How to destroy enemy siege units?

[Chosun]

Other than a direct hit form my own artillery, neither my cavalry nor my infantry can destroy enemy artillery. They can fight and kill the crews but not the machines themselves. I recall being able to do this in previous games. Am I missing something?

[Forward Observer]

Someone correct me if wrong, but I think one can destroy them after the crew is either dead or detached and routing.

I know that I tried to attach one of my idle catapult crews to a deserted enemy engine because I thought one could do this after reading a post to that effect, but instead of a hand icon I got a sword icon, so when I tried it my crew started destroying the enemy catapult.

[Laconic]

Archers can set them aflame if they're close enough. I usually don't bother, because by the time the archers are close enough to do that they're in danger of getting charged. I usually just try to sack them with my cavalry, the enemy army usually outpaces its artillery piece (except in a siege).

[ransompendragon]

If you are talking about artillery like trebuchets and catapults I have varying degrees of luck with getting my units to destroy them. It seems like spearmen and archers (alt-attack) are the best at it although I have to keep clicking to get them to do it. And yes, this is after their crews have been routed away.

If you mean rams and towers I am not sure.

[pat the magnificent]

the computer ai rarely re-mans rams after the initial crews have died or rout. an abandoned ram directly in front of your gate can be a boon sometimes.

[Matty]

Can you destroy or knock down ladders?

If you're in a fortress with multiple rings of defence, the AI will knock down the first gate and steam through and then go back and get the ram for the second gate. It won't be able to take other siege equipment through so concentrate efforts on destroying the ram.....

[Aedile Rich]

Can you destroy or knock down ladders?

Yes but it takes awhile and seems to be restricted to one ladder at a time (I'm going from memory here, I only bothered to do it once, a while ago).

I've also managed to torch enemy siege towers right at my ramparts, just as they'd completely filled up with all the enemy's best shock troop units. It was a real turning point in the battle but up until that point my focus was directed elsewhere, so I'm not sure if it was my wall archers or towers that did the deed for me.

[FactionHeir]

Ladders don't seem to be destructible, rams and towers are.
As for artillery, any unit can attack them, but msot units just get stuck doing so and don't deal any damage to them.
Best to use a depleted unit for that or they struggle to get close and attack.
Also seems that swords and daggers (besides using artillery and flaming missiles) are best for the job.

[nheero143]

the computer ai rarely re-mans rams after the initial crews have died or rout. an abandoned ram directly in front of your gate can be a boon sometimes.

Often I find myself in a situation where I'm outnumbered 2:1 and have precious little cavalry in the city. So when I see the siege equipent, I pause and determine the likelihood that the few cavalry I have can rush out the gates to destroy it. This is quite a lot of fun actually. And the infantry is quite vulnerable when holding artillery, siege equipment, ladders, rams. Light cavalry works best to outrun their heavy cavalry, retreat along the walls to let the towers do their damage, and come back to harrass the ladder climbers when they get underway. General mathem breaks out. These are my favorite battles, pulling a heroic victory out of a sure loss.

Can you destroy or knock down ladders?

If you're in a fortress with multiple rings of defence, the AI will knock down the first gate and steam through and then go back and get the ram for the second gate. It won't be able to take other siege equipment through so concentrate efforts on destroying the ram.....

I usually just go for the ram crews and try to maintain some of the outer/inner walls to keep the towers firing. Plus I don't always have enough flaming arrows to do the job.