Taking towers

**krusel24** · 11-27-2004, 17:57

How on god's green earth do you get your men to go up the towers when assaulting a town??? I march them up to the door, click on the walkway, then watch as then run around and get shot one by one. Does anyone have any tips on how to do this with minimal lose of life.

**Leodegar** · 11-27-2004, 18:05

You can't take them from below. Only with troops on the wall... but once you've taken a tower,you can send troops up, through it.

**krusel24** · 11-27-2004, 18:21

But I've had troops go up from below and take the tower before. I just don't know how I did it.

**LordKhaine** · 11-27-2004, 18:44

You click on the top of the wall. Then they'll go through the tower to get there. Sometimes the units seem to mess around a bit before they go through the door though, so give them time.

**CrusaderMan** · 11-27-2004, 20:59

I am not sure but they need to use siege ladders first. Then they can climb anywhere they want.

**Didz** · 11-27-2004, 22:02

Right!

Seige Towers and Ladders.

To get your troops to use these to climb onto the wall just click on a unit and then click on a point at the top of the wall. They will automatically use the seige tower or ladder to get there.

[I would advise not having the unit grouped with other units at the time unless you are sure that they are arranged in column formation. Units in line will sometimes refuse to climb towers.]

Wall Towers.

Capturing a wall tower can be done either from the top of the wall itself or provided there is a door it can be done from the ground inside the wall. However, troops cannot be ordered to occupy the platform at the top of the tower, so in order to get them to enter it and clear out the enemy you have to order your unit to a point on the top of the wall instead.

If your unit is already on the wall then order it to move to a point on the wall which is the other side of the tower. The unit will march into the tower and out the other side capturing it on the way.

If your unit is on the ground inside the city move it close to the tower then order it to mount the wall. It will use the door in the tower to get to the parapet and capture the tower on the way.

[Again, I would strongly advise not having the unit grouped with others when doing this unless the group is in column formation.]

**Sin Qua Non** · 11-28-2004, 05:03

Just to add, if you are ever going from city level up into a tower, keep an eye on where the entrances to the towers are. If your unit is between two entrances, make them march to the one you wish to ascend, then enter it. Leaving that choice to the AI sometimes gives unpredictable results, such as the unit exiting the city, doing three laps around it, then attempting to re-enter the city, getting shot up all the way.

I'm thinking of modding in a 1 person babysitter unit that watches over the rest and has full phone and refrigerator privileges.

**Didz** · 11-28-2004, 10:54

Originally Posted by Sin Qua Non

Leaving that choice to the AI sometimes gives unpredictable results, such as the unit exiting the city, doing three laps around it, then attempting to re-enter the city, getting shot up all the way.

I've only ever witnessed that sort of behavior from units which are part of a group, which is why I strongly recommend ungrouping units during city assaults and defences.

Indeed, in my last city assault I deliberately ungrouped everything before the assault began and my lads behaved perfectly throughout.

**Sin Qua Non** · 11-28-2004, 16:30

Originally Posted by Didz

I've only ever witnessed that sort of behavior from units which are part of a group, which is why I strongly recommend ungrouping units during city assaults and defences.

Indeed, in my last city assault I deliberately ungrouped everything before the assault began and my lads behaved perfectly throughout.

I've had it happen to single units as well, but you're right, groups are also much more succeptible to that. Probably because the grouping formation sometimes breaks the natural bounds of the city walls, placing some units destinations as outside the city. I hope its better post-patch, because I'd love to be able to maneuver groups into alleys and main streets easier. I love the chaotic riot scenes that produces.

**Didz** · 11-28-2004, 18:26

Originally Posted by Sin Qua Non

I hope its better post-patch, because I'd love to be able to maneuver groups into alleys and main streets easier. I love the chaotic riot scenes that produces.

I think its more realistic the way it is.

Trying to deploy a brigade into battle line in the middle of a city would be not only stupid, but impossible. However, what ought to happen when a player attempts this is something akin to instant panic with the entire group making a run for the base line as chaos sets in and lack of trust in their leaders is confirmed.

**Sin Qua Non** · 11-29-2004, 03:01

Originally Posted by Didz

I think its more realistic the way it is.

Trying to deploy a brigade into battle line in the middle of a city would be not only stupid, but impossible. However, what ought to happen when a player attempts this is something akin to instant panic with the entire group making a run for the base line as chaos sets in and lack of trust in their leaders is confirmed.

I just meant I like how the battles turn into mobs in city streets. If the program kind of segregated the city interior from the exterior a little more, I just think you would see grouped units break down into shoving mobs as they tried to maneuver in the city, which would make using groups in a city useless. The game kind of does that already, as mentioned before. I'm just being speculative and nitpicky, don't mind me. You're right about the stupidity of leading formations in city level fights; history has shown that to more than one commander!

**Shottie** · 11-29-2004, 03:35

I think they should fix the grouping problems in cities.

**Didz** · 11-29-2004, 11:44

Originally Posted by Shottie

I think they should fix the grouping problems in cities. I think they should have something so that if you have a group and you want to go to the city center, you could just keep that group as one group but it would split into the different streets as the group moves on.

Perhaps, but I'm coming at this issue from a background in wargaming and military history rather than gamesmanship.

In real terms units deploy and maintain alignment in battle by the use a very rigid procedure based upon alignments with markers. These markers, normally senior NCO's and Officers, in each sub-unit are drilled rigorously to keep a constant distance and dressing on the units around them, and the men in their unit are then trained to do the same upon them.

If you order these men to form a battle line and then try to move that battle line into a location where the markers and their men cannot perform their duty then you will create panic. Markers who can no longer maintain their dressing or worse still lose sight of their flanking units will become disorientated and uncertain whether to advance or withdraw. Officers at varsious levels will begin to intervene ordering their units to halt, advance or fall back depending upon their whim and total chaos will ensue. At the same time the men unable to determine whats going on around them will sense that something has gone very wrong, someone has made a blunder, nobody knows what they are doing and their confidence will begin to waver. This is the point at which the slightest thing can cause panic and rout.

In that respect RTW's random behaviour when players try to move grouped units through cities and over bridges is much more akin to what I would expect from a wargame program than an RTS. Certainly, in a wargame a player who attempted to move two units in line over a bridge would find that they were either prevented from moving or worse that they would both move and degenerate into a panic stricken mob. Under such circumstances men would indeed get pushed into the water and drowned and so once again I am not surprised to hear that in RTW men do get shoved over the edge of a bridge into the river when players try to cram several units at once over a bridge.

I also think that if RTW sorted out all these command and control decisions in cities then it would tend to do the same in battle which actually detracts from our role in the game. I certainly don't want the AI deciding on my behalf that although I told my man to form line I must really have meant a column because there is a tree in the middle of my army.

Perhaps what we really need is a switch so that players can decide for themselves whether they want arcade style battles or wargames.