Helepolis (305 BC)
Normally an army attacking a fortified city or fortress had a severe disadvantage due to height. We've all heard Ben Kenobi telling Anakin that he had the high ground, and in the case of a siege it was true. City walls allowed for height which allowed archers to fire down into an attacking army, and there was the whole, how do we get over the wall. Usually a city siege would take months or years, take thousands of soldiers and the strategy was to starve the defenders out.
So enter the siege engine and the Helepolis was a monster. At more then 130 feet tall and weighing more then 160 tons, the Helepolis was a mobile fortress designed to be pushed up to a city wall and allow troops to pour over the wall. It was also heavily armed featuring 16 catapults of various sizes and 4 long dart throwers.
for mobility purposes the Helepolis was mounted on 8 15 foot wheels and castors which allowed side to side movement.
In terms of protection the front side was armored with steel.
It was manned by a total crew of 3400 men who acted as the main engine in terms of pushing it, there was a primitive steering system that allowed the commander to steer the siege engine towards the enemy wall.
In terms of use, the idea was to push the Helepolis towards the city wall while the catapults were used to barrage the enemy defenses at the siege point. once it was pushed against the wall the soldiers would pour out over the wall to cut down enemy defenses.
Unfortunately this awesome and intimidating machine had a major example of krytonite, and that weakness was the terrain that it had to travel over.
This monster was used for the siege of Rhodes and unfortunately it was a failure. In one story during the siege some of the metal armor plates were dislodged and the commander Demetrius ordered it withdrawn from the battle to protect it. The Helepolis was abandoned as were other seige engines and captured by the citizens of Rhodes who then sold its weapons and melted down it's steel armor to build the Colossus of Rhodes.
Another story is that the defenders knew that this attack was coming and channeled large amounts of mud and water into the path of the mighty siege ending swamping it and leaving it to be captured.
