EdwardWellcraft
Sergeant Knight
I just wanted to talk a bit about some basic siege strategy. I mostly play siege so it is what I know, and I see a lot of players don't really "get" siege. They often seem to treat it as battle with walls. So here is some basic advice for new players about playing siege. Feel free to add to or debate what I say, I'm sure other veterans have other ideas about fighting in siege.
Defenders-
On most siege maps the defenders will spawn within view of the flag. Always, always, always look at the flag if you can see it at spawn. That may make the difference when it comes to attackers trying to sneak and grab the flag.
If you see enemies at the flag always call "Flag" first and then engage them. Even if it is a single enemy don't assume that you can take him. After all, if he kills you you can't warn the team for the next 30 seconds, and that may be enough time for the flag to be captured.
On the flip side, if you see that someone has called "Flag" always at least attempt to make it to the flag. I mean if you are actively engaged in fighting don 't try to break off and get yourself killed, but if you are waiting at the top of a ladder or something just make your way to the flag instead.
Always call out large movement of attackers. If you see ten enemies trying to take a rear ladder that no one is defending, call it out so people know.
Two handed weapons are your friend. As a defender you have walls to protect you from enemy archers to a wide degree, so you can afford to often go shieldless.
Archery is not the best way to defend. It is very useful for guarding specific points, but remember that a shield pretty much makes you useless. This is especially true when fighting Nords and Rhodoks. When fighting them you need to rely on powerful melee weapons to break shields.
Choke points are your friend.
The flag is all that actually matters. Everything you do must be done to protect the flag. IF you have to give up a portion of the wall, or even the gate controls, do it. When your flag is under attack abandon everything and fall back on the flag.
Arrows do not stop the flag from dropping. You MUST be in the flag zone. This is also true about riding by on a horse.
If there are a lot of enemies at the flag and you are alone in defending it, don't try to kill the enemy. Play defensively and just survive for as long as possible. It will give time for your allies to reach the flag and reinforce you. Only bother killing attackers if it is a very obvious opening. It's often better to just turtle behind the biggest shield you can, and then just focus solely on manual blocking if it is broken.
You don't have to kill all attackers, and really it doesn't matter if you kill them at all. You only need to keep them from agressing your flag. If you fight in such a way that you never actually kill any attackers, but you just prevent them from ever reaching the flag, you still win. Usually you can just outright kill them and get better results, but not always. For instance one way to really slow up the attackers is to sally and fight around the ladders. You just want to fight defensively and create a hassle for whomever is trying to raise the ladder. If you keep walking over the ladder you will prevent it from being raised. Yeah, you might not even get many kills doing this but if you just stay alive and prevent the attackers from raising the ladder that might very well be 10+ people you've stopped from reaching the walls for 30 seconds.
I like to think of defending in "man-minutes wasted" or "man-seconds wasted" On a 50 player siege server set to ten minutes (GK's siege server) the attackers have 250 man-minutes of play time to take the castle with (25 players x 10 minutes = 250 man-minutes, you see.) So if you kill a single player at the walls and he has to take another 15 seconds to reach the walls again, that just used up 15 "man-seconds" of the attacking team. However, if you just **** around a ladder and prevent ten attackers from raising it for 20 seconds, that just used up 200 "man-seconds." Even if you didn't kill any of them, you did a lot more to help your team than the guy who got two or three kills in the same amount of time.
To reiterate, it's just about stopping the attackers, not necessarily killing them. You do not need to be topping the kill list to be contributing a great deal to your team.
Attackers-
Grab a shield or die ALOT. Yes if you just zig zag around many archers will miss you, but it just takes a lucky hit to lock you up and get you killed. Not to mention there are many, many very good shots who play siege.
Don't worry about dying. You respawn in like two seconds and it doesn't really cost you much to die. As an example, you can throw yourself mindlessly against the door in Rudkhan castle. If everyone just throws themselves at that door without caring about getting killed, they will have it down in a minute or two. Each person might only get one or two hits on the door before dying but those hits add up.
Along the same lines, don't think you have to fight everyone. Your job is to push towards the flag and to disorganize the defenders. Once you are on the walls just keep going deeper into the castle and attack the flag. Don't run along the battlements clearing every single defender. This is especially true on Jameyyed and Turin where the flag is not within view of everyone on the walls. I like to breach the top of the wall, move past the defenders, and then just try to run up to the flag without even fighting anyone. Often the defenders at the wall will actually ignore you, thinking that a single guy running past them isn't going to accomplish much and that the rest of the team will take care of you.
