Heavy Artillery in Total War: Arena Total War Arena Guide & Walkthrough

Factions: Rome

Heavy artillery is a completely different type of a unit. Choose this unit for your party to receive a small unit that can set up a catapult in the location of your choosing. After deployment (R) you can aim to a place on the battlefield and fire a series of heavy stones that kill on contact and bowl around the battlefield. The weapon is useful mainly because the struck opponents die on contact - in normal combat a unit may be weakened but its members still participate in the battle (e.g. archers).

The key to effective shooting lies in patience, good timing and the use of right ammunition.

Deploy the catapult and prepare to fire. The projectiles can be sent to a distance roughly about 1/3 of the battlefield. A projectile takes up about 5 seconds to travel to the edges of the effective area. Use Space to single out enemy units. Your target becomes smaller the longer you keep the cursor in one place - this is the only way of making an accurate shot.

1. Remember to keep an additional infantry unit to defend the site (get an infantry unit equipped with barricades/stakes) or get an ally to guard the catapults.
2. Two catapults are more than enough to offer a continuous fire on your targets. Switch between them using the numerological keyboard (1-3) for a better effect.
3. When the situation gets dire, you have two ways of proceeding: leave the catapults and run, or assemble the catapults and switch your location. Assembly takes about a few seconds, but does not influence the speed of the run. You can continue fighting from a different position.
4. Artillery can be defeated in two ways - by eliminating the person manning the catapult or by destroying the machine itself.
5. You can hide the catapults in high grass. Forests are less welcome - the projectiles can hit the trees.
6. To mitigate the losses from artillery fire: observe the incoming projectiles, change the course of your movement, approach the artillery stations to make them unable to fire or find yourself away from their range (which is difficult to predict).

The machines become bigger and bigger as your expertise level progresses.

Julius Cesar is the leader of artillery. As the game progresses, the artillery changes its looks - the devices, including their projectiles, begin to get bigger. Level 8 marks the introduction of ballistas which can fire huge projectiles with lots of precision and distance. Moreover, your engineers can dismantle enemy siege machines, so if your group is too small and unable to use their siege machines, you can still make good use of them.

1. Abilities and Attributes

Instead of skills, artillery offers functional buttons:

Manual Aim -Activates the crosshair and enables you to fire a shot. You can move around after canceling the order (a deployed catapult takes a lot of time to travel).

Assemble/Disassemble Engine - The action takes around 10 seconds.

Repair - A damaged siege engine can be repaired, returning it to former glory.

Drop Artillery - Escape leaving the machines behind. If an enemy was repealed and the machines are not completely destroyed you can use them again. Otherwise, your men stay without a siege engine and can be sent e.g. to hold a vantage point.

1. Consumables

Barricades

Place a barricade in any location that cannot be passed through and has to be destroyed or surrounded.

Carpenters

The crosshair is smaller (the weapon is more accurate) and the effective range is increased.

Surveyors

The machine is deployed faster, while its accuracy is increased (better than Carpenters).

Acrid Smoke

A very good attack - the blast zone is covered in smoke that deals damage (ignoring armor) for 15 seconds to all targets found within its radius. The effective range of the engine is lowered by a half.

Oil Pots

Deals large amounts of damage to armored units.

Burning Coals

This attack will deal more damage to struck units, but completely ignores armor penetration (heavily armored units won't receive damage).

Heavy Boulders (Level 5)

Deal more damage to your targets but the effective range is lowered by half.

Broadhead Siege Bolts (Level 8)

Deals more area of effect damage on the shorter range.

Bodkin Siege Bolts (Level 8)

Deal less damage but can be utilized on larger distances.

Flaming Siege Bolts (Level 8)

Deal more precision damage on shorter distances.