Range.

[stormbringer3]

When I have an artillery with a +1 range I hope for an A+3 as my second hero. If a second R+1 appears is that worthwhile or too much of a good thing?
Thanks for any opinions.

[captainjack]

I've had 2 range heroes. They are very good for counter-battery and for suppressing AA,, also for forcing surrender of soft or lightly armoured units. While it's tempting to go for a big gun, these roles suit lighter guns with decent Rate of Fire since you want a lot of suppression rather than a few kills (and the higher ammo count means more shooting and less reloading). You also have some other interesting options like converting to a 3 range Stug3, 4 range 75mm or nebelwerfer etc.
The 3A plus range is probably better than 2R but you can have some fun with 2R.

[RVallant]

2R artillery heroes can probably go behind your ground AA units and bombard over them, your 'front' artillery and then beyond the defensive unit. That can mean you can use them to fire when you need to reload the frontline artillery etc and you don't have any risk from air attack either.

On the attack they'll allow you to get an earlier shot off some days if they're self-propelled.

[captainjack]

I hadn't considered very long range SPArt (other than Stugs) due to the lower ammo on most SP units but a fast 5 range sp gun would make a very large part of the battlefield risky, at least for soft targets. There's always something new to learn.

[hugh2711]

Much to my surprise I once had TWO +2 range heroes on 2 wurfrahmens. It was really bizarre. I do think the heroes come in batches in games, not so random. I have also had occassionally +2 range heroes on towed 17" or sig 38's. I tend to run with 4 towed and 4 mobile arty in GC