Sieges

Send your troops to their deaths!

What you can learn here

Offensive sieging, because you are powerhungry.

Defensive sieging, because others are powerhungry.

What you should know beforehand

This is what you should know beforehand:

Ordering your troops (F1, F2, ...)

...

Yeah, pretty low requirements, lets move on.

Offensive Sieges

So then, you want to conquer a castle or town?
Alright, here we go:

Things you should have before sieging a castle/town:
Engineering (usually companion) [Not necessary, but speeds things up]
Surgeon (usually companion)
Troops (Coming later)

What troops should I bring?
In offensive sieges, you want a mix of everything!
Shield units, for taking ranged aggro.
Ranged units, for softening up the enemy.
Axe/Crush units, for getting a foothold inside the walls.

How many troops should I bring?
Max 300 troops (Vanilla) (Explained later)
Autocalc? A lot.

What to do during an offensive siege?
Get shields on the front to take aggro
Have the surgeon stay in the back (All the time)
Shoot all enemy archers
Shoot all other enemies without shields
Send your axes/crushers to their deaths
Send the rest of your troops to their deaths
Repeat or retreat

The enemy garrison is too tough!
Ofcourse, you thought you can claim a castle in a single 300 man assault?
In sieges, you want to kill as many enemies as possible, to make future sieges easier.
Once the enemy garrison is weak enough, you can finally claim it as your own with a final push.

In Practise
I let shields take archer aggro
I shoot everyone without a shield, especially enemy archers
I let my men charge
I let my archers shoot at the distracted enemy
I let them all charge to their deaths
I retreat
I recover my army
I repeat

Defensive Sieges

So you finally have a walled fief and its getting sieged?
Well buckle up, for this is gonna be a good slaughter!

Things you should have during a defensive siege
Surgeon (Usually companion)
Troops (Details later)

What troops should I bring?
Shock troops (Axe/Crush), for slaughtering the charging enemy.
Any ranged troops

How many troops should I bring?
Min 300 soldiers (Vanilla) (Explained later, in detail)
Autocalc? Arround the same number as the enemy will do.

What to do during a defensive siege?
Send your doctors to the back
Have your melee troops gang up on the chokepoints (Usually ladders or stairs)
Have your ranged troops hold a position to shoot the sides or back of the enemy in the chokepoint
Regroup at other chokepoint if current chokepoint falls
Repeat

The enemy is ganging up on my castle with thousands of troops!
Kill as many as you can, to cripple them in future sieges.
Dont think about loosing a battle, think about winning the war by massacring thousands of troops in exchange of 300 of your own

I managed to push the enemy back, but they are still sieging my fief!
Have spare troops to replace the fallen and be ready for a second assault.

In Practise
Tell companions to go to the back
Tell my troops to gang up on my ladder
Smash 300 enemies

If they break through the gang (or if there is no ladder):
Tell melee troops to gang up on the stairs
Tell archers to flank the stairs
Retake ladders if possible

300 Casualty Cap

Why is this number, the 300, so fascinating?
Is it because of the 300 spartans holding out against thousands of persians?

Nah its because there can only be 300 casualties during a siege assault, before victory or defeat comes in.
^Thats why the spartans were so successful, the persians could only field 300 men before having to retreat.

On the offense
That castle has thousands of troops!

Well, if you kill 300 enemies during the siege, vanilla ignores the hundred others.

You'll then be teleported to a street fight (similar to a bandit ambush, except the bandits are replaced with tough troops).
^Its quite strange that the game ignores your own hundred other troops, you have to fight the enemy alone with some of your companions. Though the game also ignores the hundred enemies, so feel lucky.

^After you defeat the enemies on the streets, there usually are enough enemies in the garrison left to trigger a 2nd battle inside the castle, which is basically the above battle, except its in the castle.

On the defense
The enemies have thousand of troops!

No worries, you only have to engage 300 enemies per assault before they are driven back, in vanilla that is.

Once they are driven back, and still have troops left, they will resiege your fief and will send a 2nd assault sooner or later, more on that later. If they have to troops left, they are defeated.
^Thats also why its good to have more than 300 troops during a defensive siege, so you can replace the fallen without having to recruit.

300 per Side or Total?
Its per side

This means you can loose 200 troops and kill 200 enemies and the siege continues
This means you can loose 300 troops and kill no enemies and the siege fails.

AI in Sieges

The AI never has really been too smart, especially when it comes to sieges.

AI in Offense
When they have to move a tower, all enemies stay at their spawnpoint and 6 troops move out to move the tower. Shoot the pushers and you can stall the tower for a very long time.

When the tower is in position or there are ladders, they just charge.
Thats it.
Take that to your advantage with chokepoints.

AI in Defense
There are pre-programmed "Hold this position" orders, so they usually fare better on the defense.

Archers take positions arround the towers on the walls and melee troops gang up on the ladder or opening.
^This can be taken to your OWN advantage too, by having your melee troops gang up on a chokepoint and having your archers be able to shoot their sides and backs.
^You usually dont have to worry about enemy archers from enemy reinforcements to flank you, as they usually stay in their spawnpoint.

In some mods, the enemy defenders just charge or charge once x enemy reinforcements come in.
^Sound familiar? Cough chokepoints cough.

This guide is getting sieged!

You can fortify it by rating it well!

[Shahroz]

thanks mate