Automatic fire from wooden walls?

[Cruelsader]

Are the towers of wooden walls supposed to shoot at attacking force? They do not in my game as far as I can tell. If they are supposed to not fire, what is the point of having the towers as defender or destroying them as the attacker? Thank your for your answers!

I am playing vanilla RTW 1.5 with bug-fixer 3.36 applied.

[Charge]

During my long playing vanilla they always shoot at me (or enemys) with arrows...
Hm and they are indestructible I think, shoots only outside of the settlement (no stupid slaughtering inside walls).

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi Cruelsader,
They are supposed to, but their fire isn't especially effective. Often it only kills one or two men per battle and it rarely sets siege weapons alight. Due to this they may not be noticed through losses. To actually gain fire which actually can kill a considerable amount of men, stone walls are required.
Hope this helops you, cheers!

[Alpha666]

Yes, stonewalls are a must. But still the fire isn´t as effective as in MTW I think. Well in the later periode the ranged weapons were more developed I think....

I wonder how can I destroy siege towers ? Or does the AI try to destroy those ? I need some kind of flame weapons I guess. When will those available ? I think spear throwing weapons cannot set on fire ? Only arrows ?

[Cruelsader]

Thank you for the replies! To be more specific, I have not lost any man to fire from wooden towers AFAIK. I have asssulted wooden walls with towers about 20 times. (I have not assulted stone walls yet). Zooming close to towers shows no projectiles coming out. (But this may be the result of short range - I have no idea how far the towers can shoot).

BTW, the towers of wooden walls are destructible. Target them with onagers and they collapse in no time.

[GamblerTuba]

The towers on wooden walls seem to have a very narrow line of sight. A unit must be directly in front of the tower to be targeted. I have lost some cavalry to towers from wooden walls when trying to circle a settlement but when assaulting the gates, the towers are seldom able to target the attackers.

I do not know if the towers on wooden walls can use fire arrows. I have never seen them do so. Towers on stone walls can be fairly effective at lighting siege equipment on fire. Any archer unit should have fire arrows as a special ability. (Playing a Carthage campaign right now and bow do i miss those fire arrows)

[Alpha666]

I play RTR as Rome and don´t have any single archer unit.. is this correct ?
Also I don´t have peasants... guess in this mod all this doesn´t exist... mh..

Also no catapults.. :(

[Cruelsader]

The towers on wooden walls seem to have a very narrow line of sight. A unit must be directly in front of the tower to be targeted. I have lost some cavalry to towers from wooden walls when trying to circle a settlement but when assaulting the gates, the towers are seldom able to target the attackers.

You are right. In another assult I sent a unit of cavalry to stand in front of a tower. They were fairly close when the tower started to shoot. The arrows had almost no effect on the cavalry.

[RickFGS]

Cavalry, even light one, is always a bit armoured (shield and armor vest) so the wodden wall towers won´t kill it effectivelly, however they can kill skirmishers, slingers, town watchs and all cheap infantry with good results.

In the early game, some skirmishers, peltasts, velites can be deadly behind a wodden wall ;)

[Celt Centurion]

I played a campaign earlier. I believe it was in the early stages and Macedon betrayed our alliance and attacked me at Thermon. I had very little inside the city but what little I did have I put to use. Macedon had a very cavalry heavy army and lined up outside of the wooden wall, with their General closest to the wall.

I posted some skirmishers who had thrown all their spears just inside the wall opposite the Macedon General. My towers shot into the General's group and I could count them being reduced to the point of one of the arrows nailing the General. Yes! Got him!

Then their whole army shifted over and the towers started shooting at the next unit. By the time that the clock ran out, three units of cavalry were wiped out. The next turn I was able to get another relieving army in place. A few hundred spearmen vs lancers and I was able to destroy the Macedon army and keep the city.

Yes, the wooden towers work, but I believe it was my good fortune that the enemy posted where the tower could be effective against it, and would keep plugging the gap with another full unit if one was wiped out.

Perhaps placing a unit just inside the walls behind a tower may draw an enemy to place the end of his line right there? The unit also serves as "eyes" that let you know if the fire is effective. You will also hear the "boing" of the bowstrings when a unit is right there. Set it on high speed and you will hear a steady rhythm of bowstrings and can watch them fall faster.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[I of the Storm]

Wooden wall towers are hardly more than a token defence. Their field of fire is roughly 60 degrees (i.e 30 to each side), their fire frequency and damage is rather low. Compared to what the stone wall towers can do at least.
They can be a little more effective when the enemy approaches the wall at an 45° angle since some of his units will have to pass by the wooden wall towers. I've seen them burn rams on that occasion, although very rarely.

[Cruelsader]

I have had a few siege battles as a defender by now. Maybe I was just lucky but every fifth (or so) ram went up in flames in these battles because of fire from wooden towers.