Guides to sieges?

[SuleymanGroznii]

I remember on the old forum there were guides for just about every action to be taken with the game, including carrying out a siege. I can't find the siege tips, does anybody have them downloaded or anything?

I've been playing a Parthia campaign forever, and I'm getting kinda bored with it. I have most of the cities northeast and southeast of the Caspian Sea, and I've assassinated so many Seleucid family members in Anatolia and Mesopotamia that they're just staying the _____ out of the Dodge, so basically, I'm just lumbering turn by turn as my armies get closer and get closer to Mesopotamia to do some REAL damage.

so I'm thinking I want to start a Roman campaign with the new Plat. mods, and kinda alternate or something. But I have a confession to make:

I hate sieges, and I always won any siege that required more than a battering ram by totally outnumbering the garrison and autoresolving the whole thing. Every time I've tried to actually carry the things out, my siege towers get caught on fire, so do just about all of my other equipment. Basically, how in the F DO YOU WIN A SIEGE AGAINST A CITY WITH SERIOUS WALLS? ARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHG!!!?

Your suggestions and words of encouragement are much appreciated

[|The Pilgrim|]

I've been playing a Parthia campaign forever, and I'm getting kinda bored with it. I've assassinated so many Seleucid family members in Anatolia and Mesopotamia that they're just staying the _____ out of the Dodge,

I hate sieges, Basically, how in the F DO YOU WIN A SIEGE AGAINST A CITY WITH SERIOUS WALLS? ARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHG!!!?

I really just felt like quoting the funny parts in your post I enjoyed reading it, I also am irritated with the sieges and how freaking lnog it takes to destroy them. So ill be looking on here also for any tips on faster game etc etc etc.

[Wien1938]

Sieges are easy.
Make sure that you attack with a full stack army, so you can have a minimum of two assault towers and two ladders. Use hard-bastard units like hypaspists, principii or such for the assault.
Spread out your assault and aim for stretches of wall without towers, or if towers are present, where you can get in quickly.
If you have archers or slingers, where their opposites are not present, use them to beat down any opposition on the wall, aiming for javelin men first, since that way you do the most damage.
And never use battering rams - waste of money and men.
Ladders are surprisingly useful, provided you aim for an undefended stretch of wall.
Haven't really used anything else including artillery. By the time, I've developed it, I really can't be bothered to go to the trouble of working out a new routine.
Oh yeah. Attack when it's raining - less chance of burning siege towers against strong walls.

[HeroSK]

I play a lot with HA civilizations..and I enjoy it..

But the most painfull side of it is sieges...especially stone walled cities..

I mostly wait them to surrender..however I invented a trick.

Firsty, use spies, know your enemy..Then send an army of HA which is smaller than garrnison in the city..

Mostly AI thinks it can break siege and sallies..

At that point, as soon as battle begins, send your horse archers closer to enemy gate but be careful with towers..

While enemy trying to get out of city, they become massed at gates, a very good target for missles..shoot them...many of them will rout or die during this caos..

Also, if there is enemy cavalry or general, most probably comes from some other gates, keep some HA as reserve and when the enemy cavary comes shoot them to death..

After all enemies died, you can enter the city without siege..

But, be careful if enemy has armies around there your small army may not handle with both garrnison and reinforcements so always try to prevent receiving any help for besieged city..

Happy hunting

[Simon]

Add the metro-naval mod. It removes walls around several cities that would normally not have them. Makes life a lot easier since you simply assault the city and fight in the streets. The vast majority of the cities back then did not have walls...

Then when you get to a real siege, it is really worth it!

[SuleymanGroznii]

I play a lot with HA civilizations..and I enjoy it..

But the most painfull side of it is sieges...especially stone walled cities..

I mostly wait them to surrender..however I invented a trick.

Firsty, use spies, know your enemy..Then send an army of HA which is smaller than garrnison in the city..

Mostly AI thinks it can break siege and sallies..

At that point, as soon as battle begins, send your horse archers closer to enemy gate but be careful with towers..

While enemy trying to get out of city, they become massed at gates, a very good target for missles..shoot them...many of them will rout or die during this caos..

