Sieges By Your Allies

**Bob The Fearless** · January 17, 2008, 09:24 AM

Okay sounds a little strange.

But is it possible to join your ally in a siege that they already have underway, but you attack first and take the town from under their nose.

Reason for asking is I'm currently Spain and Council of Nobles have tasked me to take Bordaux. Okay happy to go, but I see a Portugese army (allied to me) head north.

Sure enough they have sieged Bordaux, BUT I WANT THAT REGION.

Could really do with the money espically after a successful Crusade and now that the army is back on my payroll its crippling me

**Antissa** · January 17, 2008, 09:42 AM

As far as I know, if the AI has laid siege to the region's settlement first, you can't snatch it from them. However, you can try

a)Bribing the AI army
d)Attacking the AI army
c)Hope the AI army suffers a defeat

EDIT:Never mind. Apparently you can join in on the siege with your A.I. ally.

**Sardonicus** · January 17, 2008, 10:09 AM

If you attampt to take Bordeaux from the Portugese you'll prob make an enemy of them...it doesn't take much.

Speaking of allies laying sieges, while playing as England recently Caen was approached by a Spanish diplomat who aked for trade rights, map info, and an alliance.
I said yes, and was immediately attacked and sieged by a full stack of Spanish units on the very same turn.
This game has a very strange idea about alliances.

**Vor** · January 17, 2008, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Sardonicus

If you attampt to take Bordeaux from the Portugese you'll prob make an enemy of them...it doesn't take much.

Speaking of allies laying sieges, while playing as England recently Caen was approached by a Spanish diplomat who aked for trade rights, map info, and an alliance.
I said yes, and was immediately attacked and sieged by a full stack of Spanish units on the very same turn.
This game has a very strange idea about alliances.

Military and Diplomacy AI are different, that's why this happens. E:TW is said to be different, so I'm hopeful.

As to the question, then yes, you can join your allies in a siege, and if you build siege towers and initiate the attack before the AI ally does then you will take control. I'm sure I've done it before.

**Monsieur Alphonse** · January 17, 2008, 02:36 PM

Originally Posted by Bob The Fearless

Okay sounds a little strange.

But is it possible to join your ally in a siege that they already have underway, but you attack first and take the town from under their nose.

Reason for asking is I'm currently Spain and Council of Nobles have tasked me to take Bordaux. Okay happy to go, but I see a Portugese army (allied to me) head north.

Sure enough they have sieged Bordaux, BUT I WANT THAT REGION.

Could really do with the money espically after a successful Crusade and now that the army is back on my payroll its crippling me

You can join the siege and start the attack. This will make sure that the city is yours. I did it in my English campaign when the pope called a crusade on Toulouse. By the time my army arrived he was already besieging the castle. I joined the siege and attacked next turn. He helped me but I captured the castle

.

Never trust an englishman

**big_feef** · January 17, 2008, 04:28 PM

I've done this several times and I moslty end up with the settlement if I initiate the attack... I think I only not get it once, when I had a smaller army than AI (in terms of force calculation that the game does). That was way back in 1.1, so I don't know if 1.2 made changes to it; but then again, I've never attacked with a smaller force since anyway. Something to test when I have the time...

**Pontifex Maximus** · January 17, 2008, 07:55 PM

the first to beseige gets the city if the attack is sucessful

**Vor** · January 18, 2008, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by pontifexmaximus101

the first to beseige gets the city if the attack is sucessful

No, the first to attack the walls gets it.

**Bob The Fearless** · January 18, 2008, 11:26 AM

Cheers guys for the replies.

I don't want to break the alliance that I have with the Portuguese. On good terms with these guys

and I may now need there help with the Moors.

I hoping they will attack next turn and be defeated just prior to my arrival in Bordaux. (Thats the easiest solution for me)

If I can get there before they attack the I will certainly do a couple of saves and play the various options through more out of interest than anything else.

I was hoping someone would say control the town square to gain control of the town.

I'll see how it progresses over the weekend, but it sounds like this maybe able to happen.

