Your first game of Artillery

Set up

Two tanks face each other across a stretch of ground, yours and the computer’s. Where each one starts shifts a little from game to game, so a shot that won last time may not win again. Each tank starts a stage with 100 health and 250 fuel for driving; fuel you buy in the shop comes on top. The ground has hills, and in some places water or a cave roof. Wind blows across the field and changes every turn, and it pushes every shell the same way.

Your tank carries Shells, which never run out, plus two Big shots, two Triples, a Shield and a parachute. More weapons come from the shop between stages.

Before a new game you choose how well the computer plays: Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert. Easy misses most of its shots and is the place to learn; each level above lands close more often, and from Medium up it sometimes goes for your pillar’s band on Zhangjiajie. Then you pick a stage.

Your first turn

You go first. Choose the angle and the power of your shot, then fire. The angle sets how steeply the shell leaves your tank, and the power sets how far it flies. Before you fire, you can drive a little way left or right, which burns fuel, and pick a different weapon. Moving, aiming and choosing a weapon don’t end your turn. Firing does.

Watch where the shell lands. A shell that misses leaves a crater in the ground, and a direct hit on a tank does the most damage. After a miss, change one thing at a time, the power or the angle, and see where the next shell lands.

How a game ends

Destroy the computer’s tank before it destroys yours. Each direct hit with the basic shell takes 24 health, so a win takes about five hits. On Zhangjiajie there’s a quicker way: each tank’s pillar has a cracked band partway down, and one blast on the computer’s brings its pillar down with the tank on it. On Cappadocia, one shot into the cracked slab of roof over the computer drops it on the tank, and you win at once. Win, and you can go on to the next stage; lose, and you can try again.

Between stages

Every finished game earns points: the damage you dealt, plus 25 for a win, so a win earns about 125. The shop opens before your next game, where points buy more weapons, parachutes and fuel. What you have left at the end of a game carries on; what you used is gone.

A short example

Your first shell lands short of the computer’s tank. On your next turn the wind is about the same, so you keep the angle and raise the power a little. The second shell lands just past the tank, and its blast takes some of its health. Your shells are landing close now, so you choose a Big shot and set the power between your first two shots. It makes a direct hit.