Stronghold: Warlords – Siege Units Guide
Siege Warfare
Sometimes siege weapons are needed to give your troops a hand, particularly when it comes to making holes in castle walls.
Siege Units
Ladderman
Ladderman are tasked with placing ladders against enemy walls to give troops access to enemy castles without having to make a hole in the wall. After laddermen have placed their ladders they become normal troops, but their fighting skills are limited and their armor is light.
Siege Tower
A massive work of battlefield engineering, the Siege Tower provides two functions. Its primary role is to make it to the enemy walls so that ÅŸt can drop its landing platform, allowing your troops to access the enemy’S walls. Its secondary function is to be a moving platform for missile units, giving them height advantages, similar to towers and walls.
Mantlent
A mantlet is a tall portable shield with wheels. IT is good for protecting your Infantry from volleys of arrows and bolts but is very weak against infantry attacks. It will absorb any missile fire within a short radius of itself.
Special Ability: Protection Radius
Fire Arrow Cart
The fire arrow cart, also known as the hwacha, is an experimental explosive siege weapon that fires a volley of fiery arrows at the enemy. When they hit their intended target the arrows can inflict great damage on groups of troops, but controlling explosive arrows is not easy and accuracy can be a problem.
Ballista
The ballista is a very accurate piece of equipment. It takes a while to reload, but the deadly long bolt is very effective against enemy siege equipment and can also help to wipe out heavily armored troops.
Fire OX
The fire ox is a bog-standard ox that has been packed full of explosives. Fire her up and send her careering towards the enemy to explode and inflict huge fiery damage to the first thing she hits. Be careful though, because if attacked early, a fire ox will detonate prematurely which can easily be disastrous to your own army.
Catapult
These siege machines allow you to demolish enemy structures from a distance. Catapults are mobile, fairly accurate, have a medium-range, and do a medium amount of damage. They fire heavy rocks with a low trajectory, making them good for precision attacks to destroy enemy structures.
Mortar
These slow-moving siege equipment fire primitive cannonballs that can inflict high damage to castle walls, gatehouses, and towers from medium range.
Cannonballs are the only siege equipment ammo that bounces and rolls when it hits the ground. With some skill, this can be exploited to hit groups of units or structures that are just out of range, or even around corners of terrain. However, the damage inflicted by rolling cannonballs decreases as they slow down over distance.
Rocket Launcher
These highly volatile rockets on wheels can do massive damage to walls, gatehouses, and towers if they can get near enough. You only get one chance to use these so make sure you use the well. Their explosive nature makes them easy targets for enemy missile troops which can be a big problem if they are left unattended in your own castle.
Trebuchet
Harnessing the ancient principles of the sling and the lever at a grand scale, the Trebuchet can deliver heavy rocks at a high trajectory over great distances. While less accurate than the catapult, it has much larger range and can be devastating against walls while sitting well out of harm’s way. Peasants may scoff at this engineering marvel, but you will have the last laugh when their fortified castle is filled with diseased animal giblets.
The trebuchet has two forms: packed and unpacked. When packed, it may be moved on wheels to bring it into the range of its target. Once there, it can be unpacked using the unit orders panel, allowing it to be fired. Trebuchets are very vulnerable to enemy footsoldiers and thus should be carefully guarded.
In addition to rocks, Trebuchets also have the special ability to throw thunder crash bombs and diseased animals. Thunder crash bombs cause fiery explosions on contact. Hurling dead animals over enemy walls cause the spread of disease.