Siege defence

[Caius]

I've never had the AI use saps against me, but I think you can shoot the entrance with fire arrows and collapse it. I might be wrong, though. From an offensive standpoint, I rarely use saps unless I'm playing something like Parthia. I capture the walls and leave them standing undamaged when I can.

Thats true, in RTW the computer never uses the saps.For why?

[Conqueror]

The Huns certainly tried to use saps against me in BI. Good thing I had Eastern Archers on the walls.

[professorspatula]

Thats true, in RTW the computer never uses the saps.For why?

I'm sure the AI will use saps in RTW, but there seems to be a priority when it comes to attacking during a settlement. Onagers are the highest priority: they'll take out towers, gatehouses and walls. If the onagers fail to create an entry, siege towers, rams etc are used. Saps seem a low priority. But most of the time, the sap points seem to be positioned far from the main army and end up being unmanned. If you set up a custom battle where the enemy has 1 onager, a siege tower and a sap point (or 2), and just a few units, you should see the enemy attempt to use the sap point, although typically it will be a pointless endeavour as the sap point will be at the same part of the wall the onager is knocking down.

[Conqueror]

There's also the issue that not all infantry units are able to sap. Only those with the "can sap" ability do. If the AI uses these same units for siege towers/ladders then the other units can't do anything with the sap points.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Thats true, in RTW the computer never uses the saps.For why?

I play RTW 1.0 on vh/vh.

I have had a wall undermined on me by an AI opponent on 2 occasions -- admittedly, that's a small percentage, but it does happen.