Siege weapon against woden walls and stone walls

[MoKuS]

I am having only 25 hours in the game. I was wondering about the effectiveness of the ballista, catapult, and the like weapons against wooden walls and stone walls. I am aware that they slow down the army but I am not sure if they are effective against stone walls, gates, and towers. Do you use these weapons or simply use rams, ladders, and towers?

Thanks for the information in advance.

[Gigantus]

Ballista is anti personnel, catapult is siege - the latter being fairly effective, followed by trebuchet and later cannons.

[Mekkermann]

Some Artillery units are more effective against walls, some are more effective against infantry. I personally use artillery to win ranged duels against archers or try to hit the enemy General with Serpentines. I think cannons are a bit more difficult to manage then catapults, trebuchets. With their firing angle you need to place them carefully so they don´t hit the ground instead of the enemy. You can see the damage the Artillery unit causes for the normal attack (so not flaming shoot or explosive shoot ) in the custom Battle Army Screen, when you hover your mouse over the unit. Or in campaign on the unit info card when you rightclick on the unit. The damage for their second attack is listed here as well.

Here are some examples for what I use the Artillery.

Ballista: best used against troops or maybe gates not against walls, maybe you get lucky with wooden walls

Serpentine: the same

Mangonel, Ribault, Monster Ribault, Rocket Launcher: Just troops

Bombard/Large Bombard: Best used against Walls, decent against troops but not very accurate. Are usefull in "early bridge" battles then other then catapult rocks the normal cannonballs bounce which can hit many units in a row.

Monster Bombard: Just walls

Cannon: Equally effective against both.

Culverin: the same, more accurate

Catapult: Equally effective against both will run out of steam against Huge and Large Walls better bring more in later game if you still use them. Catapult spam was a very annoying AI tactic in earlier versions of the game. It´s a bit cheesy but many flameballs are usefull on the battlefield in open field battles.

Trebuchet: Equally effective against both will run out of steam against Huge and Large Walls but not as much as the catapult, more accurate than a Bombard I would guess.
Is also usefull in defensive Siege battles since it can fire over most walls.

Basilisk: Technically the Large Bombard does more damage against walls, but the Basilisk has more Range and Accuracy, which makes it more effective. Best artillery in the game.

Mortar: hard to say, is not very effective against neither, can be usefull in defensive Siege battles against siegetowers or so but the lack of explosive shells makes it less usefull against infantry and to use it against walls doesn´t feel right since the fire angle goes not direct to the wall. Technically this is the only unit who can destroy ladders, that are leaned against the wall, from inside the wall but not hitting the own wall or troops can be difficult.

Siege Equipment: I use it when I have no other choice otherwise I tend to just blast things apart from afar. Ladders and Rams are valuable. 1-2 Rams is usually enough since the burning oil in vanilla hardly damages the ram. (10% damage per cracked gate or so) Siege towers not so in my view as they get "easily" destroyed and are only for the first wall defence line. So in fortress and up I they are even less valuable. Against cities they are ok, since they don´t exhaust the men as much as ladders when climbing up the wall.

Towers: I love them and I hate them. When I have the chance I destroy as many of them as I can before advancing. So two wall breaches and then focus on towers with the rest of the ammunition. Especially in Fortress or Citadel Battles. Ballista/Cannon towers are even worse. But I also like to make them stronger and give them a higher firerate via file editing, since they are so damned usefull in defensive Siege Battles.

[MoKuS]

Originally posted by Gigantus:

Ballista is anti personnel, catapult is siege - the latter being fairly effective, followed by trebuchet and later cannons.

Thanks for the information.

[MoKuS]

Originally posted by Mekkermann:

Some Artillery units are more effective against walls, some are more effective against infantry. I personally use artillery to win ranged duels against archers or try to hit the enemy General with Serpentines. I think cannons are a bit more difficult to manage then catapults, trebuchets. With their firing angle you need to place them carefully so they don´t hit the ground instead of the enemy. You can see the damage the Artillery unit causes for the normal attack (so not flaming shoot or explosive shoot ) in the custom Battle Army Screen, when you hover your mouse over the unit. Or in campaign on the unit info card when you rightclick on the unit. The damage for their second attack is listed here as well.

Here are some examples for what I use the Artillery.

Ballista: best used against troops or maybe gates not against walls, maybe you get lucky with wooden walls

Serpentine: the same

Mangonel, Ribault, Monster Ribault, Rocket Launcher: Just troops

Bombard/Large Bombard: Best used against Walls, decent against troops but not very accurate. Are usefull in "early bridge" battles then other then catapult rocks the normal cannonballs bounce which can hit many units in a row.

Monster Bombard: Just walls

Cannon: Equally effective against both.

Culverin: the same, more accurate

Catapult: Equally effective against both will run out of steam against Huge and Large Walls better bring more in later game if you still use them. Catapult spam was a very annoying AI tactic in earlier versions of the game. It´s a bit cheesy but many flameballs are usefull on the battlefield in open field battles.

Trebuchet: Equally effective against both will run out of steam against Huge and Large Walls but not as much as the catapult, more accurate than a Bombard I would guess.
Is also usefull in defensive Siege battles since it can fire over most walls.

Basilisk: Technically the Large Bombard does more damage against walls, but the Basilisk has more Range and Accuracy, which makes it more effective. Best artillery in the game.

Mortar: hard to say, is not very effective against neither, can be usefull in defensive Siege battles against siegetowers or so but the lack of explosive shells makes it less usefull against infantry and to use it against walls doesn´t feel right since the fire angle goes not direct to the wall. Technically this is the only unit who can destroy ladders, that are leaned against the wall, from inside the wall but not hitting the own wall or troops can be difficult.

Siege Equipment: I use it when I have no other choice otherwise I tend to just blast things apart from afar. Ladders and Rams are valuable. 1-2 Rams is usually enough since the burning oil in vanilla hardly damages the ram. (10% damage per cracked gate or so) Siege towers not so in my view as they get "easily" destroyed and are only for the first wall defence line. So in fortress and up I they are even less valuable. Against cities they are ok, since they don´t exhaust the men as much as ladders when climbing up the wall.

Towers: I love them and I hate them. When I have the chance I destroy as many of them as I can before advancing. So two wall breaches and then focus on towers with the rest of the ammunition. Especially in Fortress or Citadel Battles. Ballista/Cannon towers are even worse. But I also like to make them stronger and give them a higher firerate via file editing, since they are so damned usefull in defensive Siege Battles.

Many thanks for the comprehensive information.

[Mekkermann]

[Zef]

To be honest in this game it's better if you save your artillery to massacre blobs of units when holding or attacking chokepoints instead of wasting shots on gates or walls.

[Gigantus]

Originally posted by Zef:

To be honest in this game it's better if you save your artillery to massacre blobs of units when holding or attacking chokepoints instead of wasting shots on gates or walls.

Rather tricky to use artillery like that in a siege. Needs a straight road and a low trajectory, the latter giving meaning to 'hit and miss' in a glorious way....