garrison mechanic

**menico** · July 19, 2012, 10:12 AM

Hello !

I have a question about garrison mechanics.

Does it have some requierements to defend in case of a siege ?
I play atm with the darthmod, but i think I already noticed this before I install it.

Sometimes when I defend a siege with an army inside the sieging castle, and I start a manual battle, then I only have my army, and the garrison isnt there (not even the samurai retainers).

So is this a bug or is there a rule I didnt catch ?

**The Useless Member** · July 19, 2012, 10:40 AM

Say an AI is sieging you.

If you attack them and sally fourth, you can't attack in the castle.

So if you sally fouth, it'll be like a regular battle.

**Alexandru** · July 19, 2012, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by menico

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

If you already have the maximum number of units per army (that's 20 units), you won't get garrison troops.

**menico** · July 19, 2012, 02:23 PM

Originally Posted by Alexandru

If you already have the maximum number of units per army (that's 20 units), you won't get garrison troops.

That's bad ! I didn't knew that !

**DeMolay** · July 19, 2012, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by menico

That's bad ! I didn't knew that !

Just put a few of your troops just outside the castle (same number of units than garrison units available) so that you'll have free garrison troops plus the one outside the castle in case you are besieged

**Kurisu Paifuaa** · July 19, 2012, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by DeMolay

Just put a few of your troops just outside the castle (same number of units than garrison units available) so that you'll have free garrison troops plus the one outside the castle in case you are besieged

If you play that strategy, it's best to make the reinforcements strictly cavalry, otherwise they'll take forever to get into the fight and/or get isolated and slaughtered. That smaller stack also has a good chance of being attacked directly (unless they are unreachable) which negates the garrison advantage by forcing your main army onto the field as reinforcements

It's also notable that garrison troops work on a priority list as far as preference when they get bumped by your main army. In general, the better troops have higher priority and get bumped last.

**DeMolay** · July 19, 2012, 07:04 PM

Indeed , cavalry are not really useful in the castle so it's better to get them out in priority .

but you can also do it with your cheap units if no cavalry , it often works too as your reinforcements can sometimes hide in the woods which are not far from the reinforcements spawn , so the AI group that was attacking the reinforcements will then often (not always though , sometimes they seek for a while ) change direction as soon as your troops are considered hidden in the woods , and will march toward the castle again

Also i noticed that when you have few reinforcing units and don't touch them when they arrive on the battlefield , the ai will not attack them until they move , so you can wait before charging them on the enemy rear (usually some yari ashigarus to charge the AI general(s) watching the siege , waiting until most of his units are dead before dismounting to assault

)

When you have a fortress or a castle , usually the siege is long enough for your foot reinforcing units to play a role (depends the map , it's much harder when they have to climb a steep hill ) , but it's true with a fort or stronghold , they usually arrive too late so it's really a help to have cavalry reinforcing