Tips for taking Almerra Castle?

[NJSQRL]

Man I thought Grunwalderwhatever Castle was a royal pain in the butt to take... but this one is wearin down on me big time... and there are only (or were only) 180 defenders!

I marched in with my personal army + 3 vassals which totals out to about 500 total troops...

I had everyone follow me and set up my lines outside the gates and waited for my archers to clear the walls... then I had them all follow me again and we moved inside (this one has a inner courtyard before you get to the ladder) as soon as we were in that courtyard I had to tell my infantry to charge... I had taken several bolts but luckily my shield held up and I only got hit by one (in the back).

Told the inf to charge and parked the archers to help them clear the walls again.. that is as far as I got before my face started to resemble hellraiser.. only with bolts not pins.

Because I was down I couldn't tell my cavalry or my companion infantry to move and I watched as wave after wave of infantry was just obliterated on the walls... my archers in the court yard didn't fair much better in the end there were a few sergeants hiding behind a wall that my archers couldnt get to and I was plum out of infantry.

So I retreat... page down and see I only killed 25 enemies... all sharpies thankfully.

I start up the second assault and well.. didn't learn my lesson and did the same thing again. This time however things went slightly better... in the end I lost 67, ally casualties were 155 and enemy casualties were 104... still 50 troops in there the problem is my lords and myself are all under a dozen troops...

So now before I go back and raise a new army I want to know... how do I effectively take this castle?

 

[sonny99]

What is your primary infantry unit?

 

[NJSQRL]

I use Nord troops but I have a mix of Swadian, Rhodok, and Sarranid troops available from my vassals.

So my primary infantry unit is the huscarl or veteran (I haven't had time to recover from the last war with the Rhodoks)

 

[gutsaxe]

I attacked with 3000+ men (entire campaign sent) while there was about 200+ sharpshooters + seergants but still got beaten back a couple of times.. (we lost 600 dead + wounded)
My suggestion is: RUN!

 

[NJSQRL]

I attacked with 3000+ men (entire campaign sent) while there was about 200+ sharpshooters + seergants but still got beaten back a couple of times.. (we lost 600 dead + wounded)
My suggestion is: RUN!

That is pretty much what happened... I retreated to Shariz for a few days while I trained up a new army (ended the campaign so my lords could do the same) then started up again and marched on Almerra again... Again we were stopped... the garrison was only 75 but there was a lord sitting inside with 180 troops and well... two more attempts and we were on our heals again.

On the way back to my lands to recruit more troops and whatnot the Rhodoks offered me a peace agreement and took it so for now Almerra is just a bad bad bad memory...

 

[SpittingLlama]

Autocalc is your friend...

 

[Riddle]

Autocalc is your friend...

QFT

 

[NJSQRL]

Autocalc is your friend...

Have they improved it recently? Last time I used auto calc it would always end up with me runnin away with my tail between my legs...

Oh look its 8 looters I have 100 huscarls.... 2 looters dead, 1 wounded, 99 huscarls dead...


Ok so that is slightly out of proportion but it makes the point :p

 

[Riddle]

The point is you will lose a lot of soldiers sieging that castle anyway, but auto-calc is nice enough to kill more defenders than you could ever hope to do.

 

[Night Ninja]

Autocalc doesn't give a **** about troop quality IIRC, so go crazy with peasant hordes.

 

[NJSQRL]

Tried auto calc this time around....

187 dead or wounded on my end and only killed 5 of them... hardly an improvement over actually fighting the battle seeing as how there was only 32 of them in there to start with.

 

[SPD_Phoenix]

After you clear out the enemy range on the front wall, you should have retreated. Well, I normally don't retreat because my idiotic companions won't like it. So, I order them to go in the court yard with me to kill some more enemy range until we all out of ammo or out cold. Wait one or two days to heal but not lift the siege (enemy cant reinforce if the castle is under siege). Repeat until most of the enemy range are gone. Now, you can bring you troops in the court yard. I normally have a bow (at least in siege battle) and my companions always have siege crossbow. Very usefull.

 

[tashim72]

Ok, I'll try to help you...

Option 1: Raise -only- Rhodok Sergeants to the party's limit. These guys are at 60 health, very good armored, deadly etc. ... assault.
Option 2 (only if option 1 won't help): keep the castle besieged until they'll run out of food stocks.

