Artillery (Red Alert)

The Artillery was the Allies' primary anti-building weapon during the Second World War.

Background
In the years between the First and Second World War, many nations developed early self-propelled artillery weapons. This was usually done by simply mounting a howitzer on a modified tank chassis (often making use of obsolete tanks for this purpose), but some designs also had purpose-built chassis. By the time war began, most Allied nations had fielded some form of self-propelled artillery, and many more were produced during the war. The most common configuration was a 155mm howitzer mounted on a lightly armoured tracked chassis, firing high-explosive rounds. Allied commanders generally used it to bombard enemy bases and fortifications, but it was also highly effective as a long-range antipersonnel weapon. Although effective against Soviet defenses, Tesla coils had even greater range than artillery pieces, and enough power to melt them to scrap in one blast.

Game unit
Artillery is a highly effective and long range way to deal with infantry and soften up enemy formations. Because of its lack of proper armour, slow speed, and very slow turn rate, it is very vulnerable to enemy fire, particularly by tanks. It is also outranged by Tesla coils. It thus performs best when it is guarded by more expendable or tougher units, such as tanks or infantry.

Compared to the V2 rocket launcher used by the Soviets, Artillery are slightly cheaper and fire much more rapidly, but also have shorter range and deal less damage per shot.

Tiberium universe
These weapons remained in the arsenals of many armies after the war for decades, despite being gradually phased out and replaced with more advanced artillery systems. The Brotherhood of Nod, through various means, acquired large numbers of these vehicles and overhauled them for the modern battlefield, using them to great effect during the First Tiberium War.

Red Alert universe
The Artillery was phased out and replaced by the Prism tank during the Third World War. Its anti-tank role was taken over by the Tank destroyer during the Psychic Dominator Disaster.

Changelog

 * Remastered Collection patch 735514: fixed an issue where the incorrect cameo would be displayed

Trivia

 * Both the Allied Artillery and its Nod counterpart are fictional designs, with a cannon vaguely resembling the 203mm gun used by the M110 howitzer. However, the in-game Artillery is stated to use a 155mm gun, so this similarity is purely cosmetic. Other possible real-world vehicles to fill the artillery role during Red Alert's time period include the French Mk F3 which had a 155mm cannon, and the German Hummel which had a 150mm cannon.