Re: use of onagers and other heavy artillery
I'm a bit of an onager junkie... I try to have at least five in every stack. I just love the way their flaming ammo flies through the air... And I like the crunching noise they make when they hit something.
With 5 onagers, every shot hits something or other, and that's very bad for morale. They're especially useful against Roman armies using the manipular formation, because the army isn't strung out in a thin line. It's actually got a nice, meaty centre to aim for.
They're also great in bridge battles.
Personally, I am quite happy having up to 8 onagers in a full stack.
Re: use of onagers and other heavy artillery
Two things onagers with firing rock are good with:
1: Big Groups of Men
2: ELEPHANTS!
Have you ever seen an elephant on fire?! It's so COOL!
Re: use of onagers and other heavy artillery
I once had some of my precious armored elephants grilled by damned roman onagers, and after the battle they were all somehow healed :juggle:
Re: use of onagers and other heavy artillery
It takes a lot of rock to kill an elephant covered in metal, yes... O_o
Re: use of onagers and other heavy artillery
I found onagers especially usefull against egyptian chariots (as mentioned before) and elephants. In one battle defending as romans against the eggies, I had to deal with both. I had one onager unit and set it to flame fire and forget on the elephants (I was on an elevated position). At one time I decided to switch to the chariots, them allways being the most dangerous units against my mostly sword-bearing army (Romans are mostly sword troops). I noticed that the elephants were still failing to show up, so I paused to have a look. They were still at the place they started out, woblling in all directions, severely reduced and leaving large black humps. No, that aint no dung, those are roasted Elephants, try heal that! The elephants were running amok in the rear of the enemy, and set out to leave the battlefield. My troops never even had to lay their eyes on them, and my thoughts were only on how to dispatch the dreaded chariots quick enough AND survive to face the elephants! pfew!
I learned the hard way thet the only way to effectively survive a large campaign into the desert is with a lot of spearmen, enough horsemen and the occaisonal onager. The rest is fodder.
