SP - Battles & Sieges Proposed mechanics: Sieges, sallying out, tunnelling, random events, criminal treachery & more

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foredeekay

foredeekay

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Hello - first of all, I love this game. Can't wait to see it live up to its potential and delighted that the next update is on the way. Sieges battles (despite the choppy AI) are a lot of fun but I, and many others, would love to see more options for play. That's why I would like to propose my take on some of the ideas floating around and add some more.

Tunnels

The tunnel mechanic would be straight forward - a tunnel entrance would be created in one of the siege equipment slots. This would then be shown slowly tunnelling towards the wall until it reaches it, undermines (the actual source of the word btw) it, and destroys it.

They cannot be targeted by enemy artillery BUT they are slow and vulnerable to parties sallying out

Sallying out

  • Defenders could "sally out", meaning launch a hit and run attack from within the town
  • Only cavalry could sally out, making them very useful to have as part of a garrison
  • This would also have foundation in history as the usual reason for cavalry in garrisons
  • The sallying out party would have an upper limit of 50 cavalry*
  • The defenders would initially number a max of 150, spread out across the line. Special perks would increase this number*
  • The besiegers would be reinforced after 1-2 minutes, depending on the tactics skill of the commander
  • Cavalry would ride out the gates to attack the enemies positions - the following objectives could be targeted
    • close distance: tunnel entrance
    • medium distance: catapults, trebuchets etc
    • Far distance: Besiegers food supply
  • Having arrived at the targets, the player would have to hold f (for X seconds) to set it ablaze
  • Should the player knock out any enemy commander, there is an X% chance they will capture him
  • Once the player realises he can do as much damage as he can do, he can order his men to retreat and they will flee back - should the player be commanding the defence and be captured, the city garrison will surrender without him - likewise should the player capture an enemy commander, his army will dissolve
I am aware this would be very difficult to map for AI commanders to sally out - not sure what can be done there...

*What do you think of the party limits? Is this too much of an advantage for defenders/besiegers? I am not sure

Criminal gangs

In another post I proposed how criminal gangs could be paid by the attacking army to destroy the defenders food supply, or simply open the gate.

Link to that post here

City Street battles

I really loved street battles in MB - even though I was barely alive going into them most of the time. I It would be great to see something like this again. There could be a mechanic where once the enemy drops to X% of its forces, there is an X% chance that they will fall back into the streets - the second section of the battle would then take place.

Should the target city be a capital, you could also have a third stage, a fight in the lords hall.

Should the player be knocked out they will be able to rejoin the next stage with minimal health should their forces be victorious

Defending commander decisions

The defending commander, through speaking to his steward/governor (link), would have the following options:

  • Purge the criminals! - The defending commanders purges the cities criminals in order to avoid any treachery - this would occur like a street fight, as proposed here but with forces limited to 50 on each side. Should the player be victorious, an treachery will be prevented. If the criminal gang wins then it is assumed they rush to open the gate and the besiegers now have to defend an assault with the gate open
  • For the greater good! - The governor sends out troops to search houses for additional food supplies - this will anger the population
  • Every man to the wall! - The player can pass a speech check in order to "draft" in additional men. These will be low quality troops (think looters). Should the player fail the speech and decide to draft them anyway, relations with the town will take a severe hit and the defending army's moral will be poorer. Once the siege is ended, these troops are removed
Siege random events

  • Low leadership: (Either) Riot in the besieging camp/ city or castle - The troops are bored. Some of them have taken to making booze from rotting fruit. Gambling has also become rampant and the general sense of unease has broken out into violence with a small riot. X men are killed/injured
  • High tactics: (Besiegers) - Scouting parties have brought back a rich supply of provisions from raiding the local countryside
  • Low engineering: (Besiegers) - tunnel collapse. The tunnel will be delayed for X hours
  • High engineering: (Defenders) - through some real McGyver moves, your builders have managed to repair some damage to the walls
Should navies ever be introduced, they could attempt to resupply port cities with food/troops. This would make port cities much easier to defend and I worry how the AI would manage to coordinate land/sea forces. Not sure this could work either.

Anyway, those are some of my thoughts, I would love to hear your opinions!

Thanks,

foredeekay

P.S. Thanks to Stan for critiquing my Kingdom Clan Wars proposal - video here

 
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