Empire Artillery - part 2

Welcome to Part 2 for the Empire artillery series. First we will take a look at the Rocket Battery. New for 7th edition, the Rocket Battery uses the 5" template, and scatters much like the Mortar.

Advantages - Great against horde armies, as it uses the 5" template. It boasts a mighty S5 hit with -2 to the armor save against targets. It has a range of 12"-48", so can pretty much reach the entire board. It only costs 15 more points than a cannon, with a possiblity of doing a LOT more damage. Great for defensive "gun line" armies.

Disadvantages - Inaccurate as it scatters the distance rolled on the artillery dice. It uses a rare slot.

Overall, like the mortar, aim for the center of your enemies deployment zone, this will maximize the effectiveness of the Helstorm. It is great against heavily armored opponents as well, but it very inaccurate. So, the bottom line is, it depends what army you are playing against, and your play style.

Hellblaster Volleygun - A true classic of the Empire army. One of my personal favorites, though somewhat unreliable.

Advatages - Only 10 points more than a cannon, with the capability of taking out an entire unit! Great against heavily armored opponents. (That means you, chaos warriors!) No guessing involved. No scatter. Great for horde armies as well, providing they are not too fast.

Disadvatages - only a 24" range. Major possiblity of failure. Uses up a rare slot.

I like the Hellblaster just for the fun of its unpredictability. (<--- is that even a word? ed.)
With its range, it still has a descent chance of wiping out an entire unit! Keep in mind though, that if your opponent has a rather large unit, and you don't wipe them out within 24", they will bring swift retribution to your poor volleygun crew. It is great for a gun line army. I plan on putting some militia close to my volleygun to act as guards, if they charge the volleygun, I could possibly hit them on the flank with my militia. I would also consider having about 5 pistoliers near it, to harass any would be destroyers of my volleygun.

So, there you have it, although there is a lot more you can do with artillery tactically, this will help with some basics.