Quote Originally Posted by pevergreen
That is not true, in M2:TW, the towers now require units nearby to fire, the towers that are firing have flags on top. Try a custom battle defending a castle, and notice how only towers that have a unit nearby are firing. The way to get them to stop is to drive away all nearby units, again, more realistic.
I don't buy that it's more realistic. Here's the problem. You can design a castle or city curtain wall with towers that would work that way; i.e. with no openings or doors at the parapet level for attackers to breach, and access only at the bottom of the wall. In that case, you'd need to control the bottom of the wall (inside the gates) to "turn off" missile fire from the towers.

But you can't have it both ways. If that's the design of your wall, then you can't also run men along the top of the curtain walls through the towers, to reach other wall sections. It's one or the other. If you can run through the towers, then you should be able to control them (kill the defenders) inside the towers. Unless they're magically barricaded somehow, and also magically give up when you clear away all other defenders. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Realism issues aside, I do think the defending towers are overpowered with this new dynamic, if only because it steers the player into using tactics that avoid climbing the walls. As dangerous as that was in real life, it should be a viable option for the smaller wall types, and for the early years of a campaign before you can build artillery capable of breaching walls. Otherwise why have ladders and siege towers in the game at all?