Users who are viewing this thread

XanderLord

Recruit
The AI in siege battles is absolutely ridiculous. The battering ram and ladder mechanics in particular are bad, but the catapults and balistas aren't great either.

Firstly, battering rams half the time are completely abandoned once the men take down the main gate, and they proceed to rush the walls BUT they refuse to use all the ladders, instead prioritizing one and barely using any of the other other options to get in. Its ends up with a massive slaughter at the top of the walls while men mill around uselessly getting shot at at the foot of one ladder.

I'm sure this has already been said but god damn am I tired of needlessly loosing half my soldiers in an easy siege
 
Yeah it's so frustrating. Only the small siege towers with the ramp are reliable. The large siege towers are usually an advantage to the defenders as the attackers slowly climb up one ladder one man at a time leaving the top of the tower clear for the enemy to rush into and kill whoever reaches the top, the defenders often run over the edge or start climbing down the tower. Also the attackers, upon reaching the top of the wall will try to run past the enemy to reach the gate and open it from the inside which, even if they make it, never works as the group of defenders at the gate instantly close it again.

Also it'd be cool if defender reinforcements spawned deeper within the city instead of right behind the walls so you have to fight through the streets.
 
I have to agree atm sieges are an awful not fun at all necessity,what i do to have the less casualties possible is go grab a lot of food and brake down both walls otherwise as you said ai is incopetent to climb ladders or brake the second door which leads to watch you men die one by one......
 
It seems like only level 1 walls seem to work. Both attackers and defenders keep falling off the walls on level 3 ones. Some seem to run forward and not stop when they hit the end of the wall.
 
Siege AI actually regress massively in 1.4. In 1.3, they were much better about climbing ladders and moving through gate. I'm not sure what changes did they make and if it can be un****ed.

Look at this, vast majority just standing around doing **** all. I had to climb the wall myself to open the gate and they still derp out. I held the gate open alone and fell because it took some of them forever to go through and join me.
AF98F1D90314A3E254F64F87E1763F0BF0B6FEC2


These dumbasses on the left didn't even climb the ladder and the Fian and horse archer in fact ran pass the open gate to get to the other ladder...
7B9B571ACD6F63E0FC8375C568E4AF40BB5D93EC
 
No point in using ladders or towers, just order them all to stand back except the battering ram, once the first gates down, order all infantry into the tunnel, when the second gate is broken (not opened, npcs won't use the gate entrance unless its broken) order them all to charge and over whelm the defending the force and then they will on their own storm the walls from both sides.

Otherwise they just run at them like lemmings, up the ladders and towers to die one at a time getting smashed in the head like a game of wack-a-soldier.
 
I don't even bother with siege engines any more, instead just just hold position outside and shoot at defenders on the wall until there is no more opposition, just like in Warband. This is the siege tactic with the least number of casualties for me.
 
I cannot give orders to troops when I'm not in command of the siege (so, for a long, long time in my playthroughs). Is it possible?

I have mixed feelings in sieges. Attacking is annoying, generally I have the same experience as the OP. Plus archers mostly do nothing. But ladders and siege towers with ladders work to a certain degree (I'm on 1.4.0, "realistic"). You have to be at the top and clear the path for the stupid co-warriors. Poke at the defenders with a spear. I use a mod which greatly increases NPC shield use, so hitting them is very difficult, but it is possible and more so in vanilla.

Defending however is even more annoying. The attacking AI can perfectly use ladders and siege towers, they rush with speed of light and concentrate it's forces while my fellow defenders are split and stand around watching their toes (many of my Battanians are barefoot :grin:). Catapults are worthless for defending as they bombard only the empty hinterland. Defending against an even slightly bigger number of attackers is usually impossible, contrary to real world events of our past.

What I find strange is that my group quite often has the greatest death toll in sieges of the allied parties and it's mostly the better troops suffering it.
 
I cannot give orders to troops when I'm not in command of the siege (so, for a long, long time in my playthroughs). Is it possible?

I have mixed feelings in sieges. Attacking is annoying, generally I have the same experience as the OP. Plus archers mostly do nothing. But ladders and siege towers with ladders work to a certain degree (I'm on 1.4.0, "realistic"). You have to be at the top and clear the path for the stupid co-warriors. Poke at the defenders with a spear. I use a mod which greatly increases NPC shield use, so hitting them is very difficult, but it is possible and more so in vanilla.

Defending however is even more annoying. The attacking AI can perfectly use ladders and siege towers, they rush with speed of light and concentrate it's forces while my fellow defenders are split and stand around watching the toes. Catapults are worthless for defending as they bombard only the empty hinterland. Defending against an even slightly bigger number of attackers is usually impossible, contrary to real world events.

What I find strange is that my group quite often has the greatest death toll in sieges of the allied parties and it's mostly the better troops suffering it.

You have to turn off AI commander with F6, then you can command your troops where to stand, what formation to take, etc.. However, the formations are a bit more buggy in siege. Unless you are talking about being a sub-commander in an army, then I don't know.

And siege defender is really at a big disadvantage right now. Some castle designs practically make the defenders sitting ducks on their own wall.
 
All aspects of siege warfare are not implemented into the game I guess. Because I remember from earlier developer blogs that they mentioned fighting in the streets, barricades, sallying out to destroy enemy siege engines and defenders falling back to the keep for the last stand.
 
All aspects of siege warfare are not implemented into the game I guess. Because I remember from earlier developer blogs that they mentioned fighting in the streets, barricades, sallying out to destroy enemy siege engines and defenders falling back to the keep for the last stand.
Yeah it seems these will be implemented. There was a bug where you'd end up inside the keep with your entire army fighting the remainder of the enemy after winning the siege battle but it was impossible to even move, was the wrong culture keep also. You also see barricades etc throughout the cities.
 
Completely agree. I love the new sieges and it is one of the best improvements over warband, but the more you play them the more you see how broken they are. Troops will either:
  • Gather at the bottom of the ladders.
  • Climb only one ladder of a set.
  • Climb the ladders one at a time.
  • Get stuck at the top of a ladder.
  • Continually climb up and down the ladder.
  • When they are on the walls they will try to climb back down the ladders but can't. So just gather on top of the wall.
  • Bash the first gate down then that's it.
  • Completely ignore the wide open gate.
These are just the attackers as no one defends a settlement. There are probably more but can't think of them right now.
You will guarantee to run into one or more of these during a siege. Vlandia settlements are the worst where usually all of these happen.

Also not really related to sieges but why do troops with 2H/polearms always try to hug the enemy. You have a weapon with reach, use it.
 
Back
Top Bottom