Im some what of a newb at RTS and Total war games in General Could some one answer a few questions?

[calintz333]

Well I seem to always loose trying to take out castles. I can usually take out towns and have a few troops left by the end of the battle, but Castles and Fortresses are so heavy defended my troops usually die about 20% of them just trying to brake the gates and kill the archers on the walls.

My stratagy is -

Ram the gate
put archers shooting the archers on the walls
once gate is rammed Charge with infantry units at the walls where my archers were shooting
Stop my archers shot - Move them forward but not inside the fortress

(By this time my enemy already has reinforcements and is killing my Infantry so I send in more infantry and it usually ends up in me loosing because they kill off all my infantry before I can kill theirs. My cavelry seem to always do nothing in Fortress invasions.

So can some one give me some good strategies and tips to help me invade fortress better please? I don't understand why I cant seem to win its only on Normal mode and my banner usually has about 10-25% more color than my enemies with better armored troops and often times more Melee troops too. My armies usually consist of 70% walking melee 10% Horsemen 10-15% long range and 5% Ram or other gate braking equipment.

Hope to get some replies soon I seem to only be able to win when I just make peace with everyone but then I never get any land >.<

[Manoflooks]

Get some artillery, to smash down the towers. If impossible, the best thing to do is send a unit of peasants up with your ram, as fodder. And dont shoot at the archers on the walls-they are well protected by the ramparts. When you charge, order them to go behind the enemy units. They will push forward and make a hole. Maybe put on guard mode too, but I think speed is best.

Or autoresolve.

[Spartan90]

Use artillery to smash all of their towers on one wall. This will drastically decrease your casualties. Then use peasants or some useless unit to ram the gate. If the enemy pour out, smash them before they form up ranks. Usually they will stay behind the covers of their walls though. Use towers (not ladders) and get your strongest infantry on the walls to clear their archers. Use the rest of your foot soldiers to storm the gate. There will be a huge bottleneck fight happening at the gate now. Once your elite soldiers have quickly wiped out the enemy on the wall, they should now be in your possession, which means you can exit the walls on the inside. Get your elite soldiers to sweep in and attack the flanks and rear of the enemy. Soon the bottlenecked fight at the gate will be in your favour enormously with the entire enemy surrounded. Easy win.

Alternatively, use a spy to open the gate

[calintz333]

Well I am playing the Stainless steel mod just thought id say that. Also I seem to always have problems only with kingdoms like Ireland and Portugal when I try to fight Leon or England. I will try what you guys said, Currently I am Ireland and the reason I was shooting with Archers is because Ireland has some good Archers.

[Pink Beard]

well an additional tactic would be to:


A: get a heap of peasants to be honoured members of the "you go first"-club

or

B: swarm a fortress with troops. For every 1 knight they kill another 3 pop up!

[Conquistatore]

Use infantry and cavalry to clear the inside of the castle. Send your infantry onto the walls once they are inside to deal with the archers and any other units up there. Then mass all your units into the town square, hitting the enemy from as many sides as possible and just grind them up in the centre. You can weaken the enemy with your archers first by bringing them inside and shooting at the units in the town square for a little while until they start to charge towards you.

[claudius2007]

1. Use artillery. Rams and towers get obsolete pretty fast. Even a ballista will do most times since you can use it to take the gate down.
If for some reason you haven't built the artillery infrastructure in your settlements then you should rely heavily on spies to open the gates.

2. Keep a solid 6-8 units of heavy infantry/ spearmen in your army. When the gate is down storm in through the gates with your heavy infantry first and spearment following up. If they put up cavalry against them just rush the spearmen in front of the heavy infantry. Make sure you push them through the gates until the gate defenders break. The AI will often not keep all of its troops by the gates, so you can secure them with a smaller squad. There is no point in rushing all your army through their towers fire for no reason.

3. Secure the 2 roads that connect the center of the settlement to the gate.
Just block them off with your infantry. Also, take out anyone on the walls.

4. Get your own archers on the walls facing inwards for any incoming troops that will try to drive you out. Get everyone else inside the gates including your general, siege equipment,etc.

5. Prepare an assault on the second tier of gates using the same strategy.


This should work most times. If you are having trouble getting through gates make sure you rush them through the defenders instead of attacking. Although you will take some losses they will be massively outnumbered and route once you engage. You can use a unit of Knights to help the push from the back.

The most important thing to keep in mind however is that however you choose to move you must minimize the effect of his towers on your men. That is really his only solid advantage.

Good luck!