ThunderClaw
Sergeant at Arms
Rhodok troopers are the basic building blocks to a well-functioning siege army, so I prefer to start with a Rhodok town. I typically don't bother with taking a castle first, but if things conspire against me I'm by no means above doing it. Almerra's a great castle to start with, but you have to be willing to manuever your troopers a lot. Going straight in the door is suicide. You need to manuever around the walls and use your archers to sweep them clean before you move in.
As for makeup: Partisans are your bread and butter. I bring 100 minimum whenever I go sieging. The more, the better. They are incredibly accurate and your enemies are going to use them whether you find them to be cheating or not. If you're morally opposed to using a unit that's level 15 with ~250 archery, though, Arcii really work just as well, it just makes the siege go a little slower.
Then you need dudes to soak up arrows while your archers sweep the walls. Rhodoks again have the hands down best unit for this: The peasant Swordsman tree. Master Swordsmen are not hard to train up (iirc the Veteran Swordsman line is level 13 or 14), they carry Board Shields, and have 7 points in Shield. Nobody is getting a lucky foot or head shot in on them, and their shields take only 44% normal damage. Plus, they use Bastard Swords and are competent enough with them to hold the line against a charge. They are head and shoulders above any other unit in cost vs benefit for an arrowcatcher line. However, Lady Knights and their ilk also work great and are again very easy to train. You don't need too many for this job, though. 50 will do nicely.
The greatest thing about Partisans + Swordsmen is that they are ideal for siege defense as well. Swordsmen holding the line while Partisans pick apart the attackers is outrageously effective; I annihilated a 500 man war party this way. No more worrying about juggling siege armies and field armies; just drop the guys that won the siege into the garrison and you're done.
Using this makeup, I was able to seize Jelkala for myself on day 39, 114% difficulty, started as a level 1 char. Hardest part was making sure there were no lord parties around when I attacked, because with an army of 150-200, most lord parties will sally out and that will not end well for you. I like Jelkala because there's two castles within its sphere of influence that you can keep for yourself, giving you a total of 4 villages and 2 castles. Couple that with a free Council Chambers, conveinent but not encroaching bandit spawns (forests northwest of Praven) and easy access to Praven for Page recruiting and another merchant market to sell items in, and it's just a no brainer for me.
As for makeup: Partisans are your bread and butter. I bring 100 minimum whenever I go sieging. The more, the better. They are incredibly accurate and your enemies are going to use them whether you find them to be cheating or not. If you're morally opposed to using a unit that's level 15 with ~250 archery, though, Arcii really work just as well, it just makes the siege go a little slower.
Then you need dudes to soak up arrows while your archers sweep the walls. Rhodoks again have the hands down best unit for this: The peasant Swordsman tree. Master Swordsmen are not hard to train up (iirc the Veteran Swordsman line is level 13 or 14), they carry Board Shields, and have 7 points in Shield. Nobody is getting a lucky foot or head shot in on them, and their shields take only 44% normal damage. Plus, they use Bastard Swords and are competent enough with them to hold the line against a charge. They are head and shoulders above any other unit in cost vs benefit for an arrowcatcher line. However, Lady Knights and their ilk also work great and are again very easy to train. You don't need too many for this job, though. 50 will do nicely.
The greatest thing about Partisans + Swordsmen is that they are ideal for siege defense as well. Swordsmen holding the line while Partisans pick apart the attackers is outrageously effective; I annihilated a 500 man war party this way. No more worrying about juggling siege armies and field armies; just drop the guys that won the siege into the garrison and you're done.
Using this makeup, I was able to seize Jelkala for myself on day 39, 114% difficulty, started as a level 1 char. Hardest part was making sure there were no lord parties around when I attacked, because with an army of 150-200, most lord parties will sally out and that will not end well for you. I like Jelkala because there's two castles within its sphere of influence that you can keep for yourself, giving you a total of 4 villages and 2 castles. Couple that with a free Council Chambers, conveinent but not encroaching bandit spawns (forests northwest of Praven) and easy access to Praven for Page recruiting and another merchant market to sell items in, and it's just a no brainer for me.
