Hello!:)
You might know me under my ingame name "Great_Leader_Angela_Merkel" and I'm a somewhat experienced artillerist.(about 1500 hours of my ~2600 hours playing this DLC, is playing as arty). I'm sorry if there are any spelling mistakes, English isn't my native language.
So in this guide I'm going to show you how to improve your skill, how to be a in all aspects a good/bad artyman and some helpful tips. Lets begin :)!

Lets beginn with the aimbars:
The aimbar for the howitzer and the mortar:


The aimbar for the cannon is ~80-100m per bar:


(I found all the values of the table and the aimbar by myself on a flat map out [there is sadly nothing about the aimbars etc. on the internet :/ ])

(of corse there is also "Rocket-Artillery" but they require no skill and are pretty inaccurate)
*there is no map which is bigger than the range of a cannon

In actually combat u probably can't make use of these quantitative indications of the aiming bar.
You mainly get a feeling for the aimbar(on differnt terrian etc) by playing the game. A good way to train that, is playing the gamemode Commander battles. You can see where your shots land (spyglass) and you have a cannon/howitzer only for yourself.
But its a bad habit to get accustomed with the spyglass. Later u won't have it (Provided you don't download a zoom mod, but its unfair and uncool :( )

DON'T forget to take your time when you aim, especially when it seems like the enemys are walking into a better position for u/getting closer together.

Tip set your Mouse sensitivity low,so its easier for you to aim. I personally have a problem with my mouse sensitivity, because if its to low I can't melee. I set it so, that when I move my mouse from the left side of my mousepad to the right, I spin ones. I think its the best balance, if you don't want to change the MS everytime u go into melee.

[This is meant for public servers (e.g. NWRP), not for regiment(-events) where your main goal is probably victory instead of kills.]

Not every good artillerist is a hero. We have some dirty and unhonourable tricks to be the best on the scoreboard, which I'm going to show you ;)
You can roughly sort skilled artymen into 2 groups: Team-players and Score-players

I exactly know that u read this guid to find out how u can rek ur enemys the best, so I will not say anyting about "team-players" cuz u propably can think how they play.

Score-players
Ok, your biggest enemy isn't the other team but rather other "filthy artillerists " who want to steal YOUR cannon. For example on the Waterloo map (NWRP) with ~200 players there a often 8 artillerists on your team BUT only two 12 pounder pieces and some howitzers but those aren't so effective (only when ur enemys camps a fort). So share the cannons?
NO. Don't forget that the most other artillerists miss most of their shots and only prevent u from getting many kills. Ok you shouldn't be so rude that you steal your m8s cannons. An other option is to reload agressive:
So always have round shots in your inventory and after you fire, directly reload the cannon again
(maybe when he isn't ready/pays attention), so your m8 has no chance to reload it. You shouldn't do that a lot cause he will begin to kick u etc, but if you do it smart the reloading pattern can look like that: x=you, y=him
x y x x y x y x x y x

I once knew an artyman who actually teamkilled other artillerists who threatend to take his cannon. He killed them fast (when teamdamage was set high, like 50 or 100%, 5% also works)and wrote after he did it that it was an accident/they were AFKs . OFC I don't want to encourage you to do something like that, atleast in the most cases u shouldn't do it ;) .
(Only do it if they are really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who troll u, tbh sometimes idiots don't understand that my name is a 3 year old NW meme and troll me for like 5 min; so I get some server friends to TK them or I do it myself [if there are no admins/ they don't care])

Be a traitor to your team
An other option to remove friendly artymen is by writting in global chat something like:
The british arty is undefended, Napoleon it would be a great idea to go and kill them.
Next u go and hide (but first make sure they're really going for ur arty) somewhere good and after the enemy cav destroyed your artym8s you have the cannon(s) all for urself !

Switch teams
This is actually a thing that I do: During a match switch between the teams. Here are some factors for changing your team:
-The enemy have superior cavalry and kill you at the beginning of the round while your general is stupidly charging inf
-The enemys are passive and camp a few hundred metres away behind trees; you don't have a good angle to them, while their arty does to your team.
-In the enemy team there are much less artillerists => don't have to share a cannon

(Team-players)
Aiming for the officers/generals is an old tactic which was often used in the past, because it broke the troops morale and it left them without an higer ranking soldier, so they lost their discipline and couldn't obey commands. In NW it isn't that extreme, but it is still worth if u want
to prevent the enemys from doing tactical moves (e.g.attacking your artypost) and as artyman you can easily kill officers from the far. When soldiers lose their commanders (non-regimental) they often tend (especially UK-troops) to camp and stop moving. OA actually helps your team a bit, because without a leader they can't really respond to tactical moves from their enemys or its easier to lure them into a trap. (for example, your cav pretends to charge the enemy cav, which is without a general, but before they collide your gen pulls back and falls back to infantry. Without an officer they enemy cav will probably chase behind your cav and gets defeated by inf+cav.

Round shot
It is the standard ammo for 24,12 and 6 pounder artillery. After u shoot, the cannonball hops a few
times before stopping. So if you shoot at a hill, it makes a line (because of the angle) and everything which is between it gets killed. If u shoot against something "destructable" ( mm_walls, sandbags, sapper-builds,...) the cannonball comes to a stop and destroys/damages the object. Even if somebody is directly behind ,for example a mm_wall, the wall will absorb the shot while the player is undamaged.

Canister
Canister shots are, as you could think, similar to a shotgun.
You should ONLY use it when ur enemys are close to you. Never use it at long distance, because there is only a very small chance that you actually kill someone.

It offen happens that suddenly the enemy cavalry is running towards you, with swinging sabers and
confident to get ezzy kills. In the most cases your arty is weakly defended, maybe just by a handful of soldiers and officers, so they overwhelm you fast.
One option to prevent that is getting your general to actually fight the enemy cav instead of just suicide charging into Inf or stupidly running around. Even if your cav loses the enemy cav will have some casualties, so it will be easier for the artyguard to defeat them or hold them back.
But what do you do if you have no guards or Inf is attacking u?
There is another solution: hiding
It might isn't honourable but you survive. Its best to hide in trees, bushes, buildings or in rocks where your enemy doesn't expect you. Only when there aren't such things you should hide in cannons.


To have full awareness of your surrounding and the battlefield, the "degree symbol" ( in Germany and Austria) can help you. I don't know which key it is in other countrys, but its the one which "zooms" you a bit out and while pressing it you can look in different directions without looking/walking in those.

Tip When the enemys are really close don't shoot. Especialy when your the only artillerist because they will notice you and when they arrive they will search even harder to find and kill you.

Thank u for reading my guide and I hope it helped you a bit :)