eugenioso
Regular

first of all, lets get some facts straight:
- you should have some decent amount of charisma to allow for a decently sized force.
- your army should predominantly be of heavy infantry, specially Huscarls, Rhodok late-tier Infantry, Swadian Infantry (knights do well, but generally they die too quick in sieges or in large numbers and are not easily retrained from scratch), and perhaps a few good archers as support (swadian and rhodok sharpshooters are great for sieges, thanks to their shields and armor)
with that prelude aside, lets begin.-
_so you are lvl 15 something, have a decently sized force, and want to serve your king and take a castle.
the first step is to be patient. if you try to get a force of 70 peasants, win a battle to level them to tier 2 and assault a castle with 90 men inside, you will lose. period. the key is to first prepare yourself accordingly to the situation
1.- what army are you gonna siege?
_from easiest to hardest, i number them like this: Nord, Rhodok, Khergit, Swadian, Vaegir. note that Khergit (nightmare) is set in middle, as the trick to defeating Khergits its not about the quality of troops, its about how many can get withing melee range of the skirmishers (their melee abilities are pretty useless, save perhaps for khergit lancers). Nords have lots of medium infantry in their castles, but their archers are generally too weak to provide truly effective cover fire. Rhodoks have their huge shields and spears, which makes archer counter fire very difficult to impose casualties on the defenders, and their crossbowmen are really powerful, though perhaps slow firing. Swadians take it up a notch from Nords and Rhodoks with their Swadian Knights and heavy infantry, who can really inflict pain on any melee attackers that get to the walls, and their crossbowmen are just as good as the Rhodok ones. the real winner in the siege defense aspect has to be the Vaegir armies. most of their castle garrison have bowmen, some of which include deadly Vaegir Archers and Marksmen, the deadliest archer troop ingame. their volleys will decimate low armored armies and shieldless armies dont stand a chance. if some men do manage to reach the walls, the vaegir guards and knights, with their poleaxes and battle axes, will dent even the fine plate armor of most leaders.
so, now that we know the armies, lets say which armies have advantages against other armies in sieges:
2.-what army is gonna perform the siege?
_there is no real easy/hard factor involving armies in siege assaults, so i will clarify the armies and their abilities at sieges.
The nords really have some advantages in sieges. most of their mid tier troops are armed with round shields, have swords and axes, and some have throwing weapons. their main advantage is that of simplicity and numbers. no army can resist an assault by 100 huscarls. their disadvantage is that even their top tier troops still wear "medium" armor (chainmail), which is not the best at stopping arrow fire. all in all, this is the army that most beginners might wanna play with in the castle assault aspect of the game. they perform adequately well against all defending armies in sieges, except perhaps against Swadians, whose heavier infantry will leave them sore by the time they reach the walls.
Rhodok armies have some advantages as well. first, their great shields will mean that they will render most bowfire useless against them, making them the odds on favorite for beating a Khergit-defended castle garrison. they also possess some great long range support in their crossbowmen armed with shields, and their armor, while not the best, is very effective at stopping swords and spears. their main disadvantage though, comes in their weaponry. all rhodok top tier troops come equipped with spears and pikes, and these are not handy in melee fights, where faster weapon swinging speed counts over the rather slow stabbing attacks of the Rhodoks. their main ability is to fight battles against Khergits (siege battles), since they hold advantages against them. against other armies, the rhodoks suffer as all other forces are better at melee infantry fighting skills. keep them as the force for Khergits, but use them for little else.
Khergits are the worst army to siege a settlement with. perhaps WORST is a strong word, perhaps i mean tricky. whatever i mean, they are hard to use to take settlements with. the Khergit advantages is that 3 out of 4 Khergit Thribesman that you recruit come armed with bows. the obvious advantage is that the troops have a volume of fire matched only by large amounts of Vaegir Archers, but since they are recruits, its a cost-effective way of getting long range support swiftly. those are the only advantages that khergits have in sieges. their top tier melee unit, the Lancer, is armed with Lamellar armor, designed to diminish arrow impact inflicted upon them, but they are really hard to train to that point, or at least it takes long periods of time to train them. the standard unit they should use is the Horse archer tier, supported by lots of Khergit Lancers with Scimitars and bows. also some Khergits come armed with shields, but they only use them in melee, so dont expect them to deflect counter fire from castle garrisons with them. also, with the <slight> exception of their Lancers, Khergit melee skills are really unimpressive. if you have 100 Khergit skirmishers attack a 70 man garrison of, say, rhodoks, the rhodoks will win, and with little trouble. the key with Khergit sieging is to gather a lot of top tier Lancers, and not so many archers. the ratio of Lancers to archers should be 3:1. expect to lose a lot of men. your Khergits will manage to take down quite a few of the wall defenders, but never enough to totally win on their own. Khergits have no particular strengths against anyone, save perhaps the Nords. The nimble Nord archers make fine targets for your Khergit archers, and will manage to kill many of them, with little effective counter fire from the few weak Nord bows and arrows.
