Quote Originally Posted by philosofool View Post
Are siege weapons useful? They look expensive to recruit and maintain, and then there's building damage you have to repair promptly, so they're not exactly weapons of first resort.

Nevertheless, it would seem like the ability to destroy gates, fire towers, and walls should be useful. Are destroyed walls easier to scale? Do they still protect the enemy archers? Anything else to know about siege weapons?
I’m not sure how much cover a wrecked wall provides but I do know that you can’t order a unit to defend a smashed wall section.

The only siege weapons I typically use are guns and they require Christianity. Even then I find them most useful for killing enemy command units in the field because they fire over great range with devastating accuracy (though this is very inaccurate from a realism perspective). Their immobility is a big drawback especially when attacking.

Artillery can wreck walls and towers but your men can throw torches to burn defenses so not even fire arrows are required for this. Artillery also slows armies A LOT on the strategy map causing me to move it by sea whenever possible and independently over land.

The trebouchets can be useful if your shooting is lucky but I think they are too much trouble for what they can do. On the other hand, they do offer a different wrinkle for a siege assault and that is worthwhile for re-playability.