Defence towers: are they worth it?

[Trithemius]

I'll second this request for input! I never build the dang things because they oh-so-precious building slots and am curious about what is being missed!

A thought: can you create one-off battles for FotS and specify the fortifications and defences? Might be a good way to check?

[Sp4]

I have not had the honour of seeing the cannon towers in action but anything else is quite the waste of time/money/building slot.

By the time the AI gets in range of the matchlocks/gatling guns, the tower will have been taken out by enemy artillery. I guess if you have your own artillery (and this only really works with wooden cannons), you can try and take out the enemy artillery but blabla and mouse clicking and stupid pathfinding makes trying to control artillery from inside a castle something I seriously cannot be bothered with, so no... I've seen matchlock and gatling towers in action or rather, seen them collapsing before any action happened. I don't think they are worth it.

I have not yet seen the cannon towers, but I am working on that. =p Will let you know as soon as the AI has attacked my cannon tower defended city =p

On this note: AI does not use its artillery from inside castles (except for wooden cannons but the AI just leaves them where they spawned)... Yay 'AI' or people being too lazy to program the AI to use its artillery in siege defences, hoping no one will notice it in all the clouds of smoke =o

Another thing: The AI does not seem to build advanced castle defences... It matters little because by the time they become available, everyone and their mother as well as their mother's dog has artillery with them but yeah...

One last thing: I actually find sieges really boring and lame and it is sad and really makes me wonder what CA did in the months leading up to this expansion/DLC >_>
Why can't siege battles be like the historical battle for Osaka castle, where you fight in the streets and all as well? =( Or at least make it like RotS but on a larger scale.

[47thlegion]

i took an enemy AI clans star fort when no one was home after realm divide and they had built gatling gun towers, then they attacked me so i got to defend using it, the gatling guns did some damage but not as much as you might think, what was more effective though was the cannon that shot out of the corners of the star fort walls