Praven

[Riven]

Is it just me, or is this place impossible to take? I've got seventy of my own men, over seven hundred from allied lords, and it's just the 281-man garrison, but each time I try to charge, my men just get slaughtered on the ladder because the Swadians fill each guy with so many crossbow bolts that it's ... well, it's actually kind of amusing, but that's beyond the point....

I used to think it was because the Praven respawn point (or whatever it's called when the 'New enemies have arrived' thing pops up and the new enemies ... y'know, arrive) was so close to the ladder, but the Uxkhal point was close too and that was an easy enough battle. So I'm confused. Am I doing something wrong? I've tried it with all archers, but that got me nothing but a bunch of dead archers. My army now is over half Hired Blades, with Kherghit Lancers and three Swadian Knights. Am I doing something wrong? I even tried cheating once and kept one hand on the CTRL+H button the entire battle, but apparently it doesn't bring you back from the dead when you've been shot three times in the eye. So I'm confused ... did anyone else have this difficulty? Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[N]

Just out of curiosity, what archer did you use? Do you use battlesizer?

 

[Riven]

I used thirty Vaegir Marksmen, twenty-five Swadian Sharpshooters and a Rhodok Sharpshooter I had captured at some point in time. I took three or so Hired Blades to fill out the ranks, but apart from them I used all archers. And no, I don't used battlesizer, but I do keep it at the maximum allowed in-game.... Been thinking of making it smaller, though, just to make it easier.

 

[Rongar]

> each time I try to charge, my men just get slaughtered on the ladder...
Most likly your men just cannot go through bottleneck on top of the ladder, because it required a small jump. This problem was fixed for .903 by this patch http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,32083.0.html . You can try to use it on  .952.

 

[N]

Hmm,

Maybe try battlesizer. I have it set to 200, I use all marksmen, and I have not had any trouble yet with any encounter/city/castle. Try letting your archers stand ground and shoot. When there out of arrows retreat then attack again to replenish the supply.

They are like a machine gun 

 

[tommyboy]

My tactic involves having good plate armour, a good shield and one handed sword, a good 2-hander, and being first up the ladder. Use the shield to get up the ladder and whenever running at archers/crossbowmen. Switch to the two-hander for combat.
Jump over/into the defenders at the top, fight to the edge and drop into the courtyard below, inside the town/castle. Now run to the stairs, killing anyone who looks at you funny as you go. Up the stairs, kill all archers in those sticky out bits that let them shoot at the ladder (I should probably become a medieval architecture expert), then attack the backs of the defenders at the top of the ladder. Being a bit slow on the uptake, most will ignore you until you are actually stabbing them. Kill them, kill them all, until they kill you. Upgrade yourself/your troops, then start the siege again.
Rinse and repeat.

 

[silverkatana]

A fantastic tactic to use - and this applies to ALL sieges - is the following (yes, I like lists; shut up):

• Fight your way past the initial gaggle at the top of the ladder/ramp.
• Tell your men to "hold position" somewhere inside the castle (in Praven, somewhere on the left side battlement works nicely.)
• Now, instead of sitting at the top of the ladder until they die, your men will actually try to fight through the enemy into the castle/town.
• When you've assembled a suitable number inside the castle/town, tell your men to charge once more.
• Watch as your men, now unhindered by a choke point, eviscerate the enemy.
  

Enjoy.

 

[tennessee2]

A fantastic tactic to use - and this applies to ALL sieges - is the following (yes, I like lists; shut up):

• Fight your way past the initial gaggle at the top of the ladder/ramp.
• Tell your men to "hold position" somewhere inside the castle (in Praven, somewhere on the left side battlement works nicely.)
• Now, instead of sitting at the top of the ladder until they die, your men will actually try to fight through the enemy into the castle/town.
• When you've assembled a suitable number inside the castle/town, tell your men to charge once more.
• Watch as your men, now unhindered by a choke point, eviscerate the enemy.
  

Enjoy.

