Castle Defences

[Wishazu]

Do catapult towers,ballista towers etc run out of ammo or stop firing for any reasons during a castle assault. Also the boiling oil will sometimes just keep pouring out over attackers and other times it seems to work only once or twice then stop. Can anyone please tell me exactly how these defences work and what conditions other than detruction will stop them.

[Sir Chauncy]

Actually units still run out of ammo, which is a shame. If they could be given lots more ammo, that would be cooler in my own opinion. But the castle defenses? They never do. The oil over the gates stops the moment they are 'forced open' and the rate they fire at is related to the size of the castle and the barbican upgrade. Hmm, I'm not too sure about that last bit though.

You could try assulting the citadel in constantinople at the start of the game with peasants. I do it sometimes, just to see what will happen.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
*evil laugh*

[lancer63]

I agree. The bigger the defenses, the higher rate of fire. Assaulting fortresses can be suicidal.

[Wishazu]

whenever im defending a castle the oil never works past 30% gate damage.

[Oaty]

[/QUOTE]whenever im defending a castle the oil never works past 30% gate damage.[QUOTE]

Well if I am correct the gate only gets so many pots of boiling oil depending on the level of the castle.

I'm not to sure on this but it seems the more casuaties you inflict against the enemies inside the castle the slower the firing rate of the walls and towers wich kind of represents slowly overrunning the castles defenses. This seems especially noticable when you have them down to that last invincible royal knight who takes forever to kill.

I have 1 question though on assaults is it worth it to try to go after the general to reduce their morale as they will not route inside the castle. As far as I know morale doesnt effect combat effectiveness unless he has some stars on him wich increases valour so would killing a zero star general inside a castle have any effect?

[Shaitan]

Quote[/b] (Sir Chauncy @ Aug. 27 2003,18:05)]Actually units still run out of ammo, which is a shame. If they could be given lots more ammo, that would be cooler in my own opinion.
If I remember correctly you can turn the limited ammo on and off in the options.

[Wishazu]

I didnt realise untll today but when assaulting a fort, motte and bailey, its actually quicker to get ur men to smash down the walls rather than the gate http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif

[Sir Chauncy]

Ah yes the glory of cissy wooden walls
It doesn't come as much of a shock that they invented stone walls when the strongest fortifications of the day could be knocked down by a baby with a bad cold.
If you think that is good, in Viking Invasion the warrior hold thing is actually useless. I have seem paper bags that had more structural integrity.

[hoom]

What I've noticed is that the boiling oil doesn't really seem to actually do much damage.

Storm a castle (max in VI) gate with huscarles & you can watch the unit number do nothing when it gets oil dumped on them.

Can't say I've tried storming a bigger main game castle since the boiling oil mind you.

I have noticed the flaming brands from the walls of bigger castles.
They seem to actually do damage.

In terms of defences stopping firing, as soon as the attacker sets foot in a section of the castle, the walls of that section stop firing. (I think it should be after you have eliminated all the defenders in that section rather than just setting foot in it)
Walls that are shared with uninvaded sections still keep firing though & the only way to stop the keep from shooting is to destroy it (yay for cannon http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif )

[Wishazu]

ive actually found the oil to be quite effective, especially against the mongols. i was playing as byz and mongols kept assalting my castle gates with Mongol heavy cav. as soon as that oil starts coming they start dropping like flies... if only it lasted longer.

[hoom]

Maybe the oil is just broken in VI?

[Oaty]

Another thing that I noticed is peasants can open a keep gate and have more trouble with a castle but a citadel or fortress you actually need to use a unit with a good attack to break it.

[Tony]

I have found a problem with Ballista towers - these things attempt to fire at the enemy THROUGH my own walls. The projectile hits the wall and damages my own castle. Over the course of a long seige this can add up to over 30% wall damage at level 4 or 5 castles. Can be frustrating if your ballistas are aiding the enemy who is also trying to knock down the same wall.

The castle AI in seiges looks a little half baked sometimes.

[Wishazu]

ive had the same experience with gun towers and catapult towers actually hitting the gate the enemy is trying to break through

[GilJaysmith]

Quote[/b] (arrrse @ Aug. 29 2003,12:54)]Maybe the oil is just broken in VI?
The oil was only *added* in VI ;-)

[hoom]

Well I've looked very closely & seen only very few kills I can attribute to the oil (rather than the walls/towers) in the VI campaign.
Not even peasants take many losses from the gate of a Castle with ballista towers & ringwall (or whatever the other upgrade is)

I've seen a greater number in the main campaign now but even Chiv Sergeants don't seem to take much damage from the oil.