Version 2 of the Medieval Total War 2 Settlements & Siege Guide has been completed!

[Sitalkes]

Version 2 of the Medieval Total War 2 Settlements & Siege Guide has been completed! I once saw on this forum a message saying that it would require a book to provide such a guide, and 43 pages later, here it is... every type of settlement/fortress has a map and all statistics. There are also guides to besieging and defending settlements, a guide to artillery use, and a guide to open battles (including confrontations between alliess). With this guide, you will always know the best way to the plaza, how many gates there are, what is the best artillery to use, where the best place is to attack, as well as other information like population levels required for upgrades and all sorts of stratagems for attacking and defending all types of cities/forts.

If you have posted something on TWC about sieges you may find that it is included. if you feel something is missing or is incorrect, please let me know. I have included posts from (in no particular order) Bringer of Storms, ElCid99, Sweger, Willowran, Aeratus, PrestigeX, Nazgul Killer, Niterider1784, Christonikos, _Elysium_, smeto, AJenny58, Fireright, NobleNick., Xellos_Moon, Ishan, and Steven the conqueror. Thanks for posting, guys!

[Dominick]

Interesting guide, I downloaded it and had a quick glance. Not bad!

[Maklodes]

I'm a little bit confused by this:

"8. Using Artillery and fire arrows in Defence. You can have free upkeep siege equipment in your cities rather than infantry or missile troops that can always give you the advantage when defending."

Is there actually any free upkeep siege equipment, though? I can't think of any, unless you're talking about towers (arrow/ballista/cannon towers).

[Sitalkes]

Yes I found that badly written bit a bit confusing, too, so I left it how it was to see if somebody else could explian it! I think I have had free upkeep artillery late in a game, though.

[PapaRosario]

Just checked in the units file. There aren't any artillery units with free upkeep.

Edit: But it's a nice guide though. You should post it in the guides subforum.

[Sitalkes]

OK done that, though it is not obvious which thread is the best one to choose.

[Swiss Army Cheese]

Something that I have noticed that is missing in your guide is a detail on the Huge City Walls. The main thing that sets apart the Huge City from the large is that past the front gate, there is a section of wall forming a sort of horse-shoe. This "Horse-shoe" extends over to the main-road to the plaza, at about the halfway point.
I am not sure what I am trying to say here. I was just hoping you might be able to say something in your guide about this terrain feature

Edit: Nevermind. Checked out "Using highways and byways"

[StealthFox]

Wow. Most impressive.

[El Cid99]

Hey, I got a mention! haha I do profess myself a bit of a siege defense veteran... But attacking for me is always brutal, unless (like in my current Venetian/Roman campaign) I have craptons of uber-heavy infantry (in this case VHI with 6/7 chevrons).My Turkish Jihad army suffered almost 300 losses from eight (eight men!!) eight-chevron Vardariotai who just thought "screw this, lets go guys" and went on a balls-out charge into my main army, slaughtering javelinmen and Ghazis left right and centre they even brought down half my general's bodyguard!! Add in the rest of the army, and I lost about 85% of my army in the assault :$ Fortunately they were mostly 100-florin Ghazis...

Downloading Adobe Reader on my laptop now (I know, I should have done that a long time ago), then I'll have a look

Also I'm pretty sure the Mongols+Timmies get free artillery, but that's it

EDIT: Just skim-read it, some awesome tips in there! +rep

[PapaRosario]

Also I'm pretty sure the Mongols+Timmies get free artillery, but that's it

Not in Vanilla. Maybe in some mod.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

type AS Bombard
dictionary AS_Bombard ; Bombard
category siege
class missile
voice_type Light
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Mongol_Bombard_Crew, 16, 2, 1
engine bombard
attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, gunpowder_unit, cannon, artillery
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_gunpowder, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 55, 3, bombard_shot, 325, 30, siege_missile, artillery_gunpowder, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr ap, bp, area, launching
stat_pri_armour 4, 4, 0, leather
;stat_armour_ex 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 9, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 610, 250, 90, 70, 610, 4, 150
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models Mongol_Bombard_Crew
ownership mongols, timurids
era 1 mongols, timurids
era 2 mongols, timurids
;unit_info 6, 0, 8

type AS Rocket Launcher
dictionary AS_Rocket_Launcher ; Rocket Launcher
category siege
class missile
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Mongol_Rocket_Launcher_Crew, 16, 2, 1
engine rocket_launcher
attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, gunpowder_unit, rocket
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_gunpowder, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 65, 3, rocket, 250, 108, siege_missile, artillery_gunpowder, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr ap, launching
stat_pri_armour 4, 4, 0, leather
;stat_armour_ex 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 9, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 1100, 250, 90, 70, 1100, 4, 270
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models Mongol_Rocket_Launcher_Crew
ownership mongols, timurids
era 1 mongols, timurids
era 2 mongols, timurids
;unit_info 6, 0, 8

