Are sieges supposed to behave this way? Defenders get a fresh garrison after being defeated

[Kissaki]

Ok, so I thought I'd start off my first CK2 in Ireland. I had a du jure claim from the beginning, and pressed it right away. No, I won't be naming names. I am away from my home computer right now, and they all sound like dachmachganachach to me. Anyway, I raised my levies and he raised his. We were about equal. I attacked and was defeated, with both armies nearly annihilated. After that I won a series of small engagements with the tiny levies I was able to raise, and finally I was able to win with an army big enough to lay siege to... to... the province. After I finally crushed the defenders (progressing with 3,4% every 12 days), I got those red occupation bars on the province and the siege... started all over again. This time with MORE defenders than before. Luckily, at that point, my victory score was at 100% and I was able to enforce demands.

BUT... the former independent now became my vassal, and still in charge of the province without me having any say in the matter. He hated my guts, of course, but the funny thing is that the rest of his family - his wife, his kids - and his entire court seemed to love me. Anyway, I couldn't revoke his title because apparently I didn't have any reason to do so, so I had to initiate a plot to do that. The plot succeeded, but Mr. Irish, here, didn't like it one bit and rebelled against me. With 97 men. At this point I raised my personal levy of about 1000, and crushed him. New siege commenced.

And...

I won the siege, but this time no occupying bars, and victory score only at 9%. And the garrison was now twice as big as before. I couldn't enforce peace, and I had to raise more levies to win the new siege. After the new and completely pointless siege, I won, and then their leader - and all his family - and all his court - simply disappeared from the game. Damned shame, because I could have used them all (their opinions of me were unfeasibly high, under the circumstances).

So, is this a bug, or am I missing something about the siege mechanics here?

[Candy_Licker]

No this is not a bug, after the siege, the garrison slowly replenishs. Just like the levies (unless the holding is occupied). If he hasn't raised his county levies, they will be added to the garrison. If you hover your mouse over the garrison icon you can see how fast they'll replenish.

Also, don't forget that each holding has its own garrison. Most provinces have multiple holdings, if you captured the first one, your forces will automaticially siege the next one. If you have won a siege and are facing a fresh new garrison, it means that they are sieging the next target. Depending on casus belli/warscore, you have to capture the whole province.


About the court: they didn't disappear from the game, they fled to another court. This is also common if a county changes ownership. Anyway, if they liked you before it doesn't mean they will automaticially like you once they are in your court. The relation modifiers are different for courtiers than for 'strangers'.

[Kissaki]

No this is not a bug, after the siege, the garrison slowly replenishs. Just like the levies (unless the holding is occupied). If he hasn't raised his county levies, they will be added to the garrison. If you hover your mouse over the garrison icon you can see how fast they'll replenish.

Except there was no slow replenishing. It went from 400-500 to 900. But in the light of your next paragraph...

Also, don't forget that each holding has its own garrison. Most provinces have multiple holdings, if you captured the first one, your forces will automaticially siege the next one. If you have won a siege and are facing a fresh new garrison, it means that they are sieging the next target. Depending on casus belli/warscore, you have to capture the whole province.

...it does make sense. As you can tell, I am just learning the ropes here, and the tutorials weren't much help.

About the court: they didn't disappear from the game, they fled to another court. This is also common if a county changes ownership. Anyway, if they liked you before it doesn't mean they will automaticially like you once they are in your court. The relation modifiers are different for courtiers than for 'strangers'.

A lot of it has to do with common traits. "Both zealous", for example, gives +15, IIRC [edit: +30, actually]. And there were quite a few of those. After the first siege, I got to imprison two ladies of his court - which he didn't want to ransom. They were of no use to me, and seeing as one of them had a +24 opinion of me in spite of the -20 penalty for being imprisoned, I didn't have the heart to keep her locked up. She was my sworn enemy's daughter in law, by the way. Her husband didn't care one way or the other that I released her, apparently, but she at least got the "Merciful" modifier to her opinion of me. The other one was at -4 or -6, but took a liking to me after I released her. She had an ambition to get married, so I got her to like me even more by marrying her into my court. I like to keep people happy.

Anyway, is there a way to find out where they fled? I've also played Sengoku, which is very much a lite version next to CK2, but at least Sengoku has a very neat "characters" tab, which lists all living characters in the game.

Thanks for the quick and informative reply, by the way. Much appreciated.

[Ciciro]

Anyway, is there a way to find out where they fled? I've also played Sengoku, which is very much a lite version next to CK2, but at least Sengoku has a very neat "characters" tab, which lists all living characters in the game.

There is a characters tab at the bottom right.

[John I Tzimisces]

Yeah, the characters tab can search your court, your vassals, your realm, or everywhere, and search by gender, noble status, landed/unlanded, imprisoned/free, whether they're a co-religionist, and whether they share your culture, and probably some other things I forget.

[Kissaki]

Well, isn't my face full of eggs. I never found that tab before; thanks.