Siege Infantry

[FroggyKilla]

Are they a good alternative to the Ranged Siege, i.e. Cannons, Artillery, Howies?

 

[Wynne D Fanchon]

Tried them once, and did not like them at all. On paper, they seem ok, but in practice they arent all that great. The range is one less than siege cannons, meaning they can get killed by ballistas, normal towers and sometimes redoubts. I prefer the quick burst damage that siege cannons give. However, there is a research in library that gives Siege Infantry another +1 range but that isn't until Global Age, level 9 Library so I might give them another chance or if someone has tried it and can convince me it is good after the +1 range upgrade. I haven't seen any high end players use them so I am under the assumption that they are just 2nd best siege cannons regardless of the library upgrade.

 

[Quang t legend]

For new lower age players, the mortar troop can be boosted +30% damage much faster in the University than artillery. But they are harder to balance your army and need extra time to research. They and the the shooters will shoot at the same defenders and waste firepower but when do so slower to kill defend buildings.

 

[ReekyBullet]

I have the library research completed for the mortar troop. It's not worth it IMO. They just simply don't do their job better than a howitzer as the howitzer can fire faster and with more damage, essentially turning an encounter with a tower into a quick draw shootout where the mortar just can't compete.
I observed this consistently in practice where so often a building will be already destroyed and you'll see the mortar shells hitting way too late, effectively doing nothing.

The worst part is that they have one of the most lopsided [troop space:training time] ratios in the game and for a unit prone to stepping on land mines this is pretty harsh. If the training time was slashed by about 60-70% then I could see them being a good troop, but until then I say don't waste your time doing the library research.

 

[British Coffee]

No. They have short range, meaning that they die to pretty much everything. There are other problems but their ridiculously short range is what renders them useless.

 

[ReekyBullet]

Their range is the same as howitzers and British shooters for me since I've done the library research, range isn't the issue

 

[Quovatis]

I've tried them. They get distracted by troops easily, and when they fire, they miss because of the slow shells that are lobbed in the air, so a lot of their shots are wasted. They also get hung up on walls and take forever to break through.

 

[BeerMan]

Perhaps others will disagree, as I'm no expert nor one of the highest level players here (currently 150 IA), but I've narrowed down my troop selection to the following:
War army: rifles, tanks, healing trucks, cannons, planes
For my raiding army, I replace most of my cannons with heavy infantry for faster build times and quick food runs.

I never use raiders, miners, mortars, or anything from the factory, as I don't feel their value matches their troop space/training time. Everybody has their own style, of course, but I've found this mix works very well for me. I typically attack players 15 to 25 levels ahead of me in war and generally succeed. It also simplifies my upgrade tree, as I can focus on a relatively small subset.

 

[Bowmore]

That's pretty much the popular unit set. You should give the motorcycle raiders a look though - they are great for raiding and can easily outperform 3 infantry.

 

[FroggyKilla]

Thank you for taking the time to respond!

 

[British Coffee]

You have to wait till global i believe and invest lots of money to solve range issue so yeah. Then, theres all the other problems that other people before me already listed.

 

[obsidi]

my assumption was that the globalage library research, and maybe university upgrades (top level) would make this unit competitive with the howizer.
i'm quite sad to hear otherwise; i think too many strategies focus around the siege artillery piece.