Swadians are a very balanced army to siege with, and are perhaps the "best" siegers in the game. the trick of a Swadian siege army is one of balance. the advantages of Swadians are their heavy infantry and knights, the best armored ingame, and also the melee skill of their infantry or dismounted knights, along with their great, good quality weapons, means that they will win most melee battles that develop around walls. they also have very adequate levels of long range offensive power with their Swadian Sharpshooters. they have no real weaknesses, save perhaps that their Sharpshooters are not as good in the melee department as, say, Rhodok Sharpshooters, but their job is to shoot and not fight, so that should be a small concern. to really be effective at sieges with Swadians, make sure that you never take one too many of one kind of troop and too few of another kind. dont take 50 Swadian knights against a garrison of 80 Nords. even if they win (its possible, and achieveable), if your apothecary skills are not high, the death ratio might be too great to effectively hold the castle, and if they try to hold against a siege the few survivors will fall eventually. the ratio of infantry/knights/ranged should be of 3:1:2. the infantry will do most of the fighting (and of the dying), while the knights, with their superior melee weapons and armor/skill, will break the deadlocks that might occur. all the while the crossbowmen should be firing at the wall defenders and thinning their ranks at a steady rate. as stated before, the Swadians have no proficiency at tackling any particular force at sieges, but they have no disadvantages like the other armies. again, balance is the key.
the Vaegirs have some peculiar aspects which make them differ from their Swadian counterparts. first, their archers are lethal. the Vaegir Marksmen are the best ranged ARCHER troops of the game. if you face 20 Marksmen agains 20 Nord veteran archers, or 20 Sharpshooters, their volume of fire and accuracy will bring down the enemy with few direct casualties. their disadvantages are not really disadvantages, they are more along the lines of "moderating attributes" to not make them overpowered. or rather its perhaps peculiarity, but who knows. their top tier infantry (the Vaegir Guard) are armed with heavy Lamellar armor, and two handed axes. in fact, 90% of all Vaegir troops are armed with axes of some kind. their archers have the same armor as their melee counterparts, and even the same battle/war variety of axes, but their melee skills are toned down because their archery training leaves them with little time to practice melee skills. their knights come equipped with two-handed poleaxes and heavy chain mail armor (medium armor), and are aptly skilled at swinging their weapons. as stated before, they are really just like Swadians, but instead of being balanced, the weight leans heavily on their archers, while the rest of the army catches up. to take castles with the Vaegirs requires, first of all, numbers. casualties due to bowfire will be high on any siege, but Vaegirs, who come with no shields, really suffer in that department. their footmen come with round shields, but their leather armor and spears are no good against the troops they fight on walls and against the arrows. the trick comes in numbers. amass a really large force of top Vaegir tier troops, and send them to the enemy. the archers will be doing some sterling work against the wall defenders, specially in large numbers, but they might suffer some counter fire which might thin their numbers. the infantry should lead the charge, and the ratio of infantry and knights should be close to 1:1 to keep the enemy on the ropes. a tactic with Vaegir siege armies is to bring a lot of the top tier Vaegir Marksmen with a relatively small/medium sized force of Vaegir Guards/Knights, and once the battle starts, keep the infantry/knights back while the archers fire for a small period of time (10-15 seconds tops), then send the infantry in. the volume of fire will kill quite a lot of men in the walls, and will allow the infantry a lot of breathing space in reaching the walls in the first place. if you bring enough Marksmen, you might thin them very much, even perhaps break some shields. the vaegirs have no particular advantage in siege assaults against any army, and if anything they are handicapped at it, since all armies have some sort of fire support, and against shieldless Vaegirs, casualties will always be high. the one army that Vaegirs should avoid assaulting are Khergits. their volume of fire will kill any archers that attempt to fire at them, and the infantry/knights will fall faster than flies to the relentless volleys of the Khergit archers.
