Gatling Guns

[JNation]

Are the Gatling gun troop an under utilize troop? I've been curious about what everyone thinks about Gatling guns on defense. I know artillery is thought to be king for war base donation but now when i look at the stats between artillery and Gatling gun, i feel like the Gatling gun might actually be a better troop. In industrial age after the first upgrade to alliance gate you can hold 21 alliance troops. if someone were to donated all Gatling guns they could drop 4 on your war base, compared to just 2 artillery.

Stats

Gatling gun Artillery
HP: 815 HP: 693
DPS: 117 DPS: 597
DPS(defenders): 469
Range: 3 Range: 5
Troop space: 4 Troop space: 9-10 depending on lib research
suppress enemy troops splash damage

Off the bat i know most would say artillery is just a better troop because of splash damage, but you can donate way more Gatling guns then artillery. 4 Gatling guns would deliver 1876 DPS (defenders/ enemy troops) where as 2 artillery give 1194 DPS plus splash damage. The reason I'm think Gatling gun might be better is because of the suppression and they have no lag time in between shots. To put correctly they are always shooting. The artillery doesn't suppress enemy advancement and there is a lot of lag in between shots.

I am interesting in everyone input with this. I know its hard to say for certain how anything holds up because there are no war replays... but in theory are they a better troop for defense?

 

[vincentdang4]

Have your allies donate them to your multiplayer base and make a judgment call. For me personally, I don't care too much when i see machine gunners pop out of the TC.

 

[_Flash_]

For base defense, especially in wars, it helps to have troops with splash damage.
So, that's field howitzers/howitzers/artillery line of troops, mixed up with helicopters (which received splash damage with the most recent update), and mortar units.

As you rightly expected us to say, yes, go with troops causing splash damage.
These might not be shooting all the time, but, each shot would kill a bunch of troops at a time, instead of having to kill them one by one.
Killing large numbers of attacking troops quickly with splash damage is far better than having them linger around longer, and hoping to suppress them with Gatling guns.

The range of 3 for the Gatling guns is another factor to be considered.

Siege units with a range of 5, and helicopters with a range of 7, can shoot at attacking troops when most of them won't immediately attack the siege unit.
Remember that attacking tanks have a range of 3 and prefer attacking the nearest defenses, while attacking siege units have a range of 5 and prioritize buildings, while, attacking shooters have a range of 4 (except the British, who have a range of 5), and they prioritize the nearest defenders or buildings.
What this translates to is that, these longer range defensive siege units/helicopters can shoot at attacking troops before they can or will prioritize killing these defending units.

So, while splash damage is one factor, troop AI is the other factor that favors siege + helicopters on defense.

For all of these reasons, siege units, helicopters, and mortars (acting as fillers) can be expected to outperform machine guns on defense.

Hope this helps!
Cheers and happy gaming!

 

[JNation]

Thanks for the input Flash! I should say that in my alliance I am currently the highest ranking member when it comes to wars so helicopters at the moment isn't something that can be donated. (I am 136 Industrial Age). Which offensive troops can shoot at helicopters if one should pop from TC?

 

[_Flash_]

Given your current state, it'll be a good idea to mix up artillery and mortar units for your war base donations.

The best approach to dealing with troops from the TC is to sabotage the TC before anything can spawn, and destroy the TC. As you climb higher and higher in terms of age, the number and diversity of troops that can spawn from TC simply makes it a nightmare to deal with the myriad of troops that can spawn from the TC. Sabotaging the town center and preventing anything from spawning at all simplifies the battle, and increases the reliability of the attacks (attacks can be planned better in advance, without having to factor in unknowns from the TC).

As far as I've heard, planes have been good at killing helicopters on defense (but, you don't want to be there just sabotage and kill the TC quickly).

 

[JNation]

Oh yes, i always sabotage the TC. I follow a lot of Christopher's - last-outlaws video on attacking and use a similar attacking style. So very rarely do have run into trouble with spawning units from TC. There was one incident where I had someone TC pop and out came 3 heavy gatling guns, which ended up mowing down half my troops (rifleman at least) which led my to consider them as a viable troop for war base donation lol.

 

[JNation]

Flash, i'm just curious, do you know if bazooka do splash damage?

 

[_Flash_]

As far as I know, they don't.

 

[_Flash_]

It's great that you've learned to sabotage the TC. That'll help you to bring in consistency in your attacks.
Cheers!

 

[K1ng_kriting]

yes,,its true,,I think altilery is the best troop for town center defence.