type AS Ballista
dictionary AS_Ballista ; Ballista
category siege
class missile
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Mongol_Ballista_Crew, 16, 2, 1
engine ballista
attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, artillery
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_mechanical, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 55, 3, ballista, 180, 50, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, piercing, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr ap, bp, launching
stat_pri_armour 4, 4, 0, leather
;stat_armour_ex 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 9, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 370, 150, 90, 70, 370, 4, 90
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models Mongol_Ballista_Crew
ownership mongols, timurids
era 0 mongols, timurids
era 1 mongols, timurids
era 2 mongols, timurids
;unit_info 6, 0, 8

type AS Catapult
dictionary AS_Catapult ; Catapult
category siege
class missile
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Mongol_Catapult_Crew, 16, 2, 1
engine catapult
attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, artillery
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_mechanical, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 55, 3, catapult, 200, 30, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr ap, bp, area, launching
stat_pri_armour 4, 4, 0, leather
;stat_armour_ex 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 9, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 400, 150, 90, 70, 400, 4, 100
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models Mongol_Catapult_Crew
ownership mongols, timurids
era 0 mongols, timurids
era 1 mongols, timurids
;unit_info 6, 0, 8

type AS Trebuchet
dictionary AS_Trebuchet ; Trebuchet
category siege
class missile
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_infantry
banner holy crusade
soldier Mongol_Trebuchet_Crew, 16, 2, 1
engine trebuchet
attributes sea_faring, hardy, can_withdraw, artillery
formation 1.5, 1.5, 3, 3, 3, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, artillery_mechanical, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 55, 3, trebuchet, 285, 30, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr ap, bp, area, launching
stat_ter 12, 3, cow_carcass, 215, 3, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, blunt, none, 25, 1
;stat_ter_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_ter_attr ap, bp, launching,
stat_pri_armour 4, 4, 0, leather
;stat_armour_ex 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 9, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 430, 250, 90, 70, 430, 4, 100
armour_ug_levels 1
armour_ug_models Mongol_Trebuchet_Crew
ownership mongols, timurids
era 1 mongols, timurids
era 2 mongols, timurids
;unit_info 6, 0, 8

[El Cid99]

Ah ok, just thought since almost all their other troops are free upkeep... The free elephants in particular is ridiculous. Mind writing another guide for how to take on elephants? Preferably as a faction without Naffatun XD

[Vipman]

Best thing against elephants would be anything that throws javelins... Other than that I would guess pikes&halberds and similar should be somewhat effective?

[VIP]

Good job, Sitalkes and Co!

I always find myself taking a two-fold approach in TW, as I wish to recreate as realistic battle/fight as possible. Where it feels right I tend to use "best practices", as shown in this guide. On the other hand, I tend to completely abandon best practices if I see that best practices would abuse weak intelligence of game-controlled units.

Once more - good job on the guide!

[Sitalkes]

There are lots of elephant-fighting threads, just search this forum for them. The advice is always the same - shoot at them with everything you have got and yes, javelins and artillery are the best, and use fire if you don't have any armour-piercing ability.

[Sitalkes]

AMENDMENT: I just noticed, at least in the Crusades Campaign, you can't use ladders to attack an Huge City, only siege towers and rams.

[kingjonnythe3rd]

wow you guys did flippin awesome. thanks

[CrisGer]

thank you for this remarkable and very helpful guide! I guess we cant throw dead bodies as ammunition? they used to do that to spread plague and disease as a bizarre early form of bio warfare. you certainly covered a lot thanks again.

[PapaRosario]

thank you for this remarkable and very helpful guide! I guess we cant throw dead bodies as ammunition? they used to do that to spread plague and disease as a bizarre early form of bio warfare. you certainly covered a lot thanks again.

You can do that using spies. Use a plagued spy to enter enemy cities.

[Sitalkes]

Yes, if you have a trebuchet, you get the option to throw dead cows (click on the special ammunition button in battle, you get the option of firing fire, stone, or cows). The cows cause lowered morale wherever they hit, and the effect lasts for some time afterwards in that area, so you have to be careful not to send your own troops through that area if possible. It's a fun thing to do and doesnt' do much damage to structures but is rarely useful.

[Snakes]

Excellent stuff all around! As someone who kind of sucks on the battle-side of this game, it's very useful to have something like this readily available to me. Time to go test some of this out