Fire or not

[Alex-ander]

I was watching one of my battles recently and i was keeping an eye on the catapults. And i was watching shot after shot fly over the heads of the enemy, short of the enemy, and even into my own troops stood 10 feet away.

I know its great to see that flaming bolder crash into a packed unit of the enemy killing 20 or 30. But mostly it does not happen. So i was wondering what do others do, i automatically choose fire when telling the catapults to start shooting but that is supposed to be less accurate.

Would i be better just using ordinary shot which will do less damage but will hit more. Has anybody even investigated this to any extent?

[Vaz]

Fire is less accurate, I believe. Fire weapons do not do more damage, they hit less, and the damage is set to the same, but have more morale damage. They also fire slower, IIRC. I can't check the code right now, but I believe this is the case.

For example, a single flaming arrow catapult can kill a Mumak and rout the unit, yet a single normal round can't rout the Mumak's.

It depends what you're facing. If you know you're fighting a strong commander with high chivalry, fire isn't going to do much. On the other hand, accurate mass targetting of catapults against the commander is more likely to cause that break down of morale.

On the other hand, a low command, or dread causing character is more likely to suffer more from the effects of flaming attacks. By targetting weaker units with massed fire attacks you can quickly rout less powerful units, and the more powerful ones (lock morale, 15+ morale) are likely to be tired as well as the long march to your lines. Combine fire with a Dread causing general (keep him out of your family tree, though, or make sure he's got low authority) though and you'll quickly see mass routs.

I've once won a battle as gondor against OotMM, by having a 10 Command, 10 Dread General charge an outnumbering enemy force with 2 other Swan Knights, while 3 Catapults and 4 Units of Archer Militia used Fire Arrows to target the enemy troops. The Snagas instantly broke, and I won the battle 21 Casualties of my own, to 182 Enemy casualties, and 2600 Captured.

[krasni]

Fire doesn't do more damage per unit, but it does have a bigger area of effect for catapults, right? (I hardly ever use em) Still, catapults using fire are so inaccurate that I would think using regular shot would kill more.

[Berserker1]

They both have the same accuracy, some reason regular shots give the impression that it is more accurate, I felt that too. You want them to be more accurate, you can change the value from .09 to .08, 7, and etc. If you are worried about your troops, you could change the minimum value, and maximum value. All in descr. projectiles. Here is a question about projectiles, does it makes sense that the archers will fire at a 90 degree angle? Archers have a minimum angle of -80, catapults have a minimum of -15. I wonder if changing it to 0 would result in less casualties of your troops. Assuming your talking about your troops getting while being somewhat in front of the catapult.

I played as dwarves, I had two units of catapults, when they were firing upon the enemy which was engaged with my troops, the catapults would kill some of my dwarves with their orcs. Even though I told the catapults to target something further off. So, I think changing the minimum fire angle would cure that.

[Vaz]

They both have the same accuracy, some reason regular shots give the impression that it is more accurate, I felt that too. You want them to be more accurate, you can change the value from .09 to .08, 7, and etc. If you are worried about your troops, you could change the minimum value, and maximum value. All in descr. projectiles. Here is a question about projectiles, does it makes sense that the archers will fire at a 90 degree angle? Archers have a minimum angle of -80, catapults have a minimum of -15. I wonder if changing it to 0 would result in less casualties of your troops. Assuming your talking about your troops getting while being somewhat in front of the catapult.

I played as dwarves, I had two units of catapults, when they were firing upon the enemy which was engaged with my troops, the catapults would kill some of my dwarves with their orcs. Even though I told the catapults to target something further off. So, I think changing the minimum fire angle would cure that.

Having an angle of zero would mean that they can't fire downwards. If sat on the brow of the hill, this means that anything within a distance in a heightxvelocity equation is safe. The AI can't work out the exact calculation, and would lead to them moving closer and closer to get to the most accurate angle (37.5 degrees past the normal).

To stop your units getting shot, sit your units actually behind the catapults, and then work to get quicker reactions by bringing them back behind your lines as the enemy close. For infantry, counter charging even enemy heavy cavalry chargers will result in less losses than just sitting their.

[axnsan]

You can even let the catapults in front of your troops all the time, and when the enemy are about to hit press withdraw or alt+click an enemy unit. This will make them drop the catapults. After that just RUUUUUUUUUNNN FOR YOUR F'ING LIFE

If they're close enough to your troops, the catapults will also disrupt their charge,giving you another advantage. Though it will also disturb your flanking cavalry's charge if you use that.

But I'm sliding offtopic with my blabbering again