Updating Artillery for 3.X

When the artillery rules were first written, it was for Brandywine. In the wilderness of the American frontier, the huge artillery batteries of the European continent were unknown.

Since then, the battles have gotten much bigger, and the 3.0 rules have upped the difficulty of recovering from spent, by requiring an unpacked Baggage Train within command range. This has left artillery feeling a little weak. In some scenarios, I find it to be almost more trouble than it’s worth.

To tilt the scale back a bit, I am looking at allowing artillery to bombard even if spent. After all, every other combat unit can attack just as well even if spent, they are just more brittle. This falls into my rules philosophy of only including rules that make the game less complex, and/or play smoother.

This is a short post. It is a simple, yet subtle change. Try it, and let me know what you think.