siege engineers

[Oaty]

I was just wondering about what others thought about siege weapons and how unrealistic they are. When a castle was being sieged the siege engineers managed the construction of the siege machines and usually they were put on wheels so they could be constructed in safety. When completed they would pull it into place with a rope. Occasionally they were built in place but not often. Once completed the peasants would man the siege weapons with the engineers nearby to ensure proper operation. Plus siege weapons really never ran out of ammunition as they kept masons constantly at work making near perfect round stones and most of them carved them to a precise diameter so they had very little difference in weight so that once locked onto a location of the castle wall it always hit the same spot or close to it. Plus the masons were making the stones while the engineers were maniging the construction of the siege weapons. Once the siege engineer made adjustments to the counter weight and length needed on the rope He really wasnt needed anymore till the next siege. Reallistically it would be nice if you could take your peasants or whatever unit you wished to man the seige machine and once you breech all the defensive positions that you desire they all break away and charge the castle.

Another thing about trebuchets since they had the most distance archers had trouble shooting at the men manning the siege weapon. Some kings and generals were clever enough to have there best armoured men man the trebuchets. The distance an archer had to shoot usually made the arrows ineffective as they would bounce off well armored men. With that distance between them it usually took an arrow to hit at 90 degrees to penetrate and with its loss of momentum the arrow was problaby something the warrior shrugged off and kept going.

Another thing is the amount of siege weapons you have didnt depend so much how many enginners you had as it was more related to how many peasant they could command to build the weapons

So I was just wondering about what other people thought about how siege weapons become ineffective once the engineers are depleted to where it is inoperable and how a small army can just have tons of them without the men to construct them

[BDC]

That is all a bit too complex for a game like MTW, I don't think the engine could easily handle it and it would be too complex. Maybe a RTW mod...

[MrWhipple]

For all intents and purposes siege engines were static. Yes some trebs had wheels but they were not for transport, but for taking up recoil and making the arc of the sling arm take a flater path. You also have to consider the time constraints in a game battle. You could move an engine but not in a couple of hours or even less that a typical MTW battle would last. When designing a game there is alwas a playability / complexity trade off. Software can hide a lot of the complexity but it is still there. If you ever played any of the old hex map and cardborard marker games, this trade off becomes even more apparent. Game designers have to make a lot of comprimises to come up with a playable game. Be thankfull that CA made MTW moddable.