I had the exact same experience as The Emperor. V1.2, VH/H, playing Greeks.

Reading his post, it dawned on me the gate did not use boiling oil. I remember in older version the spy opened the gate but you still had to brave the tower arrows and boiling oil. Perhaps a spy opening the gate now stops the oil. The towers still shoot. I will have to see if this works for the player as well as the AI.