Penetrating castles

[PunchDrunk]

Once you penetrate the first outer wall of the castle, how do you siege the second castle wall that surrounds the city square? Can you pick up your ram or ladders after you use them on the first wall?

[empr guy]

rams can be used over again, ladders cannot. However if you break down the first gate the ladders can be carried through the gate to the second set of walls.

[KingofPoland]

siege towers can only be used on the first layer. (obviously)

[Aeratus]

Ladders can also be reused, just like rams.

[PunchDrunk]

What do you have to do to reuse the siege equipment?

[KingofPoland]

take an infantry unit and put your cursor over the siege equipment. Right click when a hand icon appears.

[crzyrndm]

take an infantry unit and put your cursor over the siege equipment. Right click when a hand icon appears.

Ladders are quite finnicky to take down again, so zooming right in is a good idea. Also, if you know they won't hang around on the outer defenses once you have breached the walls, send your seige towers in first alone. Once they reach the walls the AI retreats, capture the gates and proceed to the second ring.

[Gavani]

Normally you can get into the inner keep via the outer wall somewhere so siege equipment is not normally necessary for the inside. The computer does not normally defend the entrances either. Never bother to attack a gate with towers when you can simply go around

[_Elysium_]

Normally you can get into the inner keep via the outer wall somewhere so siege equipment is not normally necessary for the inside.

Do you happen to know where you can do that? I've never managed it, even though there are doorways leading up there. I wait until I've got Catapults before attacking multi-layered castles.

[KingofPoland]

If you send infantry on the wall there are usually doors that lead to the upper layer so you can unlock the gateway. But to my knowledge the 1.5 patch takes out those doors, so if you have the 1.5 patch you have to infiltrate or breach the walls.

[_Elysium_]

... and I have the 1.5 patch.

[Aeratus]

I believe the doors to the inner ring is not accessible to the last ring. I remember trying to do that, but there wasn't a way to get on the inner ring of the citadel from walls of the second inner-most ring.

[Silverheart]

Cannons solve the problems.
2 or 3 units of them, with a big batch of storm troops (Heavy Infantry, for example) eradicates any defence.

Otherwise, Rams and Ladders can be re-used, but when making it into multi-layer castles, make sure to not attack at one point in the next line of defence - it´s better to force the enemy to spread out its´ troops or lose valuable ground (don´t forget to bring archers to rush up the ladders after the infantry has secured a section, and let them fire down on the defenders)

[Fireright]

No faffing about with rams and ladders required when the Console Gods gift me a mercenary monster bombard..or three.

Demolish the gaff then wade in with heavy infantry to get em routed to the centre, shoot em down to almost zero with archers and let the peasants finish off whats left. Job done.

[Silverheart]

The Mercenary Monster Bombard are insane, indeed.
They are horrible in field battles, but can annihilate even the strongest defenses in one or two shots.
With 2 or 3 of them, no castle, fortress or citadel stands a chance - at least not as long as you have sufficient footfolk with you to kill the defenders.

[Fireright]

Aye, monster bombards are shockers in field battles. I do seem blessed though on siege assaults as I always seem to receive 3 of them from the Console gods prior to attack

Probably explains why I've not seen ladders or rams for ages.

[Double A]

Yes, you can, assuming it doesn't get burnt.

When I penetrate a castle I usually use some peasants to protect my ram.

[Double A]

When I penetrate a castle I usually use some peasants to protect my ram.

M2 section, I am disappoint.

[Teutonic Warlord]

I think I have the 1.5 patch and I recently used 2 units of Merc Crossbowmen to use siege towers to get through the 1st wall of a fortress with only a general as a garrison. Then I just had them walk around on the walls where the second ring starts. The doors were still there, and the general just sat there and took those AP arrows and died very quickly. It is always best to go ahead and look to see if those doors are there before trying this, though.

[crzyrndm]

If you have 1.5 there is an iron gate on the inside of the entrance(unsure if in earlier versions). Neither attackers or defenders can use the passageway, but the passage is still shown. If you try and move a unit through it they go the long way around.