How do you like to defend your citieS?

[Nik00117]

How do you guys like to defend your cities in Sieges? As in once the actual battle starts.

Generally I find the AI does several things normally.

Eacho f my cities which have the potential to be attacked always have a decent army in them. This will consist of 2-3 high end units, then I will have 7-8 milita units 3-4 archers 1-2 cav (mostly 1 the family member)

My tactic is simple for defending a town, I place the majoirty of my 7-8 units at the front lines. Such as say 4 will be in V formation at the gate. Then 2 back ups will be right behind my 4 in a V-formation. I then keep my2-3 high units furthur in the rear.

At this point my General is right behind the high end units. My arhcers will go on top of the walls who will target the rams as they come forward.

I will also have 2-3 miltias on top of the walls to deal with ladders etc. If i see a siege tower I will reinforce my milita with 1 unit of high end units.

Now generally by the time ladders/siege towers hit my walls the enemy has broken down my gate and are rushing in.

The enemy will rush direclty into my V formation around the gate which will flex and begin to crack. AT this point I will rush in my 2 reserve units to furthur reinforce.

During this time my milita will be handling ladders/siege towers.

At the same time my V-formation is getting to that point hwere it needs furthur back up so I send in my heavy wel armed units.

At this point ladders/siege towers should be finished so I begin moving my milita/units from the walls to the ground.

I will try and wait for them to get on the ground before I bring in my family member (Hate risking their lives)

if the wall units are taking a while to come down I will bring in my general and do a few rallise to pick up moral if that doesn't work I will do a charge to tip the balance or at least tip it long enough for the final line of reinforcements to approach.

However generally by this point the enemy is pretty much defeated. Even a full well armed stack can only take so many hits. Remember I got archers above them firing down the guys not end at spear point. I have my walls firing at them oil coming down etc.

Generally very soon the enemy begins to route, to many casulaties really...

I've taken on 2 full stacks with this defense and sent em packing.

Best battle was 2 full stacks of French troops aganist Antrewp had a total of 15 units to defend aganist 40 I had 2 fam members, 6 milita, 4 dismounted knights 3 low bow men Defend two different sides of my town at the same time and sent the enemy packing

To add in, my milita and units were some of my most experienced units in the game. I had the Germans, and the French attacking the same city, with just enough turns to retrain my men. So needless to say very quickly they become very powerful

[Silent Assassin]

Nice first post and welcome to TWC!!!

I like defending myself... I would even more say that I love it...I'm a defending weirdo LOl.....

[Nik00117]

I'm the same, not only that have milita will can go toe to toe with unexperienced armored knights is funny

Honsetly I don't worry about my cities being be-seiged, my tactic is offensive in nature. You siege one of my cities I'll leave that city to defend itself and go take one of your cities.

Also that defense aganist 2 stacks left the enemy crippled! I had 2 stacks moving in from England, I was able to train up a half stack in my castle to reinforce them. As my general hit land fall I hired enough mercs to hire the other half of the stack. Therefore the enemy just lost 2 of their biggest stacks in the game and I come in sporting 3 primary stacks which I just utterly crushed the enemy with. Had a 2 front war aganist the Germans and the French with Denmark being av ery good ally.

I love defending in my early days of TW I would do everything I could to prevent the enemy was besieging a city, however the way I look at it in a siege I have have simple milita units at half the number fight off some of the most experienced armies in the game and defeat them allowing my true attacking armies to assualt more important targets.

In addition I find that happens to myself as well, before i've breached the enemy gates i've already lost 10-15% of my army. By the time I turn the tide 20% of my army is gone and by the time the battle is over at least 30% of my army is gone. 30%=a lot! And that's providing the enemy doesn't defend well. If you defend well you can pretty much defend anything with anything.

in RTW on an online game I took 3 REAL Players in mutlipalyer in a basic city with spearmen They forgot to get siege equipment and had nothing to counteract my spearmen.

[Imperator Romani]

I love defending as well. I unlike most people very rarely use ranged units and cavalry(hence my name). The only cavalry i use is general's units.

If the enemy uses ladders its a bonus because a unit of spear militia can wipe out a unit of DFK's because they can't get a nice group built up on the wall before suffering too many casualties(sp?). So wherever they use ladders it's just one unit of one of my worst units.

Wherever they have a siege tower i put 2 units of anything because on the walls quality doesn't count as much(didnt say it doesn't count) so as too outnumber them as on the ladders.

And for my favorite part the gate. I put the rest of my infantry down as close to the gate as i can. When they break through i let the enemy rush in a little bit and then send half of my gate force to cram the gate full, so all their units are taking casualties. The units in combat are taking casualties(hopefully) and since not all their units can fit in, the rest are getting hit by the towers which lowers the already low morale and they usually rout within 20 seconds. Then i bring down the wall defenders for support and switch out my first and second string for their final rush. Then i ransom the prisoners

[Muagan_ra]

Run cavalry/missile cavalry out the side gate, and charge them once theys start piling through the gate. Catches 'em like a vice.

[Viking Prince]

A good point to remember -- except in some mods, castle based troops never have free upkeep costs so do not be afraaid to distribute them among the various regions. A heavy cavalry and a couple of light cavalry units can move quickly between regions and can be a part of most garrisions with only a bit of notice. Since the settlements on the edge of your empire are the most vulnerable, place some professional troops as a part of any garrison beyond the free upkeep units. I try to never use more free upkeep units than I have slots for. They are generally not as good as the professional army units. Even in Italy, the castle based Armored Sergeants outclass the milita when castles reach the fortress level in the game.

[Nik00117]

Your right on the free upkeep, I have a lot of professional armies in England still which=useless.

The threat aganist the British isles=nill pertty much so my next plan of attack is to take ALL my professional armies in England and move down to europe as I replace them with town milita for public order.

I figure I have enough to make a stack, which considerig i'm at war with The Milans in additiont o the French get yancy, the Germans showing their stuff the Dens having a full stack on my borders could really help

I also have a new potential front as well at my newest addition, took a Milian castle on the Spain/Portgual border.

I do keep well trained army units on my front in the cities, the AI isn't going have the brains to go attack Dublin (which would be a very easy hit and throw me off gaurd) they'll get Frankfurt instaed. Which of course is prepared