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Thread: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

  1. #1

    Default Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    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.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    I'll try this out tonight

  3. #3

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    That sounds like a really funny way to defend your gate. Funny for you at least.

    I think that the best defense is a good offense, something I picked up while playing Company of Heroes. I prefer to try and catch the enemy army in the field and take them out there.

    I do see what you're saying about the spear men in Medieval vs Rome. In Rome I could just make a box with my spear men with the wall or gate being the 4th side and just completely slaughter the invading forces with minimal casualties. I guess the days of the phalanx are long gone.

  4. #4
    SPARTAN VI's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Don't know what a ribault is just yet, but I'll see soon.

    I have a similar method of defense.. but they almost never go through my gates. They usually catapult my walls down making two openings. So I make two L-shaped formations of spearmen and dismounted knights. Basically, imagine the same diagram with spearmen in the same position, dismounted knights in the halberd position, and cavalry in the ribault's position. I let them steam through the openings, and smash their flank over and over with cavalry. Worked like a charm in RTW, works just as well in M2TW.

    Once I get halberds and such, I'll try that same formation.

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  5. #5

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    The above described defense is ideal if you are outnumbered: IE if you have city being attacked by a significant stack and none of your armies are in range to break the siege.

    The problem with just troops (spears, swords) for defense is that if your foe significantly outnumbers you they will just wash right over you. Gone are the days of putting a single unit of Spartan Hoplites in a gap in your wall and going to make coffee, and coming back to a huge mountain of corpses.
    In the example I gave above, I outnumbered the enemy with spears and pikes: 8 units of spears and 2 units of pikes, deployed in a chokepoint vs 8 units of mailed knights. Yet once they broke the gate they all streamed through like water through a hole in a dam. It was a shock for me, since the spear units all had bonuses vs cavalry (italian spear militia and mercenary spearmen) and were in DEEP ranks, stacked one on top of the other in one solid mass at the gates, waiting for the enemy to charge in.

    Perhaps in M2TW, units have lower 'mass' than they did in Rome. I cant tell without looking at the actual text files for the units, and that will have to wait till they release the unpacker. You can tell this as units push through the gates, gap, etc and you can see your units being pushed back quite quickly: even units that shouldnt be, like heavy infantry and spearwall pikemen/halberds. I suppose that this reflects the heavier, advanced plate armor and heavy cavalry in medieval times... I'm not complaining, just pointing out that when outnumbered you cannot simply rely on a few units of spears/pikes to hold a chokepoint anymore. It gets more complicated, and if you dont have the sheer mass of troops to fight it out and wear them down through attrition, you need to resort to brutal morale attacks.

    The sole purpose of the spears in this illustration is to slow the assaulting infantry so they mass up at the gates, giving you a nice juicy unmoving target for your morale attacks. The pikemen or halberds at the side are there just to rack up more kills, since they excel at poking pinned infantry from a distance, and they are far enough away to be out of range of the ribault/ballista field of fire. The key to this entire defense is morale. it doesnt HAVE to be a ribault (which is, basically, a row of small tubes that fire a volley of small cannonballs and do morale damage). It can be anything that causes fear/morale damage.

    A charge from cavalry might suffice, except that cavalry has expensive upkeep (and thus goes against the 'cheap' garrison defense concept), and is nowhere near as effective as a ribault, ballista, etc. Also, good luck maneuvering cavalry in the tight streets of a town, and every time you pull back to charge again you will lose a lot of men, and mess up the spearmen's formations.
    Even a ballista works great, and is available very early. With a huge mass of infantry bunched up like that, a ballista set to flaming projectiles torches long lines of dozens of men with each hit.

    If you try it, dont forget your crossbowmen and/or other units on the walls. When theyre done mopping up the units assaulting the walls, run them down the enemy ladders and charge the ones attacking the gate from the rear
    Last edited by Ambrosius; November 20, 2006 at 01:19 PM.

  6. #6
    Metellus's Avatar Civitate
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    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    I made a similar plan as the one illustrated, using cavalry on either side and spearmen in front of the gate. Whenever the spearmen got pushed back I'd charge the cavalry in (yes, they did actually charge), did it two charges with each cav. Worked well although probably not as cheap. BTW how do you get Ribaults? All my siege works buildings have the other arty available but not ribaults, only ones I have gotten were mercs. Am playing HRE in 1366AD.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Quote Originally Posted by Ambrosius View Post
    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.
    Good post!

    I want to add, if you got some extra cavalry you can make them rout faster. Gate battles usually take a while (if you got enough spearman to hold them up) so have the extra cavalry run around to another gate, go outside, and come over to the fighting. If there are enemy units outside the gate not attacking, sweep them up, if all the enemies trying to push through the gate, keep charging them from the rear.

