I have started a new Syracuse campaign and I am confused what to use - ballista or scorpion? I atleast want to use either of them caz I never get to use siege with other faction. I want mostly for killing units rather than for siege
I have started a new Syracuse campaign and I am confused what to use - ballista or scorpion? I atleast want to use either of them caz I never get to use siege with other faction. I want mostly for killing units rather than for siege
Only played as Rome so not sure if they will work the same way. If you're looking for killing units then Scorpians are just fine. Remember they are fixed position so you need to make sure you pick your terrain. A more detailed comparison:
Ballistae will kill many soldiers with a single volley especially if they hit a clump. They run out of ammunition very quickly.
Scorpians kill a fair amount of soldiers and have a lot more ammunition.
I actually normally use both. The ballistae break large formations as they advance and instill some early heavy casualties. Then the Scorpians continue to whittle down the enemy as the fight continues. For the Romans especially a nice thing is that the Scorpians can compensate for a lack of long range units so they can start taking apart the enemies' archers once the main lines have engaged.
? Do you mean the moving scorpion vs the stone thrower? you'd always take the stone thrower first because if nothing else it makes siege fights so much easier because you can break walls and can do more or less the same type of things as scorpion, who's only advantage is that it's a bit more accurate which is helpful mostly only in sniping generals. they also have more ammo I guess, Also, the ballista stone thrower usually have a lot less trouble with shooting angels, where as the bolt throwers would need a very clean Line of sight to their targets to fire.
As for the fixed polybolos they feel pretty useless to me, the few times I have tried them they're rarely worth the trouble,
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Hello,
Like RollingWave, I find fixed artillery a real crap. Always wait for the good tech allowing you to use moving artillery. I first use ballistas causes they normally come first with the proper early tech. Then with the later tech, I get scorpions and try to have both units of each in the same army. Ballistas have longer range than scorpions and can be placed behind troops without worrying about friendly fire at least when enemy troops are not to close. I’ve had many occasions to comparAe both engines’ efficiency on the battlefield . At same level a ballista makes often 50% to twice more casualties than a scorpion does but is slower to reload. A ballista can do huge casualties against regrouped advancing infantry units but its accurracy is not as good as the scorpion’s. Also ballistas have difficulties to hit quicker units līke cavalry. On the contrary scorpions are able to target and deal huge damage to horsemen.
I've had great success with scorpions in my current Roman campaign. I have two units of Scorpions in each legion and they are competitive with the rest of my army, usually getting at least 300 kills per battle, often upwards of 600 with good positioning. However, I have been fighting in Iberia, which affords me a lot of hills to position them on. In the desert I think they are not as useful.
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