SP - Battles & Sieges Suggested changes to unit group organization during siege battles

[Wulfger]

After playing through more sieges than I care to count, both as attacker and defender, I have a few thoughts on how player control during sieges could be improved.

The Problem:
During offensive and defensive siege battles the unit organization is changed from infantry/archers/cavalry/cavalry archers to a nearly indecipherable mess. The battle AI seems to constantly move units between stacks and the purpose of each group is impossible to determine because they keep the same names as the groups during field battles while filling entirely different roles. This makes it all but impossible for the player to have any meaningful control over their army, the player can't organize units before the battle begins because it is unclear what unit group does what (and even then the battle starts with "give command to sergeants" activated by default and all changes are immediately reset), and since you don't know what each group is actually doing during the battle it's hard to try to give any orders on the fly.

A potential Solution:
Rather than use the same unit groups as field battles, use an entirely different set of unit groups that can be understood by the player. Since cavalry and horse archers are unmounted during sieges the unit organization could be simplified down to the following:

• Infantry Right Wall
• Ranged Right Wall
• Infantry Gate
• Ranged Gate
• Infantry Left Wall
• Ranged Left Wall
• Infantry Reserve
• Ranged Reserve

For Attackers Infantry assigned to either wall would be the ones that approach with ladders or siege towers while ranged assigned to either wall would approach with the infantry and fire at the defenders in their area as the infantry assault the walls. Infantry assigned to the gate would be the ones to approach with the ram to attack the gate, while archers would move up with the infantry and cover their advance by firing at defenders. I'd suggest that the center section be disable if the attackers haven't built a ram. Infantry in the reserve would stay safely out of archer range until ordered to advance while ranged in the reserve would use take cover in the mid to long range barricades and shoot at the walls, as well as operate any siege engines. The reserve would be useful while the walls are still being approached, a group of infantry could wait here until there is a foothold on a wall or the gate is breached, meaning that infantry is running with their shields forward in a group towards archer fire rather than running in a line along the base of the walls where they can more easily be picked off by defenders. Reinforcements could also wait for a little bit here before advancing together in a group rather than in a line or in twos and three where they are easier to pick off.

For Defenders, Infantry assigned to either wall will be the ones that defend against ladders or siege towers, defend against attackers who have breached another part of the wall and enter that section, or operate siege equipment. Ranged assigned to either wall will be the archers that take position in towers and on the wall that fire down on attackers. Infantry assigned to the gate would be the ones that sit behind the gate and defend once the ram breaks through, as well as defending the gatehouse if the attackers take one or both walls, while ranged assigned to the gate would shoot at the attackers operating and following the ram. Defenders in reserve would stay off the wall until reassigned to a forward group (this wouldn't be very useful until a section of wall is lost, at which point reinforcements could build up in this group before mounting a counter-attack, or stay in this group an defend the entrance to the keep in last stand.)

Benefits:

• This will let the player actually understand the organization of their army during a siege.
• The player will be able to make meaningful decisions during the battle and give them the option of manually commanding their troops.
• The player will be able to create and follow a strategy (focus on a single wall, use siege weapons or ranged units to wear down defenders before sending in infantry, etc.)
• The player will be able to understand at a glance how a siege is going by looking at the number of units in a command group (for example, if there are 0 infantry defenders on the right wall the player will know it has fallen)
• The use of a reserve group for attackers will limit the number of shield-less infantry exposed to archer fire while slowly advancing with the ram or siege towers.
• The use of a reserve group for defenders will hopefully lessen the number of defenders who run in a single file line towards a mass of attackers who have already breached the wall.
• The player could potentially be given the ability to place the units in their party in siege unit groups from the party screen similarly to how they can currently select each unit's unit group.

Drawbacks:

• The player won't be able to manually position their troops as a defender without disrupting a section of their defenses. (In my opinion, this is still an improvement over the current system where you have no idea how your defenses operate.)
• Manual control of troops in large battles will be very difficult, requiring the constant transfer of reinforcements from the reserve group to one of the three forward groups. (This could be mitigated by leaving the reserve group under the command of sergeants, but even if the player takes control it's better than the current system)
• These unit groups don't operate well with the existing commands available to the player (they already don't work with how sieges are set up, I'll probably make another post at some point with how I think the siege battle commands should be changed.)