Editing Artillery

  | B_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista has 50% chance to inflict double damage.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts additional damage to fortifications.

  | A_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista has shoots twice with a 75% chance to inflict double damage.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts double damage and additional damage to fortifications.

  | E_effect = gives control of the ballista and defense towers to the hero. The ballista inflicts double damage and shoots twice.<br />{{wh}}{{-}}[[HotA]]: + control of the cannon, which inflicts triple damage and maximum damage to fortifications.

'''Artillery''' is a [[secondary skill]] that gives the hero manual control over [[war machine]] [[Ballista]] (or [[Cannon]]{{-wh}}) during [[combat]] and control over the [[arrow towers]] when defending a town during [[siege]]. Artillery provides control over the arrow towers also in the original game, even though it is not mentioned in the in-game description of the skill. It is interesting that [[Ballista]] is controlled by Artillery secondary skill rather than [[Ballistics]], which is responsible for [[Catapult]].

"Double damage" in the skill description does not mean that the final damage is necessarily duplicated, as it might also be increased by other factors, such as high [[Primary skill#Attack skill|Attack skill]] - compare [[Damage#Damage calculation of creature stacks|damage formula]].

'''Heroes with Basic Artillery as a starting skill:'''

'''Heroes with Ballista as a specialty:'''

* {{H2|Torosar|Alchemist}}

'''Heroes with Ballista as a specialty and {{PAGENAME}} as a starting skill:'''

* {{H2|Ranloo|Death Knight}}{{-wh}}

* {{H2|Morton|Mercenary}}{{-wh}}

 

* {{H2|Jeremy|Captain}}{{-wh}}

 

 

 

With Basic Artillery or Advanced Artillery the cannon does randomly 1 or 2 points of damage to [[fortifications]]. With Expert Artillery the cannon always does 2 points of damage to fortifications. With Advanced Artillery the cannon does double damage and with Expert Artillery triple damage to enemies. As opposed to ballistas, cannons always shoot once.

 

 

Artillery is useful if you have access to [[Ballista]], and even better choice would be selecting a hero with this speciality as your "number one", especially on small maps. If the [[Blacksmith]] of your home town doesn't produce Ballistas, but you have an opportunity to get it (by capturing a town with Ballista, on the map, or building a [[Ballista Yard]] in a [[Stronghold]]), Artillery is a good choice. Moreover, it allows you to fully control the town's defense (as sometimes [[arrow tower]]s kill enemy's least valuable troops, i.e. neither ranged nor flying). High price of a Ballista is "the other side of the medal". A secondary hero may learn Artillery so as to shoot wandering creatures and weak enemy troops, avoiding melee attack and thus decreasing losses. Always learn Artillery if you rely much on [[Blind]] spell, as otherwise Ballista may shoot blinded creatures, making them able to fight.

 

 

The problem with Artillery skill is the ballista, which is not only ineffective but also expensive, weak and possible risk factor during combat. An example of the ineffectiveness is that even if the hero has Expert Artillery, Expert Archery, Attack skill value of 20 and the target is within range, the ballista only deals approximately 200 damage against a neutral stack of Archangel. Moreover, the ballista has only 250 [[health]] and acts last during the combat round, which means it  may be destroyed in battles even before it can inflict any damage at all. Another major disadvantage of ballista is, that in a combat it may provide creatures with [[breath attack]] an opportunity to attack troops behind ballista without fear of [[retaliation]]. Not to mention the fact, that ballista is not deployed when attacking [[creature bank]]s or defending against a siege.

When playing on 200% difficulty (eg., the setting usually reserved for competitive games), players start with minimal resources. In this instance, heroes that start with Artillery can be a godsend, especially if your town lacks ranged units by default and you cannot afford to upgrade units during the first few turns. Because of their large pool of hitpoints, you can kite a single flying stack around, out of danger, while the artillery softens the enemy stacks to the point where your stack can one-shot them.