Sapping

[Bhruic]

I use to always use just sapping, but that was with mostly cavalry armies (with mercenaries to handle the saps). Infantry is too slow getting through the holes, and will get shot up by the towers.

Plus, in my Thrace game, I found the computer was pretty stupid about choosing the sap points. Put them on opposite walls of a corner tower. So once the walls went down, the tower was impossible to capture, as you couldn't get there (and no "door", as it was a corner). I decided to reload that one, as there was no way I could get my army through without taking heavy losses. If I get stuck with that situation again, I'll use the siege tower first, and do the saps after.

Bh

[Brucca]

Had a sap collapse on the sapping unit causing 80% casualties and loss of sap. Ticked off because I had used Praetorians - note to self: use cheap expendable infantry to sap .

[aw89]

didn't know they could colapse... it makes sense though.

[Ziu]

Yes, when you are defending you can direct you archers to fire on the sap entry point (using fire of course). As with the rams and towers it will hopefully take damage and collapse.

[econ21]

I don't like sapping - the towers can really cut up your infantry when they come through the hole (unless you can sap under a tower and destroy it - can you?). I lost half a unit of hastati first time I tried it. The units following will also get peppered. Plus you have to repair the wall, which is trivial but annoying.

I much prefer siege towers. You lose virtually no men in approach and often can quickly take the walls, so you lose virtually no men from being on the walls. I use three - one goes for the gates, the other two clear out the towers either side and turn them against the defenders. You can then run your main army through the gates without being shot at by towers. You are also attacking from three directions - the gates and the two towers either side.

However, I have not stormed very heavily defended large cities - I can see if there are lots of good troops on the wall, the towers may be less good. Usually my longer range archers can take down most of the troops on the walls before the towers unload.

[KyodaiSteeleye]

so captured towers start shooting at the defenders?

[econ21]

so captured towers start shooting at the defenders?

Yup - seems that way to me. However, they don't do that much damage - the AI tends to move off, out of range. But that's good too - its give you a little breathing room to get inside the city. Unfortunately, as soon as you start to enter, the AI seems to rush back to confront you and combat is so chaotic, I can't tell what damage the towers are doing - but they keep firing.