How to assault city walls

[Franconicus]

There must have been a threat before but I could not find it. How do you assault cities with stone walls, esp. if you have no artillery?

[vale]

I guess you can build seige tower or ladder to scale the wall,

[Es Arkajae]

Aye, you use siege towers, saps and ladders (battering rams are useless against gates defended with burning oil).

Ladders are a last resort and should only be used if you can land the troops on an undefended part of the wall.

Towers are good if you have infantry capable of seizing the enemy's walls without too many casualties, just land the troops on the wall, kill the opposition and seize the gate house which will open the gates for your waiting army turning off the boiling oil. With control of the walls you can also capture the nearby towers and stop them from shooting at your troops and have them shoot at the enemy instead! Its always best to build at least two towers for assaulting a wall in case one gets set on fire before reaching it.

Saps are good if you don't have infantry capable of seizing the enemy's walls without too many casualties, they open a breach in the wall and you rush your army into the city whilst the enemy tries to get his own troops off the walls whilst whichever ones he had in the streets will try to hold you off. Keep in mind though that as long as the walls remain in enemy hands their towers will continue to snipe at you even inside the city. So you should move as quickly into the centre of the city as possible away from the walls, or you should slaughter the enemy units coming down from the walls and then send a unit up to capture the towers. If you like you can use just a few of you rbest units for the initial breach and hold the rest of your army back until the towers are put out of action.

Now if you had an army of levy pikemen and you were facing a wall defended by legionairres then you would use a sap, as one on one in hand to hand combat your levy guys would get slaughtered on the walls by the superior enemy infantry. You would rush your guys through the breach in the wall and engage phalanx mode which would give them a chance against the enemy.

On the other hand if you had an army of legionairres and you were facing a wall defended by levy pikemen you wouldn't hesitate to send in towers as the levy guys would be far less dangerous on the walls out of pahalnx mode and would get their arses handed to them. Whats more if you had legionairres (who have missiles) on the walls you could use them to hurl javelins down on the enemy (another reason for using towers).

I don't play cavalry factions much but I imagine that saps are preferable for them as they allow them to rush cavalry into the city if they lack decent infantry though it would be awkward I imagine.

[Productivity]

I tend to use ladders over siege towers. I find the fact that you have four individual points going up a ladder makes it far more difficult to defend against (the defender has to stretch their line further), plus they can't be burnt down. Also, ladders tend to work, where as siege towers I've found to be quite buggy.

[Es Arkajae]

Have you ever seen the neat little lines of dead people under a ladder before?

Their casualty rate compared to towers is poor, also unlike towers they cannot initially deliver a small platoon of men onto the wall in one heap to clear a path for the following troops.

Ladders are only useful against defended walls if the enemy infantry is decidely inferior (rather than equal or slightly so) to yours anyway, and then the enemy will still inflict higher casualties then they otherwise woud have if you'd used a tower I've personally found.

I have not experienced a game bug with towers at all since installing 1.2, they do not seem to be 'buggy' to me at all certainly I imagine no more than ladders.

[PseRamesses]

...and don´t forget to turn on the siege towers "fire at will" command. I´ve found that moving the siege tower just within range of firing at the defenders on the walls is a great trick. Just don´t move the siege tower too close until you´re ready to attack or the gate and towers will eventually sack your siege tower if you stay in the line of fire too long.
I also never use all my siege weapons at once. Usually I send a ladder or tower forth at the far left or right side of the wall. When in place I send in the direct opposite. This means that when the first guys mounts the walls the defenders rush towards them and the second unit can mount safely and capture towers/ gate and finally pincing the defenders against your first unit.
If I´ve a sap-point I usually do this first then parking cavs in front of the opening, out of range ofcourse. This will divert the enemys forces. If they don´t rush in. Good luck!

[Productivity]

Have you ever seen the neat little lines of dead people under a ladder before?

No more so than siege towers.

Their casualty rate compared to towers is poor, also unlike towers they cannot initially deliver a small platoon of men onto the wall in one heap to clear a path for the following troops.

Actually, I did a bit of testing and ladders get more people onto the walls in the same amount of time than siege towers do. And while the casualty rate may be higher sometimes, every now and then a full siege tower will go up in flames, taking out the whole unit, which then blows your average casualty rate apart. I'd take 15 losses every time on the ladders, compared to 5 losses most times, and about 1/5 times lose an entire unit due to the tower going up in flames.

Ladders are only useful against defended walls if the enemy infantry is decidely inferior (rather than equal or slightly so) to yours anyway, and then the enemy will still inflict higher casualties then they otherwise woud have if you'd used a tower I've personally found.

Well I disagree. Ladders get more men on, split the defence, and provide just as much impact on the walls as that of siege towers.

I have not experienced a game bug with towers at all since installing 1.2, they do not seem to be 'buggy' to me at all certainly I imagine no more than ladders.

Well you are lucky. I've seen towers not line up properly and have men fall down between the tower and walls, rendering the entire tower useless.

Also the towers are risky, because you can lose them all, rendering you unable to get inside. Ladders never "die" (or at least I've never seen it happen).

I'll give that the (ridiculously stupid) repeating ballista for epic walls makes towers worth it though. But you can't take ladders then anyway, so it's a moot point.

[lismore]

I tend to use ladders over siege towers. I find the fact that you have four individual points going up a ladder makes it far more difficult to defend against (the defender has to stretch their line further), plus they can't be burnt down. Also, ladders tend to work, where as siege towers I've found to be quite buggy.

And the men also get up a ladder quicker than a seige tower