Siege and siege engines

Castles are not just for show: you attack them. For that there are pushable siege engines that you make in the workshop or castle workshop or buy at the counting house, plus dynamite for blasters.

Operating every engine

• Grab: double down next to the engine. Push with left/right, the engine turns in the pushing direction.
• Aiming with the mouse: while the selected digger holds an engine, the mouse shows the dotted flight path with a cross where it lands. Yellow: ready. Grey: not yet loaded, wound up or still reloading. A click more than 50 pixels away from the engine aims and fires. Closer than that, the digger walks as usual.
• Phone and tablet: tapping the target does the same as a mouse click.
• Keyboard: up and down (classic layout also dig) change angle or power. Holding the key repeats every 8 ticks.
• Throw: if the digger carries something suitable, it is loaded. Otherwise the engine fires.
• Context menu (right click): fire, aim higher/lower, load.

The engines

Engine	Material	Value	Ammunition	Strength
Trebuchet	6 wood, 2 metal	70	Boulders, rocks, barrels, flints	High, long arcs (over 1000 px). Heavy projectiles do 1.5 times the castle damage.
Ballista	4 wood, 2 metal	40	Giant bolts	Flat and far. Bolts pierce wood and diggers and bring down balloons.
Cannon	3 metal	35	Gunpowder + any projectile	As in the original. Cannonballs explode on impact.
Crossbow	3 wood, 1 metal	25	Arrows, arrow packs	As in the original, also shoots straight up at air targets.
Catapult	3 wood, 1 metal	25	Rocks, flints, anything carryable	A mouse click picks the tension √(distance/22) like the original.
Battering ram	4 wood, 1 metal	40	–	Against gates, drawbridges and walls.
Siege tower	8 wood, 1 metal	50	–	A rolling tower to climb onto the enemy wall.

Trebuchet

The trebuchet has to be wound up before it throws: as long as diggers hold it, they crank the counterweight up. One digger needs a little over 10 seconds, three diggers just over 3 seconds. The yellow bar above the engine shows the progress. Up and down set the power (1 to 10), the mouse picks it by itself.

Ballista

The large crossbow sets its angle in 2.5° steps between 0° and 45°. A giant bolt hits diggers for 20 damage and flies on, piercing palisades, wooden gates and vehicles. Against stone walls it does only half damage. Reloading takes 2 seconds.

Cannon and crossbow

Both follow the original: the cannon has 19 aiming steps and needs one gunpowder and one projectile per shot. The crossbow has 20 aiming steps, holds 50 arrows or arrow packs and shoots every 10 ticks.

Battering ram

Push the ram head first against an enemy gate or a raised drawbridge and press throw. Each blow does 30 damage, every additional pushing digger +50 %. After 100 damage the gate is rammed in and stays open. After that the ram hits walls and towers (battlements do not help against it).

Siege tower

Push the tower right up to the enemy wall. A digger enters at the bottom (up at the entrance) and climbs out at the top with up: he lands on the walkway of the wall in front. Down, left or right leave at the bottom. Up to 4 diggers fit inside.

Damage to castles

• Every castle part has structure energy (180, the same as its blast resistance). When it is used up, the part becomes a ruin that can be rebuilt.
• Projectiles do damage by mass × speed² / 100. A boulder from the trebuchet brings a wall down in two or three hits, a rock from the catapult needs many.
• Battlements protect: parts with battlements or parapets take 40 % less damage from projectiles, except for hits from above and from the ram. The parapets also physically stop flat shots.
• Stone walls stop projectiles, they bounce off. Your own castle parts let your own projectiles through: you shoot over your own wall.
• Siege engines themselves break when they take too much damage and leave wood behind.

Dynamite and dynamite box

Caution

Only a digger of rank blaster or higher may use dynamite and the dynamite box.

• Dynamite: double dig lights the fuse. After 100 ticks (a little over 3 seconds) the stick explodes (strength 18). In water the fuse goes out.
• Dynamite box: holds five sticks. Double dig takes out a stick that hangs on the box’s firing wire. Spread the sticks along a wall or gate. Once the box is empty, double dig sets off all sticks on the wire one after the other. The context menu offers “detonate” earlier as well. The wire snaps beyond about 320 pixels.
• If the box itself catches fire or is hit by an explosion, it blows up the harder the more sticks are still inside (26 to 60).

The enemy besieges too

In the Siege scenario the AI opponent assigns a gunner after about 40 seconds. He fetches ammunition at the counting house, pushes the ballista or trebuchet into position, moves closer if the flight path falls short and shoots at your counting house, your diggers and balloons. A second digger pushes a battering ram to your gate or drawbridge.

Siege scenario

Two castles face each other with a flat valley in between. In front of your castle stand a trebuchet, ballista, cannon, crossbow, battering ram and siege tower. More engines, ammunition and dynamite are in the base material. Goal: destroy the enemy counting house. If yours falls, the round is lost.

In the other castle scenarios (goal “destroy the counting house”) you can also buy a ballista, battering ram, crossbow and ammunition at the counting house.