Sieging - Starving a castles defenders

[Raziaar]

It simply doesn't work. I am so pissed off by this. Been playing Mount & Blade for a long time now... ever since sieges, I haven't really enjoyed them very much for many various reasons. Things like only one attack point, completely unusual results(losing all guys really quickly despite having superior forces and numbers or basically slaughtering the enemy getting lucky in pushing past the entrance with all your guys), being pushed off the ladder by my own troops.

But now, I finally bought a crapload of food and decided to wait my enemy out, starving them. I was hoping to turn that smug defender commander from being so confident to being miserable and begging for food.

30 days EVENTUALLY passed(took forever). Then I waited an additional 20 days of starvation and occasionally I'd see the enemy drop down to 90 troops from 105, but then the next time I checked they'd be right back up to full again.

Total, total suckage. Why is that stupid option even there if it doesn't do anything. Grrr.

 

[Lord Leoric of Wercheg]

It simply doesn't work. I am so pissed off by this. Been playing Mount & Blade for a long time now... ever since sieges, I haven't really enjoyed them very much for many various reasons. Things like only one attack point, completely unusual results(losing all guys really quickly despite having superior forces and numbers or basically slaughtering the enemy getting lucky in pushing past the entrance with all your guys), being pushed off the ladder by my own troops.

But now, I finally bought a crapload of food and decided to wait my enemy out, starving them. I was hoping to turn that smug defender commander from being so confident to being miserable and begging for food.

30 days EVENTUALLY passed(took forever). Then I waited an additional 20 days of starvation and occasionally I'd see the enemy drop down to 90 troops from 105, but then the next time I checked they'd be right back up to full again.

Total, total suckage. Why is that stupid option even there if it doesn't do anything. Grrr.

Umm, I dont think you have to wait for all of them to die. After their food runs out, talk to the castle commander and tell him to surrender. It happened once to me. My allies where sieging a castle for a while then they left. I resumed the siege and asked a meeting with the castle commander and he surrendered!

 

[The Mercenary]

Just starve them for 30 days, then talk.

 

[fanthor]

after 30days. you probably have to wait a bit,

because people don't just starve to death an hour after the food is finish.

 

[Raziaar]

after 30days. you probably have to wait a bit,

because people don't just starve to death an hour after the food is finish.

As I said, I waited 20 additional days after the 30. So that's a total of 50 days.

Ugh. Never doing that again.

I also talked to the garrison commander every day of the starvation and he was all chipper and confident still.

 

[Momaw]

The sieges were added late in the game for M&B, and it shows. Starving them out takes way too freaking long given the scale and scope of the day (there could be two or three major wars fought in 30 days).  There's no way to easily set up a supply route for yourself which means you have to constantly dash around to surrounding villages for food. None of your supposed allies will actually help you with either men or funding.  None of the historically accurate methods of siegecraft are available, limiting you to suicidal charges up a ramp.  There is no artillery option, even though several scenes clearly have trebuchets set up. You can't attempt to poison, disease, or subvert the stronghold using stealth.

In short, sieges in M&B suck.   Definitely not its strong point.

 

[Shik]

Starving currently does not do much. It does not reduce the fighting morale of the garrison, or much of anything else.

At the moment, the only thing it does is give a 10% chance of enemy troops getting wounded from starvation per day. You can wound them from starvation, but the garrison will not die off. They will probably end up healing all of their wounded before any more of them get wounded. Sieges suck this way - you can't win through pure starvation. (Also, what Momaw said.)

It appears that no matter what, unless you have a significant advantage, you will have to charge.

 

[Durandal]

I would much rather start a war of attrition against the castle rather than try to siege it out... 30 days is a heck of a long time. Your morale will probably drop like a rock if you just sit there for that long too.

 

[jasonxfri13th]

The time it takes should vary. Castles and towns should start out at 20-25 days, and decrease untill they get to 5-10 days and then each day after it gets to 10 there should be a chance of it restocking its food untill day 5 which is 100%. and when it restocks it should vary between 20-25.

I was thinking about getting caravans involved, so if you cut off all caravans, then they starve. that could work for towns, if you kill an incoming caravan then it takes away 2-8 days (some caravans have more food) from 35-50 days. And towns still lose food every day untill it gets to 15-25.

