Hidden in Plain Sight

[TinCow]

I feel like an idiot. I just noticed that units holding ladders during a siege assault can run with them, significantly reducing their vulnerability to missile fire as they approach the walls. I suspect almost everyone already knew this, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere before. (Probably because it was so obvious - click the run button! )

So, what other 'obvious' features have other people noticed in the game; the things you didn't see until you'd played for a long time, or which are activated with some little-used button that none of us have bothered to click before?

[Csargo]

I feel like an idiot. I just noticed that units holding ladders during a siege assault can run with them, significantly reducing their vulnerability to missile fire as they approach the walls. I suspect almost everyone already knew this, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere before. (Probably because it was so obvious - click the run button! )

So, what other 'obvious' features have other people noticed in the game; the things you didn't see until you'd played for a long time, or which are activated with some little-used button that none of us have bothered to click before?

They can run with ladders... Something I didn't know.

[Gaiseric]

LMAO!!! Think of all those poor soldiers whose lives you could have saved

Heres some that might help:
1.) A Tower wont shoot at enemy units unless you have one of your units adjacent to it.

2.) Pressing Ctrl + A will make a selected ship/fleet move farther when you have units/agents aboard

3.) More then one unit can go up a siege tower at once, after it is deployed on the walls.

LOL, the guild was keeping it a secret from you TinCow. We knew you would figure it out sooner or later.

[WhiskeyGhost]

took me a few weeks of playing to realize that my own infantry can grab and move siege weapons the enemy placed. Now i don't have to worry about re-enforcement enemies coming and picking up that ram that 2 feet from the gate, or going through the siege tower his friends abandoned on the wall. Holding alt does wonders.

Also, its funny watching the enemy have to turn around the towers/rams while having towers fire at them and get peppered with arrows just because it was facing the wrong way

[DVX BELLORVM]

took me a few weeks of playing to realize that my own infantry can grab and move siege weapons the enemy placed. Now i don't have to worry about re-enforcement enemies coming and picking up that ram that 2 feet from the gate, or going through the siege tower his friends abandoned on the wall. Holding alt does wonders.

That's interesting! I wonder what would happen if, for example, the enemy brings only one ram to the siege, and you capture it and move it behind walls?
Would that be your victory since the enemy lost their siege equipment (like when you destroy it), or would they just stand in front of the walls doing nothing...

BTW, I also didn't know that you can run with the ladders

[Kobal2fr]

2.) Pressing Ctrl + A will make a selected ship/fleet move farther when you have units/agents aboard

I didn't know that ! What is ctrl-A's function apart from that ?

- Packing spies and/or priests in a crusade stack slows it down to their pace, which is not boosted by the crusade. I saw that when for the first time I sent a crusade over land instead of my usual shipborne route. I had never noticed the ships were slower

- the diplomats and merchants you're given at the start of a campaign are shite. Dunno if it's intentionnal or not, but they all start with points in the experience-earned traits instead of the birth ones, meaning that not only will they get better very slowly, but they won't ever get past 5-6 skill points.

- clicking on your faction shield at the right hand corner of the interface highlights your troops in bright green, enemies in red and allies in blue.

[Didz]

I just noticed that units holding ladders during a siege assault can run with them, significantly reducing their vulnerability to missile fire as they approach the walls. I suspect almost everyone already knew this, but I've never seen it mentioned anywhere before. (Probably because it was so obvious - click the run button! )

Yep! They never used to be able too, but in MTW2 they can.

This is why now I send in my seige towers first and then only release my ladder teams once they have successfully reached the walls.

[Didz]

took me a few weeks of playing to realize that my own infantry can grab and move siege weapons the enemy placed.

O'Really! I tried that in my Scottish game when my archers overrun the English seige works during a sally, but the little hand symbol refused to appear so I gave up in the end and let them have their ram and ladders back.

[alpaca]

I didn't know that ! What is ctrl-A's function apart from that ?

That ctrl+a thing is most likely a bug. Ctrl+A selects all unit cards, so I guess what happens is that the game overwrites the properly calculated movement speed with the movement speed for a fleet without units on it.

[WhiskeyGhost]

O'Really! I tried that in my Scottish game when my archers overrun the English seige works during a sally, but the little hand symbol refused to appear so I gave up in the end and let them have their ram and ladders back.

hehe like i said....holding Alt down does wonders. Same way for making archers engage in melee instead of shooting arrows when necessary (works especially well with cav archers since they can get some nice back charges despite a low charge damage rating)

[Didz]

@whiskyGhost
Right! I'll try that next time. Shame it would have been really funny to have stolen their ram and ladders and taken them into the city.

