Siege vs Assault

[Hummer]

I don't enjoy assault battle's at all. The combination of Arrow towers and small confining streets aren't for me. I prefer the open field battle.
This along with the fact EB is 4 tpy, means I am in no rush to conquer. A snail's pace is fine with me and I still have trouble getting into the end game.
As a result I assault less than 1% of all settlements I conquer.

So usually 1 of 3 things happen.

1. The enemy moves a reinforcing army to attack me resulting in an open field battle with reinforcements.
2. The enemy sallies either on the first turn of being under siege or more likely the last turn under siege resulting in a sally-forth battle.
3. The settlement falls.

I prefer this method because I am in no hurry and I can then avoid the city assault.

What strategies do other EB players use?
What do you like to do?

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I agree completely with what you've said, however...

... at the start of the game, most factions have income less than expenditure, sometime a lot less income than expenditure, leading to massive debt. The best way to get out of the red fast is to blitz a few towns, the sooner the better. So I do tend to assault at the beginning, except with the steppe horse archer factions, who aren't suited to assaulting towns. With horse archers it's best to seige the enemy town with a smaller force than the garrison, so they sally on the first turn.

I wrote a guide to blitzing at the start of the campaign here:
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?124484-A-guide-to-EB-blitzing-for-new-players

Once you're out of debt, the pressure's off, you can take things slower, and settle down to long seiges.

I never assault cities with stone walls unless I have onagers. The AI is very bad at defending stone walls, so I feel that using sap points or ladders gives me an unfair, ahistorical advantage - the AI doesn't position troops opposite ladders, and doesn't counter-sap. So I feel the only 'fair' ways to assault stone walls are to batter down the gate (costly and difficult) or to use onagers to smash down the walls first.

[Zrk2]

I assault so I can keep up momentum, because the AI falls to bits under a concerted and sustained attack.

[yuezhi]

Against common sense I prefer taking cities quickly even if it means wasting hundreds in capturing towers and the square. The fact that your generals and their armies gain logistics traits in this mod is what pushes me to this option lest the besiegers become starved and demoralized to the point your commanders meager experience means nothing. And smart generals with logistics traits are hard to come by.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Against common sense I prefer taking cities quickly even if it means wasting hundreds in capturing towers and the square. The fact that your generals and their armies gain logistics traits in this mod is what pushes me to this option lest the besiegers become starved and demoralized to the point your commanders meager experience means nothing. And smart generals with logistics traits are hard to come by.

The solution to that is to not use your best general to siege a city for a long time. Use a lesser family member, the one of least value to you. Or, if you are confident the enemy won't sally for a while, you can even leave the siege in the hands of a captain, while your family members rest and take their ease in a nearby friendly city. Just move your general back to the sieging army when the garrison can only hold out one more turn, so he can be there at the end.

[Hummer]

The solution to that is to not use your best general to siege a city for a long time. Use a lesser family member, the one of least value to you. Or, if you are confident the enemy won't sally for a while, you can even leave the siege in the hands of a captain, while your family members rest and take their ease in a nearby friendly city. Just move your general back to the sieging army when the garrison can only hold out one more turn, so he can be there at the end.

That's a good idea. For some reason, I never thought of it. I often have traits that tell me my men are starving. DERP...

Any tips on an early Pontus campaign?

I'm about 30 years into it. I have positive balance and positive cash flow with 6 provinces and 2 first level mines built (so economy is ok). I have been at war with the Seleukids off and on (on now) for years but recently had Ptolemy (my ally) back stab me. I don't think it will be a big issue as I've recently destroyed 2 large armies of theirs. But I'm not familiar with Pontus troops.

What are their best units?

So far I've been using the Native Phalanx, Levy Greek Hoplite, and Hellenic Spearmen as my main line with a mix of occasional mercenaries and slingers. Also been extensively using my General Bodyguards as they appear to me to be one of the best Heavy Cavalry in the game (though I've never played as a Cataphract nation or used Companion Cavalry...)

My main cities aren't large enough to get the 4th tier of barracks yet.

[Principe Alessandro]

What are their best units?

So far I've been using the Native Phalanx, Levy Greek Hoplite, and Hellenic Spearmen as my main line with a mix of occasional mercenaries and slingers. Also been extensively using my General Bodyguards as they appear to me to be one of the best Heavy Cavalry in the game (though I've never played as a Cataphract nation or used Companion Cavalry...)

My main cities aren't large enough to get the 4th tier of barracks yet.

Their best units have a limited AOR and you need very high tier barracks to recruit them. Galatians auxiliaries have the same issues. Personally until now I have managed very well with a mix of pantodapoi phalanx, theurophoroi, bodyguard cavalry and caucasian archers, later you can recruit also klerouchikoi phalanx wich is a good medium level phalanx with a wide AOR, add some eastern cavalry and you should be good to go against the Ptolemies and Seleucids.

Outside of your core regions in central anatolia you will have to use mainly generic hellenic and eastern units.

About sieges it depends what units I have at my disposal. Fights on the walls and in the streets can be very brutal so you need a lot of sword, AP and ranged infantry, surely assaulting the walls with a phalanx unit isn't the best idea.