 

[Will Greaves]

I can't figure out how the original poster kept his troops from deserting after the first few days.  Fifty days!  My entire army and half of my companions would have left by the twentieth.

 

[The Mercenary]

I can't figure out how the original poster kept his troops from deserting after the first few days.  Fifty days!  My entire army and half of my companions would have left by the twentieth.

Just feed them a lot, and slaughter Cattle when you have to.

 

[fanthor]

I can't figure out how the original poster kept his troops from deserting after the first few days.  Fifty days!  My entire army and half of my companions would have left by the twentieth.

Just feed them a lot, and slaughter Cattle when you have to.

But then if you are somehow unlucky and never got attacked, you can't leave the siege option. And leaving the castle just for about 5second after abandoning siege increases its food by 2-7days.

 

[tommylaw]

the town's prosperity goes way down

 

[Durandal]

the town's prosperity goes way down

Yeah, but I'd rather take it without damaging its prosperity... That's why I'd just start a war of attrition.

 

[Taur0s]

I agree, even being innovative and never done before in another game, suicide charge at the ramp is not that fun or reallistic. The best parts in a siege, hands down, are when the enemy sally out to attack you ( gotta love watching the enemy party charging on you ) and the internal siege stages ( fighting in the castle and the streets of a town ), but fighting outside the castle/town walls gets boring at the end of the game, when you're trying to take over calradia, and each siege takes forever until you either starve the enemy out or snipe enemies 1 by one ( a long/boring process but really effective ).

 

[DarkAnd]

0.90x you could leave the siege menu and you dont would loss your siege equipement.
Just kill all caravans that try going to the castle. Leaving the menu dont restock it, but they restock 3 days whit each party entering.

 

[fanthor]

When i arrive at the top of the ladder, i slash and slash and slash, then drop down the balcony, go up the inside stairs, kill the archers, drop down again, go to the other side, kill archers again, New enemies come, Drop down again, Kill the enemy, then go up the stairs again killing the newly respawned archers, drow down again, kill the other sides newly respawn archers, then kill some infantry, New enemies again, Drop down and Arghh, i give up, Even Dying and have to rebuild a new ladder is better than this.

 

[DarkAnd]

When i arrive at the top of the ladder, i slash and slash and slash, then drop down the balcony, go up the inside stairs, kill the archers, drop down again, go to the other side, kill archers again, New enemies come, Drop down again, Kill the enemy, then go up the stairs again killing the newly respawned archers, drow down again, kill the other sides newly respawn archers, then kill some infantry, New enemies again, Drop down and Arghh, i give up, Even Dying and have to rebuild a new ladder is better than this.

Yes that is a very annoying thing, but...
how do you rebuild something that is new?

 

[fanthor]

When i arrive at the top of the ladder, i slash and slash and slash, then drop down the balcony, go up the inside stairs, kill the archers, drop down again, go to the other side, kill archers again, New enemies come, Drop down again, Kill the enemy, then go up the stairs again killing the newly respawned archers, drow down again, kill the other sides newly respawn archers, then kill some infantry, New enemies again, Drop down and Arghh, i give up, Even Dying and have to rebuild a new ladder is better than this.

Yes that is a very annoying thing, but...
how do you rebuild something that is new?

Arfgh damn..
ok, "Rebuild a new ladder.

 

[jrawlings]

The time it takes should vary. Castles and towns should start out at 20-25 days, and decrease untill they get to 5-10 days and then each day after it gets to 10 there should be a chance of it restocking its food untill day 5 which is 100%. and when it restocks it should vary between 20-25.

I was thinking about getting caravans involved, so if you cut off all caravans, then they starve. that could work for towns, if you kill an incoming caravan then it takes away 2-8 days (some caravans have more food) from 35-50 days. And towns still lose food every day untill it gets to 15-25.

I'd agree with this... also you shouldn't have the leave the "siege" to deal with caravans... eg. chase them all over the map.  If a caravan wants to resupply a town/castle it must break through your siege to do so via a combat scene.  None of this 12 lords leave the siege to chase one caravan crap.