Attacking Settlements Defended with Cannon Towers

[Navajo Joe]

I have never had a settlement with Cannon Towers before, the Turks have attacked Antioch, odds in their favour of 2:1 and 3:1, both times the attack was crushed. They had suffered 50% casualties before the gates fell, then my infantry destroyed them. So the reason behind my question is, When you attack against a settlement defended with Cannon towers, how do you approach it?
(In this scenario you do not possess any siege gear other than a Bombard or two!)

[meese]

Well I can say that a cannon tower destroys rams in two hits and probably the same or less for siege towers. So there goes those options. If you've got artillery as you say, then your best bet is to destroy the towers first or perhaps even use spies and hope that you get in and take control of the towers before they have a chance to react. Never attacked one myself, but defending is too damn easy with them

[MaryQueenofScots]

i usually use 3 pieces of artillary, 2 to knock out the towers and one for a bit of wall, maybe 2 depends on how much balls i got i left

i never make rams towers etc, they just get blown up way to often

p.s defending with them is booooringggg

[silvercolum]

(In this scenario you do not possess any siege gear other than a Bombard or two!)

u turn away and look for another city.... bombards will not even destroy the gate becouse of their useless aim and power.
and rams or siege towers will be useless,,,,if u have nothing more then that your only chance is to open the gates with the spy, in any other case u are doomed.

[MaryQueenofScots]

u turn away and look for another city....



alexander the great aint got nothing on you lol

[TheLastPrivate]

If you don't have anything better than a bombard then don't assault it directly. Unless you're willing to lose all your troops and even then its doubtful whether you will be able to assault it.

[Aegon]

You might try to attack the city from 3 sides (or even all 4 sides) at the same time.


I don't think this works for human players but the AI often puts all his soldiers on one or two sides (where you've got the bigger part of your troops) and leaves the other side(s) unwatched, at least until you attack their gates there. But this often gives you the time to bring a ram or a tower into position before the towers actually start firing.


Another option would be to place some peasants between the towers and your siege engines and let them absorb the towers fire. I'm not sure wether this really works though, because I think towers tend to shot at siege engines first and ignore normal troops. (that would explain why catapults/trebuchets etc always get killed first by cannon towers )

[nazutul]

You could just abandon the actual taking of the city in lieu of starving them out. That's what I had to do against Rome as the Moors. I couldn't take the city due to all the elite Papal units, so I starved them. It worked pretty well; only drawback is that it took 12 turns.

[RomaVictor6969]

You could just abandon the actual taking of the city in lieu of starving them out. That's what I had to do against Rome as the Moors. I couldn't take the city due to all the elite Papal units, so I starved them. It worked pretty well; only drawback is that it took 12 turns.

that is beyond lame. wow a human player had to starve a city out LOL
Alexander has nothing on him lol

[Lysimachus]

What's wrong with a human player actually sieging a settlement for the full duration? It took them 24 years for it to fall but still.

[MadWolf]

What's wrong with a human player actually sieging a settlement for the full duration? It took them 24 years for it to fall but still.

lol....

[Heathen Hammer]

If the city itself has small garrison, you could just hire a lot of peasants or spear militia, and build a ram for each unit. Than, send them all to the gate at the same time. At least one should reach it..

[Navajo Joe]

If the city itself has small garrison, you could just hire a lot of peasants or spear militia, and build a ram for each unit. Than, send them all to the gate at the same time. At least one should reach it..

Nice idea, though would it not be best to let them uses Ladders in this scenario, I reckon more will get up the wall.
I agree with all that has been said, I cannot see how you can get Rams and Towers anywhere near the Wall, without them being destroyed.
Tell me, do the Cannon Towers have the range to hit your own Artillery units?

[Heathen Hammer]

Nice idea, though would it not be best to let them uses Ladders in this scenario, I reckon more will get up the wall.
I agree with all that has been said, I cannot see how you can get Rams and Towers anywhere near the Wall, without them being destroyed.
Tell me, do the Cannon Towers have the range to hit your own Artillery units?

If peasants would try to take the walls by ladders there would probably be other enemy units there. Feudal knights or any other kind of heavy infantry would eat peasants for breakfast. Best strategy here is many peasant units with rams, and mercenary spearman unit following them, to hold the gate. You can use heavy cavalry as well. As soon as the walls are yours it is easy to move the infantry in, and finish the garrison off.

[TheLastPrivate]

Rams won't ever reach it if they all storm in the same gate. They'll route before they even get there. If the garrison is big enough, no rams/ladders/siege towers will ever work, they'll all break before it gets any close and even if it what remains of your assault force will probably die on the walls.

If you don't have a minimum firepower of a cannon, forget taking a full stack settlement with cannon towers. Monster bombards are the best, since 1 can demolish all the cannon towers and make some holes in the walls before you assault.

[TheLastPrivate]

Yes, cannon towers will outrange anything under the range of a "cannon".
also if oyu have artillery in the back and you send your rams forward the cannons that miss your rams will hit your artillery (very easily I might add). Your trebuchets will be outranged as well, not so sure about bombards.

Each tower fires 2 cannons at a given time along with an occasional fiery shot toward rams/towers. You will be facing at LEAST 4 towers at one given side, more if there are more defenders to man the towers.

[Chappy4756]

Send in assassins prior to sieging and destroy the towers through sabotage. Reframe the problem

[Notimeforaname]

Send in assassins prior to sieging and destroy the towers through sabotage. Reframe the problem

That;s a good option.

I'd attack with two or three stacks, and not let the AI control any of them.

The stack that I start in command of would be mostly long ranged artillery, like my own cannon. They use all their ammo to destroy the towers nearest my men and then i'll retreat them allowing more soldiers to enter the battle that will be useful for storming the breaches.

[Taiji]

wait till there's an army directly outside the city and attack the army, make sure to wipe everyone out. walk into city unopposed...

attack the city with a small force of heavy cav, maybe 4 units. enemy sallies, 3 cavs run around while 1 hits a weak unit and routs it. chase routed unit back through the gates, wait 3 mins...

without cheating? attack with 2 armies one stack has the arty and spearmen (or other good defensive unit) while the other stack has towers + rams. the stack with arty is ai controlled and does whatever, hopefully a wall comes down. your own stack is spread around the city walls waiting for an opening to roll up your siege equipment. if there is noone near the cannon tower it doesn't fire. your towers aim for the corners and your rams for the gates (middle). takes a long time to set up though. the idea is to get the enemy to abandon some area of the walls long enough to get a tower or ram into place. probably best to ignore towers but they can draw an enemy over long enough to get the ram in.

it's easy if you have some big cannon, it just takes a few turns. siege and destroy the towers in your chosen area then run away, siege it with another army and then do the same next turn and the next until you are happy with the destruction of his walls. you haven't lost a man. the downside is the destruction you've done to the city and which you've not let the AI repair.

thats all I can remember for now.

[Vince Noir]

wait till there's an army directly outside the city and attack the army, make sure to wipe everyone out. walk into city unopposed...

Everytime, everytime.

Or I use spies and storm the city as fast as I can.