Siege machines

[Tancredo]

Hi. After a couple of years I've come back to MTW VI and ben looking again for tips about strategy and tactics. I've found pretty much everything I knew once, but still I don't find how to place siege machines at battle.
Please, share your wisdom.

[Martok]

Welcome to the Org, Tancredo.


First off, I strongly encourage you to read this post by frogbeastegg if you've not already done so -- the section on artillery is near the bottom.

Otherwise, the main piece of advice I can offer is to remember that when employing siege weapons against larger fortifications (especially Citadels & Fortresses), you should generally try to place them close enough so that they can take down the castle's inner wall(s) in addition to its outer wall. While this probably will expose your artillery crews to enemy missile fire, it's usually a worthwhile trade-off as otherwise your main assault troops will be stuck trying to break through the inner gates/walls with no artillery support (which is nearly always very costly). Better to lose a few artillery experts than a few hundred medium/heavy infantry!

Unfortunately, I can't say exactly how close/far away you should be (especially since it depends on which siege weapons you're using and how many walls a castle has). I invariably wind up just going by trial and error more often than not.

[m52nickerson]

Since I only use them for Castle sieges I place them as far away from the Castle as possible. I see no need for them to take return fire. Before the battle you can place one and then mouse over your target and see if it is in range. Then just keep moving it back until you are happy.

[I of the Storm]

Concerning return fire: I found it most useful to deploy 2-4 archer squads in loose formation in front of the artillery to function as arrow sponges. The towers almost always target the closest units, the exception being if your general is within their range (here seems to be a hidden target priority list somewhere). This way you'll only loose quite a few cheap archers. Remember to advance them with your assault troops until you reach the breaches. Saves some casualties among the heavy inf.

[seireikhaan]

Concerning return fire: I found it most useful to deploy 2-4 archer squads in loose formation in front of the artillery to function as arrow sponges. The towers almost always target the closest units, the exception being if your general is within their range (here seems to be a hidden target priority list somewhere). This way you'll only loose quite a few cheap archers. Remember to advance them with your assault troops until you reach the breaches. Saves some casualties among the heavy inf.

Na, don't use archers. Most archers will frankly die way to quick for my tastes to be meat shields. Vanilla spearmen, especially with a little extra armor, are the way to go for this role. Relatively cheap unit, you get 100 in comparison to 60, and the addition of their shield means that the towers won't mow through archers before your siege machines are done with their work.

[Ironsword]

- Also, whatever you do, don't take trebuchets, mangonels or seige cannons to a field battle, unless you're absolutely sure they will be facing the right way! Yes, they look real pretty, but the amount of times I've fielded them out of desperation only to have them at right angles to the enemy...

Catapults, demi culverinns etc. are a lot more forgiving.

[Martok]

Good point, Ironsword. With the exception of Organ guns on bridge battles and the occasional catapult, I pretty much never use artillery in field battles.

Of course, part of my reluctance to use siege weapons in defensive battles also has to do with artillery crews' almost-supernatural ability to hit enemy generals. As much fun as it is to kill an AI commander with a big ol' rock to the head, I find it a little too easy overall (and therefore consider it an exploit).