Archers and gates

[sherbs]

Why do gates not close sometimes? My only chance during a siege is to use my general to take out the siege equipment before they get to me. They take out the ladders and on the way back, take out the ram. Theres only half of them left but I get them back into the castle and the gates don't close. I'm toast. It's not as if the enemy were right behind them, in fact they were turning away till they noticed the gates were open. So, for future reference, how do gates work?

Secondly, how do archers work? You need them to take out as many enemy as you can during a siege. You click the archers, right click the enemy, someone shouts "Attack!", they've got the firing symbol but there's no firing animation and their arrows don't deplete over a whole siege. Why is that?

If I knew how these things worked, maybe it wouldn't be so frustrating.

[Marcus Scaurus]

It might be the case that the enemy has a spy in your city. As you probably know from attacking cities yourself, spies can open the gate for the attackers.

You have to place archers on your walls.

[Nevins]

if units are in a certain radius around the gate they wont close, so make sure there isnt a unit standing near the gate

[Exarch]

a weird thing i've noticed is that sometimes if the archers are above the gatehouse, and the enemy has breached the gate, your archers will fire upwards, rather than (logically) firing directly down towards the intruders

[Zeno of Citum]

Its really annoying when the enemy can get inside or your units get stuck inside the enemy castle/city. I really don't get it the enemy gates seem to close much faster, or Im wrong. Anyway the gates are really dumb working crap.

The archer thing also seems very stupid when they got a clear angle to fire at and instead they fire up in the air, or sometimes when they don't have that angle they fire into walls (no that last was probably in RTW).

[loquar]

I relay do think that when defending a settlement you should have a open/close gates button that is active when your forces are considered to be in control of the gatehouse.

If you choose to drop the gates on the middle of one of your own units then fair enough, desperate times call for desparate measures.

The current lack of control over gates is indeed frustrating

[Kahn]

If you choose to drop the gates on the middle of one of your own units then fair enough, desperate times call for desparate measures.

Ha ha ! I think we've all been there. A unit is routing and coming home to mama, but you don't want to let them back in. But still, those bastards come right through the gate and let the whole enemy hoard stroll on through.

Most upsetting.

[NobleNick]

Sherbs,

I've seen what you are talking about. Nevins is right: If you have your units too close to the front gate after it is opened, it will not close. I consider this a bug. Just move your units away, until the gate closes, then you can move them back.

Marcus Scarius is also correct: If the enemy has one or more spies inside your city, there is a good chance that your gates will open at the start of a battle, and NO ONE can close them.

And the archers shooting into walls: Yes, that was RTW. I haven't seen it (yet) in M2TW.

[vonKrysiak]

Well if you have firing symbol but they dont fire then it is a bug - sometimes it happens to me but dont know how t ofix it besides moving the unit a bit (might be hard in the siege battles)
Also the gates wont close if your units are too close (for example them pikemen you have right behind waiting for enemy cavalry) if that is the case just move them back wait for the gate to close and redeploy unit.
Now if you dont have anyone near the gate make sure no one is stuck by the wall or at the gate if you just went out through the gate - happens as well...