The huge November patch is not far away and will bring many balance changes, as already confirmed. Do you guys think that the siege tower will also receive a buff or maybe a change in it’s functionality? It is probably the most useless unit in the entire game and should get some love.
A lot of interesting ideas were already discussed in this thread:
I remember good old days…
Their jumping walls mechanic wasn’t working.
I think they deserve some love.
Hi, @xWHIT3W0LFx!
I absolutely agree that the siege towers deserve more love. In my opinion, people still wouldn’t use them, even if they shoot rockets, unless the cost is reduced. They are such a cool way to punish defensive players with a surprise move, but their availability makes them an unfavorable choice.
One way to see them used more is to see a change in the pro scene. Common players love to watch and try to implement pro strategies in their games. Let’s say that TaToh or Hera start jumping over walls every third game, the majority will go nuts and do it on the regular. Then we will be complaining about the overuse of siege towers, even if they weren’t buffed in the meantime 
As a nice reminder how Arena games could be ended quickly, here’s a video of the Viper outdoing Hera’s defenses. Notice how he set the gather point from the barracks on the siege tower and it automatically jumped troops over the wall!
It is possible.
Some “useless” units are rumored to be buffed next patch: cav archers, HC, some UUs… Why not siege towers?
Also, i think the leaked nerfs to goth and celts means that they are buffing infantry somehow (which makes sense if cav archers and HC are also buffed).
If infantry is buffed, siege towers could see more use, and viceversa.
This is a true masterpiece 
This could be very interesting. I’m so excited for the general unit changes, maybe you are right and the siege tower becomes generally more viable if infantry units get a buff.
Maybe we can enable siege tower to fire arrows in the exact same fashion as defensive towers, but with the limitation of having 0 base arrow, and does not work on infantries? Idk. That would be fun.
The siege tower actually was able to shoot arrows after it’s introduction in The Forgotten expansion. Arrow fire has then been removed with The African Kingdoms expansion where the unit became trainable at the siege workshops for every civilization. I think they removed it because it would have been too powerful iirc.
It fired arrows but couldnt transport units. So it was only a mobile tower (pretty useless)
maybe if they cost less and produced near-instantly they’d be useful for their intended task (of jumping over walls)
Would increasing carry capacity affect its performance? Like increasing the garrison number to 15 or 20? The problem I’ve found with siege towers is that you need so many of them to get your army over the wall that I’m usually better off just breaking the wall.
Imagine… siege towers fire arrows when garrisoned… viper has 15 siege towers rolling around the enemy town, micro-ing them like CA. A true masterpiece 
In seriousness it might be interesting to give them arrow fire again, but make sure it’s not too strong and there is a decent frame delay on it so it’s not micro friendly. I don’t think its OP if you balance the stats.
I could see this adding more functionality to the siege towers without turning it into a siege unit used in open battles as its primary purpose still serves to get over walls.
Siege tower needs some tweaks, but not properly buffs. The ST isn’t properly a “unit”, its concept is more similar to a “game meccanic”, it is something to help some civs to early rush and raid even in maps like area, to make some games more diverse.
Yes, it is affected by bonuses and UTs, but it doesn’t have any specific upgrades, and all civs have more or less the same unit, so that makes me see it more like a niche tool for some specific context, more than a unit to actively use to harass the enemy.
That’s been said, in my opinion there are 2 changes that could benefit the units.
- Its cost should be the same as rams, or even a bit less, another option is that it could be a trash unit, not costing gold.
I get it that they are faster, carry more units, and don’t trigger the alarm, allowing for some faster rushes in maps like arens than rams, but still they don’t pose any treat to buildings like the ram does, and with double walls it becomes useless, again, unlike rams.
- They need a command like the transport ships.
This would make them more easier to use them as “taxis”, meaning that it would be easier to use them to unloading units with just one click everywhere in the map.
To conclude, I would like to see the ST to get an attack again, maybe only with archers/vills inside, with a big frame delay, and with less range than a standard tower, but I think it would be too painful to balance.
I like the idea of it being a trash unit possibly, though I wouldn’t go with my buff suggestions above if it doesn’t cost Gold. I like you’re suggestions!
No of course, if they would fire arrows the current cost is balanced.
The only real necessity though in my opinion is the second point, since it’s more of a quality of life improvement.
So if the siege tower will be able to shoot arrows again, how about removing it as a general unit and giving it to individual civilizations only? There could be civ specific bonuses which could also lead to new strategies.
I don’t remember it exactly, but doesn’t it already work like the transport ship as described by you?
I could get behind that, which civs would it make sense for? Initial thoughts:
I agree that Seige Tower need some tweak. But not a way of huge buff.
If seige tower become very cheap and easy to use, it can change Arena game mechanics dramatically. Sure more early rush is interesting but there are already many open maps serve that purpose. Map like Arena/Fortress serve the role of easy defense till Imp with boom/imperial battle not early rush like Arabia.
I remember that seige tower was banned in clown cup3 due to the bug, but it sometimes use effectively in recent high-level Arena game with surprise attack. (Ofc not often, but use as intended purpose)
In the open map, stone wall itself is rarely seen. I think if it can also penetrate housewall, there would be some use in open map.
The ST is a unit that allows some particular play style that should be allowed to every civs.
It’s like to completely deprive one civ to walls (including palisades).
Well, it’s months that I haven’t use a ST, but last time that I recall using it I had to manually expelled each unit.
The “unloading” command work only when you use it on a wall, but it would be useful to be able to use it also in any other open space of the map.
Alternatively, it could just be an “ungarrison” command for immediately unload all units on the spot.