Sieging a castle.

[Selvhan]

Hello everyone !

I would like to know what is your strategy to capture an enemy castle ?

I have been trying to capture some Empire castle and the only way i have found is to have a lot of archer and to let them empty their quiver on the enemy. After that i just retreat and do that until the last enemy is dead.

Does anyone have something better ? Because i have been trying to use melee, but i have found that it will only result in my troop dying while the enemy watch and laugh.

 

[Ichon]

There is  not a huge amount of strategy in melee assault on castles. Wait until most Lords are gone so you only fight garrison, put your best armored/fastest assault troops first to gain control of the wall, hold your infantry at the top of stairs from the inner courtyard with your archers along wall behind. Hold fire order so your soldiers keep shields up as they assault the walls.

Extra tips- take out enemy archers first with either yourself bow/crossbow or good archer soldiers as usually more than 50% of the losses on initial assault is soldiers dying on the ladder before even reaching melee. Have very much better units than the enemy garrison. Archer siege as you described can also work though takes quite long on many castles that require more than ladders. Play on smaller battle sizes is much easier though that is not really strategy.

 

[Selvhan]

Yeah, we are limited by the number of ladder. I know it's from Native but it would be nice to have more than one ladder and on more than one wall.

 

[Griefer]

The troop mix you use is pretty critical. Shield troops with a mix of polearms is best. Have a few archers but not too many.  When you are tough enough run up and jump past the defenders and kill archers.  Then back stab the hell out of the defenders to help your men clear the wall.

 

[Warpath]

Also, better not start with a Empire castle, as almost all their troops have ranged capabilities, and the javelins are very dangerous when troops are stacked on ladders.

Try Sarleon or Fierdsvain.

 

[faigulla]

I would say Ravenstern is the best to siege, so long as there isn't any lord inside and there's a small garrison, say, like 90 to 100 troops.

It helps if you siege a castle that was just taken some days ago (or right away) by some other lord/faction that you're at war with. It further helps if it's a castle that only needs to build ladders, since that will take just several hours, while if you have to build a siege machine you'll take 3 days to do it, and in the meantime, either the garrison already has more troops... magically... or a lord may pop in near you, or even a Jatu army or something like that.

Concerning "magically"... say you sieged a castle right after it was taken by someone else... and the lord/recent conquerer went away. You look at the castle and see... 40 troops... I can take this you think. Then you begin to siege it. When you go to lead your men in an assault it magically replenished itself and it now has 90 or more troops. This is total BS for me.

So always go ready for the 90/100 number on recently conquered castles. You can do it if you have a bunch of adventurers in your party and some ranged troops. Get the ranged troops in a spot and try to mow down their numbers a bit. Then either go for it with your main heavy infantry (adventurers, or others), or lure the enemy to come out. Sometimes this works. Sometimes enemy soldiers come running down the stairs after some time, at which point, if you're using your ranged troops, make them fall back ten paces, hold their fire and make the infantry charge so that they advance through the range troops.

This is how I took my first castle. It was an Empire castle, which often I don't recommend you assault just like that because if they have a lot of Empire Knights and some of the heavy infantry there will be a rain of javelins in the sky, and they're usually a one hit kill for you and your troops, and these guys have a huge range.

 

[Renfray]

Seems like there is no "easy" way to capture an enemy castle, except for exploiting the retreat option or using hundred times upgraded order knights, right? But I guess this is just how it´s meant to be. All odds are against you if you try to storm a castle by using ladders or, even worse, a siege tower. The enemy is on higher ground, he has excellent cover, your troops are forced to pass through a very confined space to reach the enemy... and of course, the big impact you yourself would make in a field battle is little in a siege battle if you´re not in the right position and/or not equipped with the right arms. The right mix of troops (as Griefer said) is crucial and can compensate some of these odds, but still, you draw the shortest straw if you´re the attacker in a siege battle.

Considering that, you have to take some losses into account. Otherwise it just wouldn´t make much sense, now would it?

As for tips, I always found the most critical part of the sieges in gaining access to the wall.
While charging up the ladder (or the siege tower), your soldiers are sitting ducks for enemy archers, but once you´re on it, the odds are even and you can finally bring your own fighting strength into account.

 

[aguds]

I usually line up my archers behind my shield-infantry, and let them rain arrows on the enemy a bit.
Then when there is a slight opening on the top of the ladder, I run up with infantry following, then I try to jump into the fray with my shield up and try to push myself to one of the side-towers where the archers are. Then if you press charge on the infantry, the group of bots at the ladder will be busy with them, and you can go slaughter the archers on the side-tower,who usually stand with their backs against you.

Then try to run across the ladder-part of the wall agian. Either your infantry have made it through, or they are beeing pressed down. Either case, the enemy will face them, not you. So here you can do 1 of 2:

1: Kill silly amounts of enemys in the back before they turn against you(and if they do, your inf comes up the ladder).

2: Run around, and kill the archers in the second tower. This way, your infantry won't get shot of the ladder anymore.

If you do 2, go back and do 1 afterwards. This usually works if your troops are of medium quality and doesn't die of one blow.