Getting annihilated on walls

[St Naffatun]

After watching 80 thoritikai get totally wiped on the walls by bog-standard carthaginian spearmen, heroically killing 7 of them in the process (yes 7, not 70, thats not a typo, seven) I am wondering what I am doing wrong. Battles are on hard.

Also light cavalry routed by militia pikemen at the gates with a frontal assault. I am in backwards land, where the rules of war are reversed. I should have sallied with 1 unit or achers and meleed their elephants to death. Then sent my artillery to melee their general, can't believe I missed that what a nub

[TM Is Back]

That's the problem with walls. They overpower the AI by large. A vanilla problem IIRC.

[DimeBagHo]

Yes, the AI gets a huge bonus when defending on the walls. The player also gets a bonus when defending, but it doesn't seem to be as significant.

With the light cavalry vs pikemen I assume you meant that your pikemen were routed by light cavalry? It can get tricky when you defend right in front of the gate - sometimes the pressure from men and cavalry can cause the attackers to push into your formation, at which point levy pikemen will be screwed and even better quality pikement will be much less effective. To avoid this, use two units placed in a 'V' inside the gates. I often use three units placed like this: \-/ so there's just a big nest of spears facing anything that comes through the gate.

[Silver Legionary]

Oh yes... The good ole "Box" of Doom.

[Grimbold]

Playing as GSE or any faction that has phalanxes/hoplites, i never put my defending force on the walls.

Fighting on the tigh streets = 99% crushing victory.

My strategy is prety simple: put phalanxes/hoplites on the streets and any ranged units on the walls. When the enemy is about to get into the wall, quickly move the ranged unit away from the spot where the enemy went on. If they pursue that unit, just keep it moving away from the pursuer untill they go back. That enemy unit will most likely head to the gate to open it to the rest of the army outside and it should move down immediatly. When i see those first men leaving the wall, i immediately run to gate and sometimes trap part of the enemy forces outside and recover control of the gate, which prety much helps in destroying enemy units.

Even if it doesnt work, this strategy works all the time, even if cavalry run into the phalanxe, thus disrupting its formation, because i have 1 or 2 supporting units behind it, sometimes hoplites.

Besides i usually have other units in a street where the enemy dont go to, so those end up smashing the enemy behind on the small passage.

[knguyen_93]

Haha, seige warfare is hard but not impossible, why u choose a frontal actack? Beseige them and destroy both the reinforcement and the defender! Or just move your force around other side of the city and take the undefened wall. Dont move your forces into the balista range, get some sucka like peltast to put the ladder or seige tower on the wall and strong unit like legion or scared band to take control. Finally where is your seige engines, destroy the wall and balista towers by onager and just go straight to the city citadel, ignore the force on the wall. And when they follow u, destroy them. Or easier way, do automatic for every seige battle lololol !!!!!

[nhinhonhinho]

I'm often choose these way when i need to take cities:Seige them to the dearth:Just like you say beseige them and destroy both the reinforcement and the defender on the battlefield or wait until they sally out or surrender

When i decide to take the city by frontal assault i just need to use sap.Use sap and you can destroy the wall without lose a single men.Then i can send my men to the wall and take it.For street fighting use heavy infantry follow by a plenty number of javelin unit is very nice.Your troop can throw javelin over your heavy troop and cause heavy lose.And always move to the square at least by 2 ways so you can throw javelin to the back of them in square

[AchillesXX]

Sap points are definitely my preferred way to take a city. I do have one question though - why can't you sap some cities? It is not even an option for certain cities.

I don't like waiting out the garrison because it takes too many turns. What I do like is when the AI attacks me with another stack from the outside and I am able to defeat both the garrison and the reinforcing outside stack in a field battle. I think this is what one of the above posters also mentioned.

[LucretiusTC]

Sap points are definitely my preferred way to take a city. I do have one question though - why can't you sap some cities? It is not even an option for certain cities.

I think that the option for sap points is related to the size of the city. The defender has to have at least Stone Walls for the protection for the settlement, and the attacker has to have some units that are capable to sap (usually some non-cavalry units).

In the early game the elephants are very good weapon against small settlements. In one of my old Carthaginian campaigns I sent those elephants that were originally located in Sicily to fight against Numidians and Iberians. I used them heavily as a siege weapon against Iberian settlements, but I finally lost that unit in some field battle in southern Gaul.

Luc.