Seige impossible in SS 6.1 :(

[newhope]

Hi, I'm new posting here, but have been enjoying Stainless Steel since 5.0.

I've been trying out 6.1 after not playing the game for a while, and whilst generally it is packed full of great improvements, one thing is really annoying me.

When attacking enemy settlements with walls, it is impossible for me to win - even if I have, say, 2 rams and 6 towers, the enemy archers use fire arrows and destory all the seige equipment before it even reaches the walls!

I've been leaving seiges to the computer to resolve, but obviously it'd be nice to be able to do them manually too!! Is anyone else having this problem?

[Sevachenko]

I have not had this problem. Then again maybe an oil based wood cleaner is not very effective for rams and siege towers. In all seriousness, get some archers of your own and shoot theirs? Or use peasants as fodder? Or get catapults ?

[newhope]

It never happened like this in 5.1, so the balance must've been changed somewhere...

Catapults are good but early on you don't have them! I always find if I try to use archers against their archers on the walls, my archers lose big time.

Sigh... think I'll just let the computer auto resolve for now!

[Coffeejunkie]

I'd suggest you send 2 or 3 siege towers for the same wall section, they won't be able to destroy all of them in time. Same with rams, all to the same gate at one time, at least one should get through. Or use a spy
But you really must have been facing a lot of archers, never saw anything like that.

[Barser]

I think it is alright. But ladders is better anyways. Get your units to the walls much quicker.

[aduellist]

I think it is alright. But ladders is better anyways. Get your units to the walls much quicker.

I second that. I never use towers and hardly ever use rams. Ladders can't be destroyed!

[Xeno_cws]

I believe there was a tweak to make siege equipment more vulnerable to fire since before the patch it was a rare occurance. From what I understand its not an easy thing to balance since theres a lot of luck (random chance) involved.

Barser:

You lose a lot of men with ladders though, especially if they have decent units guarding the walls.

Having one or two siege towers during a large siege is nice since when the door drops you have 20 or so men charging and clearing the area for the rest of the troops instead of 4 guys at a time doing that.

I don't find rams too useful against higher level castles, they get busted up too bad.

The best way to do any siege is to bring artillery the more the merrier

[sirfiggin]

This one time, as Byzantium, I was besieging Bern, the final settlement of Venice.All their armies and generals were gone, the faction leader, with 10 stars for some reason, was defending the fortress with about 700 men, I had sieged him for around 6 turns, to wither his army from the earlier numbers of 900. The seige started well, but then my Latinkon began to rout, i only had the standard siege engines, and once the towers and ladders were unmanned, my army was down 40% whilst the enemy barely lost 20%, for the first time, I realized that I was going to lose a siege, the conquerers of anatolia, eygpt, the caucasian mountains and syria, and lately italy was going to be defeated by an enemy they outnumbered 2-1, their only advantage was their general, who had beaten them before, a small reinforcing army that would have tipped the balance in the siege. Well, after that an even larger army, led by the same man, finally took the fortress, and the empire claimed northern Africa from Sicily, the balkans south of the Danube from Hungary, was on the verge of declaring war on France and/or Spain, the Roman Empire would have soon been whole for the first time in a thousand years...but then my game broke and needed to be reinstalled, now I have a new computer....perhaps before the summer is through, the world will once again taste the steel of the sons of mars.....perhaps...

[LionQ]

Besieging Genoa, eh?

[ssmarine]

Sieges really arent that hard.

[Severloh]

Just bring down the gate and push on!

[obbob]

usually, the best way to seige a settlement is to create a bunch of rams and assault as many different gates as you can.

Assaulting the walls is usually really fun, but you will usually take a ton of unecessary casualties.

[Templar Knight]

i say use cannons thats what i use

[joemo]

Hi, I'm new posting here, but have been enjoying Stainless Steel since 5.0.

I've been trying out 6.1 after not playing the game for a while, and whilst generally it is packed full of great improvements, one thing is really annoying me.

When attacking enemy settlements with walls, it is impossible for me to win - even if I have, say, 2 rams and 6 towers, the enemy archers use fire arrows and destory all the seige equipment before it even reaches the walls!

I've been leaving seiges to the computer to resolve, but obviously it'd be nice to be able to do them manually too!! Is anyone else having this problem?

i have that so i use ladders

[tallstark]

What everyone else said, plus two other things.
1. Thats why you have the option to hit wait; I don't know if it works or not but I always try and hit wait until its raining or snowing if possible and I rarely get burned up.
2. Use your archers. I always run up 2-4 rows of archers and get it a shooting match. Of course I know they are going to lose more than they kill, but they take the focus off the infantry that is coming up and they are basically worthless for assaults anyways...

[Dead Guy]

I noticed a dramatic increase in burning siege towers after installing bygs, RR, sstc and realistic projectiles. Not sure which one, if any, changes it. I did not have trouble at all with inflammable equipment in plain SS 6.1 (Inflammable means flammable? what a crazy country!) All three of my towers burned almost exactly when they reached the walls, when they took that final point blank volley. =)

[RollingWave]

Seige in 6.1 is a ton easier than it was in real life

[spanish_emperor]

I noticed a dramatic increase in burning siege towers after installing bygs, RR, sstc and realistic projectiles. Not sure which one, if any, changes it. I did not have trouble at all with inflammable equipment in plain SS 6.1 (Inflammable means flammable? what a crazy country!) All three of my towers burned almost exactly when they reached the walls, when they took that final point blank volley. =)

it's not RR, cause i use it and i don't have that problem

[Gorrrrrn]

If you insist on attacking a heavily defended castle /settlement you'll take a lot of casualties.
(Just remember how many you cause the AI when it attacks your castles / settlements.)

It's supposed to be harder for the attacker.

That said heavily defended settlements are bit easier to win if you bring some artillery - if nothing else it'll drive archers off the walls, and if you make plenty of holes you don't need ladders etc.

Multiple points of attack are good, but be careful not to spread yourself too thin - the defender has shorter movement times to points on the walls than attackers do and if you run your men will tire very quickly.

[Navajo Joe]

My understanding of a Medieval siege was to starve out the inhabitants and not to engage the enemy. Why would you want to use your best troops and lose alot of them, when you sit there and starve them to death. Obviously you have the problem of your general running out of supplies, so you can shuttle different generals between target and friendy cities or alternatively leave your General at home.
You could be attacked my other hostiles of the besieged faction and that way draw them out onto the battlefield.
If I am going to attack, I use RAMS and attack 2-3 gates, using a token force and the main force. They run around inside the settlement and I get to the centre as they do. Once my Cavarly are inside they go by a different way so they get a flank attack.