Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-24696651-20160718222126/@comment-24696651-20160719032832

(How many ladders are there?)

20th of Rain's Hand

The steep slopes of Eton Nir meant that the battering ram was incredibly slow moving up the hill, and the artillery had to fire high up to hit the walls, decreasing their energy and range. This was not aided by the fact that the walls were fairly strong as to begin with, and the defenders, being high up, and extra range and energy to their projectiles.

The battering ram was subjected to a hail of ballista and scorpion fire as it trudged up the hill. Its crew were dropping like flies, and the sheer momentum of the ballista bolts pushed the battering ram backwards, slowing it down even more.

The ladders were on a bare rock surface, which meant it couldn't dig into the ground and so wasn't very secure, particularly as the slopes meant the contact between the ladder and the ground meant it was liable to slip. The defenders pushed on the ladders, trying to push them away from the walls.

7th of Last Seed

The ballista bolts did hit the onagers - they weren't stopped by the tree, they were slowed down. They lost most of their energy - bit a little of their energy was still a hell of a lot of energy, and they could still screw up the mechanism of an onager.