're on the attacking team use your long range to slowly destroy enemy walls, if you're on the defending team use your cannons to pick off high-value targets and use grapeshot for whenever they come close.

MORTARS absolutely demolish EVERYTHING in Army Siege. Due to the massive splash radius of the mortar, the attacking team can keep firing at spots where the enemy is bunched up, and they'll be racking up dozens of kills. Learning shotcalls is crucial for the mortar.

ROCKETS, a lot like the mortar can do very well on the attacking team in Army Siege. Due to the splash radius they can cause chaos amongst enemy ranks. Not very good to use on the defending team though.

You will need to join a regiment to play in Linebattles, if you want to play with a regiment that does a lot of artillery games, look at the end of this guide.

Make sure you read the rules of each Linebattle before your arty piece!


CANNONS are fairly straightforward in Linebattles, set up in spawn or push it out of spawn for a better hill and pick targets off one by one during the entire round.

The most effective arty crew should look like this:

Shooter
Spotter
Loader
Rammer

The shooter should know the shot calls for each map, do not alternate between shooters in a single round.

The spotter should always be using their spyglass and call out any enemy lines that are coming closer or are out in the open.

The loader should always be near an ammo box ready to load it, and the rammer should be right behind him pressing E as soon as the loader is done to minimize the amount of downtime between shots.

A good shooter can get 10-15 kills each round with a cannon. A big part of this is learning the shot calls for each map, you can find an infographic for this below.





With the MORTAR you'll be relying on your team to keep you safe from enemy lines rushing you at the start of the round.

For most of the round, you'll be adjusting your shots to hit an enemy line, but once you do hit a line you'll get a huge amount of kills with a single shot and will be satisfied with yourself the way your parents never could be.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that you shouldn't be mad if you don't understand artilliery right off the bat, like a lot of things in life it takes practice to be good at it.

Give yourself some time and you'll be racking up huge amounts of kills in no time :)

Please make sure you abide by the rules of the server you're playing on and don't get mad with other players stealing your cannons and such, take a chill pill.


Hope you enjoyed the guide, and sorry if it's not updated to the latest version. Holdfast is a constantly changing game and there's something new with every update, but I'll try my best keeping it up to date.







As mentioned earlier in this guide, to play in linebattles you'll need to join a regiment. You can check out the regiment registry in the main menu of the game. Look around and see which regiments peak your interest.