Siegetowers are constructed using the CONSTRUCT command documented in HELP EQUIPMENT. Siegetowers are somewhat like a primitive "tank" on the battlefield: twenty feet high, able to be fortified (armoured) and useful as a blockade or a siege engine or a defensive shield for legions inside - using archery or working catapults to fire mortar-bombs.
*Key Points:
- Siegetower brings an enclosed legion's height up twenty feet above ground.
- Siegetower fortifications will greatly slower its destruction.
- Bombs and Archers can be deployed within and engage while defended.
- Tower can be shifted around, used to create blockades against invading forces, advanced lines of attack or grappled onto fortifications to bolster homeland defences.
*Syntax: RANGES and SIEGES.
Gives you the low down numbers for strike and siege ranges and fortification / gatehouse defences.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER ENTER/LEAVE.
Sends a legion into a siegetower (providing it is not closed up) or commands a legion to leave the tower for the location outside. Siegetowers can hold at most 250 men.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER OPEN/CLOSE.
Must be commanded from inside the tower and orders legion to open the tower so men can pass in and out, or close it so none may enter and all within stay safe until the siegetower is destroyed.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER BARRICADE <percentage>.
Siegetower must be closed and manned from within. The BARRICADE command builds scaffold equipment plus clay commodity into an armour-plating to shield the interior of the tower against siege / assault from without.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER UNBARRICADE.
This command is used to destroy the barricade built up to armour the siegetower against siege. Barricaded siegetowers cannot be opened or closed.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER FORTIFY <percentage>.
From an exterior position it is possible to fortify a siegetower utilising the same commodities as those employed with independent fortifications (see HELP EQUIPMENT). Fortifying a siegetower strengthens its ability to withstand attack, siege and difficult terrain transport.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER SHIFT <direction>.
The siegetower is an extremely large artifact of war and thus requires special instructions to move it sround. SIEGETOWER SHIFT works the same way as legion STEP - moving the siegetower one locale point at a time until it reaches the edge of a location, then applying a longer move to shift it between locations.
*Syntax: SIEGETOWER GRAPPLE <permanent grappling-point/direction>.
In this, the final siegetower command, you are able to grapple it against some permanent military or defensive structure (like a fortification) or, when placed in the correct localepoint towards the exterior of a location, against an exit to secure it in the location. Grappled siegetowers are near- impossible to move and are a commonly used addendum to other constructions of war (again, like fortifications) to give it an extra dimension in attack and defence.
*Syntax: LOOKOUT LOCALE/BANNER <direction>.
This allows you to perform the equivalent of the LOCALE or BANNER commands but, while within the siegetower, your field of vision is far broader so you are able to see up to half a locations in direct line of sight of the specified direction.
*Syntax: SURROUNDS SURVEY and SURROUNDS.
From within a siegetower the survey performs a comprehensive examination of the surroundings immediately outside of the tower. Your vantage point is much higher in a tower so type SURROUNDS SURVEY to perform a quick but fairly comprehensive survey of the surrounding region, many locations radius, and then SURROUNDS on its own to review your survey.
From within a siegetower it is possible for a legion to fix and manipulate the oil-cauldron; constructions which can be filled with gallons of oil, ignited and poured to the ground below with deadly consequences. See HELP OILCAULDRONS for a detailed explanation of oil-cauldron concept and commands.
Short-cuts for the SIEGETOWER commands:
ST <dirn> SIEGETOWER <directive>
SS <dirn> SIEGETOWER SHIFT <direction>
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