What's the trick to using siege towers?

[Locutus]

Siege towers are super buggy. Every time I try to use one, the unit pushing it refuses to climb it once it's against the city wall. I end up with at least half the unit running around in circles on the ground in front of the siege tower entrance. Only half the unit climbs to the top and out onto the wall. I've tried right-clicking on the top of the wall, but that doesn't help much. The game's not playable like this. Anything I can do to encourage the troops to climb the siege towers?

[jukeness]

Use ladders

[Lucarius]

yeah i know that glitch.
(i think your RTW version is 1.5)
maybe reinstalling the game could fix that problem (make back-up of your save files)

[nvm]

I heard they do that sometimes.

It happens. All i can tell you is to patch the game, but even that would not totally remove the bug. Another one is to try again, or to groan, take the city without siege towers, because from my experience, some are bugged and some...are not"

Using ladders does not make you lose over half of the unit for nothing, and they can`t lit them up.

[Lucarius]

i hate ladders because your man are getting shot by the City Towers
i always lose like 20 man.
but yeah using ladders is the only option.

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

i hate ladders because your man are getting shot by the City Towers
i always lose like 20 man.
but yeah using ladders is the only option.

if you playing as rome, load up your ladder crews with light inf. or aux.

they run faster and imo are expendable, have heavy inf. following in testuedo formation break and storm the wall...job done.

Not advertising but in RS they arent that buggy and come equipped with ballistae so the defenders get a right proper hammering before they get to the walls.

[Juvenal]

I use siege towers as a decoy, putting a pair facing the wall sections each side of a gatehouse, while my real assault force mounts far away undefended sections of wall by ladder.

Once I have two or three squads up a ladder I can secure a large section of wall, its arrow towers and a gatehouse. This gives me the advantage when rushing the gate because the enemy will be taking fire from my captured arrow towers and my men on the parapet.

I can generally build two siege towers and four ladders in one turn, perfect for fast sieges.

I don't like siege towers, partly because of the bug, but also because they take an age to load up with a large squad. Of course large walls are too tall for ladders, so I generally use a combination of towers and sap points. The idea here is to contest the walls while my assault force runs in through the breach. But whatever the outcome, this kind of attack is probably going to be bloody.

[HanatielHawk]

I use siege towers as a decoy, putting a pair facing the wall sections each side of a gatehouse, while my real assault force mounts far away undefended sections of wall by ladder.

Once I have two or three squads up a ladder I can secure a large section of wall, its arrow towers and a gatehouse. This gives me the advantage when rushing the gate because the enemy will be taking fire from my captured arrow towers and my men on the parapet.

I can generally build two siege towers and four ladders in one turn, perfect for fast sieges.

I don't like siege towers, partly because of the bug, but also because they take an age to load up with a large squad. Of course large walls are too tall for ladders, so I generally use a combination of towers and sap points. The idea here is to contest the walls while my assault force runs in through the breach. But whatever the outcome, this kind of attack is probably going to be bloody.

When using siege towers, make sure your cohort is in formation. Why? if you let the cohort run it will take longer to let the towers load. Also siege towers wipes out an army on the wall when fire-at-will mode is activated. Let us line up the advantages and disadvantages:
Siege towers advantages:
Can attack units on wall while moving
Defence for units
Can carry a full cohort at the same time on the wall which gives the cohort less casualties and more winning chances
Good defence

Siege tower disadvantages:
Build cost is expensive
Takes longer time for a full cohort to get above (1 ladder)
Can catch fire and collapse

Ladder advantages:
3 times faster time for a full cohort to get above
Shorter build cost

Ladder disadvantages:
No defence for units, units are very vulnerable
If a ladder collapse the time for a full cohort to get on the wall takes much longer
The unit go one-by-one on the wall so they are a bit vulnerable to units who're on the wall.

Conclusion: Ladders are effective to take a settlement with speed and towers if the city and walls are big and the army inside it is big.

[Locutus]

In my last battle, it worked a lot better. I had 2 towers and 14 of 15 units entered the towers immediately and climbed to the top. The remaining unit managed it when I clicked on the wall ledge. I had already patched it to 1.5. It's an intermittent bug so reinstalling wouldn't help. I always save before a battle so if it doesn't work I just reload.

[Chris Death]

Which large walls are too tall for ladders?

~S~ CD

[Juvenal]

Which large walls are too tall for ladders?

~S~ CD

You can only use ladders with regular stone walls. For Large and Epic walls you get taller siege towers, but no ladders.

[Locutus]

Thanks for the suggestions. To all those who suggested ladders, I can't use them cuz they're not an option. This is my first siege of a city with large stone walls and you can't use ladders. Sap points are good cuz archers can't target the troops, but you can't choose where to put them. The game picks a spot for you which I don't like. I noticed that sometimes my small catapults can break thru the large wall and sometimes they can't. Are some parts of the wall weaker than others or does it help to move closer? I tried that last time and broke through. This will be easier when I have the heavy onager but for now I only have the small one.

[Chris Death]

You can only use ladders with regular stone walls. For Large and Epic walls you get taller siege towers, but no ladders.

Thanks - didn't know that - i usually wait out the siege to give them a chance to see the outside
of the walls one last time.

~S~ CD

[Kiwiphoenix]

It's basically accuracy - how many shots hit the wall before your onagers run out of ammo. If you're lucky, you'll score enough hits to bring down the wall. But walls seem to have a pretty uniform strength, except at the gates. But a better use of the onagers would prolly be taking out the towers so your men can storm the wall in relative safety.

Also, towers can be useful for the fire they provide. I've seen entire units of defenders wiped out by ballista fire from siege towers. So though ladders are far better for actually storming a city, towers still manage to justify their cost (IMO).