Siege

[stormwizzy]

Doing my slow conquest with Imperial lackeys (before I do a rebellion) and decided I should take a few cities.
Does anyone got any tips they want to share to the following?

Target: Torbah (D'shar) Approx 550 men, no extra army. But heavy with ranged.
I tried a few rounds of let my ranged guys pepper the defenders with bolts and arrows, then when I got empty of crossbow bolts myself (and before or just after 2'd round of enforcements) I did a little go to corner and retreat (without any moral loss).
The weird thing was the "retreat screen" told me so and so many of my men was dead and 34 mystbandits.
I had 3 armies on the follow, one of them Marius with a merc army that followed him.

We are actually even with a slight advantage for my troops, but the defenders kills my soldiers from their battlements. My soldiers get killed on the way up the (ONE) ladder and dies up at the chokepoint as well.
In any of the quick Ranged-bleeding rounds that I did several d'shar died but apperantly not enought, and If I do this too many times Marius and my two other allied commanders starts running off on errands by them selves.

Another little thing is the bottom of the ladder in Torbah. More often enough some troops are unable to move up on it (cause on soldier went too far and got stuck just under the ladder).
Anyone got some tips on how to take this City? (After numerous tries I ended up saying to myself.. lets take Singal instead. Two tries and Singal belongs to the Empire. Here is hoping I get that city.

 

[noosers]

The Siege scenes are native´s. If you dislike a single entry point, you may use the Siege Ladder pack which invents more ladders.

The obvious tip for the Incompetent General on what to bring to siege a city is:

Barrel of Vaseline
Cartload of Bandages
Halfdozen priests
Fast horse

 

[stormwizzy]

*chuckles* Thanks noosers.
Did not bring any of those, think I'll be better with them now. ;P

I'd better use that siege ladder pack then.

 

[noosers]

Bows are devilish at close range. Your best guess playing empire is infantry with big shields. Field 150+ heavy infantry but tell them to keep their fire held before you have them charge up the ramparts - otherwise they´ll just stand on the ladder hindering each other and beeing shot down while throwing their spears. Keep back with a huge shield, a siege crossbow and two large packs of bolts and pick off the archers on the sidetowers making the passage up the ladder a tad more safe for your troopers

Leave your fellow lords wherever they desire to be but don´t use them and their lousy troops (unless it´s a kings party and his party composition is worth it).

Everyone enjoys a little bloodbath every once and now. Some towns can be a *****, some can be rather easy, nowever no matter which you siege, your troops crave to die for you

If you despise bloodbath modus, just bring a decent surgeon.

And check the thread called "new tactics for 3.0" or something similar. should still be on the first or second page. Contains valuable information.

 

[arghy]

Yeah get that improved siege pack it makes a friggin huge difference.

I sieged this d'shar castle with ****ing 38 guys inside yet after waiting 42 hours for my tower to build they jumped up to 130 guys magically. I tried the battle like 20 times because i kept losing a massive amount that dident make any sense until i realized the numbers were wrong. I waited 2 days outside the castle to see if it was just the wait that increased the troop levels. After 2 days there was 46 guys inside the castle........

Beware the magical d'shar castles they hide guys in the basement.

 

[akuthia]

Yeah get that improved siege pack it makes a friggin huge difference.

I sieged this d'shar castle with ******** 38 guys inside yet after waiting 42 hours for my tower to build they jumped up to 130 guys magically. I tried the battle like 20 times because i kept losing a massive amount that dident make any sense until i realized the numbers were wrong. I waited 2 days outside the castle to see if it was just the wait that increased the troop levels. After 2 days there was 46 guys inside the castle........

Beware the magical d'shar castles they hide guys in the basement.

npc cities/castles will automatically restock periodically.

 

[Mariacello]

That is a feature I'm not so fond of, at least not while I'm actively sieging the castle. Building a ladder takes three hours, and in that time a garrison of 26 militia amplified to one of 146 with something like 10 knights and 20 kierguards, which is ridiculous. In a real siege, that just wouldn't happen. There might be reinforcing armies, but they'd have to break my siege line first.

 

[SomeRandomEvilGuy]

That is a feature I'm not so fond of, at least not while I'm actively sieging the castle. Building a ladder takes three hours, and in that time a garrison of 26 militia amplified to one of 146 with something like 10 knights and 20 kierguards, which is ridiculous. In a real siege, that just wouldn't happen. There might be reinforcing armies, but they'd have to break my siege line first.

Firstly, you don't have to break the seige line, they just let you through, so I think that'd be harsh on them (it'd be harder anyway. Fighting a massive army before you get inside the castle would be difficult. You'd also have to stop the lords from stopping the seige just to chase a caravan or group of bandits.)

Secondly, think of it as soldiers just finishing training within the castle, and so were really there all along just not able to fight. Or soldiers that have only just been able to be equipped.

 

[Mariacello]

Your allies let you through, you usually have to fight a couple lords.

Also, "just finishing training" doesn't multiply the sheer amount of guys in the castle, including the sudden addition of top-tier troops.

 

[Warpath]

Yeah get that improved siege pack it makes a friggin huge difference.

I sieged this d'shar castle with ******** 38 guys inside yet after waiting 42 hours for my tower to build they jumped up to 130 guys magically. I tried the battle like 20 times because i kept losing a massive amount that dident make any sense until i realized the numbers were wrong. I waited 2 days outside the castle to see if it was just the wait that increased the troop levels. After 2 days there was 46 guys inside the castle........

Beware the magical d'shar castles they hide guys in the basement.

You probably missed a enemy lord entering the city with his army, as when sieges are being build the game speeds up quite a bit. It may also happen that they leave a town while you build sieges ( though in theory your army should have the castle surrounded and nothing should be able to come in and out ).

 

[faigulla]

It's nothing like that man, there is no lord sneaking through, a number of troops just appear in the castle if someone else has taken it recently. If it's recently, it will have something like 40 troops, and then it magically adds up troops, including top-tiered ones.

I wish this would happen to my castles as well.

 

[arghy]

Yeah there was no lord just magical reinforcements. Hell if my castles auto garrisoned like NPC castles that would be sweet as hell! make a feature that allows you to set a unit cap for it to stop at and never be a king visiting villages saying how great your kingdom is! Could add a 'recruiter' to your castles.