Fire arrows & Siege Towers

[Soulflame]

I am suddenly worried that Siege Towers will be pretty useless in the game if you can toggle fire arrows when you want... Siege Towers are vulnerable to fire arrows (emphasized in the flash site that comes with the demo), and if every archer can just select fire arrows, those towers are going to fall pretty fast.
Or maybe this just proves the reverse: because it's unlikely that Siege Towers will be made entirely useless, not all archers have fire arrows (or maybe you have them under certain circumstances).

If anyone knows for sure which of these is true, please tell us.

[Barkhorn1x]

Or maybe this just proves the reverse: because it's unlikely that Siege Towers will be made entirely useless, not all archers have fire arrows (or maybe you have them under certain circumstances).

If anyone knows for sure which of these is true, please tell us.

Well, considering we have exactly ONE unit of archers to play with in the demo (the demo mods don't count here as who knows what code is "missing") and there are no siege towers - your questions are a bit premature, IMO.

Let's see what happens in the actual release.

I will say that the towers should be vulnerable to fire - over time - it shouldn't just take a volley or 2.

Barkhorn.

[Sir Chauncy]

I would agree completely, If Siege towers just turned to ash when near a fire, they would be just a little bit crap wouldn't they?

[Soulflame]

Well I don't know about oyu, but when there is smoke in a siege tower, I'd get the hell out if it (if at all possible). Seeing as these are slow-moving things and archer can fire on it from pretty far away if they are on the walls (like in the trailers, and in one of the picture of the flashsite that comes witht the demo)... it's pretty scary.

Yes, we only know 1 archer yet. But it is already odd that these archer can fire fire arrows now, when there isn't even a siege and in a winter environment! As somneone buntly said in a thread I read a while ago: How are they lighting their arrows?
In sieges on the other hand, putting a fire basket on the walls doesn't seem to much trouble to do, and presumably have good effects on those siege towers.
It would also be odd if only certain archers can fire fire arrows. I mean, does it take special training? That would be really weird.

So the only way I can see this work is if the Siege Towers are coated so they won't go up in flames easily. Because one or two volleys and a bit of time should put normal wood structures in flames (hard to miss such a big target anyway).

[Daevyll]

Siege towers would often be covered with wet animal hides to stop it from catching fire.

[Red Harvest]

Siege towers would often be covered with wet animal hides to stop it from catching fire.

Yep, people seem to forget that there are counters...if siege towers were of no use, the would not have been built. Now, getting one built and rolled up to the fortification, that's no easy feat.

Also, an exterior fire is not going to stop you from using your tower. Interior, yes, exterior, no. If I were going to build one I would most likely make most of the facing parts from green wood. Don't know how many of you have experience with wood heating and starting wood fires in general, but green wood is a real pain to get burning (hardwoods anyway.) Strip off the bark and many kinds of wood are difficult to light. I remember trying to burn some previously removed house logs (no bark, heavy oak) that had a bad ant infestation...I wasn't very successful and these had aged. After that I realized that while the internal structure might burn, the log walls were far more fireproof than any standard frame home (not to mention that heavy oak could probably stop 0.50 caliber rounds.)

[Medieval Assassin]

IIRC, Yes they did place wet animal hides on the outside, wet leather...mmm...

[ah_dut]

After that I realized that while the internal structure might burn, the log walls were far more fireproof than any standard frame home (not to mention that heavy oak could probably stop 0.50 caliber rounds.)

what stop a .50 caliber? impossib;e, anyways as said b4, there are obvious counter to them like hardwoods and wet hides