Siege improved

[musketoon1988]

IMO sieges are the worst part of empire total war. They've never been a strong point in the series but i gotta say these are the worst. Is there anything that can be changed to make them harder eg making bastion cannons explosive so they do more damage, increasing range of musket fire from the walls, removing or making the abseiling stuff harder. I know a proper siege engine was probably abandoned early in the development because of time constraints but at the moment a fort is essentially useless which is a real shame and prevents using them effectively in your strategy.

Anyway - are any of these above changes possible for IS?

[Quixote07]

Some of them are possible, like the musket range, and removing grappling hooks. That still doesn't solve the fundamental problem, however, and that's pathfinding. Until CA can get decent pathfinding for sieges, I feel that anything else is just putting lipstick on a pig.

[RuleBritannia]

Siege is glitched in the game, as not only are there pathfinding issues and issues that need improvement, but one major issue is that multiple units die for no reason when climbing down walls. This glitch doesn't happen during every siege, but I've seen in some siege battles 10-100 units dying randomly while climbing down walls.

[Erunion Telcontar]

The last isn't a bug, it's a feature simulating slippery ropes and lazy climbers falling to their doom!!!



Or not.

[musketoon1988]

i guess its wait till they improve them in patches or expansions in the future before the modding begins - fair call really

[mkk]

We could hopefully remove walls altogether some day.
(they will never manage to make sieges a worthwhile part of the game)

[musketoon1988]

Its a real shame because siege warfare was such an intregal part of warfare in the 18th century. I did a research project on the war of spanish succession for my war studies degree and sieges were the most common type of action by far. As the century went on this became less prominent but esspecially in areas like Flanders and Northern Italy and in the Americas they were the main type of action. It really bugs me that they didn't put more effort into it - i do hope the modders eventually improve it.

[mkk]

They could have remodeled sieges a bit to avoid the problems. For instance a siege could be played more on the campaign map with emphasis on cutting of the defenders supply routes and moving up more heavy guns than the defenders have, to damage the fortifications. Only when the fortifications were severly damaged by means of campaign action could an actual assault take place, unless the defenders choose to try to break the siege. In neither case should the siege have to play out as now with grapple hooks and units stumbling towards some city square.

[Dunderklumpen]

Its a real shame because siege warfare was such an intregal part of warfare in the 18th century. I did a research project on the war of spanish succession for my war studies degree and sieges were the most common type of action by far. As the century went on this became less prominent but esspecially in areas like Flanders and Northern Italy and in the Americas they were the main type of action. It really bugs me that they didn't put more effort into it - i do hope the modders eventually improve it.

I totally agree with this. With the age of enlightenment reaching its peak, Sieging had developed to very precise doctrines and techniques as characterised by the military engineer Vauban.

Sadly, I don't see modders ever having enough capability to do anything other than *slightly* improve sieging at best. Even sadder, I doubt that CA will address this issue. The best thing I can optimistically see if sieges become slightly less stupid if pathing improves.