How many men do i need to Siege a Castle and/or City

[Atomicpenguin]

How many men?
What types of units?
help

[Bookshelf]

Well all depends on the fiefs garrison for castles around 100 decent units for city's around 300 decent units.

[Timothius]

I would recommend around 200 mid-level troops with about 25-35% bowmen if there isn't also a lord camped in the castle. Camp your archers outside the walls and let them fire for as long as possible. When their walls are clear, send in the less experienced troops followed by a hard hitting bodyguard of heavily armed elites. On VC I have all my companions, nobles and huskarls in a custom group set to follow me in last as a bodyguard to make sure I'm not taken out and lose control.

Only recommend taking so many troops because overwhelming them helps cut out losses and you'll probably want to leave some as a Garrison once taken.

[Atomicpenguin]

Cool thanks!
That helps a lot!

[Timothius]

No problem :) Just be sure to make up a custom group for your companions / bodyguards and all should be well! Another tip would be to take twice as much food as you would expect to need, sometimes events in a long seige can set you back a little and you can always dispose of it if you need room for loot.

[Resident NATO Freedom Enjoyer]

Lots of ranged behind lots of tanks. Send your tanks forward while keeping your archers back. Once you get a fortified position on the wall send half of your archers to provide covering fire. That should get you through with medium losses.

[Bro McDewd]

You can have about half the amount of men against those of the castle and still take it over. Maybe less if you are the M&B master or something. Taking them can be easy, holding them--less easy.

[Atomicpenguin]

there is a castle with 221 men how many men do i need?

[Vuyek]

Originally posted by Butcher:

You need only yourself, xbow with lots of bolts, factions with xbowmans, bit of skill and wise castle/town choice

Really?

Playing on hard you just need yourself with a crossbow versus 50-100 men?

You are an awesome player, then, much better than me.

[White Knight]

In Native Warband, the player is capable of turning the tide of a battle whether it's on the battle-field or in a siege but to suggest that you can do it alone is kind of ridiculous.

What I'll do is march everyone up to the extreme range of missile fire and have them hold position there. If the missiles are coming hot and heavy from the city walls, I'll have them spread out but at the far end of their range, they aren't much of a threat.

Then I go to work. Sniping the exposed heads until I'm out of ammo, pretty much. Then I'll move up with my archers and have them clear out as many of the remaining defenders as possible from the outside.

Once the archers have done all that they can do, it's time for my shock-troops. I start with my baddest infantry. The idea is for them to take the walls as quickly as possible. If I get the sense that my troops are splitting up and fighting as individuals, I'll call them back, give the enemy a chance to regroup and then hit them again. I want my guys working together and not splitting up. Towns are designed to divide and conquer invaders, their spawn points help them meet stragglers with their full forces. Keep your men together.

Then I run around desperately trying to find more ammo. Picking stuff out of the walls, maybe finding some bolts on dead defenders, etc. If I can get the archers to a safe and elevated position to continue with support fire, that is ideal.

What I never want to see are hundreds of defenders standing at the top of ladders while my men try to fight uphill from those ladders. That is just a frenzy of death and will cost you heavily in terms of lost men. Sometimes, with cleverly constructed castles, you don't have much choice but to "brute force" it.

If you get the "every battle doesn't have to be a blood-bath" speech afterwards, you are probably doing it wrong. When done properly, you can easily replenish your troops with freed captives after the battle and go on to take the next castle.

When the defenders have over 400 soldiers inside, you will probably need about 2/3 of their numbers at least, simply because your huscarls will get worn down eventually, no matter what you do. Part of what is going on is straight-up slaughter but another important aspect will be taking and controlling ground. If you only have a few superheroes, they will be easily surrounded and overcome. You need enough troops to "clog up" the works and keep the enemy from being able to outflank you, etc.

That's what works for me.

[Timothius]

I pretty much do what White Knight does, but send in the "arrow fodder" (weak units that need upgrading) just before I lead in the shock troops myself. Only reason really is that I'm paranoid about losing my levelled troops and / or being knocked out and losing control of the battle.

[JuicyFlow]

The fact is that you must be very aware of what kind of units the enemy has stationed in the castle your are going to take. I would recommend that you scout the area before hand, just to make sure the lord/lady if there is any, is patrolling around, which may give the enemy an advantage. When you want to take a castle, a good advice would be, keep your army at mid tier units in the first wave, archers to be prefered to weaken the melee units that the AI placeses at top of laders or at the helm when using a siege tower. Once weakend use some of the most elite units you have to get a foothold in the castle. When you have gained acces to the castle walls move out your skirmishers to stand on the wall, hamering down on the reinforcements that the enemy gets.
When your battle tactics are ready be sure to have a good amount of troops, at least 3/4 if your units are lower tiers, 2/4 if higher tiers should do the job nicely. But it is a good note to make that it depends on how well you as a player perform in the heat of battle.
-Drath

[Pumis]

50 top tier units should be more than enough. Really 50 huscars or knights really wreck cities.

[Strygald]

Originally posted by timorekusa:

Originally posted by Butcher:

You need only yourself, xbow with lots of bolts, factions with xbowmans, bit of skill and wise castle/town choice

Really?

Playing on hard you just need yourself with a crossbow versus 50-100 men?

You are an awesome player, then, much better than me.

I actually did this once, it was fun at first but it feels really cheap afterwards so I don't do it anymore...

Basically I equipped an Arbalest with 3 quivers of bolts then had my men hang back at the edge of the map, then I ran up to the castle and found a corner I could duck behind after each shot to reload in safety - at close range I took out about 70 nord archers, very easy. I think they should improve it so the AI reacts by sending a few knights out to chase after you :p

[Timothius]

That's very true but losing them when you put up the seige ladders really sucks, that's why I take tons of weak disposable units to lessen the % damage on elite troops.

[Stonechat]

2:1 ratio of rhodok sharpshooters to Nord vetrans/Huscarls

You only need about 90 guys to take a place with a garrison of 150ish.