How you guys fight in the city

[warchief_ryan]

After I get in the walls ill set a perimeter with men usually spearmen and shock troops right behind them then archers, then when I need to advance down a road ill leap frog my spearmen down a road with my archer firing till the enemy come after me or stop a ways so archers can cache up or I reach the boarder of the city center.

do you guys do it diffrent?

[danes]

depends a lot on what the enemy units are.

but if the balance is very close.. then yes I would be as careful as that. especially if have valuable units i dont want to get damaged unecessarily.

if the enemy's weak though i just charge

[coreally]

Aye, depends on the enemy units.

But my favourite tactic is three units of spearmen facing the gate down the street a small bit. There are roads leading left and right of the gate. I'll have a unit of cavalry on either side. When the enemy break the gate, my spearmen will pin them, and the Cavalry will charge from the sides. Usually you can wipe out a decent amount of enemy sinc ethey don't keep formations through the gate. Then withdraw, and attack with another cav unit positioned behind to kill the enemy charging after the withdrawing cav unit.

My cities tend to be xbows, spearmen, and at least 4 units of cav. These are my major cities, and economic centres i don't dare to lose.

My other cities, I'll fight them till they get to the gate, then sortie out and hold just the gate area. I won't move past the gate, but I won't let them past teh gate into the city. Then its just a matter of hoping my spearmen will hold their nerve. The morale banner the Italians get is excellent for covering the gate area, since it limits cav ability to get past, raises your militia morale hugely, and the units themselves are really good.

[shaolt]

Simple. I wait for them to sally forth. Then I kill them all in front of the city walls and once they rout I pursue them to the very heart of the city and win the battle.

But if I must attack it quickly, I prefer to level the entire front with cannons then attack the most undefended part with all my soldiers.

Simple tactics.

[kittens]

yea ive fone that a few times, aka attack the guys that came out, or their forces that were added from the side.. in their haste to get in, i follow them in attacking, and run strait in to the flags... done this several times on multi tier castles too...

also, get this..
last night i moved my cannons and all my troops from the default position, way way over to the left extreme side of a moor two floor castle. i had noticed the second tier walls were right next to the first tier walll. they didnt seem to care! they kept all their troops at the front gate... apparently thinking thats the place to be. i knocked a breach into the wall right by the second tier wall, then a hole into the second wall. ok.. the first hole didnt seem to do much.. they sent 2 spear troops to investigate.. walking to check it out.. lol.. the rest of their troops.. still sits at the gate and on the walls. i punch a hole in the second wall before they arrive, start pouring my troops in... ok now they all start to run lol.. the thing is.. they really get distressed trying to enter the main floor area for the timer (the front gate was a ways off, so they were arriving late).. in doing so they smash right into my waiting force who tears them into peices and also flanks them. bad idea to charge like that guys.. lol. oh.. and yea. im running it on VeryHard VeryHard. i think thats been the fastest siege ive seen.
computer just didnt know what to do with a bizarre strategy like that i guesse.

teehee

actually. with a fov on, and in a dense fog.. that would prolly startle the hell out of a real player too.

Simple. I wait for them to sally forth. Then I kill them all in front of the city walls and once they rout I pursue them to the very heart of the city and win the battle.

But if I must attack it quickly, I prefer to level the entire front with cannons then attack the most undefended part with all my soldiers.

Simple tactics.

[SPARTAN VI]

Box of death. Doesn't matter what units I have, it's usually a box of death right at the gates/breach.

Only once I found that I had to retreat further back into the city to establish a bottleneck... of course, I put a box of death there.

[turd]

youll suffer horrifying casualties when assaulting cities unless you manage to rout every enemy unit before they reach the town square
when they reach it, they will fight to the death without routing

[Aldaris]

Depends. On offense, I usually wait for the sortie, and if I can't wait that long, I attack with spearmen straight on, after opening enough breaches so that my cavalry can get behind the enemy uncontested and attack in the rear. The trick is not letting the enemy get to the plaza because they will never rout there.
On defense I build a box around the gate and let my archers/crossbowmen defend the walls, perhaps augmented by some spears if the enemy has real strong units manning the ladders or tower(s). If the enemy has artillery, I abanon the walls right away (except for one or two token units to keep the towers firing) and deploy on the plaza, building my box there.

[General_olli]

How come I'm losing almost every siege with let's say 12 early units (general, spearman,archers,...) versus 6 units of just ordinary rebel archers and spearman?
When I auto resolve the battle I'm just losing between 100 and 200 men, if I play the siege myself, I'm losing almost every single man.

And those towers are killing me...

