How do you burn enemy siege equipment ?

Well yeah it's a bit of a stupid question: light a match ?!?

I never had many sieges as I used all cavalry armies and I was able to move aorund fast enought to kill enemy armies in the field so I hardly ever saw the inside of a wall.

Now I don't get it. I have 4 Yeoman Archers showering flaming arrows, like 4 huge stone wall towers shooting what looks like flaming ballistae. The enemy has 1 Ballista unit, 1 siege tower, 1 ladder and 2 rams.

Not a single thing gets burnt down.

Anyone know what's happening, is there a technique to use or something ? I simply line up my archers in one line on the walls, and set them to fire flaming arrows, and I aim for the siege equipment. When, occasionally it does burn down, it seems the damage comes from the towers.

I remember there was a thread on this last week, but I could'nt find it again.

Thanks for any tips you may have.

Salute !

It's almost impossible to burn AI siege equipment; and it seems to be equally impossible to stop yours from being burnt to a crisp

HAHA ! I just did some custom battles. Only once did the enemy ram get burnt up and this time I used Retinue Longbowmen, however ! the shot that flamed the ram came from the ballista towers.

I'm wondering if footarchers can burn siege equipment at all, and I'm beginning to think... not.

Also in these 4-5 test battles, the archers scored a maximum of 27 kills per battle/unit, the enemy army was about 500 men. 27 was the best score.

Incidentally ze Germans assualted Antwerp in campaign. I had 4 standard Longbowmen, 3 Spear Militia (with light mail armor ! and exp 3), 2 exp 3-4 Mailed Knights, 1 Bodyguard The King himself.

The enemy attacked with 2 rams, 2 ladders and 1 siege tower.

I lined up the Longbows on the wall, trying very hard to make them only one line deep. I've observed that if there are 2 lines the guys in the 2nd line don't hit much, specially at range. I set them to flaming arrows, guard mode... that's right bows if you let them get up on the wall then you have to deal with it !, skirmish off. I set the spears in a triangle in front of the gate (knowing that the stupid ram would get through.)

I set the cav one on top of the other in the triangle.

Once we started I targetted the ram with the LBs, I charged all the cavalry into the ladders and routed them. None of the LBs missiles were doing any damage to the ram. I switched them to normal mode and targetted the densest concentration of enemy troops. I delayed the ram long enough that one of the bolts from the towers hit it (actually 2-3 hit it) and it burnt down. Then I ran the cav back into the city and charged the spears into the pursuing cav, routing them in the gate. 3rd time I charged the tower, routing that unit too, and then pulled back into the city.

This time they did'nt get through, and the tower burnt down as well, even though I routed one unit another manned it. Then the 2nd ram; I had depleted my cav to 50%, so I was reluctant to use it again.

I used normal fire on the ram, and depleted the rams unit. Then I charged it.

Anyway in the end, that ram did not burn, but it seems you have to delay them outside if possible, it gives your towers more time to do the work.

One important thing I noticed is that when the towers are firing at siege equipment they use flaming ammo. Once the revert to normal ammo then they are'nt shooting at the siege equipment anymore. The same logic should apply to archers, flaming ammo = burn stuff, scare people. Normal ammo = more precision, more kills. But I think it doesn't, not sure.

In this battle each longbow unit got more than 90 kills. The enemy army was about 1200.

Anyway if anyone has any suggestions on how to make sure the siege stuff burns down, fire away !

Hmm! I've had some luck burning seige equipment. In my last campaign Dvor archers managed to burn the Mongols only Ram before it reached my gate effectively ending the assault before it began as the Mongols only had a few infantry and their horses couldn't climb ladders.

Likewise last nght a French seige tower was burnt by Venecian Archers just after it reached the walls but before the ramp dropped burning most of the Frenchmen inside it to death.

I have never seen ladder's burn, which is one reason I always build a few of them for my assaults.

As for seige engines, I saw a French Trebuchet go up in smoke last night, but normally I don't bother using fire arrows on them and this one must have been burnt by my towers. Personally, I find its quicker and more permanent if you kill the crews with normal missile fire or smash them with rocks and cannon balls.

Ladders can't burn mate, at least I think.

I normally don't have any troubles with destroying seige towers since you can still fire at them even after they are in place, (archers stop fireing at them when they arrive at the wall, but if you press again they will fire) this should give you extra time.

So flaming ammo from archers does burn stuff then. I'll have to try again I guess.

Yes...it certainly does...but it seems to have a low probability. I usually try and have 3 or 4 archer units firing at one key target and then switch if and when they are successfull.

Also I find it a bit off-putting that there is no damage meter monitoring your progress towards success. As far as I can tell one minute the target is 0% damage and safe, the next it bursts into flames and only then does the damage meter start running. But by then the job is done, as there is no way I know to put out the flames, so as soon as you see flames switch to the next target. But watch out for intervening walls, when the tower or ram gets close most archers can't land flaming arrows on it. Thats why on some castles the gates are set back into alcoves, so you can post archers on the side walls and still fire into the attackers.