P.S. The game needs to be patched ASAP; the amount of Sharpies and Sergs Kingdom of Rhodoks keep in Castles/Towns are rediculous... reminds me early versions, when Sarranian Lords were riding with too many Mamlukes.

 

[lazlo]

After you clear out the enemy range on the front wall, you should have retreated. Well, I normally don't retreat because my idiotic companions won't like it. So, I order them to go in the court yard with me to kill some more enemy range until we all out of ammo or out cold. Wait one or two days to heal but not lift the siege (enemy cant reinforce if the castle is under siege). Repeat until most of the enemy range are gone. Now, you can bring you troops in the court yard. I normally have a bow (at least in siege battle) and my companions always have siege crossbow. Very usefull.

Yes, this is the way I take these kind of courtyard assault castles. Stay outside and hoover off the people on the forward battlements. Then either keep doing it as their new troops arrive, or retreat so there's more people up front again. Takes a while, though.

 

[NJSQRL]

After you clear out the enemy range on the front wall, you should have retreated. Well, I normally don't retreat because my idiotic companions won't like it. So, I order them to go in the court yard with me to kill some more enemy range until we all out of ammo or out cold. Wait one or two days to heal but not lift the siege (enemy cant reinforce if the castle is under siege). Repeat until most of the enemy range are gone. Now, you can bring you troops in the court yard. I normally have a bow (at least in siege battle) and my companions always have siege crossbow. Very usefull.

Yes, this is the way I take these kind of courtyard assault castles. Stay outside and hoover off the people on the forward battlements. Then either keep doing it as their new troops arrive, or retreat so there's more people up front again. Takes a while, though.

The "let your archers plink away till everyone is empty or dead and retreat/repeat" thing is something I will never do... I am sorry but I just find it unbelievably cheap. Granted I will sit behind a line of infantry while my archers spend their ammo but that is usually followed by a infantry charge (actually just before they run out) which is usually followed by me charging in with my companions.

 

[gutsaxe]

Recently discovered a castle called durrin castle??
Because I repositioned my men in front of the gate, which messed up the pathing and they all ran around the wrong side of the castle and got stucj on the cliffs. If I haddnt headshotted all the archers on that side of the castle we'd have lost..
The soldiers have to do a long route around the castle just to get to the cliffs the ladders on: its like omaha beach of mount and blade!
PLUS when they do make it to the ladder they've got archers firing from a turret to the right and a VERY narrow hole in the battlements to reach the enemy.. it was a real phyrric victory.. =(

 

[NJSQRL]

Yeah gust that one sucks... theres a few that are just a pain to get too... but never had this much of a problem with any castle other than grunwalder. Actually... never had this much of a problem with this one either... not sure why I was suddenly failing at it.

There is another that I hate taking... Though I forget where it is. There is a archer tower on a hill that jets fairly far out from the wall that allows them a clear shot at your backside...

 

[tashim72]

Durrin and Sharwa are hard ones... I remember taking it off from Sarranids.

Sharwa has an inner field, which is big... 65 Sarranid Master Archers were there when I assaulted.

 

[mido1023]

Durrin and Sharwa are hard ones... I remember taking it off from Sarranids.

Sharwa has an inner field, which is big... 65 Sarranid Master Archers were there when I assaulted.

This looks painfull... But Almerra is still harder to take (I just lost 150 top tier troops trying to take it while it was protected by only 125 Rhodoks... they were all Sharpshooters Oo)

 

[Trimaran]

just took almerra castle in my game and moved my court here from asugan castle (i abondoned asugan as i m starting my kingdom and it is hard keeping two fiefs with nords at ur tail-i rebelled ). The garrison was 35 sarranids with mostly mid to low tier. I had 68. 25 huscarls, 11 swadian knights, 8 mamlukes, warriors and other mid teer. I told my infantry to charge (huscarls) me with them. Told my cavalary to hold outside-at aplace protected from arrows. As soon as my huscarls cleared the ladder i told cavalry charge. Well, we won. Loosing 18. Mostly huscarls. (a lot wounded as well). I cant wait for the nords to come in thousands, o the sarranids. Gonna be fun defending!