Is there any way to avoid open battle?

[AntiochosMegas]

I face again a Jihad siege in Constantinople as Byzantines, Fatimid army cosnisted by two full stacks, the first one is decimated by cannon towers, mainly and some cavalry charges, their tower and two rams are destroyed too. The reinforcing army stands ontheother side of the map without doing anything, is there any tip to make them assault the walls than sally the city to attack them?

[Nightbringer]

im not sure, maybe try to lure them closer with your general

[ricebowl]

would it be nice if you have something cheap and runs fast to go out there and lure them in?

[Aranu]

had same thing i lured there infantry with cheap unit (cavalry just stands there) and i waited till the battle was over :p
and i always put a small unit at the gates where second or third army stand so those cannon towers are manned and ready to shoot
cannon tower range is far!

[preachercheeze]

the AI reinf. often waits until a breach or a siege equipment is in place before moving in... if you destroyed all the siege equipment they will just stand there until you either sally forth or the time runs out...

this is the main reason why I always uses timed battles, because I have no probs holding my cities, but to end this kind of sieges I have to sally forth and risk all when redeploying...

as stated, try lure them to the walls with lighter cavalry, or let there be a breach/ram/siegetower at the walls...

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Seen that occure awfully many times in the past, so I always keep the timer on/active for battles.

However, sometimes attacking them on melee tends to awake them.

[Tacitursa]

I face again a Jihad siege in Constantinople as Byzantines, Fatimid army cosnisted by two full stacks, the first one is decimated by cannon towers, mainly and some cavalry charges, their tower and two rams are destroyed too. The reinforcing army stands ontheother side of the map without doing anything, is there any tip to make them assault the walls than sally the city to attack them?

Did you sally forth before the battle started? or did you wait untill you had fight them?

If you sally forth the AI does not attack and stands outside waiting for you too sally out.

If you dont sally forth however and wait they will attack.

Because you said they were killed by cannon and cavalery im guessing they were waiting outside and you did sally forth?

Try waiting out the seige untill you must fight and they should always attack.

[luciferleigh]

dont kill all their siege equips when you come out of the gates, i usually leave 1 unit carrying a ladder alone, at least with ladders they are forced to come onto my walls 1 by 1, with either pronoia, dismounted lancers, or varagnians waiting for them

[Viscule]

Try to get one siege tower live, get your best/most capable units and get onto the wall they lay siege on with the tower. This way when they jump down, they either die or almost die. They rout quickly.

Second thing you can try is to let them open your gate, push with your own units to have them just under the oil. This kills off alot of them and they tend to rout quickly.

Second option might be a bit hard depending on the enemy. If they have heavy cavalry they might just get through your mass of units and you will end up losing.

[AntiochosMegas]

I didn't destroy myself the siege equipment the cannon towers did it. I prefer these Pronoia infantry on the wall they are awesome,because they have good defense and also good AP ability, it is the best unit along with unmounted Latinikon for such job.

Some tricks I use if the enemy break though the gate,are the following:

when deploying put a gurad archers unit in front of the gate and deploy sharpened stakes,behind use spearmen of any kind (all units of the type are good defensive troops), they will put out enemy's cavalry very-very fast,only few will remain and so they won't push you,and kill easily.I hold Mosul that,against Kwarezmian full stacks,their infantry is crap except the imperial guard, so I hold the walls easily and their cavalry is decimated by the stakes,without any casualties (I don't deploy spearmen there)

You can deploy fire throwers at the wings of the invading force and when the moment is right (many already in),you can burn them,they will rout very fast...

[Faramir D'Andunie]

Using stakes in front of the gate is a cheap trick considering the AI will always fall for it and massacre its cavalry. Some considering it an exploit, I believe human player already has too many advantes over the AI without having to resort to such tricks.

[Caesar Clivus]

Faramir is correct. Using stakes at the gate is an exploit because there is no way the AI can tell that they're there and stop it's cavalry.

[Sargon_of_Akkad]

Is there any way to avoid open battle?

You'll never gain an empire thinking like that!

[Navajo Joe]

I prefer an Open Battle, too many battles are sieges or being besieged, I tend to want to find the enemy before they besiege me. I far prefer to fight on a battlefield, although I find a forest a pain in the neck.
As for the use of stakes in an entrance, that is a 100% cheat, I would rather lose than exploit anything such as that

[AntiochosMegas]

without offense, it depends of how you see it. AI is always incapable of field a preper army. Every battleIwonagainst fatimids is acheat because i faced few malmuks and mostly saracen militia that are very easy to be surrounded. I magine aproper Fatimid army consisted by Malmuks mainly (both HC and HA) and few infantry they would be difficult to be defeated and they would cause many casualties.
I try not tohave many casualties with any way possible, I field only a field proffesional army, and militias,other work is done by agents and in times of great need I enlist many mercenaries. The trick with stakes used only twice by the same general in different cities it would be a trick supposed to be made by a single person or something.
War never won only by huge military power but also by cunning innovations, talking for the medieval timeframe the Taborites tactics could be a trick of that way, but it was a great example how a small well trained army used new tactics can destroy a huge opponent (4 crusades were made and all turn out to disasters). There are many examples in history that surprice won the day (and most of them were taken part during middle ages).
I also like more field battles but I need to have the right army for them, if not I prefer to stay behind walls,I willnever fight in open without cavalry for example. The situation with this siege was frutsarting because I had to fight 3 more full stacksat next turnswith the same garisson (I faced a jihad), so It would be awful to lose at least my half army at an open battle with one enemy's full stack...