I don't understand catapults?

[bathsheba666]

I have a bunch of catapults, and when I approach a city, I get a specific icon like a crosshair. Using this weakens the city defences.

In open territory howver, there appears to be no icon, so if I go to attack an enemy piece it is a real all-or-nothing attack, not a weakening bombardment...

Am I missing something?

 

[svv]

There are two things that catapults/cannon/artillery can do. Bombard and attack.

Bombarding is the red target. You can only do this next to a city. It reduces the city's percentage defense (shown in white by the city name) granted to it by its culture.

Attacking is attacking the defending unit/stack. A side effect of these attacks is "collateral damage." The defedning unit will be damaged, and units other than the unit selected to defend will receive damage, whether or not your catapult wins the attack. So, for this reason, it often makes sense to attack with catapults/cannon/artillery even if it's fairly clear that you'll lose that combat, to soften up the enemy stack for your other units.

 

[binhthuy71]

Nope; you have it right. When attacking a unit with a cat it's a head-on attack.
The cat also causes collateral damage thus the strategy of using suicide cat attacks to weaken a stack.
You'll also notice that the crosshairs icon disappears once you've bombarded a city's defense to zero. From then on the cat is also attacking the enemy units within the city head-on.

 

[bathsheba666]

Thanks,

So what I was missing is that catapults are really like suicide units out in the open.

So, as you say, probably only useful to do this against a stack.

 

[binhthuy71]

Thanks,

So what I was missing is that catapults are really like suicide units out in the open.

So, as you say, probably only useful to do this against a stack.

Yes, but cats are relatively cheap to build (40 Hammers). If you're facing superior units a few suicide cats will definitely take some of the starch out of them.
My Stack of Doom doesn't leave home without "extra" cats to weaken defenders and thereby reduce the damage they can do to my attacking troops. That helps to keep an offensive rolling.

 

[Squad23]

catapults are a must-have in medievil warfare!
But always defend them with a strong unit because they are very weak defenders

 

[Eggolas]

Catapults and by extension all siege/collateral damage units (including the CKN) become more important as you increase difficulty. They weaken the enemy for your more important units to defeat and for your city busters to wreak havoc.

Build two CR2 promoted cats to go along with the accuracy promoted ones that strip the city defense to 0%. Then attack with both CR2 cats. They may die, but the damage they do to defenders will be quite helpful in taking the city.

 

[PaintItBlue]

I lead any SOD (Stack of Death) with about 6-8 cats, when you go into the actual siege attack make sure you use the cats that are only 3-5 exp (rookies fromt he town) for the throw away weakening units. Eventually you will end up with some cats then end up able to attack 4 maceman with only 1.3-3.6 str (numbers aren't accurate, but the idea is the same), left from the weakening phase, these maceman should be a cakewalk for you few elite cats that actually gain exp and head up the collateral damage promotions line*1

Also these weakened units are good for letting your general unit safely get some exp which may have a 2X multplier from the leadership promotion


*1 - Barrage I None Siege, Armored +20% collateral damage
Barrage II Barrage I Siege, Armored +30% collateral damage, +10% vs. melee units
Barrage III Barrage II Siege, Armored +50% collateral damage, +10% vs. gunpowder units

 

[KMadCandy]

yup, i even call them suicide cats. i name most of my units, but i don't name cats since it might make them less brave or something. i go for barrage to get accuracy like PaintItBlue does, brings down more of the city defense each time you bombard. i'm kinda ruthless (for me) at just running them in at 0.05% chance or whatever, i know they'll die but the soften the targets up for the rest of the army. as mentioned, they're cheap and i make a lot knowing i'll lose them. every once in a while, they do retreat and live, i cheer, and kind of protect those guys, and those i do name for the promotions they have.

wait til you meet trebuchets in warlords! well, hopefully wait til you 'make and use' trebs, not 'meet as in somebody uses them on you'.

 

[Fulcrum]

i seriously dislike this suicidal business with catapults, thank god for the invention of bombers!

 

[jeff744]

unfortunatly many thng that should be allowed in Civ 4 are not (using cats to attack squares, cruise missiles, etc), maybe a patch will add some of these, but for now you will have to stick to mods if you want to bombard squares

 

[mice]

i seriously dislike this suicidal business with catapults, thank god for the invention of bombers!

Chazmod has ranged bombardment so you can bommbard units or walls from one tiles distance. It's good ,but in fact it's a bit overpowered becasue the AI uses it only a bit, but the human can keep the same 6 trebs all game and dsetroy a lot with them.