[SPARTAN VI]

Oh I think I read this wrong. Box of death is obviously a defensive tactic.

First I locate any targets of opportunity... a unit of infantry on the walls perhaps. Then I'll nail them hard with artillery killing as many as possible when the walls crumble. This usually inflicts about 15%-30% casualties. I continue to knock out the four ballista/cannon towers in my area. With the left over ammunition, I'll take out a section of wall to allow for rapid entry.

Send my spearmen in first as I found the AI likes to rush the breach with cavalry. I'll line my missile troops on the walls if necessary to pepper incoming infantry.

It's usually around 50% enemy casualties when they give up and retreat to the center plaza. Again, spearmen followed my heavy infantry. If I have Forlorn Hope or Zwei handers, I'll send them in before the spearmen. I make sure to put them in formation, otherwise they'll clog up the streets and only a couple dozen men or so will actually be engaged.

[coreally]

didn't think to add attacking strategies.

Depends on the level of defense.

early game: I'll use 5 ladders & one ram, and swamp the defenders with troops on the walls. Once I have the walls, I'll bring my xbows/archers to the walls, where the extra height gives them a better field of fire. Cavalry units to sweep the side streets, and to hit stragglers. But once my ammo is gone, I'll march my spearmen in mass (and in formation) to the enemy centre, with the cavalry eventually sweeping in from the back/sides to break defense. I'll also send my ammoless archers along the walls, to see if I can get them behind the enemy, for a rear attack. Archers are quite nifty in h2h fighting, when they have suprise on their side. [worth placing one spearman unit near the gates, to stop the cav attacking your ladder units]

Later castles, or two walls. I'll bombard the area with 3-4 trebs, making 3 holes in the first wall, and two in the second wall. I'll switch to cows when I have the opportunity to target a concentration of enemies. Then I'll move in stages. 1st stage, take the walls. 2.nd stage prepare defense against counterattacks. bring up my trebs, and target the second walls. Then use the rest of ammo, to target heavy infantry/cavalry units. And again, I'll try to bring my cavalry to the flanks/rear, and charge.

My favourite tactic in the Middle Era is two armies. 1st army contains an assortment of trebs, catapults, and those heavy bow thingies, and four spearmen. The spearmen cover the engines, and then I demolish the walls, aiming at max damage on the garrison troops. Once ammo expended, withdraw, and attack with second main army in the same turn. Walls are down, garrison totals are down, and I can make swift work of any real resistance. Its also a great way of getting experience for two armies, with the minimum of casualties.

[moonlapse]

thanks to overpowered catapults and ai's inclination to bould lots of them,holding the walls is simply impossiblei ussualy form traps on cross roads,attack them from all sides.


i dont want to whine but i think catapults should be nerfed
and ai shouldnt build too many of them

i've started campaign as venetians,had about 10 sieges, but i wasnt able to make a stand at the walls at any of them because they were all destroyed by catapults.

[Pandora]

I usually try to put my strong units on either side of the citys main street, and to draw the enemy in i put a unit of peasants in the middle. Then when they have engaged the peasants i charge in from each side finishing them off with a minimum number of casualties

[Mikelus Trento]

If I don;t have a spy success, I will attack from all sides, to spread out the defenders. I don't mean I actually roll towers on all four walls, but I try to have at least enough siege equipment to make the enemy think I will, to spread out his forces. I will then attack from whichever side is most lightly defended, and try to get a gate open. As soon as the gate is open I will charge with infantry, to secure a bridgehead inside the gatehouse. One the infantry are in, I charge with the cavalry. If I have cats/trebs, I will open a breach on as many walls as I have ammo for to achieve the same diversion.

Now, if I do have a spy that opens the gates, I will either immediately charge, or open up more breaches if I can, to deceive the enemy and be able to attack thru many openings and minimize the bottlenecks.

[Skutai]

I had a difficult time defending my cities from an assault until I discovered the power of the schiltron. Five units of regular ol' spear militia held off 1000 Milanese ramming their way through gates.

I simply put them in schiltron and arranged them in a V around the front gates. I had one unit of crossbows repel a single siege tower attack and the rest of the Milanese were slaughtered by the spearmen. Huzzah for the schiltron.

Also, when attacking, the AI will often hurl its cavalry at you from the direction of the city center. I find it works well to meet the charge with a spearman unit then immediately go into schiltron. The unit becomes more resilient and the cavalry end up lapping around them, allowing the second spearman unit to get in some licks too.

Don't forget to use artillery to breach the walls where the AI has positioned his troops. You can cut a unit in half by making them fly off the walls like rag dolls.