They'll never take this fortress.. but oh no, the walls are still damaged!!

[psyclog]

You know the story? Part of your fortress was shot to pieces during the last battle - and of course, you forgot to repair the structure.

In their next assault, you enter the deployment screen and are faced with a breached wall. The horror, I remember experiencing this catastrophe back in RTW already, with dire consequences. I don't know how many times I tried to defend a city with destroyed gates back then.


But this time, I was allowed to deploy ad hoc defenses for my three proper infantry units. As you can see in the attached screenshot, I tried to seal off the breach with the barricades, and it worked pretty well.
The citizens weakened the attackers from above the wall, and my 3 infantry companies held their ground and routed column after column.

[antaeus]

i am a great fan of battlefield defences!

i am a fan of trenchworks... you can make fantastic killing fields if you combine them to make channels between buildings with artillery pieces firing shot at point blank range.

i also usually setup barricades around the inner courtyard between garrisonable buildings at the start of any battle, just in case i have to retreat from the walls..

murderous.

[Slugger78]

That's probably an easier way to defend your fort than waiting for them to scale up your wall in 38 different locations. Show them the carrot then give them a whole lot of stick when they go for it.

[Skyline Pete]

That's a ripper of a screenshot mate!

I too setup defenses inside the forts, usually the anti cav things at the doors.

[Earende]

Walls can get damaged after being shot? I've been blasting lots of walls, but none of them ever required repairs.

[antaeus]

Walls can get damaged after being shot? I've been blasting lots of walls, but none of them ever required repairs.

if you're on low unit size it takes ages because you dont have enough guns.. its one of the down sides of playing with smaller unit size settings - buildings and things have the same strength as they do with huge unit sizes.

3 or 4 units of artillery on medium or greater unit size settings will deal to a wall in short order.

[Alpedar]

I have found out one thing: sometimes it makes sense for defender to shoot his own walls.
I was attacking and stupid AI kept shooting in a way it was hitting walls. But on those walls were my units (fighting his mob, which managed to rout intima), so when wall collapsed, lot of my troops died there. This way he coused MORE causalties than any other way.

Combined with this topic, what about weakening spots where you expect enemy to scale walls and then drop them when they do it. Then wait inside deployed to make killing field?
Of course, only AI can fall for this, but it possibly can turn lost siege to won one.

[Langer Kerl]

I have found out one thing: sometimes it makes sense for defender to shoot his own walls.
I was attacking and stupid AI kept shooting in a way it was hitting walls. But on those walls were my units (fighting his mob, which managed to rout intima), so when wall collapsed, lot of my troops died there. This way he coused MORE causalties than any other way.

Exactly the same happened to me. Cost me three regiments of the line. I was really angry about my own stupidity.


About the defense: In Medieval 2, it was often beneficial for me to have one clear breach in the wall when the enemy attacked. I could position all my troops around it, forming a half-circle of death with pike units and the like. The AI would, in most cases, abandon their siege equipment and rush for the well-defended breach where they were annihilated. Their own mass and pressure to push inside hindered them to fight effectively while my own men kept poking them to death. Sometimes, I even opened my gates on purpose to lure the enemy into the defenses I deployed behind it.

In Empire, you're actually lucky if your enemy concentrates his forces on a small area. Usually, they simply climb the fort at all possible sides, making it totally ineffective to defend the walls. That's why most of the siege battles end up to be one massive brawl in the fort center and that is the reason I avoid to upgrade my threatened cities' defenses to star forts. Those "fortresses" are even larger and thus a lot harder to defend than the smaller fortifications. They really need to limit siege equipment so the attacker can't assault from all sides without any preparation.

[Curry the Great]

Trick: Shoot a hole in your own wall, and the AI will send all his infantry there. You just set up a killing zone and voilá beat armies ten times your's size.

[psyclog]

Trick: Shoot a hole in your own wall, and the AI will send all his infantry there. You just set up a killing zone and voilá beat armies ten times your's size.

I was actually thinking about posting this in the bugs section, as it is clearly exploitable.

Had the AI diverted part of their army to scale the walls on my rear, I would have been in trouble.. hope some guys from CA read all this.

[tuore]

I love battlefield tactics. Once i put the barricades in three rows, so that the cavalry which passes the first one gets stuck to the second one etc. and line inf behind the barricades, shooting them.