(CONTINUED NEXT POST)
- you should have some decent amount of charisma to allow for a decently sized force.
- your army should predominantly be of heavy infantry, specially Huscarls, Rhodok late-tier Infantry, Swadian Infantry (knights do well, but generally they die too quick in sieges or in large numbers and are not easily retrained from scratch), and perhaps a few good archers as support (swadian and rhodok sharpshooters are great for sieges, thanks to their shields and armor)
with that prelude aside, lets begin.-
_so you are lvl 15 something, have a decently sized force, and want to serve your king and take a castle.
the first step is to be patient. if you try to get a force of 70 peasants, win a battle to level them to tier 2 and assault a castle with 90 men inside, you will lose. period. the key is to first prepare yourself accordingly to the situation
1.- what army are you gonna siege?
_from easiest to hardest, i number them like this: Nord, Rhodok, Khergit, Swadian, Vaegir. note that Khergit (nightmare) is set in middle, as the trick to defeating Khergits its not about the quality of troops, its about how many can get withing melee range of the skirmishers (their melee abilities are pretty useless, save perhaps for khergit lancers). Nords have lots of medium infantry in their castles, but their archers are generally too weak to provide truly effective cover fire. Rhodoks have their huge shields and spears, which makes archer counter fire very difficult to impose casualties on the defenders, and their crossbowmen are really powerful, though perhaps slow firing. Swadians take it up a notch from Nords and Rhodoks with their Swadian Knights and heavy infantry, who can really inflict pain on any melee attackers that get to the walls, and their crossbowmen are just as good as the Rhodok ones. the real winner in the siege defense aspect has to be the Vaegir armies. most of their castle garrison have bowmen, some of which include deadly Vaegir Archers and Marksmen, the deadliest archer troop ingame. their volleys will decimate low armored armies and shieldless armies dont stand a chance. if some men do manage to reach the walls, the vaegir guards and knights, with their poleaxes and battle axes, will dent even the fine plate armor of most leaders.
so, now that we know the armies, lets say which armies have advantages against other armies in sieges:
2.-what army is gonna perform the siege?
_there is no real easy/hard factor involving armies in siege assaults, so i will clarify the armies and their abilities at sieges.
The nords really have some advantages in sieges. most of their mid tier troops are armed with round shields, have swords and axes, and some have throwing weapons. their main advantage is that of simplicity and numbers. no army can resist an assault by 100 huscarls. their disadvantage is that even their top tier troops still wear "medium" armor (chainmail), which is not the best at stopping arrow fire. all in all, this is the army that most beginners might wanna play with in the castle assault aspect of the game. they perform adequately well against all defending armies in sieges, except perhaps against Swadians, whose heavier infantry will leave them sore by the time they reach the walls.
Rhodok armies have some advantages as well. first, their great shields will mean that they will render most bowfire useless against them, making them the odds on favorite for beating a Khergit-defended castle garrison. they also possess some great long range support in their crossbowmen armed with shields, and their armor, while not the best, is very effective at stopping swords and spears. their main disadvantage though, comes in their weaponry. all rhodok top tier troops come equipped with spears and pikes, and these are not handy in melee fights, where faster weapon swinging speed counts over the rather slow stabbing attacks of the Rhodoks. their main ability is to fight battles against Khergits (siege battles), since they hold advantages against them. against other armies, the rhodoks suffer as all other forces are better at melee infantry fighting skills. keep them as the force for Khergits, but use them for little else.
Khergits are the worst army to siege a settlement with. perhaps WORST is a strong word, perhaps i mean tricky. whatever i mean, they are hard to use to take settlements with. the Khergit advantages is that 3 out of 4 Khergit Thribesman that you recruit come armed with bows. the obvious advantage is that the troops have a volume of fire matched only by large amounts of Vaegir Archers, but since they are recruits, its a cost-effective way of getting long range support swiftly. those are the only advantages that khergits have in sieges. their top tier melee unit, the Lancer, is armed with Lamellar armor, designed to diminish arrow impact inflicted upon them, but they are really hard to train to that point, or at least it takes long periods of time to train them. the standard unit they should use is the Horse archer tier, supported by lots of Khergit Lancers with Scimitars and bows. also some Khergits come armed with shields, but they only use them in melee, so dont expect them to deflect counter fire from castle garrisons with them. also, with the <slight> exception of their Lancers, Khergit melee skills are really unimpressive. if you have 100 Khergit skirmishers attack a 70 man garrison of, say, rhodoks, the rhodoks will win, and with little trouble. the key with Khergit sieging is to gather a lot of top tier Lancers, and not so many archers. the ratio of Lancers to archers should be 3:1. expect to lose a lot of men. your Khergits will manage to take down quite a few of the wall defenders, but never enough to totally win on their own. Khergits have no particular strengths against anyone, save perhaps the Nords. The nimble Nord archers make fine targets for your Khergit archers, and will manage to kill many of them, with little effective counter fire from the few weak Nord bows and arrows.