**Monsieur Alphonse** · January 18, 2008, 11:37 AM

The one that initiates the attack gets the town. You can siege with one unit, attack and then let your allies do the job (and get slaughtered

). They still will be thankful and loyal allies.

I did that in kingdoms were my allies the Aztecs did all the hard work and lost 90% if their army while my guys watched the show. After the Aztecs and the rebels had killed most of each other my soldiers took the town. After the battle my relation with the Aztecs improved

. Talking about Machiavelli.

**SOE digital** · January 17, 2008, 10:19 PM

I thought it was who ever attacked first gets the city...granted they win.
Who ever besieged the city first is irrelevant no?

**Sher Khan** · January 17, 2008, 10:54 PM

Just as a cheat, if I REALLY want that settlement and not have to break an alliance to take it, I usually send one cheap unit to assist in the siege. Once the AI decides to storm the settlement, I use the "auto_win defender" cheat to force the city to win and send my allies packing. My unit then retreats, and I then march in and siege the city myself.

Cheesy, no?

**JCeasar_911** · January 18, 2008, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by Sher Khan

Just as a cheat, if I REALLY want that settlement and not have to break an alliance to take it, I usually send one cheap unit to assist in the siege. Once the AI decides to storm the settlement, I use the "auto_win defender" cheat to force the city to win and send my allies packing. My unit then retreats, and I then march in and siege the city myself.

Cheesy, no?

Quite clever. Ive never thought of that before

and probably never would have

**pwijnands** · January 19, 2008, 05:11 AM

Originally Posted by Sher Khan

Just as a cheat, if I REALLY want that settlement and not have to break an alliance to take it, I usually send one cheap unit to assist in the siege. Once the AI decides to storm the settlement, I use the "auto_win defender" cheat to force the city to win and send my allies packing. My unit then retreats, and I then march in and siege the city myself.

Cheesy, no?

Man, wish I knew about that before. When my Milanese allies (me being France) were sieging rebel Marseille, I used the move_character cheat to move the sieging army somewhere else. Didn't work as planned, the city still showed it's besieged state and the army was also still in besiege mode. However I still attacked the city and when I took it, the city was somehow still considered to be under siege by the Milanese army. When the siege ended (8 turns or so), the Milanese took the city and we were in a state of war.

**Bob The Fearless** · January 20, 2008, 03:51 AM

Okay played this one through last night.

Attacked first took, control of the town and won. Town was mine.

Pity the Portugese took so long to get round to the gate though. It was all over by the time they finally got to the gates.

Replayed this morning and found that the Portugese turned up without siege equipment. Okay so I had to ram the gate open and just stand back. They did all the fighting and beat the Rebels, town was handed to me

.

Tried again with just enough units to man siege ram and tower, same result as above.

So as you guys predicted first to attack gets the town.

Interesting way of taking places really.

Just double checked on diplomacy ratings and all is still okay between me and Portugal. Nothing came up in the "Turn End" reports and still have the same rating with them.

**King_Sulieman_YHWH** · January 18, 2008, 09:26 PM

To be honest, until I started played the modded version of the game, I too was disappointed with the Game's A.I., it seemed to erratic in nature, doing random, stupid things.

After installing SS 4, then the 4.1 update, the A.I. is so much better, it is like night and day difference. From the A.I. doing seaborne invasions, to everything else, the A.I. factions really do feel almost like they are being controlled by a human. Theres an obvious increase in perceived intelligence..

If you are attacking a town that your ally is already beseiging, and you assist them in taking the town, even if you make it to town center first and capture it first, it will go to the allied A.I. faction I believe, dont quote me on it. It used to be whoever had the largest amy gets it, but that was the first MTW.

**Skyline Pete** · January 20, 2008, 07:29 AM

I had a diplomat next to a city that was being sieged by a full stack of my ally's army. There were some rebels near by that I managed to successfully bribe. I used those 4 units of Crossbowmen to initiate the attack and just sat back and watched.

I killed like <10 guys in the battle and the city was handed to me. ^_^

Then the AI broke the alliance and sieged the city again because of it's lack of decent garrison.