Quote Originally Posted by ProudNerd
whats wrong with RTW sapping?
I think the complaint with RTW sapping was that real sapping takes a long time to bring a wall down, like weeks or even months of effort, during which time the enemy might be able to bring in a relief army or ally. In RTW the sap takes no longer than moving a tower up and unloading your men, or knocking down walls with artillery. You're supplied with magic mole men, as someone else said.

If it required a certain number of turns, like building seige engines, it would be more realistic. You'd have to worry about relief armies, the enemy might sally, and so on. Sapping would be a sure way to bring down walls with minimal losses, but you'd have to balance that against the time factor.

I understand the objection, but it never bothered me that much. For one thing, deciding which method to use for breaking (or overtopping) city walls ideally requires a look at the city layout, the direct or indirect routes to the town square, how the enemy is positioning forces, etc. I like making the sap vs. towers vs. artillery decision on the scene, so to speak... and you only get that tactical view of the city after you're committed to the actual battle screen. I feel uncomfortable choosing an attack strategy without seeing the actual objective, other than as an abstract icon on the campaign screen.

This could be even more important with the larger, more complex cities and castles in MT2TW, and the more varied terrain features. There may be (ideally SHOULD be) castles where sapping isn't even an option due to rivers, moats, high cliffs, or other terrain features.