Hey folks, this is my first post here. I've been a lurker since Rome.
Upkeep for elite units is insane in this game, so often you have to make do with militia units. The AI will constantly harass certain settlements on higher difficulty levels, and since movement is so limited there is no guarantee you can rescue the town with another army. I see a lot of people keep huge garrisons that cost thousands per turn, yet theyre still overpowered in sieges. By carefully selecting your defensive garrison you can easily save hundreds of thousands of florins over the course of a few dozen turns.
This particular strategy works best with a ribault, but another morale-damaging device can be used if its earlier game or if your faction doesnt have one (ballista set to flame arrows works as well), or even shock troups, naptha throwers, handgunners, whatever. Often in my non-key cities the only upkeep I am paying is for the ribault: the rest is militia. You would be suprised at the size of army you can rout with just six militia units, your general, and a ribault (on VH/VH). You can have 5-6 garrison units with free upkeep and your general in a city. When a force approaches, you can generally recruit 2-3 more units in a turn.
The key is to use units properly, and exercise patience. The AI will almost
always destroy your gates, and unfortunately for the defender they seem to have no unit cohesion problems. The first time I defended a city against the AI I thought I had it well in hand: they had about 8 units of mailed knights, some archers, and a couple units of spear militia. I had 2 units of pavise crossbowmen, 4 units of peasant archers, 4 units of upgraded spear militia, 4 units of spear mercenaries, and 2 units of pikemen. I thought it would be an easy victory: little did I know that 4 units of archers and ballista towers have no chance of setting a ram on fire, and the AI has absolutely no problem charging 8 groups of mailed knights through the tiny gate within seconds. They just washed my spearmen and pikemen away, even though they were all braced in a chokepoint. In Rome I could have slaughtered thousands of units in the same situation - with spearmen and pikemen defending a gate. Apparently not in M2TW.
So I had to refine my gate defense. Now, after dozens of sieges, I think I have the absolute cheapest, cruelest, most effective method of defending your gates
The diagram should explain everything. Place your spear militia on
guard, but do
not place the pikemen/halberds on guard. Place the ribault on
hold fire, and wait.
WAIT. Timing is the key. The enemy will stream through your gates, and your spearmen will hold for awhile.. but will start to be pushed back by the sheer mass of the enemy streaming through the gate. The pikemen will start killing from the side. The best place for your general is behind the pikemen - dont attack with him, just stand him there for morale support. When there is a huge mess of enemies in a giant glob at your gates, and they start to push back and spill around your spearmen,
fire into the centre of them with the ribault
Now with larger forces, the enemy will bring ladders and siege towers as well. Usually you have plenty of warning when they are coming with a larger force, so you have a chance to recruit another couple of units. You have to scale your defensive garrison up for larger forces, so recruit some more spears if there is a lot of enemies, perhaps 2 units of swordsmen for the walls if you have the ability to recruit them, etc. Remember if you have a family member/general in the town you can take 1 step outside and recruit some mercenaries if you need to. If there will be fighting on the walls, swordsmen are ideal, however even mercenary/militia crossbowmen or spears can hold them well enough. This is why its important to place watchtowers or spies at the fringes of your territory, so you can see when an attacker is coming and have at least a turn to prepare.
Just this morning the AI assaulted one of my cities with around 1300 units and I easily defended in this exact manner. They came with 2 rams, a siege tower, and some ladders. By the time the ribault starts decimating the glob of enemies at the gate, the ladders should be deserted. As soon as they break through the gates, they all charge them and forget about their ladders. What many people dont know is that
you can use the enemy ladders as well. I took 2 units of pavise crossbow militia from the walls that had finished killing spear militia they had sent up ladders, and climbed down their ladders and charged the mass of enemies in the gate from behind. The ones that didnt break from the ribault broke
instantly.
Now some people will undoubtedly say
'what if they bring siege equipment like trebuchets or bombards?' Well, siege moves slow as molasses, so if you have watchtowers/spies up you will have plenty of time to prepare. If they come with siege, recruit a couple of mortars and target it. Sally forth with suicide peasant archers protected by your wall defenses and crossbowmen on your walls, and hit them with fire arrows. Either way you will need some luck.
This was not meant to be an infallible way to defend against everything. However, it is a cheap way you can defend the *gates* of a settlement with just your militia effectively. Take out the ribault and the enemy army would just wash over your gate defenses easily.
I dont think this is unrealistic, or exploiting either (unlike placing bowmen's stakes in front of the gates). Faced with overwhelming odds, I would have done something similarly nasty in real life as well. Hell, Id probably have soaked the ground with naptha and when hundreds of the enemy massed inside the gates set it on fire
Some of your men will die from the ribault, but if you arrange them as shown in the diagram friendly fire losses will be minimal.
good luck!
id love to hear how other people defend their gates, or any morale-busting strategies you like to use.