Does artillery/catapults have a max damage limit?

[NFIH]

If I've got a stack of cats or arty I can bombard an enemy stack or city but there appears to be an upper limit as to how much I can knock down the health of each unit in the stack. Is this the case? If so, just how much arty on a given target is wasted and, in effect, "too much"?

Similarly, if I've bombarded the enemy down to this max number on turn one, is there any point bombarding them again on turn two (assuming the enemy has no medic units)?

I'm never sure how many times I should hit the bombard key during an attack. ...

[TriMiro]

Bombard only reduces city's defense bonus.

Attack by Siege weapons does damage up to a point (look at the Civilopedia) and also collateral damage (that is damages other units in the stack as well).

To conquer a city, bombard the city until the defense bonus goes to 0% and then suicide attack with some siege weapons. That way the units inside the city will be weakened and you can capture the city with regular army.

[joncnunn]

Artillery type units can bombard city defenses all the way down to 0%.
The colaterial damage is caped.

Now the direct attack damage is unlimited in Vanilla & Warlords but is also caped in BTS; implemented as an auto-retreat.

They can still kill units attacking them.

[Theben]

Similarly, if I've bombarded the enemy down to this max number on turn one, is there any point bombarding them again on turn two (assuming the enemy has no medic units)?

I'm never sure how many times I should hit the bombard key during an attack. ...

The computer will stop bombardment if you have knocked defenses down to 0%, and disallow attacking units once they have all received maximum damage. So most of the time, you can attack/bombard safely without worry of over-committing.

Aside from any tactical reasons for not doing so, the most important reason I can think of to quit attacking before using up all your artillery is if the undamaged targets have Drill III/IV. These are very hard to damage with collateral damage and are best attacked directly with high strength units that are immune to 1st strikes.

Also other artillery are immune to collateral damage.

[NFIH]

The computer will stop bombardment if you have knocked defenses down to 0%, and disallow attacking units once they have all received maximum damage. So most of the time, you can attack/bombard safely without worry of over-committing.

Aside from any tactical reasons for not doing so, the most important reason I can think of to quit attacking before using up all your artillery is if the undamaged targets have Drill III/IV. These are very hard to damage with collateral damage and are best attacked directly with high strength units that are immune to 1st strikes.

Also other artillery are immune to collateral damage.

Yes, I get that. But what I'm asking is that AFTER I've knocked their defenses down to zero, how much additional damage (hit point damage to individual units via collateral damage) can I do and at what point should I stop so that I don't unnecessarily lose arty units?

[Theben]

I think it's between 50% and 85%, depending on the type of artillery. Catapults is 50%, and I think mobile artillery is 85%. The rest fall somewhere in between.

[NFIH]

I think it's between 50% and 85%, depending on the type of artillery. Catapults is 50%, and I think mobile artillery is 85%. The rest fall somewhere in between.

Oh, OK. So you mean the enemy unit loses say, a max of 50% of its hitpoints, after which any further bombardment on that turn has no additional effect, correct?

Also, this doesn't take into account the fact that units in cities and/or with Medic promotions regain HP each turn, correct? (Meaning, I assume, that they can and should be bombarded again to knock off that extra HP that was healed.)

I take it there's no way other than to eyeball the enemy units' HP to see whether they've hit their 50% or 85% max damage. (It's a pain when attacking big stacks.)

[slnz]

As Theben already noted, you are unable to attack with siege units if all the units in the enemy stack have been damaged enough to be below the threshold. So there's no need to be afraid of attacking "too much". You can check each turn if you're able to attack if you didn't finish off the massively wounded units already.

If memory serves even catapults can damage up to 75%. So 75%-85%.

[NFIH]

As Theben already noted, you are unable to attack with siege units if all the units in the enemy stack have been damaged enough to be below the threshold.

Hmm, it seemed from my observations that I could continue attacking as long as I had movement points left, but there was another point after which additional attacks didn't do additional damage (but I *think* I could still lose the arty units). Am I completely mistaken?

[slnz]

Hmm, it seemed from my observations that I could continue attacking as long as I had movement points left, but there was another point after which additional attacks didn't do additional damage (but I *think* I could still lose the arty units). Am I completely mistaken?

If you're playing Beyond the Sword, then yes.

AFAIK in Vanilla/Warlords, there is no maximum damage for siege units, and they can continue to attack and kill (and possibly die) enemy units beyond the threshold.

[rah]

I just keep attacking with seige until it won't let me. To me it's advantagous to do those last few attacks that really don't do much extra damage just for the free experience points for my seige units. Experience with almost no risk. And it reduces the odds a tiny bit more that I won't lose any of my attacking units mopping up.