Never, ever, ever stop at the top of a ladder. Hold your shield up and just push through. I don't care if there are ten defenders at the top of the ladder, just block them and get behind them and keep blocking. They will try to kill you and in the meantime more people can be breaching the top of the wall to help you. Kill count doesn't matter, what matters is making it easier for your team to reach the flag.
That said, throwing weapons are awesome for killing those pesky 2h users that stand at the top of the ladder. Just pop a few throwing weapons to force them to back up and then clear the top of the ladder and try to get out of the way. Aim to disorganize and confuse, not necessarily kill.
Don't be an archer. Just don't. Really, it would be ideal for attackers to have 1 or 2 archers to cover the rest of the attackers, but I'm just giving this rule as blanket advice because far too often do I see an attacking team with half archers. Archers are incapable of being offensive. They have no shields, they take too long to ready themselves to fire, their ranged weapon isn't all together very powerful, and they don't have the same power and survivability as infantry. It will always be infantry (or cavalry on Rudkhan) that win siege offense. Archers can have a place but they are for support. Crossbows can function alright as infantry if they spawn with shields, but they still aren't as good as dedicated infantry.
Always aim for siege engines and doors, when available. You want permanent entrances into the castle. Ladders are good for making early headway against the defenders but good defenders will probably be able to hold the ladders pretty much indefinitely.(except Hailes, where there are twenty bajillion ladders all over the place) If you can get a siege engine up or break a sally door that gives you a permanent entrance into the castle, and they are generally both less defensible than ladders.
Concentrate and be aggressive. The advantage attackers have is that they respawn and as a result they almost always outnumber the defenders. For instance if you attack as a team up one ladder and the defenders chill there defending, you might get three or four kills but have your assault wiped out. It doesn't matter that you lost the little engagement because you, as attackers, are gonig to reach that breaching point long before the defenders you killed do. So now you have to fight three or four fewer enemies and will probably be able to steamroll the entrance.
Defenders-
On most siege maps the defenders will spawn within view of the flag. Always, always, always look at the flag if you can see it at spawn. That may make the difference when it comes to attackers trying to sneak and grab the flag.
If you see enemies at the flag always call "Flag" first and then engage them. Even if it is a single enemy don't assume that you can take him. After all, if he kills you you can't warn the team for the next 30 seconds, and that may be enough time for the flag to be captured.
On the flip side, if you see that someone has called "Flag" always at least attempt to make it to the flag. I mean if you are actively engaged in fighting don 't try to break off and get yourself killed, but if you are waiting at the top of a ladder or something just make your way to the flag instead.
Always call out large movement of attackers. If you see ten enemies trying to take a rear ladder that no one is defending, call it out so people know.
Two handed weapons are your friend. As a defender you have walls to protect you from enemy archers to a wide degree, so you can afford to often go shieldless.
Archery is not the best way to defend. It is very useful for guarding specific points, but remember that a shield pretty much makes you useless. This is especially true when fighting Nords and Rhodoks. When fighting them you need to rely on powerful melee weapons to break shields.
Choke points are your friend.
The flag is all that actually matters. Everything you do must be done to protect the flag. IF you have to give up a portion of the wall, or even the gate controls, do it. When your flag is under attack abandon everything and fall back on the flag.
Arrows do not stop the flag from dropping. You MUST be in the flag zone. This is also true about riding by on a horse.
If there are a lot of enemies at the flag and you are alone in defending it, don't try to kill the enemy. Play defensively and just survive for as long as possible. It will give time for your allies to reach the flag and reinforce you. Only bother killing attackers if it is a very obvious opening. It's often better to just turtle behind the biggest shield you can, and then just focus solely on manual blocking if it is broken.
You don't have to kill all attackers, and really it doesn't matter if you kill them at all. You only need to keep them from agressing your flag. If you fight in such a way that you never actually kill any attackers, but you just prevent them from ever reaching the flag, you still win. Usually you can just outright kill them and get better results, but not always. For instance one way to really slow up the attackers is to sally and fight around the ladders. You just want to fight defensively and create a hassle for whomever is trying to raise the ladder. If you keep walking over the ladder you will prevent it from being raised. Yeah, you might not even get many kills doing this but if you just stay alive and prevent the attackers from raising the ladder that might very well be 10+ people you've stopped from reaching the walls for 30 seconds.
