The Battering Ram is One of the Best Units in the Game

[Mrmyx22]

Roll one up. Then you have the first swordsman attack, move the ram to the next swordsman, have him attack. You use the same ram twice per turn.

Why would you ever need more than 1?

Do you have to be sitting on the ram to use it?

 

[tedhebert]

Eh, you don't need to move the ram - the ram will affect all units, as long as it's adjacent to the city (which is, arguably, very imbalanced).

Whew... it's such a relief to me to read this ;-)

 

[Duuk]

Wait, the ram has an area effect? I could have sworn the ram was sitting-unit only! Which means I've been ram-dancing for no reason!

Dammit! That means there are turns I've run out of moves and not been able to ram dance and not taken a city. :|

 

[WillowBrook]

Only one ram is needed to benefit attacks on the city. Which is OP. I would make the ram benefit only units on the tile it's on and adjacent tiles.

Also, it should be less effective against medieval and renaissance walls to make the seige tower a more appealing alternative.

 

[onedreamer]

Oh. Well then the site is outdated. I just got it from the civ page.

They certainly work up to Renaissance at which point the game is either won or lost.

?
it's actually when expansion is pretty much done and the race for victory BEGINS.

 

[bonafide11]

Only one ram is needed to benefit attacks on the city. Which is OP. I would make the ram benefit only units on the tile it's on and adjacent tiles.

Perhaps, but then I'd like to see it cheaper too.

 

[agonistes]

Roll one up. Then you have the first swordsman attack, move the ram to the next swordsman, have him attack. You use the same ram twice per turn.

Why would you ever need more than 1?

Because 1 ram can't be at 2 cities at the same time.

Because it takes a long time for a ram to travel 70 tiles.

 

[Jaybe]

It's true.

1. Useful throughout the game from the Ancient to the modern.
2. Cheap.
3. Can stack onto a tile with another unit (unlike Catapults)
4. Can't be targeted or killed as long as you have another unit on it.
5. Absolutely necessary for fast conquest.

Try this as a challenge: win domination on a large map against warlike and wall-like foes WITHOUT the battering ram.

Or you can be just a little patient and go without. Rarely build them, my legions and 1 or 2 cats do well enough and I have more drama to enjoy without overpowered support units.
Huge continents, though also epic/Prince.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

In 700 + hours of playing, never built more than 2 Battering Rams, and I think total I've built maybe 2 Catapults or Siege Towers in all the games combined. In recent games, a single Battering Ram plus an appropriate Great General to move it from city to city faster, then if I'm still expanding, Bombards later - 3 are usually enough to flatten any defenses until Civil Defense, if I'm still in Expansion Mode that late.

Yeah, Rams are really, really OP: they should only effect the unit they are stacked with, and they should have no effect at all on Renaissance Walls, assuming those represent the Vauban or Italian Trace anti-cannon fortifications of the 15th - 18th century. Those two changes would put them more firmly in their proper place in the game, and return Catapults, Siege Towers and such to relevance.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Yeah, Rams are really, really OP: they should only effect the unit they are stacked with, and they should have no effect at all on Renaissance Walls, assuming those represent the Vauban or Italian Trace anti-cannon fortifications of the 15th - 18th century. Those two changes would put them more firmly in their proper place in the game, and return Catapults, Siege Towers and such to relevance.

There's little incentive for even Medieval Walls right now, let alone Renaissance Walls, so perhaps Battering Rams should only be effective against Ancient Walls, and Siege Towers should only be effective against Ancient Walls and Medieval Walls.

I'd also have Medieval Walls and Renaissance Walls obsolete the early tech without changing their production costs. So that once you can build Medieval Walls, you just build them at their current cost, rather than having to build Ancient Walls first and then building Medieval Walls.

 

[npanth]

Battering rams also upgrade to medics, which are very good later in the game.

 

[OneMoreTurnPerTile]

Order of battle question. I typically have 3-4 archers, a ram and 2 melee when I'm attacking in ancient/classical. I usually have the archers attack first to weaken the wall, but should I have melee with the ram attack first to remove the wall and then hit with ranged?

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Order of battle question. I typically have 3-4 archers, a ram and 2 melee when I'm attacking in ancient/classical. I usually have the archers attack first to weaken the wall, but should I have melee with the ram attack first to remove the wall and then hit with ranged?

The latter. I know, because my instinct is to do the former I don't know the exact formula, but the percentage damage reduction against walls appears to be greater for ranged units than melee, so you're better off taking down the walls with melee attacks and then have archers fire into the unwalled city.

If you're going to capture this turn, though, you need to keep one melee unit back until after the archers have fired.

EDIT: Exception: If your melee units are at a disadvantage in the combat, it's probably better to lower the city's strength through archers before launching the melee attacks.

 

[Stevanovic]

Order of battle question. I typically have 3-4 archers, a ram and 2 melee when I'm attacking in ancient/classical. I usually have the archers attack first to weaken the wall, but should I have melee with the ram attack first to remove the wall and then hit with ranged?

You don’t need ranged at all if you are attacking a city with a battering ram. Surround the city with melee so that you you have it under siege and the city can’t heal. Use your archers to protect your troops from enemy units that are outside the city.

