ballista frustation

[Hoosier1070]

I'm somewhat new to MTW2 and while I enjoy the game, the frustrating aspect I am having is having an army beseige a walled city and with one ballista, they shatter my fully upgraded stone walls. Trebuchets, cannon even catapults I could see but a ballista?

Highly unrealistic which pretty much forces me to sally. Considering most of my cities have minimum garrisons, this isn't practical either. Personally I Think this is a major game flaw. Is there a way to mod the artillery in the game to reduce or make ballistas vs stone walls ineffectual? Or at least limit AI ammo?

[Theseus1234]

there are some mods i think like SS that will decrease the effectiveness of ballistas and catapults against huge walls

also, rams are incredibly overpowered as well. i mean, they break a foot thick iron porticulus (sp?) in like 10 minutes, where in real life, it should not have been possible

rams are also too resilient. 20 units of archers could not, to save their own lives, set the ram on fire. 20 UNITS. and burning oil doesnt do crap to the ram either. its a WOODEN ram constructed in like 6 months, Y WONT IT BURN??

[Viking Prince]

Yes rams and ballistas are too powerful in some instances. As a newbie, I can observe many more "imperfections" to an historical simulation. Each and everytime that I am surprised by how something works, it is another skill added to playing the game.

If I think the ballista should not do something, as a player I can simply not use it in that manner. The AI has enough passive problems. I can always live with this agressive behavior from a too passive AI.

[Exarch]

whenever i see besieging enemy units of a siege nature, trebuchets, ballistas, cannons etc, i sally forth with my cavalry and cut them down, since they are the slowest in moving, i can get in there b4 the main of the enemy army can return and protect their siege machines...

[Broken Pope]

I'm pleased someone has mentioned this. In my first campaign I was just playing by intuition. When an army turned up with an oversized crossbow, I naively assumed it would take around 670 years for the bolts to pick through my 12-foot thick granite fortifications. I had visions of the Shawshank redemption.

Imagine my surprise when around 15 well placed shots had taken out a 25-foot section of my wall.

[Sokar Rostau]

It took me half my ammunition from two Ballistae to breach a Stone Wall last night, and here you're telling me that one Ballista will get through a Huge Stone Wall??

[thatguy]

for me, balistas do to walls around 0-2%, 50-90 shots. And that gives you enough time to sally forth wiith some cavalry or atleast a suicyde mission with some soldiers. Youd be surprised how much damage three squads of halberd militia can do. Wipe out 5-6 squads of Italian Militia, showe'd them back stabbing milanese who's king of this mountain.

[Old_Scratch]

Have you patched your game up to the latest version? I remember them being almost as powerful as cannons against stone walls, but now the damage they do is negligible.

[clandestino]

Oh man, when I think that I wanted to complain when 1 catapult unit destroyed 4 sections of my wall as well as 4 toweres... Now I see I was lucky they didn't have any balista also!!!

[MrVamp117]

In SS, balista can't damage walls

[homefry]

I can see ballistas doing damage to gates and wooden walls.

If you attack a big block of metal on the front of the arrow, you have a crossbow-battering-ram.

Instead of looking at the thin arrow, imagine big logs of wood attached to the front of the arrows. Those would do damage to any door.

[Broken Pope]

I can see ballistas doing damage to gates and wooden walls.

If you attack a big block of metal on the front of the arrow, you have a crossbow-battering-ram.

Instead of looking at the thin arrow, imagine big logs of wood attached to the front of the arrows. Those would do damage to any door.

I saw a documentary where a couple of beardy blokes used a Balista to 'bombard' an anglo-saxon fortification of woven reeds. Some of the bolts went through it, some stuck in the mesh and some bounced off.

Attaching anything heavy to the projectiles would have made them (i) impossible to fire (because there is a flat bed on which the live round is rested), (ii) impossible to aim (because you are throwing out the balance and the aerodynamics - remember even 'bolts' are fletched!) (iii) reduce your effective range to about 6 feet with the extra weight.

Were you serious..?

[jman47]

granted i play with a mod, i brought an army with 1 ballista to assault a city with wooden walls, and i had to move it really close to the wall for it to be effective, if it was too far away it wouldnt hit crap.

[HopliteLysander]

I have Vanilla 1.2, Ballista barely scratch stone walls of any size. They can help against gates, wooden walls, and sometimes towers if u have enough of them.

[homefry]

I saw a documentary where a couple of beardy blokes used a Balista to 'bombard' an anglo-saxon fortification of woven reeds. Some of the bolts went through it, some stuck in the mesh and some bounced off.

Attaching anything heavy to the projectiles would have made them (i) impossible to fire (because there is a flat bed on which the live round is rested), (ii) impossible to aim (because you are throwing out the balance and the aerodynamics - remember even 'bolts' are fletched!) (iii) reduce your effective range to about 6 feet with the extra weight.

Were you serious..?

Obviously, I posted so....

Use some imagination.

(i) the flat bed becomes a non-factor because you attach the block in front of the bolt. (in front of the ballista)

(ii) the block doesn't have to be big. Just wide enough not to penetrate the door. In fact, it's better not to have a bigger block to concentrate the power in the smallest spot possible.

(iii) Going back to (ii), you would obviously change up the weight of the bolt.

But the biggest surprise of all? You don't have to fire bolts. Just put some booulders in there and fling some rocks.

But the bigger surprise? It's a game! Use your imagination. How do you think these guys are walking around with 50 bolts or with 30 boulders (along with 3 cow carcasses).

[Sokar Rostau]

Given the frequent comments that Generals tend to make about farmyard animals, I believe the primary use of cows is keeping the troops happy and they are used in Trebuchets once they have become "useless".

[jman47]

lol sokar i had a general do that in a battle vs the french, said something like-

the french are better lovers than fighters, just ask any pig on a barn