Cannon Towers

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've never actually used these before. I've heard some people say they are insanely overpowered and drill down everything before it gets near the walls. But others say they miss everything and can't take down one ram.

So, who's telling the truth...

[Korlon]

Most people say they are utterly deadly in a siege. I haven't ever experienced them, but from the multitudes of people that have said this rather than them not working at all (in fact, I haven't heard of anybody that have said this), I tend to think the former.

[Ramses II CP]

If you wait for the enemy to attack your city they're less accurate than ballista towers. They still hit very hard, and frequently kill the enemy general if you keep a bunch firing while the gates are falling, but they won't fire on enemies that are attacking your walls. For that reason alone I'd prefer arrow towers.

If you sally cannon towers will obliterate the enemy army, and the AI will just stand there and take it until they're destroyed. The cannon towers have a range of the edge of the map on most of the city maps, and the AI doesn't understand it. You don't have to do a thing, just man the walls and watch the fun.

It gets boring doing that more than once, so overall I'd recommend against building them. Field battles are more fun.

[PrestigeX]

I don't like to build them because, I always think of the fact that..
I may have to re-take this city lol.
i like to build up to ballista towers because they're quite good but if i have to re-take the city , i can gun down a few towers b4 advancing.. CAnnon Tower have more range and can take out some of ur 'pieces'

[WhiskeyGhost]

i like cannon towers, its like a roulette game, sometimes it's marvelously effective, and other times, it's like firing blanks. They aren't half bad against bombardment weaponry either (cannons and trebuchets and such, the larger the better)

[PBI]

I used to be fimrly in the "cannon towers a waste of money" category, until the other day I had the experience of being on the receiving end of them. I was besieging a citadel and the enemy sallied; my army automatically deployed at the exact worst distance, far too close to run away, not close enough to sprint to within the minimum range. My general was dead in the first volley, before I even had time to twig that I was facing cannon towers, and the rest of my army soon after.

I should point out that I have modded all battlefield artillery to be more accurate in my game. I didn't think this would affect towers since they're supposed to use a different projectile type, but it turns out citadels use the same model as normal bombards for some reason.

Even in the unmodded game, I have come to appreciate that they can be very powerful; the proper tactics to defend using them differ substantially from normal towers however.

[Eikon the Magistrate]

Well in another thread I had posted that I didnt use them because of the accuracy/cost ...but recently I had 2 full crusader stacks get decimated by them... I was sicily at the time defending rome in one of my unwinnable scens.
In fact they were so effective that I only sallied a single cav to destroy 1 tower...the cannons took care of the rest. The AI actually tried bringing multiple rams to the gate (4) which was amazing...since they usually never do that.

I still dont understand this building though...because Ive had them on other seiges and they worked very poorly... perhaps its the style of city? the placements of some city/faction towers seem better than others... some get a citadel on the corners others do not...maybe random accuracies? do towers shoot better if there are masses of troops next to them as opposed to a 1/2 unit? Hit or miss still for me I guess.