Crushing Defeat!!!!!

[Sisko]

I have had a few defeats in my games of MTW2......but during my reign as King of England I have NEVER suffered such a crushing, deabilitating defeat as what just took place at the Battle for Inverness Castle!!!.

I had some 1880 troops under my command compared to the Scots of 950 odd. I threw my ladders at the walls...and threw my men up them. I lost over 1000 men in my attempted attack on Inverness castle and paid the price heavily in English blood!! This has now possibly thrown my invasion of Scotland into danger. The Scots have twice tried to retake Edinburgh, and twice they've been slaughtered by the English garrison there.

Now however, with only endless numbers of Longbowmen sitting in Edinburgh Castle, and my best troops slaughtered at Inverness.....can I hold onto Edinburgh for a few years until reinforcements arrive?? I really don't know....i wasn't expecting a defeat of this magnitude, the old trick of throwing my men up the ladders at the enemy has worked time and time again. I guess I need to re-think my plans for a proper attack on Inverness.

Add to that, France has thrown our alliance into tatters and now sieges my garrison in caen.

Any suggestions on dealing with Inverness guys??

[Adrian]

Abandon caen Get your troops from your cities on the British isles just leave 1troop as garrison in every city then get your longbowmen from Edinburgh siege
Inverness but do not attack the Castle let them starve. if I'm guessing right the Scots have only Inverness so there is no problem.

[Demon]

Change your seige tactics.

#1 - Use Artillery effectively.
#2 - Hold out? Was there a NEED to Assault?
#3 - Use "crack-troops" effectively, for example

You want the walls, use "expendable" troops to hold the Gatehouse, while your crack troops take the weak units of the wall? Just an example.

What difficulty you on?

[Aequitas]

Starve them out, taking the walls is always costly.

[Sisko]

Change your seige tactics.

#1 - Use Artillery effectively.
#2 - Hold out? Was there a NEED to Assault?
#3 - Use "crack-troops" effectively, for example

You want the walls, use "expendable" troops to hold the Gatehouse, while your crack troops take the weak units of the wall? Just an example.

What difficulty you on?

I'm playing on Medium/Medium.....and I used my crack troops such as Dismounted Knights, with help from Spearmen & Mercenary Galliochs's to take the walls......what an UTTER UTTER disaster lol

[ProneStar!]

wow thats bad, i have never lost more than i killed before taking a settlement.

If you dont have artillery with you, then i suggest either.

1. starving them out
or
2. Build, 1 ram, 2 ladders, and 2 siege towers.

First thing to do is to send both siege towers to the walls with cheap units on them, to opposite sides of the gate. Then after your towers are halfway to the walls send your ladders to just outside of each tower. As soon as the first unit starts up the ladders or towers onto the walls move up the ram to take the gate. By time your units on the walls have begun gaining a foothold on the walls rush through the now open gateway with spearmen followed by heavy infantry. Depending on the enemy size put archers on the walls you now control and fire onto the enemy. Once you have the walls slowly advance and slaughter the enemy from range.


If you have artillery open up a hole on each side of the gate then rush in with your spearmen and heavy infantry. Followed by archers to stand outside and pepper the enemy on the walls and those defending the breach.

VERY IMPORTANT! dont make the mistake that was made in WWI never stop your artillery/archer fire during the attack. Its better to have 50 friendly fire deaths than 200 more deaths because the enemy still had the resolve to fight.

[Sisko]

wow thats bad, i have never lost more than i killed before taking a settlement.

If you dont have artillery with you, then i suggest either.

1. starving them out
or
2. Build, 1 ram, 2 ladders, and 2 siege towers.

First thing to do is to send both siege towers to the walls with cheap units on them, to opposite sides of the gate. Then after your towers are halfway to the walls send your ladders to just outside of each tower. As soon as the first unit starts up the ladders or towers onto the walls move up the ram to take the gate. By time your units on the walls have begun gaining a foothold on the walls rush through the now open gateway with spearmen followed by heavy infantry. Depending on the enemy size put archers on the walls you now control and fire onto the enemy. Once you have the walls slowly advance and slaughter the enemy from range.


If you have artillery open up a hole on each side of the gate then rush in with your spearmen and heavy infantry. Followed by archers to stand outside and pepper the enemy on the walls and those defending the breach.

VERY IMPORTANT! dont make the mistake that was made in WWI never stop your artillery/archer fire during the attack. Its better to have 50 friendly fire deaths than 200 more deaths because the enemy still had the resolve to fight.

