Is it realistic to burn a siege tower before it reacher the wall??

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

Today i started an early Byzantine campaign just too see how it would go, i must say it is harder that it looks - im loosing to Hungarians and have war with Egypt(they blockaded me for no reson and just left on next turn???), Seljuks, and just made peace with Venice.

Anyway, this is not about the campaign here - i fought a siege against Hungary today in which i had 4 units of the early archers(i forgot their name) they are pretty weak with 2 ranged attack i think and 1 melee attack, but i figured that since i had them in mass i could take down the siege tower that was coming on that side, i placed all of the 4 units on 1 side of the wall and started firing at the siege tower. I figured it will take some time for it to catch fire, but not as much as it did in the end.

One of the archer units units had to go into melee while the other 3 fireed at the siege tower, in the end i fired about 10 - 15 volleys into it when it finnaly caught fire, but it was much, much too late anyway - 1 and a half of my archer units was already dead(i kept firing at the tower because the archers couldnt do anything better at that point).

Few turns before that i fought rebels that had better Byzantine archers(forgot the name again), i do remember that in the description it said something about them being turkish origin and provided the empire with much needed professional archers. Anyway, the rebels had 2 units of those on the walls firing away at my siege tower and they managed to burn it just as my men were about to get into it.

I have never managed to burn a siege tower so quickly even with better archers(but on vanilla) - is it just the poor quality of my archers or the AI gets stronger siege towers?

And another question - can i use my greek fire to burn a siege tower? If i can how effective is it? Im guessing it would burn the siege tower in a single burst from the whole unit.

Edit: noticed the typo in the title but im guessing i cant edit it -.-

[thespaniard]

well the AI gets a bonus to burning stuff down ie siege towers and rams. i just dont even bother shooting them with fire arrows anymore as i can get more kills with firing normal arrows at a faster speed at enemy troops carrying the ram or carrying ladders. also i dont beieve greek flamethrowers will shoot off the walls but i may be wrong in that regard

[Chazz1225]

in my experience, i'd say that it all comes down to two things in burning siege equipment 1. the accuracy of the volley 2. pure chance.

Like thespaniard says the AI will get a bonus to burning down siege equipment but their concentration of shot in siege defence goes primarily to the first unit to come into range. For me if i'm siege defending with archers that have flaming arrows, i've found defending large towns who's gates are enveloped by the surrounding walls to be the most beneficial for them as they still have a line of sight of the siege ram once it reaches the gate and you can easily demolish the unit guiding the ram, and burning the ram was much easier because their line of fire was directly concentrated at the siege ram.

So in the end it shouldn't matter what type of archer unit you have defending if you want to destroy the siege equipment before it reaches the walls, as long as they have a clear sight at peppering the tower or ram you have an equal opportunity at burning them down, still down to luck if you can though.

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

That ofcourse is if i defend with large walls, this time i was defending in a wooden castle, my spearmen also did a bad performance, like they usually do in sieges(no schiltron and minimal space at the gates).

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I tested the greek fire today and it was unfortunately impossible to target the structure (ram, siege tower etc.) with them, but if i target the unit pushing it i manage to shoot some or the volleys onto it, and it does damage in % rather than burning it, so it dosent ever catch fire, but takes % damage, which is unfortunately small, i fired all i had from my 2 units into a ram and it was only 78% damaged.

I hope someone can make a mod that allows them to target, and put fire to, rather than do % dame to the siege equipment.

[Astarte]

I tested the greek fire today and it was unfortunately impossible to target the structure (ram, siege tower etc.) with them, but if i target the unit pushing it i manage to shoot some or the volleys onto it, and it does damage in % rather than burning it, so it dosent ever catch fire, but takes % damage, which is unfortunately small, i fired all i had from my 2 units into a ram and it was only 78% damaged.

I hope someone can make a mod that allows them to target, and put fire to, rather than do % dame to the siege equipment.

You can still use greek fire to defend walls. Just wait for atleast half of unit to come to walls from ladders or tower, then shoot a salvo and unit is annihlated.