Mobile artillery units | ||||
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Tech 1 Mobile Light Artillery | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Tech 3 Mobile Heavy Artillery | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |||
Experimental | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Mobile artillery are a class of T1 and T3 indirect fire units produced from land factories. As artillery, they lob highly damaging and explosive shells over a large arc to a target, providing high DPS per mass invested. The mobile versions do not have nearly as much range as stationary artillery, however are still more capable of going over hills and other obstacles than their direct-fire unit counterparts.
Effectiveness[]

A seraphim T1 mobile artillery
Typically, the purpose of mobile artillery is to disrupt large forces of enemy units. Their relatively large damage area, and high initial damage make them very effective against clustered enemies. They can also be used to good effect in base assaults. Mobile artillery is capable of outranging any point defenses of equivalent tech level, making them invaluable against defensive positions which have not yet been fully established.
There is no T2 version of mobile artillery, although the Mobile Missile Launchers fulfil a similar role in destroying defenses at long range.
Weakness[]
Mobile artillery tends to have very low health, and, as a rule, no defense against air units. This means that bombers, and especially gunships can take them down with ease. Therefore, it is advisable to protect them with mobile anti-air units. Mobile shield generators are also strongly recommended, as the artillery's low health can make them easy targets, despite anti-air support. For the especially concerned player, some direct fire units can be useful in case of a ground attack, though large quantities of mobile artillery tend to negate the risk.
Counters[]
When encountering enemy mobile artillery, it is important to keep units moving, because artillery shells take a long time to land and movement will enable them to dodge enemy shells. Simply place move commands; do not order attack commands or the units will stop and then become much easier to hit. Trust them to pick their own targets while moving around.
Charging straight at them is rarely a good idea, as their large damage and spread can make quick work of your land forces. Against a skilled player, your units will run through the enemy barrage, only to arrive heavily damaged, and fall quickly to the enemy's own direct-fire units.
Gunships are a very effective counter to enemy mobile artillery, and can quickly tear through their lines. Skilled players will likely also have some AA in the vicinity, making faster bombers more favourable. Being able to do all their damage at once allows them to destroy the threatening artillery, and then fly away before enemy AA can finish them off.
Ironically, one of the best counters to enemy mobile artillery is having some of your own. While the enemies' attention is elsewhere, a small contingent of your artillery can make short work of theirs. Artillery emplacements are a reliable defense against mobile artillery, being able to outrange them, regardless of tech level. Once a defending player has constructed stationary artillery, they are typically quite safe from enemy mobile artillery, which, even at tech 3, cannot match the range of an emplacement of T2 artillery installations.
If all else fails, no mobile position can hope to withstand bombardment from equivalent naval units. Their high costs and build times can be prohibitive as a responsive countermeasure however, so some should always be kept in reserve, should the need for them arise.
T1 vs T3[]
UEF | Cyb. | Aeon | Ser. | |
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T1 | ![]() |
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T3 | ![]() |
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T1 mobile light artillery is typically mixed in with direct-fire units even in a T2 land force, to provide additional damage through their area-effect capabilities at low cost. Their high range and damage for a T1 unit ensures they can compete with that of even higher tier direct fire units. This can even make them an early threat to ACUs, force the enemy to spend time moving to dodge artillery shells.
T3 mobile heavy artillery are particularly effective against massed lower tier objects including T1 spam. They are most comparable to a bulked up T2 MML in terms of niche, where their main advantage over T2 MML is that they are not stopped by Tactical Missile Defence and can take TMDs out for other allied units, putting more pressure on the enemy. This requiring the enemy to either become more mobile or upgrade to shields to mitigate the unit's effects.
Mobile heavy artillery tends to see less use in team multiplayer Forged Alliance due to the different economic situation. In the role of dealing AOE damage and long range damage respectively, multiple artillery units would be slower and more clumsy to direct compared to T3 Strategic Bombers or T2 artillery installations, which are too expensive for 1v1 but more affordable in team games. Their extended range confers no particular advantage over the T2 against defenses, however they may be useful against targets protected by SAMs that could not be touched by strat bombers or shields that would regenerate too quickly for fixed arty to break. However they are also relatively expensive for their single-target DPS compared to other options, including other T3 direct fire units or saving up for an experimental.