Settlement Assault (ai exploit)

[anonymous_(\)008]

(I'm sure most of you already knew about this, but i'll share it just in case someone don't. I just found out about it a few days ago, and have been testing it in a few battles)

There's a small AI short-coming you can exploit regarding siege assault battles. In the deployment phase, when you deploy siege equipment (rams, ladders and towers) and you've placed them where you like, command each unit to drop their respective equipment before you press "start battle". After you start the battle, you'll find that most, if not all, of the AI units are deployed in the square or are scattered in the streets in a random manner and are not deployed on the walls to counter your siege engines. Just tell your units to man their respective equipments and take the walls. The AI will begin to respond but it will do so in a very disorganised manner and most of his troops will come from the town square, which takes a lot of time. Your units will now have a much better time capturing walls. Sometimes the AI units would reach the walls but using this technique, your men would have established a decent foothold on the walls so repelling the defenders is made easier.
The reason for this short-coming, IMO, is that if there is no manned/active siege equipment directly in front of a wall section, during THE DEPLOYMENT PHASE, then the AI considers that wall as not-under-threat and hence does not care to deploy troops to protect it.
NOTE :-
1) You should man the equipments right after you press the "start battle" button. I usually pause the game the moment it started to go about ordering my men.
2) The success of this approach, depends largely on the size of the ai army and the size of the settlement. If the settlement size is small in comparison to the size of the garrisoned army, then some troops WILL be stationed on the wall because there isn't room for everyone in the town square.
3) Attacking from multiple points is much more effective.
I usually use 3 points. One for the main assault platoon (DFKs and Armored Spears and artillery, no ladders or towers), one for the secondary assault platoon (medium strength troops using rams, towers and ladders), and another small third platoon for distraction (usually 2 or 3 cheap units with ladders for a swift "forlorn hope" type assault, they are the first to enter the battle).
4) For some reason, the AI operates in a very disorganized manner when using this approach..

[puddingkip]

Ohh nice, actually didn't know this. I guess that's mainly because I never assault. Sally outs are so much faster and easier. I always just put my entire army in one spot and one unit with ladders on the different side. AI rarely protects that and I can get inside with one unit after which I just send in my cavalry.

But if I ever find myself in a situation where a head-on assault is necessary I'll keep this in mind, thank you

[Gil-Gandel]

"Nope, nope, nope, we're not an invading army, we're just, just... just soap salesmen here for a convention, honest! Please, go about your daily business and don't mind us. These ladders and battering rams? Erm, someone must have left them lying around - they're clearly nothing to do with us."