Quote Originally Posted by Joshua Highbourne View Post
lol.... ok mr.answers.

why does a ballista need to eat 50 food?
well I heard somewhere that a siege engine is a horse unit because it is marched to battle being hauled by horses. Though it should be much higher speed if this is tru. Like the speed of a transport ...since a transport with a full load should be a similar weight to the various siege engines per horse.

So I suppose if 2 horses carry the ballista to the battlefield then you have to have the support staff for them, and the men to reload the ballista. and trained personnel to aim it.

5 people doesn't seem unreasonable
6 for a cataphract is quite ridiculous.

personally I do not see why the units have different upkeep of food/per population unit.
I believe infantry/archers should be 2 or 3 food per population unit and cavalry/catas and siege engines should be 5 food per population unit since they have horses to feed too