How to protect siege equipment?

[xQx]

I understand that you can build three of something to form an army but what if you only want to build one catapult, for instance, and send it to a nearby city. There is a pop up that I've seen in the game that says you need to protect the catapult with other units because of its weak defense but I can't figure out how. Since you can't combine different units into armies how do I protect a catapult with another unit?

I'm sure it's something simple but I can't figure it out.

 

[Killer Moogle]

I understand that you can build three of something to form an army but what if you only want to build one catapult, for instance, and send it to a nearby city. There is a pop up that I've seen in the game that says you need to protect the catapult with other units because of its weak defense but I can't figure out how. Since you can't combine different units into armies how do I protect a catapult with another unit?

I'm sure it's something simple but I can't figure it out.

Just make sure you have an archer/pikemen army traveling with your catapault. That way if you get attacked, they opponent has to get through your higher defensive archers/pikemen before it can attack your catapault.

 

[xQx]

Sorry, I'm still not getting it...what do you mean by travel with? Put them all in the same square for movement? Does this act as a stack as opposed to an army?

 

[Tschesae]

Yes, just move the archers in the same tiles as the catapult(s) - if attacked, the unit with the highest defence stat (the archers) will fight instead of the catapult.

 

[goofyballer]

What about the fact that an archer has the same defense stat (I think? are catapults 6/1?) as a catapult army, even though you'd rather the archer take the brunt of any attack?

Had this problem with tank armies last night - they were vulnerable to my opponents' tank armies and none of my other units in the same square had a better defense

EDIT: Oops, went and looked at gamefaqs - a catapult is 4/1 meaning an army is 12/3, so it would be the first unit to defend when attacked since an archer is only 1/2, yes?

I hate how the tooltips don't give you the a/d/m of units anymore like it did on PC.

 

[phr0ze]

Yes, When your strong offense unit (tank, catapult, canons) are travelling, just make sure you also end the turn with a defensive unit in the same square.

Generally tanks have a pretty good defense to start, but the riflemen have better defense. Archers have 2 defense, not 1. Pikemen are good too.

 

[goofyballer]

Tank - 10/6
Rifleman - 3/5

 

[xQx]

That's much more clear, thanks!