A way to win sieges without much bloodshed...

[Rexxar]

First of all, you need to have a reasonable force to threaten someone .Then, you would need good persuasion skills to give enemy lord a proposal, that you challenge him or one of his chosen fighters to a duel for the siege(instead of storming castle and killing anyone in your path).Enemy lord speend 3 hours of considering your terms,before makes decision.If he accepts the challenge,two things can happen:If enemy wins, you must leave this castle immideatly unhamred(if you dont, you loose honour points as well as renowm and enemy lords wouldnt want to accept such terms with you anymore(unless you clear you mistake/crime(give the amount of gold they wanted)..If you win, castle/town becomes yours.You must leave enemy army to retreat unharmed, or you again suffer loss of honour and renowm, and enemy again lords wouldnt want to accept such terms with you anymore(unless you clear you mistake/crime(give the amount of gold they wanted).If enemy lord doesnt accept your terms at first point, you must storm the castle or be widely known as coward (same as if you retreat from battle,only that you would also loose honour points besides making angry your companions and allied lords).

Enemy can also propose such terms to you when sieging you castle.If you are wounded or dont wanna fight yourself, you can choose one of your companions/normal soldiers to fght for you.You then watch the fight in the courtyard (same as if you would watch arena fights).

-In duels, participants would fight in their own gear!!!

When on military campaign, there is some chance, that your faction marshall offer such terms to enemy and propose you for participating in duel.You can either accepts(reputation with him up),refuse (reputation down), or convince him,that you are teribly wounded you and ask for pardon (no +- reputation,but you need medium persuade skills).IF you accept and win (+ reputation with all faction),if you loose (-reputation with whole faction).

This would be nice 

 

[Arch3r]

Sounds like a nice idea, maybe as addition the lords can refuse to give the town/castle after they've lost? Anyways, it sounds mod-able too, I might try it someday.

 

[Ronan]

I'm not so sure if this is a good idea, because 1 on 1 fights are always so easy. If this were to be implemented the duels would have to be pretty rare. The lord would not of course accept the duel if he had a very good chance of winning the battle otherwise.

 

[Trollkins]

Maybe losing a duel should have an impact upon your available troops to reflect the loss of leadership? It's a bit too easy if you just win the whole castle. I like the idea of being a champion for your faction though.

 

[Arch3r]

Ya, but the one-ladder-for-one-castle isn't a good idea either hehe. Lords and combat AI would need a serious boost for this, and lords should betray you too.

 

[Rexxar]

For a start, we can equip lords with better items and give them more ranged weapons(40% of lords would also have ranged),and second of all, modders can give them better skills.

Coming expansion should bring some improved combat features( I wish for pommel attack,some kind of realstic dodge and ability to push nearby unit(usefull for example when going up on ladderwith other soldiers or if you dont have shield to bash opponent) and then such duels would be a lot of fun!

Trollkins : As i said, you would really need to have good persuasion skills + same/bigger army force to get some chance ( around 30%),that enemy lord accept such terms.Besides its quite relasitic, beacuse lords didnt like to loose their men for nothing.You gave a good idea, that your party would respond on your loss (maybe some troops would desert you?), and if you win, you get bonus party slot (Same as for winning tournaments).this wouldnt happen often, so i think this is a appropriate bonus...

 

[DamienZharkoff]

Look at Native Expansions lords for an idea

 

[nikolis]

I think that it is a very good idea especialy when you explained the details of how it is going to be balanced.

 

[AvaRice]

There already is a way to do this, but it just isn't properly implemented- starve them out.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

Sounds like something to look for in a mod.