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I was thinking about listing ways to take out various siege weapons.  Then I thought that would be too specific and boring.  Not to mention many of my ideas involved fire.  Instead, I’m going to talk a bit about why you should figure out a way to destroy a siege weapon even if it won’t happen in the book.

First, this requires that you either do some research or at least take time to consider the working parts and processes of the siege weapons.  Yes, you can make it easy with magic spells, dragons, or anything large enough to wipe them out in one go.  That’s not what we’re talking about here.  This is how a character can take down a siege weapon using smarts and tools for dramatic effect.  So, you really need to have at least a general idea of how these things work.

For example, you should know how a trebuchet is loaded, aimed, and fired.  This can give you an idea of rate of fire and how much time between shots the heroes have.  Another possibility is figuring out the perfect time to attack and make the siege weapon break in a more glorious fashion  Maybe cutting the sling rope (whatever it’s called) as it flies up, but do it in a way that sends the fiery shot backwards.  Causing these things to backfire makes for great chaos, action, and drama.

I already touched on the other aspect, which is to make it feel dramatic.  These weapons tend to be terrifying juggernauts on the battlefield and pose a direct threat to whatever the characters are protecting.  Taking even one of them out is a great victory and a shift in morale for both sides.  This is why it should be difficult as well.  Fighting through the work team and any other soldiers should be shown to increase the tension.  Make it as they are preparing and beginning to fire in order to create a sense of dwindling time.  Of course, this doesn’t work with non-shooting siege weapons like towers and rams.  Still, do what you can to increase the impact of the scene.

As for how to destroy these things, everyone can figure out their own methods.  That’s why the research side is important.  Even if you made a new version for your world, you need to know how it works.  That way, your characters can make it stop working.  The method depends on a lot of factors here:

• Type of siege weapon
• Setting as in battlefield, defending, trap, etc.
• Characters’ intention to either destroy or escape
• Character skills
• Character equipment
• Character knowledge of siege weapons or ability to figure out on the fly
• Magic
• Type and amount of defenders

That’s a lot to juggle for destroying one siege weapon.  You don’t have to consider all of them for very long either.  I’d say the skills, equipment, and knowledge are the largest pieces of the puzzle.  This is what the characters will be using to accomplish their goal no matter what they are up against.  Makes this no different than any other challenge they can encounter, but authors might overlook this as simple.  After all, siege weapons tend to be viewed as scene decorations, so a person might not give much thought to eliminating them beyond ‘break it with violence’.

Well, that’s the overview of destroying siege weapons.  It really is a complicated, but personal touch to a story.  So, you can’t really say things are definite facts and should be followed.  Although, that goes for writing in general, right?