Minor settlement battles in Warhammer II and III

[Alwyn]

Warhammer III re-introduces minor settlements for minor settlement battles - what do you think of them?

I wondering if players agree with Zerkovich that it would be better if the ratio of settlement battles to open field battles was more like 50: 50? Would it be better if battles at minor settlements were sometimes open field battles (because the defenders chose to fight in the open), if we could put barricades wherever we wanted and if towers didn't pop up during battles?

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

I definitely prefer open field battles in all Total War games and IMO, minor settlement battles, should always be open field.
Haven't extensively checked how Warhammer AI reacts though. Do you think it handles siege or open field battles better?

[Alwyn]

It's interesting to see how people's preferences vary. I imagine that you preference is a popular one - of course, Warhammer II's minor settlement battles are open field battles (unless the settlement has walls) and I don't remember players criticising that.

I like a variety of battles, so I'd prefer to have some minor settlement battles as open field and others in the settlement (as in Rome II, where the defenders sometimes come out to fight in the open).

While I think the AI handles open field battles better, I've been enjoying settlement battles - the AI can provide a challenge in my experience, particularly when it has a better army.

[Steph]

First, I've released the siege module for SWO-RD mod. It includes 25% chances for the AI to sally out. And it could be changes easily to another value. Including 100%.

There was quite a lot of critics for Warhammer II about minor settlement, saying they were too much like land battle, or that Rome 2 battle in the streets were better, or that Troy or 3K minor settlements were better, etc.

Warhammer 3 minor settlement maps are better IMO, the maps are nice, with beautiful architecture. Two things are a bit lacking
- AI and pathfinding need optimization.
- The deployables don't feel right yet. Towers all look the same, and I think they don't match well with the rest in their design, and are too powerful. One of the thing I change in my mod, where the towers are usually projectile closer to regular units.

About frequency, my suggestion is
- if you encircle the settlement, and then attack the turn after, then it is automatically a minor settlement battle (even if it is an attack by the defender, one turn later)
- if you attack immediately as the besieger (or just after encirclement as the besieged), then there's a chance to have a land battle : you catch the ennemy before the army has time to reach the city. 75% for T1 settlement, 50% for T2, 25% for T3.