An inconvinient situation

[Laman]

This is what just happened in my Bactria campaign, the Seleucids assaulted Baktra, and a unit of Thureophoroi was moving up the siege tower when


It caught on fire thanks to the work of my archers. Around 70 Thureophoroi died when the tower collapsed

The first time I've had an enemy siege tower catch fire after it has reached the wall, it can't have been fun to watch for Molon (the Seleucid general).

[Boyar Son]

By the looks of the picture they all should've died. Did some escape?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Yeah, that's happened with me before. It's pretty hard to do though *since* there are those open areas on the tower. Most arrows just fly straight through it if you are firing from the sides. Still it's pretty glorious when you can get it to work right. One of the most deadly things that can happen to a unit.

[Laman]

Unfortunately they had already begun spilling out from the tower, you can see one on the wall just right of the tower, and unfortunately I only had my persian archers there to hold them back, my pantopadoi phalangitai just nearby (whose banner is seen just to the left) were defending the wall from enemies climbing up the ladders. If the tower hadn't burned down I would have lost those persian archers and possibly my pantodapoi phalangitai...

[Boyar Son]

You sir have been touched by an angel!

Too bad those things (burning towers) rarely happen

[Digby Tatham Warter]

You sir have been touched by an angel!

Too bad those things (burning towers) rarely happen

With a unit or archers firing each side of the tower, burning them isn't to hard.

But I do find it tricky to burn them at the right time, in my angst to cook the buggers before the ramp drops I tend to shoot to soon, as you need to build up alot of hits, and I do so hate them clambouring over my real-estate without first having asked my permission.

[Intranetusa]

how exactly do you even burn down a tower? I have craploads of archers firing at it & they enver catch on fire. The only time they catch on fire is when tower's automated defenses fire on them...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

LOL - you employed Teleklos Archelaou as your general.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

how exactly do you even burn down a tower? I have craploads of archers firing at it & they enver catch on fire. The only time they catch on fire is when tower's automated defenses fire on them...

This sounds like a stupid question, and I'm not trying to insult you, but are you using flaming arrows?

[Rilder]

LOL - you employed Teleklos Archelaou as your general.

Omgs he does have TA has his general... Let me guess he's 10 Command, 10 infuence and a bunch of other uber traits, along with 5 or 6 of those excedenly beautiful prostitute retinues.

[Intranetusa]

This sounds like a stupid question, and I'm not trying to insult you, but are you using flaming arrows?

OF COURSE I'M USING FLAMING ARROWS. I'm not THAT stoooopid.
But my chances of lighting up the seige towers with 3-4 archer units is less than 10%, while the automated towers firing arrows light up the seige towers around 30% of the time.

[Thaatu]

It's purely random.

[Sdragon]

When AI have archers on the walls I never worry. They can shoot at my towers with fire all they want, the things never catch fire. Just means they never kill any troops and I'll have it easy once I'm on the walls.

[Laman]

LOL - you employed Teleklos Archelaou as your general.

Hard to avoid that with Bactria, he is afterall the starting heir

[Teleklos Archelaou]

That was purely random too Lofman. Though I sort of like it personally.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

OF COURSE I'M USING FLAMING ARROWS. I'm not THAT stoooopid.
But my chances of lighting up the seige towers with 3-4 archer units is less than 10%, while the automated towers firing arrows light up the seige towers around 30% of the time.

Yeah, I had to ask though.

I don't seem to have too much trouble lighting them up (but I haven't gotten to do it often).

[Karielle]

This has nothing to do with setting siege towers on fire, but I have to ask (apologies for the sudden off-topic question) - are approximately one in four of the units mounting stone or huge stone walls via siege towers supposed to be falling through the narrow walkway up there and ending up as poor broken corpses at the base of the wall? It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does.. Ouch.

[Caratacos]

This has nothing to do with setting siege towers on fire, but I have to ask (apologies for the sudden off-topic question) - are approximately one in four of the units mounting stone or huge stone walls via siege towers supposed to be falling through the narrow walkway up there and ending up as poor broken corpses at the base of the wall? It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does.. Ouch.

Can't say i've seen that happen. Though i've seen guys commit suicide by jumping from the rampart instead of fight to the death. Can't say i blame them but it is pretty inglorious.

