Ballistas - useless?

[Octavius Julius]

I've been wondering about the use of ballistas.

They are useless in open field combat.

They are useless in seiges if you are attacking.

They have some use if you are defending (placing them facing down a street).

Maybe I'm not using them to their potential.

Does anyone else have any ideas/comments on them?

PS onagers are the business!

[The_Emperor]

Ballistas can be useful, but when you have access to Ornagers there isn't much point in having them.

They are more designed around attacking wooden defences rather than full on stone ones... But even so they do have their uses.

Once when attacking a city with Stone walls I was able to pick off the defenders on the walls with a couple of Ballistas and skewer the enemy captain! (quite a sight seeing him flying backwards off the wall)

Personally I like them due to their accuracy and find they make a great companion to a few ornagers... Afterall you never know who they are going to skewer!!

[Wishazu]

i agree emperor, i cant remember the amount of times my arty has randomly splattered or skewered the enemy gen/cap allways brings a smile to my face when that happens.

[daneboy]

I use the for taking out arrowtowers, when assaulting towns, to reduce my cassualties when charging through the gates. I hate the arrow fire from those damn towers.

[Watchman]

Repeater ballstas are decent enough for field battles. My Civil War stage Roman armies tended to have a pair, plus some Heavy Onagers. They seemed to wear down on enemy moral pretty well, and actually got reasonably amounts of kills. The exp bonus from temples of Mars might've had something to do with that, though.

Can't vouch for regular ballistas though, I only ever use them for taking out those pesky arrow towers.

[Arkatsson]

I used some repeating ballistas one time. They couldn't kill a thing.

[The_Emperor]

I used some repeating ballistas one time. They couldn't kill a thing.

Yes, while they do tend to hit closer to the mark than ornagers most of the time you do need to be careful about targeting.

Always aim for the units in front of the ones you want to hit to allow for overshot. its the same with any siege artillery. Lone units are rarely good targets for artillery, even Ornagers.

[Zorn]

I see two problems with ballistas.
The first is, that they have allways two ballistas in a unit. That is fine at small unit size, but if you play at huge, all units are 4 times as big, but there are still only two ballistas. You can easily figure that the inflicted casualities are neglectible.
This problem can be solved by modding (I suggest 8 ballistas at huge size).
The other problem is their very low trajectory. If you place them behind your lines like archers, they will start killing your own men very soon.
If you place them in front of your lines like slingers, they will die very soon because they lack the manouveraybility to retreat behind your lines.
I tried to make a mix of both. I put my ballistas in front, and my infantery so close behind, that only the machines itself were in front of my lines, the crew was "in" my infantery. The result was terrible, though.
At the moment, you really cannot employ ballistas in an open field battle.
Wich is kinda sad, because they really rock against hard targets like charriots or heavy cav.
They have one use, however. If you have modded them to 8 ballistas per unit, they can bring down stone walls really really fast.

[Oaty]

They are great against pacyderms. And when they target chariots they aim for the general

Also ballistas can rip open 3 holes for you in wooden walls, they're only downfall is that they move slower than your army.

[Chelifer]

This problem can be solved by modding (I suggest 8 ballistas at huge size).

How do you mod the number? I could not find it in export_descr_unit.txt

[Zorn]

I used GodsPetMonkeys Caligula to do it.

[Darius]

The ONLY time I have ever found them able to make a decent impact on any battle is when you're facing a hoplite/phalangite heavy army and they have to march down streets in large numbers. When that happens, they basically tear holes through everything. Otherwise, you're lucky to get a few shots off before the battle starts, and that's only if you're on defense. Try using them on offense and you will get to enjoy spending half your battle time rolling the oversized crossbows to meet the enemy.

[Khorak]

Can any of the siege weapons fit on any of the walls? I mean, the Epic walls are certainly big enough....

[Chelifer]

Probably the epic stairs are not wide enough :)

[Sam Adams]

the only time I use artillery from the field is when fighting enemy horse archers, chariots, or elephants. Basically the things that can only be effectively killed at range.

usually your own archers are more effective though, except against elephants.

[mfberg]

I was carrying two ballista units in my army against the gauls, they helped in an open field battle, not as much as an archer aux. would have, but in a later bridge battle they paid for themselves.

mfberg

[Alexei]

And actually what were they historically designed for?

[Darius]

They were designed both for seige defensive uses and offensive uses, though I do know one general used them in a field battle in Asia Minor once. Might have started a precedent, but maybe not.

[Oaty]

And actually what were they historically designed for?

Breaking formations and reducing morale, provoke a charge so the Romans would not have as far to march to meet there enemies.