    This way, i managed to rout a far more superior dismounted knights - army not once, but many times. My cheap militia units are still capable, as long as you keep their morale high and bring the enemy's morale down.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Quote Originally Posted by Metellus View Post
    I made a similar plan as the one illustrated, using cavalry on either side and spearmen in front of the gate. Whenever the spearmen got pushed back I'd charge the cavalry in (yes, they did actually charge), did it two charges with each cav. Worked well although probably not as cheap. BTW how do you get Ribaults? All my siege works buildings have the other arty available but not ribaults, only ones I have gotten were mercs. Am playing HRE in 1366AD.
    some nations dont get them.
    theres always some sortof fear-causing thing you can use though. in the worst case, use a unit or two of ballistas. they are super accurate, and set to flaming arrows they will burn huge swathes of enemies.

    or some sortof firearm unit like handgunners should work. the key is the morale damage. the turkish dudes that throw the naptha work too

  9. #9
    Faelan's Avatar Libertus
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    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    "Killing Pockets" ftw!
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  10. #10

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    I just wanted to throw this in: I believe if you put units on top of each other, they receive a combat penalty. I'm not sure of the details but I imagine it amounts to a overall defense and attacking one (which makes sense, as they wouldn't be able to effectively swing their melee weapons and shields). I remember a CA developer mentioning this (but I could be wrong none-the-less)

  11. #11

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    heres a good one as well: england


    england has archer units capable of having stakes in front of the unit. So, place one unit of longbow men close to the door way and deploy them. this will cover the door way and keep the attackers from charging in with cav and or numerous infantry units without a deterence. place to the corner of the archers cavalry and heavy infantry if you can. your longbow men can then fire a few volleys at point blank range into the mass of enemy units creating hell. now what we want to do is then charge your cav into the mass of men 2 to 3 times. pull your cav back and charge with your infantry. If you find your having trouble repelling the enemy, if you have archers on the walls that are free to engage, turn their bows on the mass of men below them but beware; know that they may kill your infantry many times over if not used properly. I defeated a few batles using this method. Its really amazing that a tiny mallot can defeat an infantry force in combat btw.
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  12. #12

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    actually I would be surprised if u guys didn't realize this kind of strategy since any of the previous games!

    the similiar strategy applied when you defending an area with river, but this time u have 2 choices :

    1. if your army consist more infantry then the strategy would be exactly the same as the OP mentioned
    2. but if you have more Cavalry then this is what would be better, you start and deployed your army quite far from the your side of the river; how far? well the best is beyond your enemy missile units' shooting range from their side of the river. The enemy would be forced to march to your side, and then while their army arrived in the other side of the river but still unprepared to attack you, you should charged them directly with a successful charge, and then rinse and repeat.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    this wasnt so much an issue in rome. a simple phalanx had sufficient mass and cohesion to block a LOT of enemies. you just had to ensure that they wouldnt spill around and attack the sides.

    plug city gates with a unit of spartan hoplites, and you could literally leave the game, come back 10 minutes later and they were still there, killing, with hundreds of corpses in front of them.

    try that with a unit of swiss pike militia in M2:TW, for example, and youll see how different it is now. a single unit of mailed knights will steamroll them in a frontal charge through the gates. so would 3 charging units of even crossbowmen or peasants.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    which would make sense though. a phalanx cant hold hundreds of men forever. spears would break from the human corpse pulling down on it and the armour of the middle ages is different than roman times.
    Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen but his country's cause

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  15. #15

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidtheDuke View Post
    I just wanted to throw this in: I believe if you put units on top of each other, they receive a combat penalty. I'm not sure of the details but I imagine it amounts to a overall defense and attacking one (which makes sense, as they wouldn't be able to effectively swing their melee weapons and shields). I remember a CA developer mentioning this (but I could be wrong none-the-less)

    no matter, the spearmen are just a mass of meat to slow the tide of the horde of troops streaming through the gate. the pikes/halberdiers are the ones killing them, and the ribault is whats making their morale break (as well as killing a mess of them).

    also, the same penalty would apply for the enemy crushed through the gates as well.

  16. #16
    SPARTAN VI's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Quote Originally Posted by Ambrosius View Post
    The above described defense is ideal if you are outnumbered: IE if you have city being attacked by a significant stack and none of your armies are in range to break the siege.

    The problem with just troops (spears, swords) for defense is that if your foe significantly outnumbers you they will just wash right over you. Gone are the days of putting a single unit of Spartan Hoplites in a gap in your wall and going to make coffee, and coming back to a huge mountain of corpses.
    In the example I gave above, I outnumbered the enemy with spears and pikes: 8 units of spears and 2 units of pikes, deployed in a chokepoint vs 8 units of mailed knights. Yet once they broke the gate they all streamed through like water through a hole in a dam. It was a shock for me, since the spear units all had bonuses vs cavalry (italian spear militia and mercenary spearmen) and were in DEEP ranks, stacked one on top of the other in one solid mass at the gates, waiting for the enemy to charge in.

