Machine Gun Tower Ballistae..not historically correct...

Ok, I realize nations did fire arrows an what not from towers in antiquity, but im pretty sure they didnt fire at the incredible rate and armor piercing power of the tower ballistae I encounter every time i seige. Ive played total war for years, and Eb since .078, but Ive only now started to get reeally bugged by these towers killing 100 of my elites in seconds... they shoot from the outside and at you when youre inside:furious3:. By the time I have gotten out of range I can see the absolute slaughter these machine gunners have caused... Must be a way to tone it down or nerf ... Unless of course its historically correct then I have no problem, if all ancient nations had what must be electric powered armor piercing ballistae then im ok with it..... How do yall deal with the slaughter they cause?:help:

Never - ever - build large walls. Problem solved ;)

Iirc there is a modification which reduces teh damage of siege tower artillery.

I´ve got the impression Roderick means rather city towers then siege towers - once the latter are at the walls, they actually stop shooting at besieged army.

And if i´m right: well, you should try to spot some weak ( unprotected by towers ) parts of the city wall and try to quickly climb some of your skirmisher troops by using ladders. Once they are on, they can run around and take all the other unprotected walls, while causing havoc by showering enemy troops on the ground with their plenty javelines. And if you send a second, high lethality + very hardy assault unit afterwards, you can stab the defenders into their backs, while they are trying to fight your frontal main attack ( use towers there to minimize causalities ).

Don't ever let yourself get besieged, then you don't need to worry about the siege towers.

Lol most confusing responses since the Bartix thread.. lol :dizzy2: Although I like the tips for seiging the walls . I did mean the arrows that come from the towers at the enemies walls whenever your infantiry gets close enough to them. You know what I mean, like when your sieging and your near the gates of large stonewalls the two towers to the left and right fire those damn (what look like javelins) at you. their must be a mod. off topic but ima gonna squeeze it in there, I hear all this stuff about educating your generals to make them better, how is this done? Obviously by leaving them in a city with a school but for how many turns and what do the different school sizes make in difference'?

As far as I know, all levels of walls in EB only fire arrows. I believe the arrows have ap properties but they aren't that devestating. Just don't leave units in range of them for significant periods of time.

Btw, I thought you were referring to the siege tower machine gun ballistas which there is a fix for. I personally found that one annoying.

Personally I regard the deadly towers as a balancing factor for the AI, since the AI doesn't adequately defend the walls. Assaults on stone-walled cities were relatively rare in antiquity because they were very costly in casualties to the attacker - sieges were far more common, starving the defenders into surrender or a suicidal sally.

Whenever I need to assault, I bring a really big army, use cheap, expendable units to take the walls and towers, and am psychlogically prepared to accept very heavy losses. That's the price I deserve to pay for wanting to take a heavily-defended city so quickly. If I don't want heavy losses, then I resign myself to a long siege.

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Originally Posted by Titus Marcellus Scato

Personally I regard the deadly towers as a balancing factor for the AI, since the AI doesn't adequately defend the walls. Assaults on stone-walled cities were relatively rare in antiquity because they were very costly in casualties to the attacker - sieges were far more common, starving the defenders into surrender or a suicidal sally.

Whenever I need to assault, I bring a really big army, use cheap, expendable units to take the walls and towers, and am psychlogically prepared to accept very heavy losses. That's the price I deserve to pay for wanting to take a heavily-defended city so quickly. If I don't want heavy losses, then I resign myself to a long siege.

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To be honest, I find it's always the hard fighting on the tops of the walls themselves that does the damage to my army, not the towers... Indeed, during the average stone wall assault in any of my games, the towers are usually quite lucky to kill 10-20 of my men. For one, siege towers have shielding properties against arrows (most arrows fired at the unit hauling the tower will bounce off the tower, which only becomes a problem in the very rare cases wherein this manages to set the siege tower on fire) and for another, there are a few cases where units can get fired at by the towers once they are up on the walls, but they are very rare and easy to avoid...

So yeah, for me, the towers and their "machine guns" aren't really a problem... Indeed, I frequently end up turning said towers right back on the defenders...

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Originally Posted by Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom

Ok, I realize nations did fire arrows an what not from towers in antiquity, but im pretty sure they didnt fire at the incredible rate and armor piercing power of the tower ballistae I encounter every time i seige. Ive played total war for years, and Eb since .078, but Ive only now started to get reeally bugged by these towers killing 100 of my elites in seconds... they shoot from the outside and at you when youre inside:furious3:. By the time I have gotten out of range I can see the absolute slaughter these machine gunners have caused... Must be a way to tone it down or nerf ... Unless of course its historically correct then I have no problem, if all ancient nations had what must be electric powered armor piercing ballistae then im ok with it..... How do yall deal with the slaughter they cause?:help:

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Tell that to the developers of the game over at the Creative Assembly.

info@creative-assembly.co.uk

Addendum: As it is a game-related issue, not a mod-related issue (i.e. you see the issue in any rendition of the game, original or otherwise).

I don't think the "machine-gun" effect is all that un-realistic in stone towers. I usually just RP it as archer cycling.

Use Mercenary Swords w/ ladders to climb the walls and fight the opponant there.

then run ON the wall to every tower in the City to capture them.

then move in w/ your core Elite troops

I reccoment units w/ missiles like Thraikioi Peltastai

Ehm, put let say, 50 archer in a tower, plus on the walls, more, (as EB isn't really representative of accurate number or size of troops and cities) yes, machine gun towers are quiet accurate, in my opinion, Like said in the art of war : 10 women could defend a city besieged by 100 men... ok, it's a saying, but that's to say that to put a siege on a big cities. you must be ready to loose many many of your cherished elites! THAT IS WAR! in the open, it's a totally different matter