Check it Make a custom battle in Which put in a full garrison of archers (that can use falming arrows) I know siege towers can get burn from tower or archers and im sure that ladders cant burn. so the thing u should check is if rams cant get burned from arrows and if for towers check if cannon towers (level 2 defenses) or balista towers (level 1 Defenses)....
another thing once i go a trebuchat in fire with falming archers but the arhcers werent aiming on it at all and it took about 1000 arrows which hited it until it caghut on fire.

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Originally Posted by Didz

Yes...it certainly does...but it seems to have a low probability. I usually try and have 3 or 4 archer units firing at one key target and then switch if and when they are successfull.

Also I find it a bit off-putting that there is no damage meter monitoring your progress towards success. As far as I can tell one minute the target is 0% damage and safe, the next it bursts into flames and only then does the damage meter start running. But by then the job is done, as there is no way I know to put out the flames, so as soon as you see flames switch to the next target. But watch out for intervening walls, when the tower or ram gets close most archers can't land flaming arrows on it. Thats why on some castles the gates are set back into alcoves, so you can post archers on the side walls and still fire into the attackers.

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As you said, it´s a chance thing, meaning every single arrow has a certain (although small) chance to ignite siege equipment. That means all it takes is one sucessfull arrow, just like in lottery.
Note however, that artillery can cause damage to siege equipment without igniting it.

I find the siege towers fairly easy to set aflame, but the rams not so. Best tactic is to target the soldiers pushing the ram as it seems to slow if you reduce the numbers - this gives your towers the chance to take them out. I do miss the lack of boiling oil as this was a cool part of sieges in MTW.

Is it possible to rip apart siege equipment in melee? You can charge it, and you fight it, but it never seems to do anything...

Im sure it was possible in the earlier TW games, perhaps RTW, but I dont think its possible in MTW2. At least Ive never noticed it happening.

I much prefer to use my archers on incoming infantry, the siege towers and rams absorb way too many arrows that could kill men instead.

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Originally Posted by HoreTore

Is it possible to rip apart siege equipment in melee? You can charge it, and you fight it, but it never seems to do anything...

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No. Which makes sense really as they are sodding great hunks of timber and iron and your soldier has at best a two handed axe.

I have seen catapults left destroyed after my cavalry had a little party there. I am always very careful whether I click the goods or the dudes for an attack.

I think I'm gonna go with Omisan on this one.

Indeed the arrows could actually be killing men instead. It takes a lot of ammo unless you're lucky, to set anything alight. With that ammo you could kill a lot of enemies.

Meanwhile your general could be charging out like a brave sod, and delaying their stuff from getting to your area, giving the towers the chance to do the work.

I think the best tactic is to attack the siege equipment with cavalry, and shoot at it the bearers from the walls. Ofc your cavalry will get shot up as well, they need to be tough, hence I think bodyguards are the boys for the job.

FOR KING & COUNTRY !!! CHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGE!

I was the one posting about this before, and I'm as frustrated as you.

I ran a test during a siege battle in my campaign, where I saved the battle before hand and palyed the same siege 4 times. Twice I used flaming arrows at the ram, and twice I used normal arrows at the unit pushing the ram.

Oddly enough, the two times I was shooting at the ram nothing happened, while the two times I fired at the people the ram lit up in almost the exact same spot.

Since I was using peasant archers, I wonder if there is any correlation between arrow damage and the chance of lighting the siege equipment. Also, it does seem to be a better strategy to slow the siege equipment down.

That being said, I seem to rarely have trouble lighting siege towers on fire. The towers usually take care of that without any help from me...

Ladders.

Don't burn but can be destroyed by infantry - takes a while, but can be done, but I wouldn't bother in the middle of a battle.

I've noticed that if one gets some odd bods from an attacker's routing unit stuck on walls (even IN walls), if you use (for sake of argument) a unit of archers to destroy the ladders - (you have to attack right near the base of the ladder) they form up into a line and do a sort of sawing animation. And if you destroy the right ladder, the bod stuck on the wall falls down and the rest of the unit can then be killed.

Hopefully.

Useful to know if you can't finish a battle because of the stuckies.

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Originally Posted by Matty

No. Which makes sense really as they are sodding great hunks of timber and iron and your soldier has at best a two handed axe.

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Well, I'm not sure if I agree with that... 100 men hacking away at weak points, plucking away with their hands, screwing out screws, having fun with torches.... I'd say they stand a very good chance of defeating a wooden monstrosity.

A battering ram isn't a tank, it's wooden equipment made in the middle ages... I doubt you'll need Einstein to take it apart.