My tactic is basically the same except I tell my archers to sit in a tower and have my infantry go on the walls. It is a way of manipulating your allied troops so that they actually try to get INTO the castle. They usually just sit at the top and fight it out face to face and just get slaughtered. I think this is because the allied AI are programmed to fight like normal infantry in normal battles, where they meet up with the other army and go melee. In the case of a siege they have to go up the ladder, then they stop instead of trying to push forward and then die. (I'm not sure if they same goes for the enemy AI because there archers stay still in certain spots, but that may be because they are "standing ground") If you give your troops a place to go to they will attempt to move past the enemy whilst fighting, just as if you commanded all your infantry and/or cavalry to go to a location behind an enemy in the normal map battles.

 

[Red River]

the problem as always is the buttleneck in most sieges. the solution is to have more than one ladder or a ram or a siege tower or breach in the wall(sappers) would help to make seiges more realistic and less frustratin'

 

[Packrat]

Tihr is worse by far, first you need to climb one at a time up a ladder, then run along sideways while Nords throw crap at you, then run along sideways the other way while Nords continue to throw crap at you, THEN you can conduct a regular wall assault (albeit a fairly narrow and annoying one with decentish positioning of flanking towers).

All this means that you will inevitably get hit on the way even if you keep your shield up and facing the enemy constantly, then even if you get over the battlements and hack every single person at the top into bloody ribbons, your guys will arrive at a trickle and full of arrows/javelins/throwing axes so that holding the top of the wall is near impossible even if you are using an army of 100+ heavy infantry and plate armoured Death Heroes.

 

[Lord Hi En Mitey]

Praven - I took it and every other castle and city on the map and I suck at games. It was so easy I don't even remember taking it but I know I did because the whole map is gray and every faction is wiped out. You level up your guy. You get him some armor, you break through the guys at the top and fall off the wall and then you come back and hack at them from behind. You'll kill a 120 of them before they can take you out and then they just carry you away. A couple days later you come back and finish the rest of them off. You can do it with about eight guys.

 

[Orion]

Praven - I took it and every other castle and city on the map and I suck at games. It was so easy I don't even remember taking it but I know I did because the whole map is gray and every faction is wiped out. You level up your guy. You get him some armor, you break through the guys at the top and fall off the wall and then you come back and hack at them from behind. You'll kill a 120 of them before they can take you out and then they just carry you away. A couple days later you come back and finish the rest of them off. You can do it with about eight guys.

Get a keylogger to determine how many times you press Ctrl+X and Ctrl+H. Please, I really want to know.

 

[Retales]

My tactic involves having good plate armour, a good shield and one handed sword, a good 2-hander, and being first up the ladder. Use the shield to get up the ladder and whenever running at archers/crossbowmen. Switch to the two-hander for combat.
Jump over/into the defenders at the top, fight to the edge and drop into the courtyard below, inside the town/castle. Now run to the stairs, killing anyone who looks at you funny as you go. Up the stairs, kill all archers in those sticky out bits that let them shoot at the ladder (I should probably become a medieval architecture expert), then attack the backs of the defenders at the top of the ladder. Being a bit slow on the uptake, most will ignore you until you are actually stabbing them. Kill them, kill them all, until they kill you. Upgrade yourself/your troops, then start the siege again.
Rinse and repeat.

Man, here I was thinking I had thought of a new strategy . That is exactly what I do when all other means fail. I use a bastard sword + shield, and either a crossbow+bolts or bow+arrows in the weapon slots, depending on what enemy I'm against. For example bow+arrows vs vaegirs or khergits, so I'm able to pick up more arrows from the enemy corpses.

But I was thinking... What if you order your troops to stand ground in front of the walls and then tell them to 'advance'? Would this place a 'stand ground marker' inside the walls, making your soldiers push through instead of just standing on top of the ladders and dying?

 

[Lord Hi En Mitey]

Get a keylogger to determine how many times you press Ctrl+X and Ctrl+H. Please, I really want to know.

