Are those Ballistae only for show?

[Silius Saurus]

I'm betting that this has been noticed before, but the AI never seems to use it's siege weapons the way they were meant to be used- i.e. I have yet to see them use them on walls. I have seen enemy stacks lay siege to my cities with ballistae, but they always wait for ladders and such to be built.

Any way of fixing that?

Playing with ALX, to be specific.

p.s. I have seen them use elephants to batter open the gates of towns, but not the big guns.

[chaplain118]

the AI will always wait to build siege engines before attacking your city. It's part of the programming CA added to make sure the AI can't completely destroy the player in one turn.

[Ferdiad]

Ballista have attack against buildings so they're very useless.I use spies.

[Silius Saurus]

catapults or whatever. The stone-throwing kind.

[NerZhulen]

AI usually have a spy in the city where it attacks, and if he manage to open gates, than they attack right away... poor cities of mine..

[military tribune]

i.e. I have yet to see them use them on walls.

If I understand your wording correctly, you mean ballista can be mounted on top of the city wall, right? I love to see this feature but I have not seen one before. Is it actually possible for defender to do so?

[Silius Saurus]

No, I mean the AI armies equipped with siege engines laying siege to a city and NOT using them to storm the joint. They pause and build ladders, rams and suchlike.

[RedGuard]

i think there a pretty useless unit overall and should be replaced by more units after all wasn't rome the first military to have a permanent corp of engineers?

[Kozmonavt]

No, I mean the AI armies equipped with siege engines laying siege to a city and NOT using them to storm the joint. They pause and build ladders, rams and suchlike.

Unless of course it has elephants, then it's immediatelly off to the nearest stone walled city to have them deep fried.

[rometotal]

yes the Ballista is pretty useless in this game .Also personally I think the ability to build siege equipment and use them to attack cities after just 1 turn is kind of cheating and make this game too easy and unrealistic .


The Wall Building is useless too , it takes terrible long time to build and yet , you or the AI can still attack those Walled Cities with the same simple sieges that are used to attack wooden town . Just autoresolve the battle

[military tribune]

S.S., sorry that I misunderstood what you intended to say. I am playing with Alex and I remember in one defensive siege, attacker did assault city wall in coordinated manner, i.e., using all kind of siege weapons. Once a breach on city wall was created, their units abandoned ladders and towers and swamped into the breach.

But I still like ballista on wall to be in RTW's future version:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[AspisPhalanx90]

thats odd, because ive had them use all sorts of siege engines on me. They tend to still build siege equipment, but make tons of breaches with ballistas, then proceed to burn down the city...noone said they used them effectivley

[RedGuard]

what game is that military tribune?

[Apio Claudio]

what game is that military tribune?

It's ceaser III dude but i would advise Imperium civitas Reign of Augustus or Imperium Civitas III because Ceaser it s ing boring the gods are always striking your cities with thunders earthquakes and other stuff if not pleased and sometimes de ppl leave the city and all your buildings burn down, ImperiumCivitas has better graphics and earthequakes and stroms and you can do naval battles

[military tribune]

what game is that military tribune?

it's Caesar 4 actually

[NightEye]

I use spies and artillery in sieges, the spies are for intel on troop numbers and opening the gates to save me ammo while the artillery is there to thin out the opposition and takeout the towers (and maybe takeout the general early). Less troops I lose, less need to retrain them.

[Silius Saurus]

I don't use spies so much in RS as they are so damned expensive. 4K per spook is a little too much to spend on them when they usually get wacked trying to infiltrate. I use them as scouts and bodyguards for my key generals, mainly. They are kept busy finding enemy assassins who congregate near my towns, and of course my assassins are kept busy taking them out.

I'm glad some of you have replied that you have in fact seen the AI use siege engines against you. Some of my most interesting battles were siege defense. So I will keep playing and expect to see some of that.

[Apio Claudio]

it's Caesar 4 actually

lOL my mistake, i dislike that map, the trade in that part of britain is good but besides that naaaa

[Ferdiad]

Guys, take it to PMs.

I never use artillery, I use spies, they're more efficiant pond for pound.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

How exactly do you train spies? All my agents turn out crap.