Talk:Ballista Elephant/@comment-2.247.250.90-20171118123307

Shouldn't trebuchets do very good against them? - provided, they are protected by walls.

This could be very relevant when countering a massive attack of these ballista elephants on your fortifications; a fair group of Trebuchets, unpacked, "right" behind the walls (see PS), should deal massive damage to them; two hits kill a BE, whilst [itself] taking - what? 1 (?) damage per shot from the Balliste? (see PS) ... Surely a good hand full of gold would be spent on the Trebuchets (need a critical mass of those), but quickly paid off by the massive losses of gold-investments for the opponent losing his masses of BE's.

Haven't tried out, if this tactic really works... Rate of fire needs to be taken into consideration; as does Gold cost (if both players are fairly equal in economy, if one can support a massive number of BE's, it seems fair to assume, that the other can afford a fair number of Trebs (in gold: cost-relation is 1:2.5; whilst food/wood is 1:2)); accuracy not so much, given the spread of whan salvo of shots into a tigthly(?) packed group of BE's; whilst the pass-through damage won't do much for the BE's, if the Trebuchets are stationed in a line, parallel to the walls).

The only real counter I see for that would be... a group of Rams, making quick work of the protective walls and getting to the Trebs? - what if Trebs focus shots on rams, though?

I'm feeling an itch to test this out; a great lot of Ballista Elephants against a group of Trebuchets 1/3rd of their numbers, behind protective walls...

PS: maybe it isn't "1 per shot" (damage taken by Trebuchet), but rather... 4 per salvo? -> (1 base, 1 for chemistry)*2 for second projectile? - this would still mean, that a treb could soak up 37 (?) ballista shots (if I am not forgetting something); being fired at 4-times the rate the treb fires back, with much better accuracy (becomes more meaningless in massed units tightly packed), ... but at a much shorter range! - which in turn means, utilizing "loose formation" becomes kind of a wash for the BE's, as it means much less of them can actually get close enough to mass their volleys; if they even can get close enough at all!