[Whacker]

That's interesting! I wonder what would happen if, for example, the enemy brings only one ram to the siege, and you capture it and move it behind walls?
Would that be your victory since the enemy lost their siege equipment (like when you destroy it), or would they just stand in front of the walls doing nothing...

BTW, I also didn't know that you can run with the ladders

Erm, I wasn't aware that you could capture siege equipment. The only option I get in battle is the sword icon to attack/destroy it.

[TinCow]

Erm, I wasn't aware that you could capture siege equipment. The only option I get in battle is the sword icon to attack/destroy it.

Speaking of which, is there a way to destroy siege engines/equipment by melee? You can target them and get the sword icon, but I've never seen them take any damage.

[FactionHeir]

You can only destroy towers and rams in melee. Not ladders. Ladders are completely invulnerable to anything (well they get to 1% of damage and no further)

Also you can only capture siege equip if you are attacker (i.e. your ally's equip). What you can also do is to attach a ladder, send a few people up, remove the ladder and attach it a few meters away to fall into the enemy's back.

[TinCow]

You can only destroy towers and rams in melee. Not ladders. Ladders are completely invulnerable to anything (well they get to 1% of damage and no further)

What about things like catapults/trebuchets?

[FactionHeir]

Artillery can be destroyed in melee always.

[TinCow]

Hmph, I could have sworn otherwise. Then again, I'm usually done with half a bottle of wine when I sit down to play at night, so my recollections may not be entirely accurate.

[Foz]

On running ladder usage - actually, I tend to use runners with ladders as the first thing that goes in, at least if there are enemy archers. I'll let the ladder guys run up and jump on top of the archers, which then prevents them from firing endless salvos of flaming arrows into my better siege equipment like rams and towers. Then I send in the better units. Use some expendable unit to attack the archers: odds are they can cause okay damage anyway, they're just archers, but in the end your ladder unit(s) are generally lost. The benefit of not losing your towers and rams nearly as easily, however, more than easily pays the 30 build points for two ladders, not to mention the advantage you gain from actually getting to use the better equipment.

As for other useful things...

Ctrl-A selects all unit cards
Ctrl-I selects all infantry
Ctrl-M selects all missile units
Ctrl-C selects all cavalry

Shift-1 through shift-8 (maybe 9 or 0 even) are hotkeys for quick formations, and especially useful during battle setup. Shift-1 is for a single line, which is great for forming units into a battle line even in the middle of battle.

A 1.2 change applies to the time controls. Instead of simply clicking left or right to go slower of faster (at 1.0, 2.0, or 6.0 speed) you can now Shift-click the arrows to adjust the speed 0.1 at a time, allowing for such cool things as slow motion.

Another oft-overlooked feature is that you can right-click the buttons for city/castle, army, and agents. This brings up the corresponding roster of all settlements, armies, or agents as the case may be. The settlements roster is particularly useful for getting at-a-glance info about your settlements and what they are doing.

That's all I can think of for now, but I may come up with more later

[Agent Smith]

Erm, I wasn't aware that you could capture siege equipment. The only option I get in battle is the sword icon to attack/destroy it.

Actually, there are better ways to deal with siege equipment that is more fun. If you have gunpowder artillery, roll them out about five feet away, target it, and let 'er rip! One shot destruction for the most part.

This is especially fun when the enemy wheels siege towers to the walls near the gates and doesn't send any troops for support. Wait for the unit to get about half way onto the siege tower and wheel your artillery to the front of the gate house, turn 90 degrees, and BOOM. The siege towers is gone AND the entire unit inside is dead. Then, wheel the artillery back inside (or have the troops drop their artillery and high tail in back through the gates), laugh a while, and then fart in their general direction.

Fun times...

[DVX BELLORVM]

Also you can only capture siege equip if you are attacker (i.e. your ally's equip). What you can also do is to attach a ladder, send a few people up, remove the ladder and attach it a few meters away to fall into the enemy's back.

It looks like it is possible to capture enemy siege equipment as a defender. After reading this thread, I've staged a custom battle to test this, and manage to capture their ram.

You can't alt-click on the ram while the enemy unit is using it, you must first engage them to force them to drop the ram. While they were fighting around the ram, my other unit came and capture it! The battle imidietly ended, and the enemy started to run away (not routing).



