How do you defend a siege?

[Uniema]

Alright-

Your Poland.
Lets say you have a city, and you use militia becuase of the free upkeep.
5 Archer Militia, 3 Spearmen Militia, 1 Husslar (Light Cav)
Huge City

Milan Sends 1 1/2 Stacks and Attacks you for no reason (shocker I know).
5 Genosea Crossbowmen, 5 Italian Militia, 4 catapults
1 Ram, 1 Tower, 1 Ladder

Milan stays still and fires its catapult (out of range of balista towers)

You have a feeling this may go on for a while... I think Milan is enjoying destroying my wall... minutes later going at x3, catapults run out of ammo. Milan is Passive still... your like "****!"

My Question is for all you guys that play this game and can win a campain... wtf, how do you fight seiges? Auto Resolve favors the attacker... so you must actually fight it... but whats the point of the seige if you have to leave your gates anyway becuase the enemy isnt moving?

Also help me mentally picture what I have to do... should I just rush out and attack them on open ground? How do you defend a city with militia? Should I just Auto Resolve the seige count my losses and make a new stack and sweep across the country side Auto Resolving? Is that how this game is played?

Do You Just make a few stacks and just go city to city? And not care about your defense? Or do you care about defense only becuase of Unrest? Or what?

[Ticu]

This rarely occurs when I play, but just in case, I play with battle time limit on. If it does occur, then switch the time speed to 3x and go get a snack or make some coffee or do what you must to kill time

[Uniema]

MrMerisi kinda cleared alot of stuff up... in another post. But Im still dont have a grasp on defense vs offense. Militia/Peseants just to keep Unrest down right? But your going to have enemies... what do you do? I cant seem to win a defense siege with the 4-6 free militia units... against stacks. Putting a timer on is a great Idea... I shouldnt of turned it off.

But Better yet, then you have the gunpowder trigger... now your defenses are really useless... what do you guys do then? I keep on feeling like I have to have a sperate army near by that can strike out and end these sieges, but that costs money/time... plus theres always that chance they could rebel.

[Violent Dave]

Situations like the one listed above I typically do a preemptive strike on the artillery. The AI has a habit of using their artillery to punch 2 holes, one on each side of the gate. Sometimes they also hit the towers to minimize their approach. However with the shorter ranged artillery units such as the catapults they’ll pull them forward, ahead of their army and get just within range. They’ll hold that ground until they punch the holes or take out the towers.

When you see this happening, position a fast unit (cavalry) directly in front of your gate, wait for the first volley to launch, and sprint out the gate after the artillery. To spare your cavalry you need to clear that gap fast. Hit the artillery men hard and force either them to rout or the army behind to take action. Once the army commits to an approach they continue on. Retreat your cavalry back behind the walls and get them rested up.

If you forced the artillery to rout off the field the army will attack. If they still will not approach then keep walking your fast unit out of the gate and goad individual corps into archer range or attack range. Its long, tedious, a little boring, and drawn out but you sustain very few casualties and you keep your region.

[Feliks]

I forget about the walls and set up all my men in the central court yard, they'll fight to the last every time.

[Uniema]

So I could use my Husslars to force them to move... but with all those crossbowmen... seems like a suicide.

I forget about the walls and set up all my men in the central court yard, they'll fight to the last every time.

Will that work? What happens if they dont come for you?

Edit:: Lol... I have to restart my campain huh? to put Siege timer back on...

[Violent Dave]

[quote=Uniema;1466679]So I could use my Husslars to force them to move... but with all those crossbowmen... seems like a suicide.


It seems pretty much like suicide because it is pretty much like suicide. You won’t loose every man though doing that. Just keep moving, eventually the enemy will advance and that is when you have them.

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

[Violent Dave]

Siege defense is pretty cookie cutter for me. I take a similar approach each time but it also depends on what the enemy has brought to fight with. Archers always belong on the walls, once your walls are breached try to find a spot where the wall bends or corners where you can reposition them to so they can fire behind the walls at the enemy’s flank. If they have ladders and towers coming, don’t forget to put heavy infantry on the walls (or your toughest).

Obviously position your troops on the ground to cover any breaches. Don’t just have one unit across the opening, that corps will get overwhelmed pretty quick and try to rout through the corps behind them. Some people use the box method where the position three units in the shape of a square, all facing inward with the opening facing the breach so the enemy piles into the box.


| _ |


I don’t like this method because it takes to many units to make the formation. The same can be accomplish by forming a V. Same deathtrap, less units, and units will rout AWAY from the reinforcement corps you stack behind them down at the bottom of the V.


