The sim gives them an advantage based on the walls and what siege gear is there and uses it's system to square the troops off again each other. In the live siege troops have to actually perform and kill the enemies and the defender is not really favored. For instance there will likely be many more ranged units deployed on the attackers side the are in position on the walls, so the defender ranged gets out gunned easily and then trickles in to replace only to get shot down too. Although they have improved the behavior of infantry defenders on t the walls, they still don't really make a choke point or fight in way that takes advantage, so they still basically trade away until their is enough gape for attacker to get in.
TLDR they have a lot of ****ing work to do on balancing live combat and AI performance and especially defender behavior.
You have a good point on defenders, however, I will say that from my own playstyle of loading tons of archers, that usually isn't a problem
However, the gate usually is swarmed by soldiers in order to be ready for incoming soldiers
I have seen some issues still with archers manning the walls. Not sure if they are always at the correct posts or daunting in areas that aren't the best for them
I remember one issue, although this may have been for the update before this last one, where archers weren't responding to attackers breaching the gate and heading to the inner gate. There's an opening in the ceiling where archers can shoot, and at first they all showed up, but in proceeding times, it varied on if they showed up or how many would.
There are some automated defense issues perhaps with responses to enemy troops and positioning, as well as firing on enemies
There are times catapults actually fire pretty continuously, and then there are times where yours don't seem like they fire all that much, but the enemies are churning out round after round
Overall, yeah, your not alone poster. There are a few problems still
But the siege ladder solution has definitely saved things a lot
Case in point -
I'm helping defend a lvl 2 castle - 100+ garrison+militia, and my 200 troops. Monchug turns up with an army of about 1,000+. He sieges me. If i fight the battle, Monchug easy destroys the 300 defenders, with the lose of about 400+ If I let the troops fight the siege (sim), I win with about 50 - 70 troops standing.
These 2 results are MASSIVELY different.
Has the fix of ladders & towers widened the gap between Actual siege and Sim siege ?
I noticed in the actual battle, the attackers quickly took the walls while my HI held the gate house. Then the arrows came down onto my HI, finally a large enemy HI force hit my HI in the flanks, which they had difficulty facing up to - only 1 or 2 soldiers would face the flankers, the rest looking at the broken gate. ???
Is this a bug ? or is it known situation ?
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I'd recommend for you watch for the incoming siege towers, use a bow to pick off troops incoming, preferably the shorter bow that can be used while riding a horse as aim is better for now, I think (ran into issues during custom battle for some reason) and use a two handed Sword for better damage
I think youll find that the two handed Sword will allow you to more easily chop down attackers, thinning out numbers while enemies try to get on the walls, and you can use your arrows to look directly down ladders and shoot enemies in the head. It drastically changes the course of the battle.
Also, you can use your two handed Sword to do good amounts of damage to the siege towers. You can destroy them with enough damage. Just make sure your not on them when you do the final blow, which is where arrows can come in handy
Once done with a siege tower life becomes easier and you can focus on the second and not get swarmed
