I have that problem a lot too. The way I fix it, is to double click on the wall top, stop them so a bunch of troops sort of 'spread' into the tower and you can get them to climb it. Problem mostly solved. Just keep on repeating it.

But thats a shitty way to play. Forget siege towers as a means to mount the wall. I just use them to wipe out the defenders. Onagers and sap points are what I use to destroy walls.

My strategy for taking a town is to make as many holes in the wall as possible and assault them simultaneously.

The more holes in the wall, the better you can take the city.

No bypassing the swear filter.
-yak

[This message has been edited by yakcamkir (edited 09-21-2006 @ 04:44 AM).]

Whats up with the cursing! There is no reason for the f word.

You use siege towers to get troops up them slowly. When it reaches the wall, they climb up it, the bridge falls and they run across it. The advantage of Siege Towers is that they fire arrows or bolts at the enemy on the walls.

I generally use ladders to get my troops up fast into the corners of the city where the Ai doesn't defend and siege towers to provide fire support while I take the gatehouses and the wall towers. That way, I have the missile advantage and the enemy troops are killed off by their own towers, my siege towers and any missile troops I have on the walls.They usually carry on until there are two or three units worth left (although there may be ten tiny units) and then cower in the square.

One big advantage with siege towers over ladders are that with towers, a big part of your unit reaches the top of the wall at the same time, and that gives you smaller losses compared to comming up 2 at a time as you do with ladders.

true. also with ladders you generally take more casualties from projectiles (less cover).
One advantage a ladders though is they take less to construct, so instead of one tower you can have 2 or 3 ladders.
They're also harder to burn.

Ladders get your troops up quicker. Also, if you go for a corner, particularly one that isn't covered by a tower, then you can get several units up onto the walls without the AI noticing. You can then move towards the gates, stopping with one tower between your men and the gates, so the enemy come through the doors one at a time to face your lines. Combine that with a general below for the command bonus and possibly a siege tower or two for fire support and you have a winning force. It ia also worth sending a light unit to run around the walls and take all the towers (I generally use skirmishers for this). That way, the enemy units inside the city get shot by the towers, whittling them down and the AI isn't intelligent enough to retake them.

Skirmishers are excellent here, as they can stand where they can fire at the units inside the walls but out of the fields of fire of the towers. By turning fire at will off and only turning ig on when they are standing above a stationary unit, you can dish out huge amounts of hurt. I have done it with two full units of Velites on a unit of Hoplites (about 70 men) and killed nearly forty in the first volley. That volley fire is absolutely devastating on a stationary unit. Another time, I used three units of Libyan Mercenaries on a unit of Elephants when I was attacking Carthage. One volley (although it was a volley of about 235 javelins) caused them to run amok instantly, charging into the Carthagnian faction leader and killing about ten of his bodyguard (one of those unexpected bonuses that you occasionally get). The same can be said for archers and slingers, but skirmishers are far more effective at this particular job.

yakcamkir is right, as usual. His spear-chuckers don't have much ammo, tho, even if you've turned off fire at will - those spears DO HURT tho!

If the city has many defenders, I prefer archers/slingers because they have so much ammo. Also, even on the smallest stone walls the extra height gives these guys an almost crazy distance bonus!

Do the towers/gates seem to have ANY limit to how much ammo they have? On timed battles, anyway, it seems they'll shoot for as long as the battle lasts. (Recently took Corinth with 6 seconds to spare! - the closest I've ever come to losing a battle because timed out.)

I've never known them to run out and I have fought out siege battles that lasted over an hour.

The important thing about volley firing is that all the javelins go together. Therefore, the enemy don't have the time to move, so nearly all of them hit.

They do run out. The proof is thus:
Get some non-missile infantry (Including infantry) to hold teh seige tower.
Notice a blue bar pops up on the unit card? That's the ammo bar you see with other missile infantry.

I think all seige towers can shoot about 45 seconds if in constant range of the enemy on the walls. However, the stone wall ones shoot arrows and slower than the ballista-shooting large and Epic ones. It also seems that missile infantry (Including leigons) can boost the amount of ammo at a cost of their own.

He was talking about the wall towers.