Is there any reason to use the early siege units?
I compared the early ranged units. I'll abbreviate melee strength with MS and ranged strength with RS.
Unit MS RS
Composite bowman 7 11
Catapult 7 8
Crossbowman 13 18
Trebuchet 12 14
Cannon 14 20
You get composite bowman and catapult about the samt time in the classical era, and the crossbowman and trebuchet is available in the medieval era. Also roughly about the same time.
The composite bowman is (as far as I can see) better in all aspects compared to the catapult. Same goes for crossbowman and trebuchet. And the catapult and the trebuchet have the huge drawback that you have to set them up before firing, which means that the enemy gets the first shot. The cannon which comes in the renaissance era is slightly better than the crossbowman, but not by much.
I know that the siege units (catapult, trebuchet, cannon) gets a bonus when attacking cities, but apart from that, is there any reason to use them? The only reason I can think of is that when you upgrade a crossbowman you get a unit with less range, which is a huge drawback, while the cannon upgrades to artillery that has 3 in range.
Best Answer
As you said, they get a bonus when attacking cities. This is not a small bonus- it's a 200% increase. That's 24 strength for the catapult (vs 11) and 42 (vs 18) for the trebuchet. When you're dealing with the high strength, health, and regeneration of fortified cities, you'll need that strength.
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What are siege units good for in ROK?
Siege units can carry the largest amount of resources in-game. Make sure you use them for gathering resources or taking resources from another city.How do you use siege units in Civ 6?
To use a Siege Tower in Civilization VI, you must first build one. To do this, you should reach the Classical Era and research Construction Technology. For a single Siege Tower, you need 100 Production Point and 400 Gold. The maintenance will cost you 2 Gold.What are siege units in Civ 6?
Siege units (sometimes called siege weapons) are a class of unit in the Civilization games. They are designed to attack cities. Depending on the game, they may be able to weaken targets by bombarding them or deal additional damage to city defenses.How do you use the trebuchet in Civ 6?
The concept is pretty simple: a weight on one end and a sling on the other carrying its payload of stones (or even rotting carcasses to spread disease, or incendiaries to start fires). When the weight is allowed to drop, it swings the other end of the arm up and over, whipping the missile towards the target.STATE OF THE UNIT SERIES - SIEGE - Rise of Kingdoms
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Answer 2
Another incentive to use siege units early is to increase their level to get the Range promotion (+1 range) as early as possible.
Early cities are realatively weak and need a few rounds to destroy a siege unit. You can attack a city, retreat, heal, attack again, etc. Later cities, in combination with occupying units, can obliterate a siege unit in one round, so this "training" is not possible anymore. If you have trained 2-3 siege units early on and keep them alive you can siege a city without it being able to shoot back. It's almost too easy from this point on. Even more so, if you also choose Logistics (1 additional attack per turn).
In summary, you build them early to use weak enemy cities or city-states to train elite siege units for later.
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