\ /

[Uniema]

Do you do that during the Deployment Phase? becuase it doesnt seem like a can change the faceing of my units at all... only where they are located...
So can I go from ------- to | here in the Deplyment Phase? Or do you have
|
|

to do that once the game gets going?

[Tajir]

My entire army is made up of Militia and peasants, and I've lost 3 battles to date (I play pretty much all my battles, except the ones where I'm on the far-winning side, which is ultra-rare).

I just recently developed cannons, so my old peasants can drop the pitch forks.

My army is extremely out-dated and I have zero modern facilities, besides cannon makers and one new gun maker.

But, despite having an army compiled of police officers and old women, I managed to rape the daylight out of heavily equipped and trained Spanish Jinettes and heavy cavalry..strange!

[smitty]

Do you do that during the Deployment Phase? becuase it doesnt seem like a can change the faceing of my units at all... only where they are located...
So can I go from ------- to | here in the Deplyment Phase? Or do you have
|
|

to do that once the game gets going?

Let's say that the = signs are the walls, the M is the gate, and H are Holes in the walls. The arrow signs are the direction your militia are going to be facing.



====H===M==H=========
__>> <<___>> <<

This basic deployment does a couple of things for you if the enemy decides to charge you.

1) If you space it right, a couple of your units should be able to get a charge bonus once the enemy walks through the holes in the wall (H)

2)As the enemy charges through the gates you'll be attacking their unarmed flanks.

3) If the enemy still has active artillery and/or archers, your men are not in the way of fire as they still maintain the cover of walls.

4) If the enemy charges with a lone, elite unit you will be able to surround them once they enter into the city by charging at the hole in the wall. This is very handy if the enemy sends cavalry in first (very common) or even better, the bodyguard. With overwhelming numbers it is easy to cause a rout within the first few casualties inflicted and then butcher the rest of the unit as they try to push through your forces.

I've won many many sieges with this deployment against far superior enemies with my own basic militia units. In one battle the enemy foolishly sent one full unit at a time to the wall, I only had 2 units of 60 militia and about 15 archers in my city against their army of around 450. Luckily it was early on in the campaign, but it was against the Milanese. They would march up one militia unit through the wall break at a time and then rout every time I attacked them. As they fled, I used my few archers to take down two or three of the routers. Granted, in most sieges the entire army will rush at those two holes but with the charge bonus you should have a starting advantage. You MUST be careful with when you charge too. If you're too late, the enemy will crowd the hole with units and then your forces are separated, causing a very quick loss. If you charge so that your units encounter the enemy as soon as the first half of his units get through the wall you should be fine.

[Uniema]

Thanks for all the advice!

So I guess theres not much you can do huh, except let them put holes in your walls, I wish there was somthing other then a trebuche to grab some range.

As for poland... I feel alot like HRE... and maybe VH/VH isnt such a good idea... I wish Poland had mortars/Longbowmen.

This is somthing new I noticed... as poland and maybe other factions... My castles are able to recruit Priests/Spies/Merchants/Diplomats... and I dont think I was able to do that with england... whats up with that?

[Violent Dave]

Sometimes it won’t let you face them properly for some odd reason during deployment but if you simply position them near where you need them you can rotate them after the start quite easily.

[Aedile Rich]

Auto Resolve favors the attacker...

If you sally, you are the attacker.

That said, I tend to line my walls with archers but back them with infantry wherever a siege tower or ladders is likely to be aimed for.
I put 1-3 units of spearmen on guard mode to block the gateway if I think their ram will get through. I put another unit of spearmen wherever I think they may breach the walls (but not so close that they'll be hit by rubble when it comes down.

I'll make sure each tower on the frontline is active by nearby units (I'll often place cavalry near the outermost ones, as they can be brought inwards quickly in the event of the gate being stormed).

It's nice to be able to have a trebuchet or two to hurl fiery death (and cows) over the ramparts at their siege weapons and/or General where possible too.

This way, they rarely make it beyond the gate but if they do, I rely on Feliks' strategy of retiring to the central court (I'll go here first if I know I'm hopelessly outnumbered to begin with - though I used to do that more in Rome, where towers were active without needing to be manned).

[Zhou]

You can also hold your left mouse button down and drag (select the unit card first) to position your troops as you see fit. I have to say though, the deployment areas are a lot tighter in M2TW then they were in RTW.