It’s more efficient to attack a walled city under siege with one battering ram and four or five melee, typically horsemen and later knights. Ideally you want to destroy the wall in one turn to prevent the wall firing on your troops on the AI turn.

Once the wall is destroyed the city is unarmed and the only damage a city can inflict is from a garrisoned unit in the city.

When the walls are destroyed, but before the city is captured is when you take a turn or two to pillage everything for gold, healing, science, culture and faith. Once you’ve finished pillaging you then capture the city.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

You don’t need ranged at all if you are attacking a city with a battering ram. Surround the city with melee so that you you have it under siege and the city can’t heal. Use your archers to protect your troops from enemy units that are outside the city.

It’s more efficient to attack a walled city under siege with one battering ram and four or five melee, typically horsemen and later knights. Ideally you want to destroy the wall in one turn to prevent the wall firing on your troops on the AI turn.

Once the wall is destroyed the city is unarmed and the only damage a city can inflict is from a garrisoned unit in the city.

When the walls are destroyed, but before the city is captured is when you take a turn or two to pillage everything for gold, healing, science, culture and faith. Once you’ve finished pillaging you then capture the city.

Very General Rule: If I'm using Warriors, I want to have at least 2 - 3 Archers with the Battering Ram to take the Average Ancient/Classical City. Otherwise, I can end up with a bunch of melee units seriously in the red when I'm done, and ripe for a counterattack. Once I've promoted Melee to Swordsmen or Spearmen to Pikemen, one Battering Ram and the Close-Quarters units can take just about any city up to the Renaissance without ranged support.

But, it's really fun to see how fast Crossbowmen can rip up a Medieval or earlier city: they must be firing Incendiary Explosive arrows from those things!

 

[Stevanovic]

Very General Rule: If I'm using Warriors, I want to have at least 2 - 3 Archers with the Battering Ram to take the Average Ancient/Classical City. Otherwise, I can end up with a bunch of melee units seriously in the red when I'm done, and ripe for a counterattack. Once I've promoted Melee to Swordsmen or Spearmen to Pikemen, one Battering Ram and the Close-Quarters units can take just about any city up to the Renaissance without ranged support.

But, it's really fun to see how fast Crossbowmen can rip up a Medieval or earlier city: they must be firing Incendiary Explosive arrows from those things!

In the early game I prefer a horseman rush, with battering ram if there are walls. With a great general, horsemen have five movement points. I use that movement and the flanking bonuses to clear enemy units before attacking the city. Once all enemy units are dead I then position 4 or 5 horsemen around the city, but outside the range of city walls. The next turn I move the battering ram up against the wall then hit the city with all four or five horsemen which removes the wall. The next turn I pillage everything, particularly farms to get my units up to full health. Only after that do I capture the city.

Cities without walls will go down on the first turn so I tend to stop when they are about 10 percent health to allow pillaging. Pillaging and delayed promotions usually allows my horsemen to be at full or near full health once the city is captured.

My horsemen promotions tend to beeline the flanking bonuses and I rarely invade with out the pillaging card.

Ironically the tactics above work really well when you are playing a peaceful game, particularly if the AI declares a war on me or I'm responding to an emergency. I still take out the walls so that I can't get hit by the ranged attack, then pillage everything, particularly every district, but I don't capture the cities. I get a huge boost of science, faith and culture from the pillaging plus promotions for my horsemen. When I've pillaged everything possible I negotiate peace at punitive cost.

As long as I don't capture a single city we are best friends again in 10 or 20 turns and the AI is crippled because they have to start from scratch rebuilding districts.

I really enjoy wars in a peaceful/culture game

 

[acluewithout]

Only one ram is needed to benefit attacks on the city. Which is OP. I would make the ram benefit only units on the tile it's on and adjacent tiles.

Also, it should be less effective against medieval and renaissance walls to make the seige tower a more appealing alternative.

There's little incentive for even Medieval Walls right now, let alone Renaissance Walls, so perhaps Battering Rams should only be effective against Ancient Walls, and Siege Towers should only be effective against Ancient Walls and Medieval Walls.

I'd also have Medieval Walls and Renaissance Walls obsolete the early tech without changing their production costs. So that once you can build Medieval Walls, you just build them at their current cost, rather than having to build Ancient Walls first and then building Medieval Walls.

Completely agree.

If these changes were made, they could maybe let melee or anti-cav have a late promotion which lets them attack like they have a battering ram.

I think the AI might also need a bit of a cheat too - it’s not great at using BRs as it is.

 

[NukeAJS]

I'd suspect that getting catapults is probably a better strategy but only if you have a great general.

Catapults with a great general that affects them (early game ones) can move and shoot in the same turn. This makes them faster than battering rams and able to attack normal units.

After two cities or so, they should be level 2 or even 3. Levels 2-3 siege units are really strong and having them with +unit damage, +district damage and -all damage before upgrading to bombards is a massive boon.

On the other hand, they aren't mutually exclusive, s why not get both in you can afford them?

 

[Victoria]

Spec Ops can target them regardless.

If you use rams the games over before spec ops

I should stick with battering rams ?

Have a look at the link in my signature on it, towers are only really of benefit once someone builds all 3 levels of wall.... and when does that happen?

 

[Laurana Kanan]

If you use rams the games over before spec ops

Of course, I was only correcting the OP's point #4.