The best strategy for rams and towers

[Victoria]

I did some testing in page 2 of the thread - https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/catapults.618003/
and the conculsion as I see it is

If the city walls has less health than the garrison you ar better off using a Ram
If the garrison has less health or both are the same it is best to use a tower.

There is no penalty for using both together, in fact it doubles damage but if you are using the right device in the first place you will not get the city down any faster by using both Ram and tower.

You may also want to use a RAM regardless if you want to give additional target practice once walls are down.
You may also want to use a tower regardless if it gets the city taken faster which it will on somecases.

For Ranged
A ram does not helped ranged units but a tower helps ranged land units (not sea)
More importantly the ranged units can be 2 tiles away

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Maybe I'm weird, but I prefer to use ranged and siege units to knock down both and only use melee for the final blow.

 

[MooFreaky]

Maybe I'm weird, but I prefer to use ranged and siege units to knock down both and only use melee for the final blow.

Im exactly the same. Even though i know i shouldnt

 

[Victoria]

Ranged units work with rams and towers, look at the post

Edit: ranged units work with towers

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Ranged units work with rams and towers, look at the post

So, do rams work with Naval Raiders? I do like to knock down walls so my Sea Dogs can move adjacent to the city center or encampment and pillage with impunity.

 

[Victoria]

So, do rams work with Naval Raiders? I do like to knock down walls so my Sea Dogs can move adjacent to the city center or encampment and pillage with impunity.

Oooohhhh. I think I just got a little excited. I will test it after dinner and post it here. I imagine they do as xbows seem to..probably must be adjacent

 

[myclan]

Oooohhhh. I think I just got a little excited. I will test it after dinner and post it here. I imagine they do as xbows seem to..probably must be adjacent

I think in your post, ram has no effect on your xbow

I will choose to conclude the strategy like this:
ram makes your melee units do more damge to the wall, and tower makes all your units do more damge to the city regardless of a wall.
So if the wall is very weak, just need a ram, for it will be torn down quickly and damage to the city will not be reduced by a large amout.
If the wall is relatively weak, need a ram+a tower, it will help you to tear down the wall before taking th city, so less damage suffered. Also no damage reduced before the wall is down.
If the wall is nearly as strong as the city, just need a tower, you will not be able to tear down the wall before taking the city so ram is just useless.

 

[Victoria]

So, do rams work with Naval Raiders?

Here is your answer ... I will check melee still do as I never bother due to the slow ram speed at sea.
EDIT... Firetuner is iffy at times... gotta rstart PC to clear runtime error.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here is your answer ... I will check melee still do as I never bother due to the slow ram speed at sea.
View attachment 473111

Since there is no difference in damage done, I will take that as a no.

 

[myclan]

Here is your answer ... I will check melee still do as I never bother due to the slow ram speed at sea.
View attachment 473111

So it shows that ram has no effect on melee naval attack.

I'm also curious about normal range attack like archer has a -17 on city while catapult do not. Will tower cancal the -17 for the range units? How about naval range attack?

 

[Scaramanga]

Maybe the ram has to disembark.

 

[Victoria]

So it shows that ram has no effect on melee naval attack.

Nope... a sea dog is a ranged ship
This is the results of a melee ship with a ram

No ram

With Ram

With tower - this cities wall strength is only 50

 

[Victoria]

So a tower works with sea melee also
Any other tests?.... gotta let one of my monsters pay lol for half an hour

 

[UWHabs]

So to recap, bring a tower and a ram and you'll get the best of both worlds? Never knew that the tower worked for siege/range units as well. I had always assumed that if I brought along a tower, that was basically wasting my siege units as they would be busy taking down the walls while my melee units would just capture the city.

 

[Larsenex]

I almost always bring towers now. They are invaluable with Muskets especially if I do not have bombards yet.

 

[Victoria]

Never knew that the tower worked for siege/range units as well.

It may not be the tower, it could be the ram I just tested with both there... I guess I should test both but lost the mood ATM.

 

[UWHabs]

It may not be the tower, it could be the ram I just tested with both there... I guess I should test both but lost the mood ATM.

In your crossbow test, they hadn't knocked down the walls, so I doubt the ram would have any effect on the city health without them down. And the boat test you have above shows city damage with a tower while there was no damage without it.

 

[Victoria]

So yes... it looks like towers... and also at range for xbows!

Only 4 xbow in this test but 2 tiles away with a siege tower against the walls - note the garrison damage is high

5 Xbow with no seige ...

5 XBOW with both

5 XBOW with RAM

5 xbow with tower

 

[shaglio]

I always thought Towers were better than Rams. Why bother doing more damage to Walls, when you can bypass them entirely? Especially if you plan on keeping the city after you capture it - you won't have to waste time afterwards repairing the Walls.

 

[Victoria]

Rams are better than towers early