[Cerxes]

As economy for me is the most important factor to consider, I therefore base my defence structure on militia troops. In this case I prefer to stop the enemy at the gates, as you have the help from towers for the defence. Loosing the walls is to loose this support. Therefore I line up just outside the gate with the following formation:

IPPPI

WWWWGWWWW

I = Infantry (Sword)
P = Pikemen/Spears
W = Wall
G = Gate

Sure, you will loose many men, but you also can defend yourself sucessfully against a strong foe with troops who have free upkeep. You also close the gaps in the wall that was destroyed by enemy artillery, since you have a five unit line. Thou, if the conditions allow it, you could also send a fast unit (militia cavalry) to destroy enemy artillery as Violent Dave mentioned. Naturally I use ranged units on top of the wall. /C.

[Kruniac]

Alright-

Your Poland.
Lets say you have a city, and you use militia becuase of the free upkeep.
5 Archer Militia, 3 Spearmen Militia, 1 Husslar (Light Cav)
Huge City

Milan Sends 1 1/2 Stacks and Attacks you for no reason (shocker I know).
5 Genosea Crossbowmen, 5 Italian Militia, 4 catapults
1 Ram, 1 Tower, 1 Ladder

Milan stays still and fires its catapult (out of range of balista towers)

You have a feeling this may go on for a while... I think Milan is enjoying destroying my wall... minutes later going at x3, catapults run out of ammo. Milan is Passive still... your like "****!"

My Question is for all you guys that play this game and can win a campain... wtf, how do you fight seiges? Auto Resolve favors the attacker... so you must actually fight it... but whats the point of the seige if you have to leave your gates anyway becuase the enemy isnt moving?

Also help me mentally picture what I have to do... should I just rush out and attack them on open ground? How do you defend a city with militia? Should I just Auto Resolve the seige count my losses and make a new stack and sweep across the country side Auto Resolving? Is that how this game is played?

Do You Just make a few stacks and just go city to city? And not care about your defense? Or do you care about defense only becuase of Unrest? Or what?

Archers usually work against any attackers, but the AI in this game is so HORRIBLY horrible that I cant recommend it. My advice? Mod your ballista towers, cannon towers, and arrow towers to do x3 damage. Every shot will generally be one man dead, and then they will WISH they had auto-resolve before seiging.

[Giorgos]

Alright-

Your Poland.
Lets say you have a city, and you use militia becuase of the free upkeep.
5 Archer Militia, 3 Spearmen Militia, 1 Husslar (Light Cav)
Huge City

Milan Sends 1 1/2 Stacks and Attacks you for no reason (shocker I know).
5 Genosea Crossbowmen, 5 Italian Militia, 4 catapults
1 Ram, 1 Tower, 1 Ladder

Milan stays still and fires its catapult (out of range of balista towers)

You have a feeling this may go on for a while... I think Milan is enjoying destroying my wall... minutes later going at x3, catapults run out of ammo. Milan is Passive still... your like "****!"

My Question is for all you guys that play this game and can win a campain... wtf, how do you fight seiges? Auto Resolve favors the attacker... so you must actually fight it... but whats the point of the seige if you have to leave your gates anyway becuase the enemy isnt moving?

Also help me mentally picture what I have to do... should I just rush out and attack them on open ground? How do you defend a city with militia? Should I just Auto Resolve the seige count my losses and make a new stack and sweep across the country side Auto Resolving? Is that how this game is played?

Do You Just make a few stacks and just go city to city? And not care about your defense? Or do you care about defense only becuase of Unrest? Or what?

When the enemy, after firing the artillery, just sits there passively, i send out a unit of cavalry as bait and as soon as they get close to the enemy, the whole enemy formation starts moving and proceeds with the siege normally. All that is left is to withdraw the cav unit within the city gates and proceed with the defence normally. Archers firing from walls, spears or pikes right at the gates, main infantry behind them, cav(if present) at the side roads to flank when possible.

[Marcus Septim IV]

AUTO RESOLVE helps me always i got 1 sieges moving on IMAGINE if i fight all of them i will grow old enough without being married anyway when i fight sieges my CANON TOWERS do their work good well not always but my HEAVY BILL MILITIA is there standing in case something goes wrong

[Ippius]

What I do is always destroy and assault the artillery first with cavalry (preferably a general and 2 other squads of whatever) then sit back and relax. OF COURSE u MUST not have *no battle time limit* on.