Swadians are a very balanced army to siege with, and are perhaps the "best" siegers in the game. the trick of a Swadian siege army is one of balance. the advantages of Swadians are their heavy infantry and knights, the best armored ingame, and also the melee skill of their infantry or dismounted knights, along with their great, good quality weapons, means that they will win most melee battles that develop around walls. they also have very adequate levels of long range offensive power with their Swadian Sharpshooters. they have no real weaknesses, save perhaps that their Sharpshooters are not as good in the melee department as, say, Rhodok Sharpshooters, but their job is to shoot and not fight, so that should be a small concern. to really be effective at sieges with Swadians, make sure that you never take one too many of one kind of troop and too few of another kind. dont take 50 Swadian knights against a garrison of 80 Nords. even if they win (its possible, and achieveable), if your apothecary skills are not high, the death ratio might be too great to effectively hold the castle, and if they try to hold against a siege the few survivors will fall eventually. the ratio of infantry/knights/ranged should be of 3:1:2. the infantry will do most of the fighting (and of the dying), while the knights, with their superior melee weapons and armor/skill, will break the deadlocks that might occur. all the while the crossbowmen should be firing at the wall defenders and thinning their ranks at a steady rate. as stated before, the Swadians have no proficiency at tackling any particular force at sieges, but they have no disadvantages like the other armies. again, balance is the key.
the Vaegirs have some peculiar aspects which make them differ from their Swadian counterparts. first, their archers are lethal. the Vaegir Marksmen are the best ranged ARCHER troops of the game. if you face 20 Marksmen agains 20 Nord veteran archers, or 20 Sharpshooters, their volume of fire and accuracy will bring down the enemy with few direct casualties. their disadvantages are not really disadvantages, they are more along the lines of "moderating attributes" to not make them overpowered. or rather its perhaps peculiarity, but who knows. their top tier infantry (the Vaegir Guard) are armed with heavy Lamellar armor, and two handed axes. in fact, 90% of all Vaegir troops are armed with axes of some kind. their archers have the same armor as their melee counterparts, and even the same battle/war variety of axes, but their melee skills are toned down because their archery training leaves them with little time to practice melee skills. their knights come equipped with two-handed poleaxes and heavy chain mail armor (medium armor), and are aptly skilled at swinging their weapons. as stated before, they are really just like Swadians, but instead of being balanced, the weight leans heavily on their archers, while the rest of the army catches up. to take castles with the Vaegirs requires, first of all, numbers. casualties due to bowfire will be high on any siege, but Vaegirs, who come with no shields, really suffer in that department. their footmen come with round shields, but their leather armor and spears are no good against the troops they fight on walls and against the arrows. the trick comes in numbers. amass a really large force of top Vaegir tier troops, and send them to the enemy. the archers will be doing some sterling work against the wall defenders, specially in large numbers, but they might suffer some counter fire which might thin their numbers. the infantry should lead the charge, and the ratio of infantry and knights should be close to 1:1 to keep the enemy on the ropes. a tactic with Vaegir siege armies is to bring a lot of the top tier Vaegir Marksmen with a relatively small/medium sized force of Vaegir Guards/Knights, and once the battle starts, keep the infantry/knights back while the archers fire for a small period of time (10-15 seconds tops), then send the infantry in. the volume of fire will kill quite a lot of men in the walls, and will allow the infantry a lot of breathing space in reaching the walls in the first place. if you bring enough Marksmen, you might thin them very much, even perhaps break some shields. the vaegirs have no particular advantage in siege assaults against any army, and if anything they are handicapped at it, since all armies have some sort of fire support, and against shieldless Vaegirs, casualties will always be high. the one army that Vaegirs should avoid assaulting are Khergits. their volume of fire will kill any archers that attempt to fire at them, and the infantry/knights will fall faster than flies to the relentless volleys of the Khergit archers.
(CONTINUED NEXT POST)