After I captured the ram, I could move it around, but couldn't move it into the city.




I also have the replay, I'll post it if anyone is interested...

[Agent Smith]

While they were fighting around the ram, my other unit came and capture it! The battle imidietly ended, and the enemy started to run away (not routing).

Wait a minute, that sounds like it could be a heavy exploit. Did the battle immediately end as soon as you grabbed the ram?

[DVX BELLORVM]

Wait a minute, that sounds like it could be a heavy exploit. Did the battle immediately end as soon as you grabbed the ram?

Yes, it ended as soon as I grabbed it.

It is an exploit, since you can defeat a much stronger army by rushing to their siege equipment and grabbing it. But since the AI usually brings a lot of siege equipment, it would be almost impossible to take advantage of it.

[Agent Smith]

Yes, it ended as soon as I grabbed it.

It is an exploit, since you can defeat a much stronger army by rushing to their siege equipment and grabbing it. But since the AI usually brings a lot of siege equipment, it would be almost impossible to take advantage of it.

Not necessarily. The enemy is limited in siege equipment to the amount of infantry present on the field. You would just need one cheap infantry unit per piece of siege equipment, rush out when they get close, and quickly grab them in the middle of the melee to force and end to the battle.

Heck, if you choose to continue, the enemy will all be leaving the mapp and you could unleash your cavalry to mow down the stragglers on their way out...

[DVX BELLORVM]

Not necessarily. The enemy is limited in siege equipment to the amount of infantry present on the field. You would just need one cheap infantry unit per piece of siege equipment, rush out when they get close, and quickly grab them in the middle of the melee to force and end to the battle.

Heck, if you choose to continue, the enemy will all be leaving the mapp and you could unleash your cavalry to mow down the stragglers on their way out...

What you say is true, but I guess you have to "own" all of the enemy equipment to win the battle that way. And this is easier said then done. You would have to grab each of the equipment at the same time, because if you don't, the enemy would attack your units at the equipment, forcing them to drop it, and you would have to grab it again. In the meanwhile, they would attack another of your units holding the equipment, and so on... I hope you see what I mean.

[Agent Smith]

What you say is true, but I guess you have to "own" all of the enemy equipment to win the battle that way. And this is easier said then done. You would have to grab each of the equipment at the same time, because if you don't, the enemy would attack your units at the equipment, forcing them to drop it, and you would have to grab it again. In the meanwhile, they would attack another of your units holding the equipment, and so on... I hope you see what I mean.

I suppose it would depend on what the siege AI does. If it doesn't support its oncoming siege equipment, all you would have to do is wait until it got close and they wouldn't be able to get troops there in time.

Perhaps it would be difficult. I'll have to try it in my campaign if I see an opportunity.

[gardibolt]

Interesting about the ladder runners....but I still send everyone to the walls at once to draw and split fire from the towers and the walls. Otherwise my siege towers burn to the ground.

[Doug-Thompson]

A 1.2 change applies to the time controls. Instead of simply clicking left or right to go slower of faster (at 1.0, 2.0, or 6.0 speed) you can now Shift-click the arrows to adjust the speed 0.1 at a time, allowing for such cool things as slow motion.

That's nice to know.

The thing I couldn't believe is that waypoints aren't discussed in the manual at all. You can set waypoints on the battle map by holding down shift and clicking on the battlefield.

[Agent Smith]

If you click on a city or port and then alt-left click on the campaign map, it sets a rally point. Once a rally point is set, all units created at the city or port will automatically move to that point on the turn after they are created.

[DVX BELLORVM]

You can remove a rally point by clicking on the city, then pressing the Delete button on keyboard.

Also, by pressing + (on the main keyboard, not on numpad), you can view path of all the units that move over multiple turns.

[Shahed]

doh ! I did'nt even know that about shift clicking the time scale. Thanks.
Also major LOL on grabbing the enemy siege engines. LMAO. THAT would be HILARIOUS in multiplayer.

Questions:

1. What does the "rally point" symbol do in the battle screen ?
2. Do units end up there after waypointing ?
3. Is it possible for other units to follow a "rally" unit ?
4. Is it possible to place the "rally point" on another unit and then have the rest of the army follow the orders you give that unit ? (horse archer's dream)

...And no I absolutely do not give a rat's rear if anyone thinks I'm a n00b!

Lastly CTRL+B selects all artillery on the battle map.