How do you burn enemy siege equipment ?

**Shahed** · 04-13-2007, 08:17

Well yeah it's a bit of a stupid question: light a match ?!?

I never had many sieges as I used all cavalry armies and I was able to move aorund fast enought to kill enemy armies in the field so I hardly ever saw the inside of a wall.

Now I don't get it. I have 4 Yeoman Archers showering flaming arrows, like 4 huge stone wall towers shooting what looks like flaming ballistae. The enemy has 1 Ballista unit, 1 siege tower, 1 ladder and 2 rams.

Not a single thing gets burnt down.

Anyone know what's happening, is there a technique to use or something ? I simply line up my archers in one line on the walls, and set them to fire flaming arrows, and I aim for the siege equipment. When, occasionally it does burn down, it seems the damage comes from the towers.

I remember there was a thread on this last week, but I could'nt find it again.

Thanks for any tips you may have.

Salute !

**sapi** · 04-13-2007, 08:24

It's almost impossible to burn AI siege equipment; and it seems to be equally impossible to stop yours from being burnt to a crisp

**Shahed** · 04-13-2007, 09:48

HAHA ! I just did some custom battles. Only once did the enemy ram get burnt up and this time I used Retinue Longbowmen, however ! the shot that flamed the ram came from the ballista towers.

I'm wondering if footarchers can burn siege equipment at all, and I'm beginning to think... not.

Also in these 4-5 test battles, the archers scored a maximum of 27 kills per battle/unit, the enemy army was about 500 men. 27 was the best score.

Incidentally ze Germans assualted Antwerp in campaign. I had 4 standard Longbowmen, 3 Spear Militia (with light mail armor ! and exp 3), 2 exp 3-4 Mailed Knights, 1 Bodyguard The King himself.

The enemy attacked with 2 rams, 2 ladders and 1 siege tower.

I lined up the Longbows on the wall, trying very hard to make them only one line deep. I've observed that if there are 2 lines the guys in the 2nd line don't hit much, specially at range. I set them to flaming arrows, guard mode... that's right bows if you let them get up on the wall then you have to deal with it !, skirmish off. I set the spears in a triangle in front of the gate (knowing that the stupid ram would get through.)

I set the cav one on top of the other in the triangle.

Once we started I targetted the ram with the LBs, I charged all the cavalry into the ladders and routed them. None of the LBs missiles were doing any damage to the ram. I switched them to normal mode and targetted the densest concentration of enemy troops. I delayed the ram long enough that one of the bolts from the towers hit it (actually 2-3 hit it) and it burnt down. Then I ran the cav back into the city and charged the spears into the pursuing cav, routing them in the gate. 3rd time I charged the tower, routing that unit too, and then pulled back into the city.

This time they did'nt get through, and the tower burnt down as well, even though I routed one unit another manned it. Then the 2nd ram; I had depleted my cav to 50%, so I was reluctant to use it again.

I used normal fire on the ram, and depleted the rams unit. Then I charged it.

Anyway in the end, that ram did not burn, but it seems you have to delay them outside if possible, it gives your towers more time to do the work.

One important thing I noticed is that when the towers are firing at siege equipment they use flaming ammo. Once the revert to normal ammo then they are'nt shooting at the siege equipment anymore. The same logic should apply to archers, flaming ammo = burn stuff, scare people. Normal ammo = more precision, more kills. But I think it doesn't, not sure.

In this battle each longbow unit got more than 90 kills. The enemy army was about 1200.

Anyway if anyone has any suggestions on how to make sure the siege stuff burns down, fire away !

**Didz** · 04-13-2007, 09:59

Hmm! I've had some luck burning seige equipment. In my last campaign Dvor archers managed to burn the Mongols only Ram before it reached my gate effectively ending the assault before it began as the Mongols only had a few infantry and their horses couldn't climb ladders.

Likewise last nght a French seige tower was burnt by Venecian Archers just after it reached the walls but before the ramp dropped burning most of the Frenchmen inside it to death.

I have never seen ladder's burn, which is one reason I always build a few of them for my assaults.

As for seige engines, I saw a French Trebuchet go up in smoke last night, but normally I don't bother using fire arrows on them and this one must have been burnt by my towers. Personally, I find its quicker and more permanent if you kill the crews with normal missile fire or smash them with rocks and cannon balls.

**Erik Bloodaxe** · 04-13-2007, 10:08

Ladders can't burn mate, at least I think.

I normally don't have any troubles with destroying seige towers since you can still fire at them even after they are in place, (archers stop fireing at them when they arrive at the wall, but if you press again they will fire) this should give you extra time.