Destroying siege rams?

[Каие]

What is an effective way to destroy siege rams and towers before they get to the wall?

I tried burning them with arrows and my men always miss or do no damage, i even tried getting my cavalry to rush out and you get the option to melee the ram but they don't do anything.

So im forced to wait for it to get to the gate and break through, or kill the men holding it.

I want to destroy the equipment so the seige ends quickly without a bloody battle.

[JethroNull]

Just keep shooting fire at it. If you have cannon towers they usually do the trick, too. There's no magic spell that causes it to burst into flames - it's a matter of luck.

[Don in the North]

when you aim with the archers, instead of having them attack the unit with the ram, try aiming/clicking at the ram itself, or if your already doing that, try having them aim at the unit pushing.

i never count on rams being destroyed, cuz its a preset bottleneck situation so i try to focus on seige towers and ladder-units instead so my units bottlenecking the gate dont get flanked by enemy coming down from the walls.

70% of the time the bottleneck will work, and if it doesnt the units can be sacraficed to keep enemy busy while the rest of my units fall back to the city square or a defensible location thereof

[Khassaki]

Put a unit in shiltrom outside the gate, the mayhem is glorious. The ram can't get to the gate, and it sucks the enemy within range of your archers and javelinmen on the walls. Versus mongols they taller mounted get slaughtered by their own archery.

[Каие]

I see, thanks for the suggestions. I usually just rush the first line of the assault wth my light cavalry it usually meses up the assault and they leave the RAM and dont pick it back up. Maybe its an exploit to the bad AI?

In RTW you could easily take down the seige rams and towers with arrows and such.
I was wondering has anyone tried using any canons or trebuchets on towers and seige rams? (not the castle tower defensive canons but ones you can recruit)

[Saibot]

yeah i've tried that today but it doesn't really work efficiently. I tried it 7 times and it only worked once. The other times the crew got killed before they could take a shot or they missed big time. But the one time it did work it was great. They just shot simultaneously and both the cannonballs just smashed through the ram. I used a culverin btw. But I find mortars very effective too, too bad only few factions have them.

[Lord Firkraag]

You can make it work with a ballista. It's very accurate with flaming shots and takes down siege easily.

But you will need a few units of horse archers and a decent general or other cavalry to keep the enemy busy while your ballista takes the shots.

Anyway if you do it with 4 units of Vardariots (gold and silver chevrons) you can destroy an army with disgustingly few losses If the ram is approaching the gate then charge the men holding it with your heavy cavalry to give fire more time.

[Каие]

thanks ill try some of these. But cant you just fire the trebuchet over the wall from theinside? like in kingdom of heaven?

[Tiwaz]

You can. But you have to get it just right so that your stones do not crash your own walls. I find mortars to be best for purpose of defence. Their high arc makes them able to clear the walls nicely and range isn't bad either.

I once, and notice only once though, managed to stop enemy tower when my mortar scored it right on and crushed the whole thing. Oh how happy I was that day...

Sadly I had little use for mortars else, since they to my experience do not just hit walls or towers often/well enough to be useful for assaulting.

[Drag529]

Just like the others said, shoot the siege equipment instead of the troops pushing them….and if you want send out cavalry at the siege tower to attack the man to slow them down to allow your archers our other range units to destroy them (or increase the %), but if enemy soldier come to help their siege tower run them away..sort of like a hit and run

[Beiss]

I wish I could build siege mounds (just a hill with no buildings on it and nothing in the way) in my settlements, where I could place my siege equipment before the battle begins. Seriously, if only they would be able to shoot over the walls, or had free line of fire, a couple of ballistas is the only defense you need. Catapults and trebuches are too inaccurate to hit units, but ballistas work wonderfully well.

[Roman Knight]

Why use siege weapons to fire?

If I am really desperate, I send my ballista out in front of the gate. They usually take down a tower or two before getting attacked, and then the ram can't get past them. Bit of an exploit but ...