How the hell do you use them? I can use Onagers with much efficiency (even hitting elephants and generals) but I can´t work out how to use Ballistae. Does somebody know?
They were used much in reality, so they must have had some use.

Ballistas are only good for destroying wooden walls. That's it. Scorpions have a higher rate of fire. They're both worthless compared to a good archer unit, like Cretans, Chosen Archers, Archer Auxilia, etc.

The only good field artillery is the onager, with fire.

Well, I have used repetition Ballistae in bridges with some effect, but some Cretan mercs would have been better...
btw somebody with such a name is such a challenge to my authority... kill them all ;) !

Where does one hire Cretan mercs? On Crete?

I've hired them in Crete, Greece, and in Turkey. The merc recruitment zone is insane.

I use ballistae and that to take out the towers on wooden walled cities. But I try not to burden my army's movement points by taking siege implements along with them.

I use ballistae and that to take out the towers on wooden walled cities. But I try not to burden my army's movement points by taking siege implements along with them.
why not onagers?

their a lot slower, and for sieges you can build the stuff, the onagars don't add much. (unless the enemy has towers that fire ballistae, then you need them.)

When do they have towers with ballistae?
Also, the onagers aree excellent against people on the ther side of a bridge or elephants.

PS: There are ballistae bolts inside siege towers, when moving your siege tower never forget to press the fire at will button, they kill a lot.

As far as ballistae and scorpions best use, as in real life and history, they where first created by the greeks to destroy enemie phalanx formations. This "siege weapon" is best put to use on a flat plain with few obstucales like trees, rocks and hills, so it can have a clear killing zone, and it should always target the enemy center phalanx, why? a heavy bolt fired from a lond distance against a closed packed and sometimes very deep phalanx formation (a lot of players tend to deep in its units and even put over other units so they have a better defense strenght) can kill up to 10-20 or more men from each shot, with the extra experience and make it repeating ballista, your enemies center phalanx will have the worst day of their lifes, weather its defending or attacking. BTW, ballistas never seem to run out of bolts.

Example, on a battle against a friend: he deployed 4 ballistae against me with me havind carthages sacred band infantry, i took the deffensive on a smalll hill top and waited for him, he just killed and killed sacred bands like crazy from a distance from over 10m or so, till i got tired and frustrated that attacked him, losing the battle.

But i tend to prefer onagers, heavy onagers even better, barbacue anyone?

I use onagers really....ballistae dont do much area damage

Ballistae don´t have the area damage, but in the campaign they appear early in the game, they´re cheap, and they really do damage.

i use scorpions mainly in defencive positions for aforesaid reasons concerning phalanxes, put them on a hill, and defend that hilltop like the Alamo

The best scen for the Alamo-like maneouvring would be the Sarmatian Mound... it´s very good for downhill charges with chariots...

The best scen for the Alamo-like maneouvring would be the Sarmatian Mound... it´s very good for downhill charges with chariots...

I once did that :) Looked like a scene from a movie :goodjob:

I once got challenged by one of my mates to a "just general´s bodyguards" battle. I chose Britannia with its charioteers and we were in a Sarmatian Mound in the midst of the winter... I killed each and every one of his valiant Romans... :evil:

:lol: He didn't know that the chariots were so much better? Or was his pride too big?

The thing about chariots is that the "special attack" that just knocks down infantry kills cavalry, so chariots eat cavalry alive.

His pride was too big, and he´d never played with the Brits before, while they´re one of my favourite nations...

Brits have chosen swordsmen (these guys rock) plus longswordsman and woad warriors, very strong infantry no doubt (this on RTR)

and also the picts are good are chraging, plus the head throwers and slingers are really nice... the slingers rock in forest ambushes... although the Rhodians are better...