[Karielle]

Hmm, how exactly do they commit suicide? I'm asking on behalf of pezhetairoi since he's not able to at the moment, so I'm not very clear on the details, but the impression I got was that they got on the rampart from the tower and then fell through them inside of the walls. Made for quite a frustrating casualty count, I can imagine..

[The Errant]

Hmm, how exactly do they commit suicide? I'm asking on behalf of pezhetairoi since he's not able to at the moment, so I'm not very clear on the details, but the impression I got was that they got on the rampart from the tower and then fell through them inside of the walls. Made for quite a frustrating casualty count, I can imagine..

I've seen this happen occasionally. Last time was in a siege by the Seleucids against my Pontic defenders. I beat all of their troops including the general but was wondering why the clock still kept ticking. Finally I realise there are eight Theurophoroi infantry on a wall I lost early in the siege. The rest of the enemy has been slaughtered.
So I send a depleted unit of 80+ Kluddolon to remove them from my wall. The first six enemies are killed normally, but the two last ones run off the edge of the inner wall and fall to their deaths.
Could be a pathfinding issue since just as often once a unit is broken and "fleeing oblivious to the world" in a siege battle they just get stuck unmoving on the wall. You can't command those broken units but if a fight comes to them they'll still fight. Same as a surrounded enemy unit will fight to the death if there is no avenue of escape.
Given pathfinding seems to have trouble making troops on walls flee down a tower or ladder this might be a related issue. Can't remember if vanilla RTW had this issue though.

[Ludens]

Given pathfinding seems to have trouble making troops on walls flee down a tower or ladder this might be a related issue. Can't remember if vanilla RTW had this issue though.

It's a vanilla bug, although one that seems to have been introduced by the 1.3 or 1.5 patch. IIRC someone posted a fix about a year ago, but other people reported that it didn't work.

[Redigo]

Hmmm, I didn't even know you could target towers once they hit the walls. BTW, that's a pretty sweet pic.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

This has nothing to do with setting siege towers on fire, but I have to ask (apologies for the sudden off-topic question) - are approximately one in four of the units mounting stone or huge stone walls via siege towers supposed to be falling through the narrow walkway up there and ending up as poor broken corpses at the base of the wall? It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does.. Ouch.

I encountered this one time with RTW 1.0 and once with EB 0.81. My Kluddolon just fell down between the ramp and the wall. It helps a bit if you command them manually to run to a point on the wall a bit aside - that reduces the casualties, but not entirely stops them.

[Puupertti Ruma]

If I recall correctly, this is a known RTW bug, which affects siege towers on certain walls. It was either on Large or Huge walls I don't remember exactly.

[antisocialmunky]

It just goes to show that ladders are the best siege engine :-p

It would be nice touch if you could push ladders off the wall and kill everyone on them though...

[dofod]

...Not only push ladder off and kill the climbers, but also able to pick up the ladders again and let them try (succed or fail) with subsequent attempts.

[Karielle]

If I recall correctly, this is a known RTW bug, which affects siege towers on certain walls. It was either on Large or Huge walls I don't remember exactly.

It's both, from what I gather, with the Huge Stone Walls having a higher chance of luring the poor men into their depths.. So there's no (working) fix for it?

[hoom]

Sleepysmoo came up with this one.
It forces both huge & large walls to still use the less buggy small stone walls models.
Comes with a couple of minor visual bugs (units float up the ladders on large/huge walls & an individual or two pop through the ramp before it drops) but thats much preferable to having whole units die due to a bug.

[Enguerrand de Sarnéac]

...Not only push ladder off and kill the climbers, but also able to pick up the ladders again and let them try (succed or fail) with subsequent attempts.

I've always wondered how the ladders got against the walls in the first place... Or how it was possible for about ten warriors to pull those monsters of siege towers.

I've had a unit archers moving past a tower on a corner (I was defending) and a couple of the fellows fell over the ramparts just like that. I wasn't really minding it because it was a move at my rear, and it took 4 archers till I noticed. I've thought of several possible explanations, found none except that the sight of the unwashed Tindanotae bereft them of their Wille zum Leben...

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I've thought of several possible explanations, found none except that the sight of the unwashed Tindanotae bereft them of their Wille zum Leben...

Surely it was their smell which caused a sudden loss of consciousness... But this would lead to the subsequent realization that Tindanoatae can no longer be regarded as assault infantry, but as biological weapon...