"Ctrl+X and Ctrl+H"??? What's that? Is that for cheating?

 

[Gallus Domesticus]

I had to edit the wall scene of praven in order to take it legitimately(gave it a wide ladder etc)
well it's not really "legitimate" but it's still better than waiting for all your troops to die as you stand stuck in the middle of the narrow ladder and getting shot at from both sides

 

[tennessee2]

Get a keylogger to determine how many times you press Ctrl+X and Ctrl+H. Please, I really want to know.

"Ctrl+X and Ctrl+H"??? What's that? Is that for cheating?

Hehe 

That "advance" technique should technically work just like "hold this position" does. The marker will go on the other side of the wall and the AI are probably smart enough to take the ladder.

 

[Riven]

Dropping the battle size to 24 seemed to convince the computer that he only had about forty men in the garrison ... which was amusing, and allowed me to win Praven and carry Lady Isollo to victory. Although I kind of wish I had paid more attention to this thread before I tried such drastic measures; everyone seems to have a much better idea ... up to and including making the battle harder by putting more men on the field.... Anyway, thanks for your help!

 

[G36E]

Oddly enough, enemies in cities/castles seem to charge at me and my men after they get reinforced for the second time (playing 0.903).

Maybe you should pack 2 bags of bolts/arrows, a crossbow/bow (Yes, order is intentional. I prefer crossbows for sieges), tell everyone to hold at the foot of the ladder and kill enough with headshots so that reinforcements come and they charge down the ladder into certain doom?

 

[linehand]

Well what I often do is take 2 large bags of khergit arrows, a war bow, and a balanced, heavy bastard sword.

I quickly run up to the castle and go behind/under the ladder right next to the wall (little to the right or left, not directly behind the ladder, or guys sometimes get stuck on the ladder trying to get to the position). Tell everyone to hold position there. Now they are mostly pretty safe right there.

Now I go back and forth down by the bottom of the ladder and pick off guys on the right/left outcroppings (if you stand left then only guys on right outcropping can get shots at you, and vice versa). Once there seem to be no more that I can hit right and left then I back up and hit guys along the main wall.. It will seem that the archers are gone but as soon as you start up the ladder there will be more.. This is the most dangerous part.. working slowly up the ladder taking out any archers that give you a shot (go for head shots so as to conserve arrows). Try and take out all the archers on the left and right outcroppings before reaching the very top of the ladder. And hit any archers that pop up at the top of the ladder too. No shield so move up and down on the ladder a lot while clearing out the sides and just don't give guys at the top of the ladder a shot, shoot their heads before they can fire.

It is wise to keep about 6-8 arrows for later, so switch to your sword and just kill everyone crowding the top of the ladder. It is easy with the bastard sword because it has pretty good range but you will want to hang back out of range and just step in for swings and stabs. Again aim for their heads. Occasionally an archer may pop up to the right or left.. This is what those extra 8 arrows was for.

Once you have thinned out the crowd at the top of the ladder, it's time to make your entrance. You may need to jump over the remaining crowd's heads to get past them and into the castle. Now call all you troops to charge. Immediately focus on taking out any remaining archers on the outcroppings so they aren't picking off your troops on the ladder (maybe you can pick up some more arrows from a fallen enemy too but don't waste to much time trying to find arrows, your men need you). The crowd in the castle will mostly focus on your forces coming up the ladder and you can lay into them from behind. Occasionally a few may break off and come after you but they are easily dealt with and then you can continue to attack the crowd from behind giving your troops the edge they need to get past the bottleneck.

This method has only failed me once or twice, in which case my own casualties were quite low, I just took a couple solid crossbow bolts on the ladder so my health was so low during the melee that I didn't last very long. In this case just choose "wait till tomorrow" and your health will be back up and you can finish the job on the second run.

Edit: I have battle size at the normal maximum of 72

 

[Carnifex]

My men just spawn outside the fence and can´t get past, so they can´t access the walls. I have 90 men on the map and just 9 attacking Praven. Is there something wrong?