I like to think of defending in "man-minutes wasted" or "man-seconds wasted" On a 50 player siege server set to ten minutes (GK's siege server) the attackers have 250 man-minutes of play time to take the castle with (25 players x 10 minutes = 250 man-minutes, you see.) So if you kill a single player at the walls and he has to take another 15 seconds to reach the walls again, that just used up 15 "man-seconds" of the attacking team. However, if you just **** around a ladder and prevent ten attackers from raising it for 20 seconds, that just used up 200 "man-seconds." Even if you didn't kill any of them, you did a lot more to help your team than the guy who got two or three kills in the same amount of time.
To reiterate, it's just about stopping the attackers, not necessarily killing them. You do not need to be topping the kill list to be contributing a great deal to your team.
Attackers-
Grab a shield or die ALOT. Yes if you just zig zag around many archers will miss you, but it just takes a lucky hit to lock you up and get you killed. Not to mention there are many, many very good shots who play siege.
Don't worry about dying. You respawn in like two seconds and it doesn't really cost you much to die. As an example, you can throw yourself mindlessly against the door in Rudkhan castle. If everyone just throws themselves at that door without caring about getting killed, they will have it down in a minute or two. Each person might only get one or two hits on the door before dying but those hits add up.
Along the same lines, don't think you have to fight everyone. Your job is to push towards the flag and to disorganize the defenders. Once you are on the walls just keep going deeper into the castle and attack the flag. Don't run along the battlements clearing every single defender. This is especially true on Jameyyed and Turin where the flag is not within view of everyone on the walls. I like to breach the top of the wall, move past the defenders, and then just try to run up to the flag without even fighting anyone. Often the defenders at the wall will actually ignore you, thinking that a single guy running past them isn't going to accomplish much and that the rest of the team will take care of you.
Never, ever, ever stop at the top of a ladder. Hold your shield up and just push through. I don't care if there are ten defenders at the top of the ladder, just block them and get behind them and keep blocking. They will try to kill you and in the meantime more people can be breaching the top of the wall to help you. Kill count doesn't matter, what matters is making it easier for your team to reach the flag.
That said, throwing weapons are awesome for killing those pesky 2h users that stand at the top of the ladder. Just pop a few throwing weapons to force them to back up and then clear the top of the ladder and try to get out of the way. Aim to disorganize and confuse, not necessarily kill.
Don't be an archer. Just don't. Really, it would be ideal for attackers to have 1 or 2 archers to cover the rest of the attackers, but I'm just giving this rule as blanket advice because far too often do I see an attacking team with half archers. Archers are incapable of being offensive. They have no shields, they take too long to ready themselves to fire, their ranged weapon isn't all together very powerful, and they don't have the same power and survivability as infantry. It will always be infantry (or cavalry on Rudkhan) that win siege offense. Archers can have a place but they are for support. Crossbows can function alright as infantry if they spawn with shields, but they still aren't as good as dedicated infantry.
Always aim for siege engines and doors, when available. You want permanent entrances into the castle. Ladders are good for making early headway against the defenders but good defenders will probably be able to hold the ladders pretty much indefinitely.(except Hailes, where there are twenty bajillion ladders all over the place) If you can get a siege engine up or break a sally door that gives you a permanent entrance into the castle, and they are generally both less defensible than ladders.
Concentrate and be aggressive. The advantage attackers have is that they respawn and as a result they almost always outnumber the defenders. For instance if you attack as a team up one ladder and the defenders chill there defending, you might get three or four kills but have your assault wiped out. It doesn't matter that you lost the little engagement because you, as attackers, are gonig to reach that breaching point long before the defenders you killed do. So now you have to fight three or four fewer enemies and will probably be able to steamroll the entrance.
). I tried to make a tactical retreat into the keep, where the numbers would be even and there would be more space to fight, but to my avail, BOTH door were closed and I was stuck fighting two angry Vaegirs with great, long bardiches, while my teammate stood there behind the lattice like a fool. Needless to say, I didn't survive that one.
