Keep those walls up! Siege-defence tips

[Sir Walter]

Well, somebody mentioned stuff about keeping walls up in Mega's "Get those walls up!" thread, so I'll make another thread for it, as it's just as useful.

My personal tips (which I'll put in my main tips thing at some point):

1. Always have spearmen in your castles/cities. They own in siege-defence. Seriously. Stick them on a wall, in front of a gate, in a breach, in a narrow street, on the central square, any bottle-neck or easily defensible position that the enemy need to get through will do. Even Spear Militia have saved Toledo for me from the Aragonese once (I was playing as Leon & Castille). Mind you, Toledo is one of those castles that has what I call a "death side" with about 70% of the walls totally impervious to attack due to moats and sheer slopes, but there you go. The AI didn't bring enough soldiers or have enough time to fully utilise an easier side anyway, as it may have noticed the elite 8-star silver-chevroned very-well-armoured Moor-slaying army headed its way within a turn, after going off to Extremadura and killing a (second, for that army, and this is on about turn 20) Caliph. Like I was saying about half an hour ago, my spearmen basically stood on the walls for several hours of play, with one unit in schiltrom just inside the gate until my javelin-men ran out of ammo. Then I charged out, and killed all their infantry, making them lose.

2. Now don't get me wrong, ballistae and cannons are good. They cause a lot of damage to tightly-packed units, regardless of ammo, and if you have managed to sneak one out they can set fire to the odd siege-tower or ram. But, to be honest, they do in my experience tend to be useless until either a) You've killed most of the enemy and they've ran away to the edge of the map, or b) The enemy are through the walls. This is because they can't shoot through a wall or a gate, no matter how open/broken it is, as they shoot flat, not up like a trebuchet, catapult or mangonel...

3. ...which brings me on neatly to how amazing those are. They shoot up, down, over... set just about everything on fire... but! Wait. Never shoot a mangonel over loads of your troops. A barrel will explode and shower your soldiers in flaming oil, and that's not good. But, when on target a barrel can kill fifteen Chivalric Knights in one shot (I was too happy to remember to take a screen-shot ). So shoot the mangonel at the back of their army and it'll hit something on the way. Trebuchets and catapults are better suited to blowing up siege equipment, especially rams and towers.

4. Other missile units are also amazing, just not so amazing. Italian-style crossbow-men are the best, because they can stand on the walls, shoot and shoot really hard, then fight with swords and big shields if the enemy reach the walls! But anything's good. Really, they've got more protection from the walls, and shoot down, so they'll cause loads of damage to the enemy.

5. Sometimes, the AI seems to realise it's up against a place like Toledo and walks around to the other side. This is great, because your troops can get there first and shoot at them while they're going. And if it's an important settlement with a good garrison, you can take your heavy cavalry, if you have any, march them through the gate the AI was facing, then out-flank the slow enemy units, smashing them in the back while your missile units shoot at them and your infantry charge straight out through the gate where their missile troops will invariably be

[axnsan]

A mangonel can kill much more than 15 chivalric knights with one shot. Especially when the enemy pile up at the gate.

My general strategy is disable their wall assault equipment to make them use the gate. Then hold them in place with useless militias while I shoot at them with whatever I can

[Remonster6x]

I always like to keep 1 or 2 catapults garrisoned in my cities and castles. Form units on the left and right of the gate and keep a spear unit back with my cats. The fire ammo not only takes out massive amounts of troops since they are clogged at the gate, it totally demoralizes them. 2 to 3 hits and most of the army is sent running. A quick cavalry charge and it's over. Just make sure to stop your cats from attacking while the enemy is routing. I've lost plenty of men trying to capture the enemy and forgetting about my cats.
If you have wooden walls or the enemy has too many towers and ladders, figure out which path they will most likely take and stack your units up just in front of your cats. If they are too far forward they will get hit. Typically, the enemy will have archers or crossbowmen that hold back and fire. Target them. The cats will fire short into the onslaught of troops and far to hit the archers and any units late to the party. Always protect the other paths too. A simple spear unit will do the trick.
As a ruler I'm sure my people don't like me since I end up burning down their homes during every battle, but they are free to put a complaint in the complaint box.

[Sir Walter]

Oh, and another little tip - if the besieging force runs out of things to knock down walls/breach gates and there's still no clear path to the central square, the defender wins a close victory.

[Remonster6x]

How can I get an enemy who is sieging a castle or city to actually assault it? Do I have too many troops garrisoned their? More then half the time if I wait a few turns, the sieging army just leaves.

[Sir Walter]

How can I get an enemy who is sieging a castle or city to actually assault it? Do I have too many troops garrisoned their? More then half the time if I wait a few turns, the sieging army just leaves.

That should be a good thing? But they won't attack if they're outnumbered.

[Remonster6x]

That should be a good thing? But they won't attack if they're outnumbered.

Yeah it should be a good thing but I like destroying the army against my walls then facing them in the open. Typically the units I have as garrison are militia against their superior professional army.

[Sir Walter]

Yeah it should be a good thing but I like destroying the army against my walls then facing them in the open. Typically the units I have as garrison are militia against their superior professional army.

Oh, weird. Try a higher difficulty?

[Remonster6x]

Oh, weird. Try a higher difficulty?

Im on VH/VH and find they assault more in lower levels. This makes sense, since I find it harder when the enemy sieges for a few turns, keeping me from building, then roams for my armies in the open.

[Concrete]

kill fifteen Chivalric Knights in one shot

Bah, that's small time. You can barbeque multiple unit cards if their formation is warped enough and you get lucky. (Well, you'll kill most of them, and the survivors will probably flee.)

Oh, my contribution:
I've personally defeated a full stack of Italian spear milita with five units this way.
Basically, I use this strategy if I have near unbeatable odds and want to take as much of the opposing army out with me.
Unit composition should be like so:
Ratio of spearmen:archers = 2:3
And a flanking unit helps too. (Can pretty much be anything.)
What you do, is abandon the walls, and deploy your entire army in the confines of the center of the castle (although it works for towns too.),
You bury your archers in a corner as deeply as possible (not overlaping, but keep them as far back as you can), and you have your spearmen form a wall (make sure it's inside the flags.)
The center of the town/castle effect makes your units within immune to morale damage.
So you have a defensive wall of spears that will literally fight to the last man (makes up for quality yet poor morale milita) while your archers cause massive casualties to the attacking force.
You're only really going to win if you have good quality enough spears/pikes to counter the first charge (Spear milita can deal with milita armies, but if the enemy has heavy cavalry, gg.)
And if the enemy is lacking a general, or the general has almost no command/chivalry, you switch between the casualty causing normal arrows, and change to fire arrows and target enemy units of low unit strength, flankers can also help in this.

Also this demonstrates ways to easily win a siege.(Albeit with very situational resources.)