[putoconcarne]

I've picked up a habit of blitzing through my campaigns so I usually assault as soon as I can, usually with the help of spies to open the gates, because it gives the enemy faction less time to rebuild its armies and slowing down your advance. And also, for some reason, I am always pressured to expand quickly even when not playing as a historically expansionist faction like in my current Lusotannan campaign. Could be just me but I feel like in EB, there's always that impending feeling that any lulls in your quest for world domination can and will be exploited by your enemies. And so, I always try to be as quick and ruthless as possible when on the offensive.
Anyway, I just make sure that I always have overwhelming numerical superiority over the defenders, especially if the settlement has high walls. Otherwise, I do as you do and wait for a reinforcing army to come in and provoke a field battle, where you can usually maneuver much better and possibly score a decisive victory.

For settlements with low walls, I usually try to surround the sides of the settlement with my troops and run them up so they can throw their javelins (great when playing as Lusotannan since most of their soldiers have throwing spears) at the defenders positioned behind the walls and soften them up before they eventually withdraw to the town square awaiting a huge slugfest in the streets or until my men run out of stuff to chuck at them. For ones with high walls, I essentially just exploit the AI's derpiness and move my troops around the settlement to its least defended gate. Then, I send a sacrificial force to absorb the arrows from the gatehouse, deal with the defenders positioned there (if any), and capture the gate. I then capture the walls and try to surround the defenders who are still up in the walls (which I can do because strangely, most of my battles only have them stationed at just one side) while I position ranged units below them, if possible.

[Boriak]

If the city has low wooden walls, I will almost always attack. The key of winning these cities is to bring a handful of heavy infantry and plenty of skirmishers that can throw missiles over the wall. Even if I'm severely outnumbered, I will at least deplete my ordnance before retreating.

Cities with high stone walls are a different matter. I think I attack about 50% of the time, using a combination of towers and ladders which are much quicker than towers. I will usually send a tower in first to grab the enemy's attention, then send a unit with a ladder to an undefended part of the wall to hit the defenders in the back. When you trap defenders between two good units, it's already over, because they can't escape and will fight to the last man.

There is another tactic I like to use if the number of defenders on the wall is low. I send a single light unit on an empty patch of the wall, then make it go around and around, taking towers and gatehouses. This will either lure the defenders away from the main point or give me multiple points of access into the city. Also, those captured towers now work for me.

The other half of the time I siege passively until they come out. When I do this, I tend to rotate at least two generals between the siege and a province I own (this imitates supply lines). This doesn't apply if I send raiding parties deep into enemy territory (so far, I've only used this tactic against Seleucids and Ptolemies; others tend not to have such large territories) which serves to augment my coffers if they' re running dry and also distracts the enemy from the main front.

[Boriak]

City size has nothing to do with the tier of barracks.

Pontos can recruit some decent cavalry but you have to invest heavily to get them. In the western provinces of Asia Minor, you can hire Lonchoporoi, a solid medium infantry with good charge. You can hire Thracian cavalry near Byzantium, there's Scythian heavy cavalry in the Bosphorus and there's always Gallic cavalry in Galatia, both light and heavy.

With Pontos, go for the Karian Warband for solid infantry, and there is always Ankyra to get the Gallic troops. I've built a Type IV government in Ankyra and refused to replace the native buildings with Pontic ones. This means my Galatian troops get an instant boost of +3 experience. Galatia has everything: slingers, archers, spearmen, swordsmen, elite spearmen and of course everyone's favourite naked fanatics. What more could you ask for?

[Hummer]

City size has nothing to do with the tier of barracks.

I did not know that. Perhaps I have been living under a rock. I will just have to keep building my MIC.

With Pontos, go for the Karian Warband for solid infantry, and there is always Ankyra to get the Gallic troops. I've built a Type IV government in Ankyra and refused to replace the native buildings with Pontic ones. This means my Galatian troops get an instant boost of +3 experience. Galatia has everything: slingers, archers, spearmen, swordsmen, elite spearmen and of course everyone's favourite naked fanatics. What more could you ask for?

I just built a Type 4 government in Ankyra with hopes of getting some good regional troops. However I was unaware of the variety you have mentioned. I tried using the recruitment viewer but I find it better at "finding provinces where one particular unit can be recruited" rather than "what units can be recruited in X province". Is there a way of confining the recruitment viewer to one province and seeing all troops available?

Cheers

[Boriak]

View -> Province Details. Make sure to tick 'Detailed Info' to get the levels of Barracks needed for each unit.

[Cussa]

I do it exactly the way you do it! EB's 4 tpy does help slow the game down and its lax pace is one of the things I adore about this mod!

It helps strategise and gives the AI a chance to launch a counter-attack or send a relief force. Long sieges were pretty common in the ancient world, and in the tradition of EB to be historically accurate I think that makes so much sense!

- Cussa

[TWWolfe]

Pontos is one of the few nations that can recruit Galatian Wild Men. 2 hp, scares enemy troops.true, they cost a fortune in upkeep, but they pay the way easily.