Also, if there is enemy cavalry or general, most probably comes from some other gates, keep some HA as reserve and when the enemy cavary comes shoot them to death..

After all enemies died, you can enter the city without siege..

But, be careful if enemy has armies around there your small army may not handle with both garrnison and reinforcements so always try to prevent receiving any help for besieged city..

Happy hunting

This sounds like a great strategy and I somehow missed it when going through responses.

I play my battles on hard (I did my old campaigns' battles on medium, and like I said before, I always wussed out and auto managed the sieges, so I never learned a thing about winning a tough, large scale siege), and I've had a lot of luck in sieges with a HA based army by using 1-2 sappers (either archers, slingers, other missile troops, or mercenary heavy infantry) and maybe a few units of spearmen (my own or mercenaries) to push through the ugly parts.

I've also had luck using Cataphracts, Heavy Camels, and generals to blast through the broken wall sections, even if they have low experience, and even if the sections are being defended by the tough spearmen, like Chalkispedes or Pezoi. just charge them until the initial charge runs out (you'll typically know because your guys start dying ), then charge right the other way. It causes a lot of confusion for the city's garrison, and then I start sending in my best HA type units to 2-3 different locations either around the tough enemy troops or the town square (and I have them all in a narrow, blocky formation from the get go, so that they don't have to reform too much to get through any parts of the city.).

So yeah, that's how I do it with Parthia. But an actual heavy infantry-based army? My goodness. I'm absolutely clueless. Talk about irony.

[HeroSK]

I am glad that you liked my strategy..SuleymanGroznii

Here another trick while beseiging wooden walled cities,

Since you attacking enemy will wait for you. To repel the enemy infantry bloacking the breached walls shoot them what ever missle you have..

They will leave thair position...and march to a safe place or out of your range..

But wait a bit, close fire at will button, enemy will came to same place again..Open fire at will shoot and kill them as much as possible..

Contunue it several times..

I mostly play as Sarmatians but if you have cataphracts rest enemy wont be so much of trouble..

[SuleymanGroznii]

I don't suppose that metro-naval mod would apply toward my current campaign if I added it, would it..?

[SuleymanGroznii]

I cannot find this metro-naval mod anywhere, unless it's the extended realism mod by Camillus. Would that be the case?

[Artax]

Here it is:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=95634

[El Generalissimo]

Hello all:

Sorry about this long post, but I enjoy sieges and am usually pretty successful at both assaulting and defending. I do miss onagers.

In general, I'll wait out the AI when beseiging a city with a large garrison. The AI will invariably sally just before the city falls, then you can beat them in the field.

When the garrison is small and I'm in a hurry, like when in a strategically vulnerable position, I assault. I'm currently playing Rome and am in the process of disabling Macedon by taking the Peloponnese. This has involved assaulting several large cities with token garrisons. I need to relieve pressure on the Illyrian front, so those cities must fall quickly.

As already suggested, send your toughest sloggers in first, like principes. They rule sieges, both in offense and defense.

Against wooden walls, make at least a few battering rams and take down the wall in more than one place as well as the gate. Then, while the garrison has your initial attacking force plugged up at the gate, you can send additional forces through breeches in the walls to flank. If you have ballistae, use them to destroy arrow towers adjacent to your planned breeches in the walls before assaulting. Once in, move to town center in force.

Against stone walls, send a mix of towers and ladders, or just a few towers if the garrison is not large. For some reason, the AI does not commit many troops to the walls, (not as many as I do when defending, anyway). Yes, you'll often lose a tower when attacking large stone walls, so have extras and send them all at once. Avoid sending towers into the "cul de sac" the game puts in some stone walls where they take fire from 3 sides at once.

Also, remember where the roads run into the town center. Concentrate on taking the walls just adjacent to the gate, then relay troops up the towers and move them along the walls to eventually occupy all the towers along the route you will need to take to the town center. Sometimes I move missile units onto the walls once they are secured by my front line troops so that they can target AI reinforcements being moved up on the ground.

Modesty aside, I generally massacre the AI when it assaults my beseiged cities unless vastly outnumbered.

I like sieges.

[Solaris]

One word: Autoresolve! Or an amalgamation of two words.. but whatever!