arttilery when and where??

[maximus overlord]

as some of you know.Im currently playind julii campaign,and i have possibilty to build ballista but how usefull are they against enemy forces ???
any one who great experience with the use of artillery please answer

[GeneralHankerchief]

Ballistae are great soldier killers. If you're on the defensive a lot, I would consider bringing one in your army to mow down the soldiers coming at you, but either protect them or get them out of the way fast.

However, if this isn't you, I'd skip them. Main reason is they slow down your army and are ineffective against buildings. You're mostly knocking down wooden walls until the Civil War, so I'd wait to use artillery until you fight the other Roman factions which have the stone walls. Then, use onagers.

[IRONxMortlock]

I've never found much use for ballistas in my campaigns. It's great watching those huge bolts smash into a phalanx of infantry but I find having another unit of archers instead kills more enemies more quickly and they have the additional benefit of being much more mobile in battle as well as on the campaign map.

[maximus overlord]

Ballistae are great soldier killers. If you're on the defensive a lot, I would consider bringing one in your army to mow down the soldiers coming at you, but either protect them or get them out of the way fast.

However, if this isn't you, I'd skip them. Main reason is they slow down your army and are ineffective against buildings. You're mostly knocking down wooden walls until the Civil War, so I'd wait to use artillery until you fight the other Roman factions which have the stone walls. Then, use onagers.

ok i'm new at this game but what you are saying makes sense one wuestion more civil war???????? when where how

[maximus overlord]

its not a wuestion its question sorry

[GeneralHankerchief]

Eventually the Roman Civil War will happen when either you refuse the Senate's demand to have your faction leader suicide, or decide to attack the other Roman factions. IMHO it's the best part of the game, and you get a lot of great battles.

My war's been raging for about 25 years now with no sign of stoppage.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

All artillery has its place -- even the humble ballista.

Negatives:

Arty slows down your campaign map land movement.

Arty is inaccurate. If your enemy is even moderately mobile, you will have trouble getting a lot of hits -- even using flaming ammo for "splash" damage.

While they have good range, their overall killing power is less than a group of archers or slingers.

Advantages:

Walls can be assaulted immediately -- no need to build equipment.

Arty damage numbers are very high, multiple hit point opponents go down in one shot (so that axe-bitten, in-the-pink Barb warlord with the gold chevron guard can go down early with some luck).

If you can target a tightly packed formation -- such as the dogpile at the far end of a bridge as they try to mob across -- you can generate an obscene amount of damage with relatively few hits.

The longer ranges let you fight the enemy's standoff archers if you don't have long-rangers yourself or enough fast cavalry to run them off.

Ideas & Tips:

Put a special assault group together with good hand-to-hand brawlers, a few good missile units and a 3-4 artillery. Don't walk around, but fleet them from area to area. Your assault group and fleet can often sail up, offload, assault, conquer, pillage, and re-board to leave having just gutted a key economic city for your foe. 3 or 4 trade cities later and his armies are starting to eat sand and buy things on credit.

Always front onagers with your troops almost touching the onager. Somehow, with troops in front at a modest distance, you will get a big rock in the back of your phalanx about once a battle. If you're boys are leaning against the onager supports, they can't get hit.

Sometimes the enemy will "sally" but not actually come out at your troops. If this happens, have FUN! You now have a whole slate of ammo to demolish towers, key wall spots, or key enemy buildings if in range. Don't target the gates. Gates will be rebuilt, but the damaged walls will be waiting for your assault later. Don't bother counter-assaulting except with missile fire to cause casualties. Consider it a free chance to attrit them for nothing!

You can use ballistas from inside a city, but usually it doesn't pay to bother with onagers. Onagers will mostly target your walls unless the enemy is at range and you have an open space at the right distance to save your own wall from damage. Ballistas can fire nicely through a gate, however, especially if you have a 8-11 person unit fragment poised in the gate to keep it open. I've run some sallies where this was the only "no-melee" way I had to strike at the opponent -- killed a surprising number with them standing their awaiting my force's charge (and its less to face when they come in).

[Ciaran]

As a lot of things, the use of artillery is a matter of taste, really. I don´t bother with ballistae or scorpions, but when I´ve got access to them I like bringing two or three onagers into my field battles. It´s just that I like the chance of decimating and demoralizing my enemies from a distance. Plus, seeing those burning men tossed up looks cool

[Spart]

Only use he ballistas when on the attack otherwise the slow reload time wil bite you in the back because you could have used that space for a better unit. Let me explain why only on the attack: When you defend the enemy comes to you, and you artillary cannot fire many shots. When attacking the enemy waits for you to come to them and then you can murderlize them with your ballsistas. Beware of the enemy having artillary as they can knock yours out.