Siege Towers - Impossible to burn if they get to your walls?

[The Marcher Lord]

I was playing through a whole bunch of quick battles for some practice yesterday and got to one huge siege scenario where HRE had to defend against England. The city was well defended by stone walls with artillery etc and archers.

Of the two enemy siege towers one was quickly destroyed by artillery fire at its starting position along with their catapults and ballistas. The AI then moved the other siege tower to a part of my wall where there were less archers in range. While I was rushing my archers into range the tower somehow made it up to my walls despite being pelted with numeorus rounds of wall artillery and tower arrows using fire. A few of the enemy got onto the walls, but were held back by huge numbers of my own swordsmen/spearmen on the wall.

By this time my archers were within range and started firing fire arrows at the tower. After firing their whole supply into the tower the tower still would not light up! The AI were just jumping from the siege tower into a meatgrinder and dying instantly on the wall by the end of the battle.

Are siege towers which get to your walls supposed to be indestructible to give the AI a chance to place troops on your walls ?

A few pics showing this battle and the indestructible tower, click on thumbnails to enlarge.............

[katank]

Negative, it's definitely possible to burn it down after it reaches the walls. I've managed to burn one down down before where their entire assaulting unit was caught inside when it occurred. Very delicious. 1 poor fella made it onto the walls only to see his way of retreat cut off and his buddies die. He fell in short order.

Are you sure you are targeting the siege tower and not the guys pushing it?

[TevashSzat]

yep its possible, i have done it tons of times before in baghdad as the turks fighting against the mongols. It is in constant siege basically and i fight a siege almost every 2 turns and i burn down lots of siege towers.

[Marquis of Roland]

Check your archer's line of sight, it could be that only a few of them actually had line of sight and were firing at the siege tower.

[Kraggenmor]

I've set only two towers alight, both were at the walls.

[The Marcher Lord]

Thanks for the feedback and good to see that it is possible to flame towers at the walls. My two archer units were definately targeting the tower so I am not sure what went wrong on that one, maybe I just hit a temporary glitch. Could have been a line of sight problem as Roland explained.

[Rhedd]

Look at your first screenshot. See that flying flaming missile? That looks like a ballista bolt, from your wall towers.

I don't think I've EVER gotten a siegetower to burn using only archers. It is, in my experience, the ballista/cannon towers that do the trick.

The catch is, when siegetowers approach too close to your huge city (and maybe all walls, but I've definitely observed it on the map you're picturing), your wall towers cease firing at them, leaving only the nearly useless archers to do the job.

This means that you'll see vastly fewer towers set alight while at the walls, than during approach.

It IS possible, though. I've seen it happen, as well.

[The Teacher]

wow - looks like a massive battle - how do you stop your units getting mashed from the defenders in the screenshots? im new to the towers as i prefer to breach the walls.

[The Marcher Lord]

Hi Teacher I was doing the defending on that one and had it easy really. The AI did its usual dumb routine of standing in range of my tower artillery for at least 10 minutes before deciding to move by which time they had lost one of their towers, all of their own artillery/rams and many troops in disarray (see first screenie).

After that poor start they eventually decided to move the second tower to a less well defended spot on the wall. All I had to do was move my archers in range and move all heavy infantry to the wall where the tower was aiming for. The attackers, after initially gaining a small foothold on the wall (4th screenie down), never really had a chance once my heavy inf were in place as they just jumped out of the tower into a boiling mass of defenders and died instantly (3rd screenie down).

Normally as attacker you would not stand and wait to get blasted by the defenders, but attack in at least two locations under cover of your own artillery and preferably at a weak spot in the defences. It is worth trying to destroy the defensive towers either side of your assault area if you are trying to get ladders or towers up to the walls. Also sweeping the archers/crossbowmen off the walls with artillery is useful. A combination of a wall breach, and two wall assaults by ladder or tower usually works for me, but it is always bloody and you will always usually take high losses in an assault.

Rhedd - your experience is pretty much what I saw in this siege. The tower artillery did all the initial damage in the first screenie, the archers clearly made no impact on the tower that got up to the walls at all and by then it appeared that the tower artillery had exhausted their ammo.