Guild Wars 2

First, English is not my native language, so my apology if there’s mistake on my writing.

I wish to open a discussion regarding the importance of upgrade compared to putting defensive siege engine. Lets consider the cost of tower structural upgrade.

Reinforce Wall 10 Silver 200 Supplies
Reinforce Door 15 Silver 400 Supplies
Fortify Wall 37,5 Silver 800 Supplies

Pot of Oil 5 Silver 100 Supplies
Cannon 10 Silver 200 Supplies
Mortar 15 Silver 400 Supplies

While the cost of defensive sieges engine,

Arrow Cart 6 Silver 30 Supplies
Balista 10 Silver 30 Supplies
Catapult 12 Silver 50 Supplies

I have notice certain habit, where players immediately put reinforce wall/Pot of Oil upgrade as soon as the tower taken, while saying “don;t take supplies from tower”. I’m not convinced that this is the best course of action. I experienced several time where I manage to enter a besieged tower, only to find no supply, no siege and a unfinished reinforce wall/door upgrade.

Example, Reinforce Wall, at 10 Silver, it roughly cost the same as 2 carts or 1 catapult. Reinforce wall help when enemy attack the wall using trebuchet or catapult, but most attacks usually come in form of ram against tower gate. Two arrow carts or a catapult behind gate would have helped more against ram compared to a reinforce wall, and it will cost far less in term of supplies. Or 1 pot of oil vs 1 cart behind gate.

There are situation when structural upgrade are critical, but I believe it shouldn’t be the 1st thing done after taking a tower. Putting a minimum sieges engine should be a priority, and IMO, if necessarry tower supplies should be used to build the defensive siege.

A tower with full structural upgrade would cost 2100 supplies (only structural, no personnel) this will be equal in supply to 70 balistas, or roughly 40 catapults. 5 men behind 5 catapult in an unupgraded tower, would probably make the tower far more difficult to take than 5 men inside fully upgraded tower without siege engine.

I agree with what you are saying. There is nothing worse then walking into a tower with 0 supply and 0 siege and the walls only halfway upgraded. The thing is though that the supply in the tower are dependent on the yakks, there is no other way. These should be used for upgrades or last minute defending and repairing.

Walls/gate should be the first things upgraded because the amount of supply in the walls is limited and it’s the only method of upgrading it. With siege weapons, you can have people supply run between camps to build them, you don’t need to use the tower supply for that. Siege weapons should be built and ready in place before the enemy comes. And by running between supply camps after to build the siege after you take the tower, there is more than enough time to do this.

Cirus.5748:

I agree with what you are saying. There is nothing worse then walking into a tower with 0 supply and 0 siege and the walls only halfway upgraded. The thing is though that the supply in the tower are dependent on the yakks, there is no other way. These should be used for upgrades or last minute defending and repairing.

Walls/gate should be the first things upgraded because the amount of supply in the walls is limited and it’s the only method of upgrading it. With siege weapons, you can have people supply run between camps to build them, you don’t need to use the tower supply for that. Siege weapons should be built and ready in place before the enemy comes. And by running between supply camps after to build the siege after you take the tower, there is more than enough time to do this.

Thanks for the response, Cirrus.

IMO though, the rule that supplies in tower are used for upgrades or last minute defending and repairing, tend to be translated as upgrade as soon as possible. Which I think is unwise. The situation where walking into a tower with 0 supply and 0 siege and the walls only halfway upgraded can be reduced by let say..
1. Only start upgrade when supply is half filled or 70% filled.
2. Only start upgrade when there is guaranteed yak supply, the camp that supply the tower is in our hand, got double supply upgrade and there’s small risk of it falling to enemy hand.

Of course each tower have their own characteristic. Using supply for siege when camp is next door, like some towers in Eternal Battleground is wasteful. Homebase Borderland however, have supply camp with significant distance with tower, and these camp are more difficult to defend. So yak are far easier to intercept by enemy force and camp are more easily flipped. I doubt the wisdom of immediate upgrading on these condition.

Also, there are some tower where putting balista/catapult in key position at that tower mean the tower can only fall by far higher force or a treb.

And sometime, I encountered several situation where I put a siege on the tower, build it with 10 supplies then run to camp to get supplies, only to find that the camp i was heading already flipped, and the enemy heading to besieged the tower.

The point is though that you can build siege with camp supply, you cannot upgrade the tower with camp supply.

You should be building the siege weapons as soon as you claim that tower. If that tower can’t last 5 minutes while you run between supply camps, then that is the fault of your team.