Please delete my post.

[󠀡󠀡]

.

[Fiddle Gastro]

By the time you establish siege barricades, a ram and towers, the defending castle will always be able to generate at least 2 ballistae / catapults. If your Engineering is low, don't expect to out-build the defending force.

You can gradually become more effective as you rank up the Engineer perk. After the first 50 points, you should be able to improve your ranged build speed as well as forcing a 25% chance for the defending ranged artillery to miss. This massively improves your ability to fill all 4 ranged slots with trebuchet.

My advice is never build a catapult first, as they get destroyed too quickly. By building trebuchet, they have more HP and give you more time to generate a 2nd, which in turn halves the chance of being targeted.

There is no way to select a target, so you have to be patient. Expect your first 4-5 sieges to not even get to the ranged phase if building rams / towers first. You're better off joining sieging armies and letting your Engineering stat grow passively to start off with. You have zero obligation to remain with the army and can bug out if required.

[AxeHunter]

for the first part. You have to move your siege machines "to the back" by clicking on them. Until you have at least 4. The castle will still shoot your machines ones though, which is dumb, so making a couple of trebs is good. Then put them all up at the same time. Having an engineer helps a lot. I don't even bother with towers and rams, blow through the walls and charge in.
I don't defend many castles, so can't help there. Find it easier to wait for help and sally out.

[AxeHunter]

Originally posted by 123:

Originally posted by AxeHunter:

for the first part. You have to move your siege machines "to the back" by clicking on them. Until you have at least 4. The castle will still shoot your machines ones though, which is dumb, so making a couple of trebs is good. Then put them all up at the same time. Having an engineer helps a lot. I don't even bother with towers and rams, blow through the walls and charge in.
I don't defend many castles, so can't help there. Find it easier to wait for help and sally out.

What do you mean put them up at the same time? Can you make 2-3 trebs at the same time? Thought it was 1 after the other.

yes but you can move them off the field. Pause the game right as it's finished, click on the machine and move it. You can build as many machines as you want that way and they can't be targeted, except for the first shot.

[Fiddle Gastro]

Originally posted by 123:

Originally posted by AxeHunter:

for the first part. You have to move your siege machines "to the back" by clicking on them. Until you have at least 4. The castle will still shoot your machines ones though, which is dumb, so making a couple of trebs is good. Then put them all up at the same time. Having an engineer helps a lot. I don't even bother with towers and rams, blow through the walls and charge in.
I don't defend many castles, so can't help there. Find it easier to wait for help and sally out.

What do you mean put them up at the same time? Can you make 2-3 trebs at the same time? Thought it was 1 after the other.

When complete, you can place them in storage for later deployment.

[flyingscot1066]

When you begin a siege, and you know you are going to have time for a protracted siege, immediately start building 3 trebuchets and 1 catapult. I wouldn't even bother with towers or a ram, personally.
As SOON as your first 2 trebuchets each finish, pause the game, click on the newly built trebuchet and then click on Move To Reserve. That basically means it's standing by, out of range to fire at the wall or, more importantly, to be fired upon.
When the 3rd trebuchet finishes, pause again, click on each of the open siege slots, and click on the trebuchet icon (which should have a 2 on it, to indicate you have 2 in reserve). Put them back into action while your catapult builds. 3 trebuchets, regardless of engineering skill, will dominate the defenses engines. They 1 or 2 shot ballistae, and take maybe 3 hits to kill a catapult.
Once your catapult builds, let your engines keep banging on the walls until both walls are fully breached. At that point, move whatever your most damaged trebuchet is back into reserve and start building another catapult. With the walls down, 2 trebs will swat every engine they build as fast as it pops up.
When the second catapult finishes, wait until whatever engine they might have build gets smacked, then hit attack.
Very important: while they may have been gods in siege, trebs SUCK during assault. Nearly useless. When placing engines before starting the attack, only put your two catapults. If you can get good placement (varies by castle/town) you can get a good line on the wall breaches, which can lead to massive casualties if aimed properly.
I've done this during a siege in which my force was massively outnumbered (no sally, for some reason) and the catapults more than evened the odds. 15-20 kills a shot go a long way to helping your guys not get dead.

[Fiddle Gastro]

Originally posted by 123:

Originally posted by Fiddle Gastro:

When complete, you can place them in storage for later deployment.

That sounds silly and so wrong at the same time. "Let me just put this massive siege machine into my tiny box of holding here." -stuffs in vigorously- xD

It does, and that's why I don't use that functionality as a house rule. I suppose one could imagine rolling the siege engines out of range, but trebuchets aren't mobile gear.

By the time you're at 50 Engineering, you can just leave your ranged gear on the field. Might not be a min/max process, but when it comes down to it, the enemy will either muster a large enough force to oust you or they'll concede the town / castle (likely from distraction). Just keep an eye out for approaching armies and get out of there early if they've brought forces anywhere near 1:1 (garrison+militia join the battle if it's initiated while you're actively sieging).

[Alf Stewart]

u have to click them and move them to reserve. the game doesnt tell u this. then u can put them all out at once and the enemys siege equip gets destroyed. it takes time so make sure there lords are in prison first or there biggest avail army is smaller than urs.