Boiling Oil

[Benandorf]

Is there any way to take this out of the game? I believe spies turn it off, but it was the worst thing about Rome: Total War, and it's becoming increasingly more annoying as I play Kingdoms.

[SirGrotius]

I don't know about taking it out but I thought it was so ineffective as to be potentially bugged. For instance, sieging a citadel, I had a full unit of archers with a ram at the gates and they lost maybe 30% of their force and the ram had about 8% damage. Nothing really

[WhiskeyGhost]

ooh, boiling oil. This should only be effectively used if you block the entrance with soldier after the ram it (and if your sieging, you shouldn't be going through a gate in force if theres quality troops in the gateway, you should use some siege towers/ladders elsewhere)

[Callahan9119]

i love boiling oil, i like having to worry about it and i like it when the enemy screams when i use it

good fun all around

[Droce]

How do you get it to work? It seems pretty touch and go for me.

[antisocialmunky]

It has a low rate of fire and doesn't poor for very long.

[ReiseReise]

I liked it in RTW. The enemy always used the gate and lost half his army to the oil. Being the human I had the ability to knock down the walls and go around the gate.

Although, I am very glad they got rid of the sapper tunnels, those were really annoying when the enemy used them, and when you had them you couldn't even decide where to put them. The only good thing was the challenge of trying to set them on fire.

[Dead Guy]

Just shoot out the gate house if you really have to go through the gate. The 30% losses 8% damage on the ram sounds a bit unbelievable to me, I lost 2 rams on the very first puring of oil in a siege battle and haven't ever assaulted a city with stone walls since, without cannons.
Also, ballista towers are just silly. 3 siege towers destroyed before they got off the line they were standing on when the battle started basically. I'm never assaulting without cannons, ever.

[Eng]

Can someone please post some screen shots for those of us who haven't purchased kingdoms?

[SirGrotius]

Just shoot out the gate house if you really have to go through the gate. The 30% losses 8% damage on the ram sounds a bit unbelievable to me, I lost 2 rams on the very first puring of oil in a siege battle and haven't ever assaulted a city with stone walls since, without cannons.
Also, ballista towers are just silly. 3 siege towers destroyed before they got off the line they were standing on when the battle started basically. I'm never assaulting without cannons, ever.

I play on Normal against the AI (Turks) and they didn't block the gate at all with troops from the other side, once it was down, I was in to victory. I suppose the Normal setting contributes.

[Rhedd]

Spies do NOT disable boiling oil. If the gatehouse is manned, the oil gets poured. I learned this the hard way. ^_^

It's amazing the way there really are as many opinions as there are people. I just can't imagine wanting to get rid of the boiling oil.

As a matter of fact, I'd almost say that it's the best thing about Kingdoms, since I always thought that the siege battles in M2 were utterly pathetic.

Why even bother building a castle when someone can knock the door down with a handful of blows and then waltz in like they own the place?

In reality, the gate was the worst place to try to enter a castle, and I'm very happy to see it's more like that in Kingdoms.

Honestly, my only complaint is that the gatehouse can be destroyed by artillery.

If it's getting "increasingly more annoying", you might consider trying a different tactic than rushing the gate over and over. Just a suggestion.

[Bob the Insane]

It is effective, just not against Rams, the ram takes little damage and protects the men...

However if you block up the gate with your own men then the boiling oil can take quite a toll from the attacking force.

The new improved mass of horses can make blocking up the gate with spears or even pikes a bit of and issue though...

[DVX BELLORVM]

IMO, the boiling oil should have a huge impact on a morale, causing low-morale unit to rout when the oil pours onto them.