Bolt Throwers?

[Cleftin Twain]

Thoughts on these? How do they stack up to other siege weapons? I can't decide yet but so far they seem pretty underwhelming. Range is good but damage seems awful.

[Chaoslink]

I’ve had great success with them having good accuracy. Fighting the green skins, orc warlords would get hit by entire volleys pretty frequently. They’re not something you want to use against mobs, target single entity units or big things like trolls. Cannon are generally a direct upgrade, but bolt throwers can be recruited faster and are cheaper. That is if you’re talking about the dwarf ones.

If you mean the high elf, or dark elf equivalent, they’re... different. They have the single bolt shot and the spread. However they’re really only useful for softening up enemy formations and forcing them to attack you, even when you’re the offensive party in the battle. They’re not really as good as artillery from other factions, but they can be useful on occasions. They’re not going to get a lot of kills generally, but the damage they dish out spreads across the models in each unit. This can help a weaker melee unit win against a stronger one as the enemy will lose more individuals faster and start losing the morale game quicker. The attacked by artillery debuff also helps here. One area I find they tend to really do work is firing at the tips of walls. The more parallel the arc to the walls, the harder they hit the enemy.

[Toby Larone]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thoughts on these? How do they stack up to other siege weapons? I can't decide yet but so far they seem pretty underwhelming. Range is good but damage seems awful.

They have one job and that is to snipe stuff like hellcanons.

And they do that job, don't expect them to work like a cannon. Arty isn't an elven strength.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thoughts on these? How do they stack up to other siege weapons? I can't decide yet but so far they seem pretty underwhelming. Range is good but damage seems awful.

As others said already, they are good at sniping enemy artillery and that's pretty much it. It basically become useless pretty fast since the AI doesn't protect his artillery and won't focus fire your flying units anyway, giving you a clear way to take their own artillery down in an instant.

[Cloud Breaker]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thoughts on these? How do they stack up to other siege weapons? I can't decide yet but so far they seem pretty underwhelming. Range is good but damage seems awful.

I was using these early game to snipe out enemy lords or at least weaken them before they hit my lines. I feel Cannons obsoletes them, when they come online.

[Cleftin Twain]

Thanks bois.

So basically I could just bring a dragon or something instead and do just fine?

Edit: Talking high elves, sorry! Wasnt aware a couple other factions also had them.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thanks bois.

So basically I could just bring a dragon or something instead and do just fine?

Yep.

[Ashley]

They do help soften up targets as well they probably won't kill many units but they can knock a bit a of hp of. Oh and they do work semi well against monsters. They can also help you force the enemy at you since sometimes they won't always charge. Them taking damage forces that. Otherwise you're walking into their firing squads.

[Cleftin Twain]

Thanks!

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thanks bois.

So basically I could just bring a dragon or something instead and do just fine?

Edit: Talking high elves, sorry! Wasnt aware a couple other factions also had them.

Yeah, dragons will often do the same role but also net a decent killcount. In a defensive siege, dragons are fantastic. Right after an enemy siege tower lands, their troops will be ridiculously clustered. A single star dragon breath will kill half a unit easy. I’ve hit Chosen warriors as they came out like this and killed 60 of them in just one breath. On a budget, a flame Phoenix can fill the same role too. They get the bombardment ability that can soften stuff up and can engage things like artillery just fine. They’re not half bad smashing into the rear of enemy units either.

[KDubya]

The elven bolt thrower is worth a slot just to force the enemy to close with you.

Set up on a hill with your archers behind your frontline of Swordmasters, Phoenix Guard or even just spearmen and hit them with the bolt thrower. Much better than having to march across the map and rush the enemy while under their missile fire.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Ser Pounce:

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

Thanks bois.

So basically I could just bring a dragon or something instead and do just fine?

Yep.

With the exception that a bolt thrower is one quarter the price of a dragon, not to mention available earlier and the recruitment building you'll probably be building anyway for SoH and Phoenix Guard...

Bolt throwers have two jobs in campaign, and they do them both cost-effectively:
- knocking down towers and walls (single target)
- smacking shielded Darkshards (you get best results when the Darkshards are stationary and you change which unit you're shooting at regularly) (spread shot)

They are very bad at almost anything else, but they do the above two just fine.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Originally posted by Ser Pounce:

Yep.

With the exception that a bolt thrower is one quarter the price of a dragon, not to mention available earlier and the recruitment building you'll probably be building anyway for SoH and Phoenix Guard...

Bolt throwers have two jobs in campaign, and they do them both cost-effectively:
- knocking down towers and walls (single target)
- smacking shielded Darkshards (you get best results when the Darkshards are stationary and you change which unit you're shooting at regularly) (spread shot)

They are very bad at almost anything else, but they do the above two just fine.

Price isn't a very big deal in campaign past the 20 first turns unless you're playing on VH and beyond.

[Cleftin Twain]

How viable is using them as like a shotgun once enemies are in close range? They have a really close range fire arch, so I was curious how badly it would work out to put them just behind the front line?

I'm assuming you're pretty likely to blast your own troops in the back lol.

[Ashley]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

How viable is using them as like a shotgun once enemies are in close range? They have a really close range fire arch, so I was curious how badly it would work out to put them just behind the front line?

I'm assuming you're pretty likely to blast your own troops in the back lol.

Not remotely viable

[Chaoslink]

Originally posted by Lvl One Mage:

How viable is using them as like a shotgun once enemies are in close range? They have a really close range fire arch, so I was curious how badly it would work out to put them just behind the front line?

I'm assuming you're pretty likely to blast your own troops in the back lol.

I’ve had some success rolling them onto the flank and firing straight down the melee frontline. They do work like that, but are very vulnerable. It does limit friendly fire though. This works far better with dwarf cannon or organ guns.