Siege Towers?

[boastj]

In BI when your defending a city how do you destroy a siege tower before it gets to the walls I just cant seem to get them, the most damage I could on inflict on it was about 10% and that was with me sending a unit of peasants out to hack away three units of roman archers.

[symball]

you can station archers firing fire arrows on the walls- attack it with onagers firing over the walls and you canattack it directly with troops but I beleive you cannot attack the tower while you are attacking the men- direct attack is rarely worth it as it exposes your men. it is probably best to fall back and defend the square if oy u are not strong enough to defend the walls

[Slug For A Butt]

It seems quite random as to whether you destroy a tower or not. Obviously the more archers you have using fire, the better chance. But it really does seem random. Always leave a couple of melee units either side of where the towers will disembark, you can hit the attackers as they climb off the tower from both sides ( and before they all get off).
I really enjoy defending walls against large enemy armies with multiple towers. It's kind of fun to see all the slaughter, and if you don't have enough infantry to defend walls, I don't think you'll have enough to defend the plaza. I really do find it easier on the walls.

[boastj]

Well yay thank I will just have to lose the city then

[SirGrotius]

Yeah, I find it fun too. Judging from what I'm able to do with two archer units, I'd think you'd need at least 4 and some onagers, though sometimes my Onagers just don't shoot over walls and sometimes they do. it's really frustrating.

[rory_20_uk]

I think that defending the walls is a must, as it has a distinct advantage over defending the center square in that the enemy will take a battering from the towers and gate.

I think that attacking the siege towers is not as good as butchering the men who are going to come up it. Instead of possibly damaging the tower you might have killed 50 or so of the troops. That on top of the tower damage and the number of men they'll loose before they get a foothold on the walls well, the unit is dead.

If it's "there are 3 towers coming in, my army is one unit of pesants and 2 of archers - how can I save the day against overwhelming odds" erm, you've lost mate! In a "good" siege battle, your casualties may be very limited, but you have to be able to cover all the points, thereby grinding the enemy down. If they can capture a section of wall it won't be long before they're all over you. After all, isn't that what you do when you attack?


Edit: Just thought: why can't there be a system where siege equipment (especially balistas) can be mounted on the walls? I'm sure it's been said before, but it is a longstanding gripe I've got.

[QuantumEleven]

Edit: Just thought: why can't there be a system where siege equipment (especially balistas) can be mounted on the walls? I'm sure it's been said before, but it is a longstanding gripe I've got.

You've been watching too much Lord of the Rings :) As far as I understand it, you can't mount much in the way of siege equipment on top of walls because the lateral forces they cause are too large and would cause the wall to crack.

Of course, it would be damn cool

[Mooks]

You've been watching too much Lord of the Rings :) As far as I understand it, you can't mount much in the way of siege equipment on top of walls because the lateral forces they cause are too large and would cause the wall to crack.

Of course, it would be damn cool

In 1546(I think) Constinanople was beseiged by the turks.Constinanople was at that time the most heavily defended city in all time. The byzatines mounted cannons on the towers...But they didnt work because the shock shook the masonry apart.

[Watchman]

Yeah, but that's because the walls were too old and not built to take that sort of stress.

AFAIK ballistas and giant crossbows worked fine, assuming of course you had the technological knowhow to build the tricky things. Ditto for small trebuchets - traction, ie. muscle-powered, ones were common atop Chinese towers AFAIK (and on warhips), and I understand several Medieval tower ruins have odd grooves on the floor of the top level that suggests they were meant to accommodate a small counterweight trebuchet.

A trebuchet is actually better than an "onager"-type catapult for fortification emplacement, as the launch is far smoother and doesn't cause the troublesome "kick" from the throwing arm hitting the arrestor bar.

Due to considerations of size and space the larger rock-throwers were placed on ground behind the wall, however. This had the added bonus that the enemy did not directly see their location and had to do his counter-battery fire by guesswork.

[Atilius]

In 1546(I think) Constinanople was beseiged by the turks.Constinanople was at that time the most heavily defended city in all time. The byzatines mounted cannons on the towers...But they didnt work because the shock shook the masonry apart.

Constantinople fell to the Turks under Mehmet II in 1453. In preparation for the seige, arrows, heavy rocks and Greek fire were laid in, but I'm unaware that the walls mounted cannon.

Mehmet however, used a huge bronze cannon 27 feet long, with a barrel 2- 1/2 feet wide and 8 inches thick. It was able to hurl a 1340 lb ball over a mile. This and other cannon bombarded a portion of the walls uninterrupted for 48 days.

The triple walls might still have been able to hold off the Turks but there were only 7000 men (every able-bodied man in the city including monks, clerics, and foreigners) to defend his 14 miles of wall.

[Celt Centurion]

It finally happened, but only in Barbarian Invasion. That is, I lost a stone wall to the enemy.

The place was on the West Coast of Greece, probably near old Thermon, but I don't remember the name of it. The invaders were the Goths. It started at about the 6th or 7th turn. I had one unit of cavalry, two of Limitanei, and two of archers. For three turns I held out, sallying forth and causing as much damage to the barbarians as I could, usually by getting them to chase my cavalry around the wall and letting my towers pick them off. The towers actually cut the besieging army down to two units of infantry (to push and use the siege equipment) and about 5 cavalry.

Finally, they came forward with a battering ram and a siege tower. I put my archers on the wall, as well as what was left of my Limitanei. The smaller unit of archers destroyed the battering ram quickly, and then I had both units of archers shoot fire arrows at the tower. The problem was, with all those flaming arrows flying at the tower, they inflicted 0 damage. Then I disbursed my infantry and archers to both sides of the tower to block the enemy's way to a gate, and hoped that they could hold out till the time ran out. Something though, about archers standing in the way of spearmen, and out of arrows, they lose. Once they got past the last archer, the cavalry from the reinforcement army came in and it was all over.

If at all possible, keep a mimimum of 4 units of archers on the wall to defend against towers, maybe 6. I know that early on, heavy infantry are hard to come by, but at least 4 heavy infantry on the wall are also helpful. Unfortunately, this happened so early in the game that there was just no way they could defend it.

Any military units at all are just in the early stages. You don't yet have the military buildings to train quality anything, the traders don't generate enough money, and your Generals are already robbing you by 30% or more.

Later, I took the city back, and tracked down, and killed with a vengeance, every Goth! When they were in their "horde mode", I sought battle with, and did not let up until I had killed the last family member. When the tile, "Faction Destroyed" came up for the Goths, I had a special satisfaction knowing that I was the one who took them down.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[boastj]

I did it I finally burnt a tower I had about 5 units of eastern archers and burnt it ha ha yay unfortunately they also had a sap, a ram and another siege tower which was nice of them, but anyway I won yay

[orangat]

With stone walls (not large or epic), onagers can hit towers when they are at the walls and destroy them.

[Slaists]

The problem with seige towers in VI 1.6 is that more than half of them actually do not work after reaching the walls. The units would just run against the base of the tower and not get anywhere. Truly annoying indeed... And I have seen that this ruins the AI's attack on my cities too...