    Perhaps in M2TW, units have lower 'mass' than they did in Rome. I cant tell without looking at the actual text files for the units, and that will have to wait till they release the unpacker. You can tell this as units push through the gates, gap, etc and you can see your units being pushed back quite quickly: even units that shouldnt be, like heavy infantry and spearwall pikemen/halberds. I suppose that this reflects the heavier, advanced plate armor and heavy cavalry in medieval times... I'm not complaining, just pointing out that when outnumbered you cannot simply rely on a few units of spears/pikes to hold a chokepoint anymore. It gets more complicated, and if you dont have the sheer mass of troops to fight it out and wear them down through attrition, you need to resort to brutal morale attacks.

    The sole purpose of the spears in this illustration is to slow the assaulting infantry so they mass up at the gates, giving you a nice juicy unmoving target for your morale attacks. The pikemen or halberds at the side are there just to rack up more kills, since they excel at poking pinned infantry from a distance, and they are far enough away to be out of range of the ribault/ballista field of fire. The key to this entire defense is morale. it doesnt HAVE to be a ribault (which is, basically, a row of small tubes that fire a volley of small cannonballs and do morale damage). It can be anything that causes fear/morale damage.

    A charge from cavalry might suffice, except that cavalry has expensive upkeep (and thus goes against the 'cheap' garrison defense concept), and is nowhere near as effective as a ribault, ballista, etc. Also, good luck maneuvering cavalry in the tight streets of a town, and every time you pull back to charge again you will lose a lot of men, and mess up the spearmen's formations.
    Even a ballista works great, and is available very early. With a huge mass of infantry bunched up like that, a ballista set to flaming projectiles torches long lines of dozens of men with each hit.

    If you try it, dont forget your crossbowmen and/or other units on the walls. When theyre done mopping up the units assaulting the walls, run them down the enemy ladders and charge the ones attacking the gate from the rear
    Well, the cavalry I'm referring to is a general. I don't think I've ever been seiged without one. And it does not interfere with spearmen formations as the cavalry are smashing into the opening I left in the L-shaped formation, effectively making a "U" or a pocket. Cavalry casualties must not be that bad as my generals do not die in battle. The city streets do limit the effectiveness of the charge as the unit has to compact to form a small charge of 5 or 6 men in the front line.

    And my strategy is very primitive in terms of technology. When employed, I usually only have militia and sargeant spearmen. It would not compare to yours as I'm not even at that stage yet. Not very far in the game yet to be using spearwalls and siege weapons.
    Last edited by SPARTAN VI; November 24, 2006 at 03:31 PM.

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  17. #17

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a garrison...

    Well that might work for now, but when the AI shows up to attack you with bloody great gunpowder siege arty they will knock down several sections of your front wall and come at you from all directions at once.

    Play a 100,000 point custom with you defending a Citadel (with level two defenses), garrison it with 6-8 decent missile/foot units and allow an "autopick" for your opponents stack.

    You will see what I mean...

    Not only do they take out your outer walls, but they wheel in rams to break through gates on your inner walls, it's fantastic to watch.
    I would call it the "Alamo Scenario"..... enjoy.
    Last edited by OG Grenadier; November 24, 2006 at 05:53 PM.
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  18. #18

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a ga

    ive been refining this some more during my turkish campaign...
    if you are turks, you lack ribaults. i actually find that the naffatun work FAR better. its scary.

    a couple units to hold the rush of enemies (jannissary heavies, halberd militia, etc) and a unit or two of naffatun where i have the ribault in the diagram, and they rack up kills like crazy. i did it with one unit of naffatun and they went from fresh recruits to three silver chevrons in one siege

  19. #19

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a ga

    This is a really interesting tactic. I will have to try it out soon. Thanks for the informative post and diagram. Reputation for you.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Brutal and cheap way to defend gates with a ga

    the naffatun version results:




    youll notice my garrison is a lot larger than necessary. this is because after i took Rome and massacred the pope and his armies, the new pope called a crusade against Rome. i have all of europe converging on me, and full stack armies besieging me every turn.

    youll notice i was unable to set the siege towers on fire. no matter, since my men on the walls made short work of the guys in the towers. after fighting 3-4 sieges like this with a garrison like this, i can safely say that i could defend the city against AI full stack armies with just:

    2 units of naffatun
    4 units of jannissary heavy infantry, or 2 units of JHI and 2 halberdiers or saracen militia
    2 units of halberd militia to defend the walls.

    the saracen militia i left in the sqaure till the end of the battle, and the archers were useless against the siege towers and barely did anything.. in fact i think i took more freindly fire from them than anything. the hashashim i sent in for kicks, and they actually managed to hold up quite well. unfortunately they ran in from the side where my naffatun were and they got torched pretty badle along with all the crusaders i could have easily done without all the archers, saracen militia and hashashim. in a pinch, halberd militia and saracen militia could have held the gates for me against the besiegers, but considering that a crusade was called against this city i didnt want to take any chances. most of the casualties the units have are just from taking siege damage every turn.


    you can experiment with other factions armies to see what will work with their unit rosters, but the core concept remains the same. some defensive spearmen or heavy infantry to hold back the tide of enemies streaming through the gates, and 1-2 units of morale damaging, area attack troops like ribaults, naffatun, etc.
    Last edited by Ambrosius; November 25, 2006 at 12:11 PM.

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