Artillery in Frontkrieg: Range, Counters & Tactics

Artillery in Frontkrieg is the only land unit with true ranged combat available from the early game: guns open fire from 90 map units away, while infantry, cavalry and tanks only fight up close, within a 12–16 engagement radius. Against infantry and tanks artillery deals ×1.5 damage, grinds down fortifications and drains the morale of besieged provinces — yet the gun itself has just 20 hit points and a defence value of 1, so it dies first in any melee. That leads to the golden rule: keep your guns behind an infantry line, fear cavalry raids, and never expect them to fight aircraft. This guide covers exact stats straight from the game engine, the counter triangle, bombardment and siege tactics, and the moment when the 340-range railgun takes over.

This article is for players of Frontkrieg — a free, no-pay-to-win browser strategy of the First World War fought across 4,800 provinces — who already know the basic unit types and want to squeeze everything out of the "god of war".

Why Artillery Ruled the First World War

Historians estimate that roughly 60 percent of all combat casualties in the First World War were caused by artillery fire — more than machine guns and rifles combined. At Verdun in February 1916, the German army fired around one million shells on the first day of the offensive alone. There is a reason artillery has been called the "god of war" since Napoleon's time.

Frontkrieg reproduces that logic honestly: the gun is the cheapest way to grind enemy armies down while barely losing soldiers of your own. And because the game is free with no pay-to-win, artillery superiority cannot be bought with real money — it can only be built with factories and a sound economy.

How Ranged Combat Works: 90 Units vs 12

The mechanic is simple. Regular units enter combat when the distance between armies shrinks to their engagement radius — 12 units for infantry, up to 16 for cavalry. Artillery starts shelling from 90 units out — roughly seven times farther than an infantry melee zone. While an enemy column marches towards your positions, your guns get several volleys in without taking a single hit back.

Compare the reach of the game's weapon systems:

• infantry, cavalry, tanks — melee only (12–16 radius);
• cruiser — 60;
• field artillery — 90;
• battleship — 100;
• railgun — 340.

On land, only a battleship hugging the coast outranges a field gun. And it cuts both ways: artillery hits ships as hard as it hits infantry, so a shore battery is cheap insurance against an enemy fleet.

Gun Stats: What the Engine Numbers Say

Here is the full cost and stat line of artillery in the current balance:

• cost: 12,000 money, 100 iron, 80 oil;
• production: 8 hours, requires a level 1 factory;
• durability: 20 HP — the most fragile land unit (a tank has 140);
• attack: 8 versus land and naval targets, 5 versus buildings;
• melee defence: 1 — effectively defenceless;
• speed: 0.4 provinces per hour — slower than any infantry;
• upkeep: 5 money and 1 oil per day.

Three conclusions follow from those numbers. First: the gun is a classic glass cannon — it kills but cannot take a punch. Second: without a steady oil income your batteries become dead weight, so watch your energy balance. Third: with 0.4 speed, redeployment must be planned well in advance alongside the rest of the army — see the guide on troop movement and logistics for march planning.

A nice touch for newcomers: in your very first match you receive 2 bonus guns in your capital. Veterans start with none and have to build their artillery from scratch.

Counters: What Artillery Destroys and What Destroys It

Frontkrieg runs on a rock-paper-scissors counter triangle, and artillery sits at its key vertex:

• artillery deals ×1.5 damage to infantry and tanks — the backbone armies of the mid-game;
• against cavalry, guns only work at a ×0.7 coefficient;
• cavalry in turn gets ×1.5 against artillery — a fast cavalry raid into your rear wipes out a battery within hours;
• aircraft are untouchable: the guns' anti-air attack is 0, and their air defence is a token 0.2. Bombers, meanwhile, hit artillery with a ×1.4 bonus.

The takeaway: artillery wins the war against infantry-tank masses but loses to two things — cavalry and the sky. The full counter matrix for every unit is in the unit types guide.

Tactics: Stacking, Sieges and Coastal Defence

Stack with Infantry

In combat the engine assigns damage by target priority: infantry takes hits first, artillery second. The canonical formation is therefore guns stacked behind an infantry shield: the infantry soaks casualties while the battery fires from behind. A stack without infantry is a gift to enemy cavalry.

Siege without Assault

An attack of 5 versus buildings and 1 versus province morale makes artillery the perfect siege tool: days of shelling wreck fortifications and sink a city's morale before your infantry even arrives. Bonus: artillery is a mechanical unit, so unlike infantry its fighting spirit does not drop from the low morale of the province it stands in. For combining bombardment with a breakthrough, read the offensive tactics guide.

Coastal Defence

An attack of 8 versus fleets at 90 range means two or three shore batteries drive off cruisers and force landing parties to look elsewhere. That is far cheaper than building a navy of your own.

The Railgun: Late-Game Artillery

When the front freezes into fortified lines, the railgun enters the stage — the long-range monster of the late game:

• cost: 60,000 money, 400 iron, 400 coal, 100 oil;
• production: 20 hours, requires a level 3 factory plus a railway;
• range: 340 — almost four times farther than a field gun;
• attack: 30 versus armies, 15 versus buildings, 5 versus province morale;
• durability: 100 HP, speed 0.3;
• upkeep: 10 money, 2 oil, 2 coal and 2 grain per day.

The railgun cracks fortified lines and reaches rear armies and capitals that field artillery cannot touch. It costs as much as five regular batteries, so build it once your economy is standing firm — the building order guide covers how to get there.

How to Defend against Enemy Artillery

If you are the one being shelled, five answers work:

• a cavalry raid: ×1.5 versus guns, and the fastest unit in the game reaches the battery before it can retreat;
• bombers: ×1.4 versus artillery, and the guns cannot even shoot back;
• counter-battery fire: your own artillery with the same 90 range forces the enemy to withdraw or trade volleys;
• closing the distance: in melee a gun's defence is 1 — any infantry that reaches it butchers the battery;
• never sit still under fire: a moving army denies the enemy free focus damage.

For building a resilient front line in general, see the guide on defensive tactics and counterattacks.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does artillery work in Frontkrieg?

Artillery shells targets from 90 map units away without entering melee. It deals ×1.5 damage to infantry and tanks and wears down buildings and province morale, but with 20 HP and a defence of 1 it needs an infantry shield in its stack.

What is the range of artillery?

Field artillery fires at 90 units — about seven times the infantry melee radius. The railgun reaches 340, a battleship 100, a cruiser 60.

How do you defend against artillery bombardment?

The strongest counters are a cavalry raid (×1.5 versus guns) and bombers (×1.4). Counter-battery fire from your own artillery and rapidly closing the distance also work: in melee a gun with defence 1 dies first.

Can artillery shoot at aircraft?

No. In the current balance the guns' attack versus air targets is 0 — they cannot even select aircraft as a target, and their air defence is only 0.2. Build fighters to deal with enemy aviation.

Conclusion

Artillery in Frontkrieg is the mathematics of pure advantage: 90 range against 12, ×1.5 against the game's backbone armies, and sieges that cost you no infantry. The price is 20 HP, 0.4 speed and total helplessness against cavalry and the sky. Keep your guns behind an infantry shield, secure the oil — and your batteries will win the war of attrition for you, just as they did a century ago.

Put it to the test: a fresh match starts every day with up to 500 real players and 70 AI nations on the map of 1914 Europe. Raise your first battery today — free, in your browser, nothing to download.