Catapults with City Raider or Collateral Dmg?

[IAM]

I don't use accurracy. Typically I'll have a doxen cats in an attack stack. Half barrage half CR. I lose about 3 suicide cats on average in an attack. Cat losses are what ussually slow my advance the most.

 

[Cutlass]

I've been trying Drill with my siege weapons on the theory that if I attack a city with them they're dead anyways, so by having Drill if they strike first they will actually do some damage before dying. Also, if I understand it, when they strike first there might be some slim increase in the chance of survival. In BtS, so far I have received no experience promotions on an attacking siege weapon. They all either die or withdraw. So I just go for any hope of survival. And either bring large enough numbers, or bring low promotion fodder for knocking the best defenders down to size.

 

[Milly]

Actually, siege weapons do get experience if they withdraw.

 

[Diamondeye]

Actually, siege weapons do get experience if they withdraw.

Yeah, one each time. Makes for some easy xp farming if you catch one enemy (example scout) with one unit to protect the siege weaps and then a heavy stack of siege to keep attacking. Although they stop being able to attack when the enemy reaches 25%. But you can have one siege weapon do like this for a lot of XP. If you have the time and surplus. Usually Vassalage, Theocracy and Barracks does the trick nicely. 7 xp. That's nearly 3 promos if youre chm.

 

[Wretch]

I'll put CR on Trebs, but cats get exclusively Barrage or Drill - and the Drill cats get barrage as soon as they get their first promotion.

I'll vote for this one, too. The CR Trebs aren't expected to live and have their replacements on the way protected by ocupation troops or somesuch.

 

[Milly]

Indeed, Diamondeye.

Don't forget the Spanish Citadel, too, which gives siege units 5 more exp.

 

[Mad2rix]

I usually use catapults for collateral damage as if their bombardment level render useless if enemy city civ build castles.

Trebuchets for City Raider III boots moderate to high chance of survival until the arrival of cannons.

 

[MarkM]

Either you consider the unit expendable, or you don't. If you do, then collateral is the way to go. If not, then city raider, but that really only increases the survival odds from between slim and none to between not-quite-so-slim and none.

It's not quite so clear cut IMO. If the city has a lot of homogeneous defenders (all same strength more or less), then sending a lot of collateral-promoted units through meat grinder makes sense. But if there are a few # of defenders, or a few that are much stronger than other units, then CR makes more sense IMO.

Because it depends on circumstances, I usually avoid choosing my promos for siege weapons until just before I attack all the time, except when it helps speed healing from last battle.

 

[ReyLuis]

Definately CR, having that extra strength reduces the amount of dying cats, and that, in the long run, means less wasted and less WW.
Plus, if there is ONE strong defender (Lbow comes to mind), one suicide CR cat puts down his health atleast a bit. I have seen a longbow fend off 3-4 Barrage cats without taking damage. You're not very enthusiasthic when your cats are gone and odds still are <2%...

Very good point

I find I usually do the same: take 1 or 2 CR cats and the rest Col. I play on Emperor (sometimes Immortal) so I tend to build a lot of siege weapons. The only 1 thing I would say is that when I have Heroic Epic (I tend to beeline for Literature 99% of the time) in my production city, the 'lost' hammers on suicide cats are neither here nor there

 

[OneLeggedRhino]

ReyLuis: When you find a post from 2008, most of the folks aren't around anymore to read your "yeah, me too" reply.

 

[strijder20]

You could promote with CR and Barrage...

I'd choose a CR2 cat and a Barrage2 cat over two CR + Barrage cats.

 

[GGracchus]

I'd choose a CR2 cat and a Barrage2 cat over two CR + Barrage cats.

His last activity was over 6 months ago, I doubt he'd see this.

 

[Archon_Wing]

If you're warring in the feudal era, barrage on some can help since if you take too long to bombard defenses down, it gives the enemy more chance to build defenders, or god forbid, hit you with collaterial damage.