Howitzer (Civ2)

Howitzer
Modern-era siege unit
Attributes
Domain	Ground
Role	Offense
Subcategory	Siege
Cost	70
Attack	12
Defense	2
Hitpoints	3
Firepower	2
Moves	2
Advances
Era	Modern
Requires	Robotics
Obsolete with	N/A
Replaces	Artillery
Special abilities
Attack ignores defensive bonus from Fortress and City Walls

The Howitzer is a Modern-era siege unit in Civilization II, available with the Robotics advance. It replaces Artillery, and is the terminus of the siege unit line. Howitzers are the strongest offensive ground unit in the game, with a unique ability to negate the defensive bonus of Fortresses and City Walls.

Strategy

Howitzers provide a hard counter to the defensive strength of Mech. Inf.; they ignore the defensive bonus of both fortress tiles and city walls, which would otherwise render concentrated defenses on strategic terrain such as hills and rivers virtually impregnable in conventional combat—whereas Battleships and Stealth Bombers are countered by Coastal Fortresses and SAM sites, Howitzers retain advantage when fighting in open terrain, while their efficacy does not downscale as drastically against defenders in rough terrain.

Howitzers also feature increased movement rate compared to earlier artillery, allowing them to keep pace with other mechanized units, and take position and attack at full strength within the same turn. An army combining Mech. Inf., Armor and Howitzers thus poses a robust and mobile threat, able to exploit breakthroughs in a front line and quickly range and engage a rival's cities.

Civilopedia entry

The howitzer is a specialized piece of artillery. As originally designed, the howitzer was a cross between the short-ranged mortar and the long-ranged field gun. When fired in a high arc, the howitzer shell was able to achieve the mortar's effectiveness against small, concealed targets. When fired in a flat trajectory, the shell had more range than the mortar and the penetration power of the field gun. Howitzers were easier to transport than other types of heavy artillery due to their smaller size, and could be mounted on wheels and towed by a truck. Modern light howitzers fire a variety of specialized ammunition, and their accuracy now makes them more efficient and lethal than older heavy howitzers and field guns.

Modding

Main article: Modding (Civ2)/Units

The Howitzer is defined at Line 27 of the @UNITS section of Rules.txt. It uses the artillery sound suite: FIRE--.WAV at the start of combat, MEDGUN.WAV for each hit animation, and LARGEXPL.WAV on conclusion.

Its ability to negate walls and fortresses is a flag that can be assigned to any unit.

Trivia

• The Howitzer sprite in the original Civilization II appears modelled on the American M115 heavy howitzer.

See also

• Howitzer (Freeciv)