Not a bad plan of action. Like I said I was very suprised. My "ladder" rushes so to speak have NEVER failed....until now. And with some 1800 odd troops and the numbers so heavily in my favour....i believed victory was assured. That is one thing I always do though: I always tell my archers to hold their fire when they get in close with the enemy.

[bars]

Never use ladders.
Even militia on the walls will slaughter heavy infantry one by one.

[J.B.]

Yeah, ladders is basically wodden death traps.

[Recluse]

Meh, I use ladders all the time since my rams and towers constantly catch fire.

They don't seem to be a problem unless you man them with peasants or town militia or something awful like that.

Of course, siege attack has to be one of the most annoying of battles to fight in the entire game.

[skullman86]

My suggestion for future sieges......dont assault.Wait them out and you will either take it without bloodshed or they will attack you; defending in those types of situations is fairly easy most of the time.That is how I play the majority of the time; I do siege but only when I know I can win.I have sieged Inverness and Edinburgh in the beginning of my English campaigns countless times and every time I blindly assault them I end up getting my ass handed to me because their crappy soldiers manage to take out my soldiers as they climb up the ladders 5 or so men at a time .If you feel the need to go out and kill just don't use so many ladders, I would recommend focusing a little more on rams.Or better yet, just get some good artillery pieces and knock the walls down

[Chola_Kingdom]

I'm playing on Medium/Medium.....and I used my crack troops such as Dismounted Knights, with help from Spearmen & Mercenary Galliochs's to take the walls......what an UTTER UTTER disaster lol

Here some tips but I am sorry to say that if you want to survive you have to pay the prize and there still "Hope"
because you are playing M/M level (where we play as VH/VH so take it easy)
*do not try to take the Walls-Even Spear Militia could knock out by one vs many(With many militias with one Of your crack troop)
*you should check before you go to war with certain enemy check their Alliences
*do not try to ride out your enemy that;s kind a hard too.
* starve out the enemy or let them come out
*ok for your solution next turn end recruit atleast 3 spearmen from Edinburgh and recruit 2 Heavy if you can that's it you dont need to worry about it in M level archers in the wall can manage the ladders spearmen on the gate with "Shield formation" and heavy at their backup that's all you need to defend your castle and city mate
good luck

[Sisko]

It appears that after my crushing defeat at Inverness....i actually didn't save the game This means now when I reload, the siege is still in place and I have a chance to change history.....turn a crushing defeat....into TOTAL VICTORY!!!!

I erm....I don't think i'll use ladders this time. I'll use a different approach this time

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Well in that case cheat. Auto resolve and see if you can win. The computer ignores the effect of the walls when auto resolving. Actually if the auto resolve will cost you lets say 20% then a good commander will loose less than 20%.

If with auto resolve you still loose I would suggest to starve them and crush them when they sally.

[Seleucus I Nicator]

Just use the same strategy: attack with brute force. Now the Scots are probably worn down enough. Starving out the garrison and using siege engines are for sissies!

[CaptainSaibot]

Ladders are pretty bad. I use them, but what I do is make them decoys. Ill have them on both sides of the castle so the enemy is forced to divide its forces to defend on 3 fronts. I dont move the guys with the ladders on each side, they just sit there while I assault from the front with a batter ram or two. Once I have the gates under control, usually the men protecting the walls on either side either come to fortify the gate position or retreat to the town center. Thats when my guys with the ladders will scale the walls without having to fight, then just pummel the enemy from 3 sides.

This will greatly minimize your casualties since you wont have to fight the enemy at full strength for the gates, and the men with the ladder's only approach when they dont have to fight for it.

[Kalos]

I play on H/VH and I've never had a crushing defeat. Ever. Worst I've gotten is a close defeat.

[Seleucus I Nicator]

Ladders are pretty bad

The ladders are great! The men can attack in no time from them. Of course, it takes some casualties, but it is not like one can't afford the death of a few hundred soldiers in a castle assault.

[Recluse]

The nice thing about ladder assaults is that you can run your ladder units to undefended or underdefended portions of the walls and the defenders typically can't react fast enough to put up a solid wall defense where you attack.

Once you take the walls you can run some of your guys down to the nearest gate or gates and then rush your cav in. Once you have two or more gates you can typically outflank the defenders pretty easily.

[CaptainSaibot]

The ladders are great! The men can attack in no time from them. Of course, it takes some casualties, but it is not like one can't afford the death of a few hundred soldiers in a castle assault.

With the bonus's the defenders get when fighting on the walls, you'd have to be a fool to send troops up there, when you could just as easily send them straight through the front gate. Now if the wall is undefended like I was saying, not a problem. If you're going to send them up the ladder into the arms of the enemy you're better off just making the soldier's leave the assault and delete them on the map.