Burning siege eqip. almost impossible (for me)

[part_time_player]

Hi guys

I've had all the same problems setting fire to the enemies ram with one exception.

Playing as the English on H/VH I have been defending the fortress at Metz from repeated Danish assaults. So far I have used the same tactic every time. I line all my infantry up on the walls above the gate to the INNER keep or just inside it. I place two archers either side of the main gate and the rest of my archers lining the walls of the inner keep on the approach to the inner gate.

When the battle starts, the enemy advance with their ram, tower, ladders etc. My archers cause as much damage as they can until the ram reaches the gate at which point they abandon the outer wall and leg it back to their mates on the inner wall. I have never, even with five or six archers on the outer wall hurt his ram or towers.

Once the enemy captures the outer wall and reforms his troops, they proceed to march towards the inner gate. They have to walk a line past all my archers and towers which causes them enormous damage and generally they're lucky to even reach the gate before they start routing. The interesting thing is though, that as soon as his ram is in range, my archers have set it on fire and destroyed it, every time. The archers are only set to fire at will as well, in fact I find if I target the ram at this point it doesn't work, but if i leave them to it, they destroy it no problem.

My only theory is that it is possible to destroy the ram easily from the side, but firing down on it from above it is protected by its roof?

[PaulTa]

It's really hit or miss. I don't know if the computer calculates a percentage chance each time a fire arrow hits it or what not, but if so the odds have to be way over 1 in a 100. If you really need to take out siege equipment, and you're in the gunpowder age, go for mortars.

It's still not a waste to use fire arrows on the walls though. Supposing you have two units of archers, you might not cause tons of casualties with your arrows, but you will indeed cause huge morale penalties, which helps a ton when you mob the units trying to shove through your gates.

[Von Nanega]

Yes, fire arrows are the trick when the enemy is essentially stalled while breaking down gates. They hit your gate guards with some nice morale penalties that make it worth your time.

[Steph]

Same for me. Few luck when trying to set a ram in fire.
However here a good trick to slow them down and pin them down at your gate:

Usually the ladders arrive long before the ram, because they charge. Just take them down, then, when the ram is at your gate, climb down with your troops and attack the ram. The other enemy units won't move, normally. The unit controlling the ram will move it back and defend themselves. At that moment go to your wall. Then the enemy will move their ram again, so you have to climb down again (actually some of your men are still downstairs).
And during all this time, you can kill them with whatever arrows you have.

Stéphane

[maestro]

I think you guys aren't using enough archers perchance?

I always try to defend with at least 4-6 units of longbows or above and nearly always successfully burn anything that comes close

I always aim all my archers at a ram first cause I always protect the gate. I can defend the walls easily against towers and ladders with leet troops but I never let cavalry into my cities. I've always been successful so i'm not sure where you're giong wrong

[Forward Observer]

I think you guys aren't using enough archers perchance?

I always try to defend with at least 4-6 units of longbows or above and nearly always successfully burn anything that comes close

I always aim all my archers at a ram first cause I always protect the gate. I can defend the walls easily against towers and ladders with leet troops but I never let cavalry into my cities. I've always been successful so i'm not sure where you're giong wrong

I have had the same experience as you playing the English. I love the longbowmen and so I usually have plenty of them to man the ramparts.

When defending against towers, rams, and ladders I also take them off fire at will and assign targets, which I think you are say that you also do. Mostly the rams and ladders first, and then towers which are usually the slowest and the last to approach.

The good thing about the retenue longbowmen is that they are decent melee troops in a pinch, so if a tower does make the wall they can sometimes hold on their own or at least until you can get stronger melee troops to the rescue.

I'm playing Spain now, and although peasant archers suck in melee, in sufficient quantities they have also managed to set fire to well over half of the rams and towers that they have come up against.

I also park a unit of my best melee troops in the space between the gate towers in such situations. I don't think the area is wide enough for archers to be that effective, but a melee unit is fairly safe there and will be well positioned to rush to the walls on either side of the gate towers as the need arises.

Cheers

[gardibolt]

Using the English on M/M, patched, no mods, I have a city in Egypt that has been besieged repeatedly by the Mongols, using rams and siege towers--at least 8 times in the last 16 turns. I have about 10 archer units on the walls, and only once in all that fighting has a siege tower made it to the walls, and a ram has never made it. Always, they go up in flames. But if they make it to the wall then the flame arrows don't seem to do anything and it's time for plan B.

Could the difficulty setting make a difference, I wonder?