Arrows v artillary

[Captain Pugwash]

Im no military expert BUT i would like to think that xbowmen/archers cannot fire further than a trenbach/catapult but they do, or there is very little difference.

They should not be able to outrange cannons et el but they seem to have similar ranges.

Anything firing uphill should come in range before those at the top come under fire but this does not happen.

Have repeated examples of uphill archers etc firing on heavy artillary before they come in range to return fire. This should really be the other way around.

How can this be changed so a greater range is available.

A second point with ballistas is how come they can knock down large stone walls. They fire a metal bolt which would bounce of stone even by todays building standards. In this era walls could be 10-20 feet thick.

[Didz]

@Capt.Pugwash
Are you sure about the ranges?

In my game artillery has much longer range than archers or crossbowmen, witness the fact that I can take down walls without getting shot to hell by the defenders. Whether it is long enough is a secondary point, which probably applies equally to all missile troops.

As for ballistae knocking down stone walls, whilst they clearly can, its a really bad use for them and they aren't very good at it. Again the effectiveness of all artillery against wooden and stone defences has obviously been enhanced so that we don't have to sit around for days waiting for our equipment to make a breach. By rights it should all be reduced in effectiveness, but of all the artillery available I think the ballista is the least effective to use for this task.

[dopp]

That's wierd because the basic bombard has twice the range of a longbowman/arbalester. The basilisk and monster bombard have almost three times the range. Are you sure you haven't modded your game in some way? Maybe you're playing in Spain or something where height advantage is massive.

[Mithradates]

I agree with the ballista wall point. Its a pain seeing them slowly but inevitably breaking down your huge stone walls. Especialy when your ballista towers have a slightly shorter range than the regular ballista for some reason.

[sapi]

Siege weapon ranges are, in general, much longer than archers/crossbowmen.

The OP might be facing an AI which is too proud to shoot back...or something

[Kobal2fr]

Anything firing uphill should come in range before those at the top come under fire but this does not happen.

Oh it certainly does. Not only that, but an uphill missile unit will kill a LOT more peeps per volley. Trust me, you do not want to try and dislodge the Milanese from a mountainous retreat

[Foz]

On the point about ballistae being able to knock down walls and towers, yes it does seem rather silly. There was some discussion about this in one of the modding threads, the end result being that someone figured out not only how to make the ballista not damage walls/towers/etc, but consequently also not even attempt to target them IIRC. If anyone wants the "fix" I imagine it would be pretty easy to locate in the modding area.

This may come with pitfalls, though. I have no idea if the AI still considers the ballista an assault-enabling unit if it can no longer damage fortifications (of if it indeed ever considered it assault-enabling). If it does, then it's possible the AI could start a siege with absolutely no way to breach the walls or gate at all. I haven't seen the AI assault using only a ballista that I can remember, but that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't try it...

[Captain Pugwash]

I lost Paris because one ballista opened the large walls and then the swarm of cavalary chewed up the defenders. Made the mistake of thinking that without infantry there would be no problem for several turns which caused me to try and take the french castle of Angers rather than relive the seige. If that had happened then the French would have been eliminated as no home. In the same scenario my seiging forces of artillary got shot up by the xbowman. ( there where no ballista towers etc)

[Didz]

I'm not convinced that Ballista were incapable of damaging castle walls. They are certainly classed as a seige weapon and had a prominent role in many seiges. There are also depictions of ballista firing missiles with a solid metal ball on the end which would only really have been necessary if one was hoping to smash something solid at the receiving end.

[MStumm]

The wikipedia entry for ballista suggests that they were used to destroy walls by firing stone projectiles. Supposedly it was very effective because of its accuracy it could hit the same spot over and over again, unlike a catapult.