Mangonels aren't useless!

[Josh Knight]

I always assumed these things were totally useless, as i could never seem to hit anyone with them. But yesterday, i was being seiged by the moors and they brought up 1 unit of manogels. They shot 2 barrels, and these 2 barrels exploded and killed 250 MEN behind my walls in one shot. I would say that is a better kill rate than greek fire

[Megas Ycarus]

You just have to know how to use them. Sometimes you can even manage to kill somewhay 500 men in one shot, if you manage to keep them massed at the gates.

[Landtuber]

Try using them on bridge battles. Send one or two units of yours a quarter of the way across the bridge, and use it to delay the enemy for 30-40 seconds. Fire a mangonel. Wait for that lucky hit...

And bam, 500-600 dead. Personal best was 540ish. It also looks really cool to see a massive flaming hole appear in the enemy army and half of them rout,

[Alpha Zeke]

Holy crap! 500 soldiers? Thats pretty amazing. What factions get those? I haven't played with any faction that has them long enough to know that I could recruit them

[napoleonic]

yup, mangonels are must have for border settlements garrison

2 mangonels + 2 naffatuns/siphonatores + some cheap militias can guarantee the survival of your most often besieged settlements

[RabidSheepLegion]

yup, mangonels are must have for border settlements garrison

2 mangonels + 2 naffatuns/siphonatores + some cheap militias can guarantee the survival of your most often besieged settlements

lol catholic / muslim s'mores anyone?

[Gogolometro]

All get magdonels. Use them in combination with trebuchet. If you are byzantine/turk, the combo added with siphonatores, nafta guys will be the best way to counter the enemy stacks.

[Callawyn]

put a mangonel and a trebuchet in each field army, the morale effect from the rotting cows plus the morale effect from burning enemy troops will make attackers almost ready to flee before they even reach your main battle line.

Takes a little practice with each, but the combined morale effects plus the actual damage being done in kills can be very impressive.

I had the same experience as you, had some bad experiences due to the low accuracy of the mangonel and stopped using them for a while. Now though, they often rack up more kills than any other unit in my army.

[Spartan90]

Nice tip Callawyn, but I raise one problem with that theory: siege weapons in a field army. Sucks balls unfortunately

[RabidSheepLegion]

Nice tip Callawyn, but I raise one problem with that theory: siege weapons in a field army. Sucks balls unfortunately

wait until u get serpentines... ungodly accurate against foot troops lol

[Spartan90]

wait until u get serpentines... ungodly accurate against foot troops lol

Accuracy's not the problem. It's the huge lack of movement points when you use siege weapons in the field.

[RabidSheepLegion]

Accuracy's not the problem. It's the huge lack of movement points when you use siege weapons in the field.

Now that is true, but it does make sense however, can't have art lag behind and get ra*ed lol

[Pietrak]

Accuracy's not the problem. It's the huge lack of movement points when you use siege weapons in the field.

Yes, but that's an issue only when playing an Eastern European faction like Kievan Rus, when the distances between settlements is quite big compared to France/Germany.

[RabidSheepLegion]

Yes, but that's an issue only when playing an Eastern European faction like Kievan Rus, when the distances between settlements is quite big compared to France/Germany.

That is very true also

You could always just character_reset lol Rennes to Baghdad in one turn

[MadJackMcJack]

Mangonels are the only reason I'm holding onto Alexandria in my England campaign. Took it while on Crusade and the Fatimids have been throwing stack after stack at it since. In the lull before their first attack (Genoa took Cairo, the Crusade target, so that distracted them for a while) I built a Mangonel and it's been racking up 400-500 kills in the packed streets per battle. 4 battles in and it's got a gold chevron! Pack the streets with infantry, place the Mangonel behind it and let 'er rip.

That said, I'd never use it in the field. Not too good if the enemy are spread out.

[Sir Wem]

I´m only using Mangonels at bridges, one barrel makes a pretty hole
Or when i´m besieging a city, when i have a place left in my stack, to try and kill some units before i reach them with my ladders|towers. If your lucky enough you can kill over 200units this way, and you can capture the walls faster.

[RabidSheepLegion]

the nice thing bout mangonels and siphonatores is that the flames last for a bit so anyone walking over them die (dumb ai for example )

[Tate]

While defending during a siege they can be pretty good at setting siege towers on fire too. With a lucky shot you can even destroy a ram.

[RabidSheepLegion]

While defending during a siege they can be pretty good at setting siege towers on fire too. With a lucky shot you can even destroy a ram.

omg lol yea, i do that too! i do prefer long ranged archers using flaming ammo tho, more accurate and quicker

[brymht]

I actually love to use mangonels. Only against MASSES of enemy infantry though.