Anybody ever defended a large siege in-game?

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Through my many hours of Medieval Total War, I had noticed certain things about the game that just never happen, at least not to me. One of these is the large-scale siege like the ones we all create in the Custom Battle. Whenever I have a reasonably large army thats been locked up in a castle, they always just wait it out, never attack it. I once had pushed to Constantinople in the late age as the French. Obviously, it was a Fortress by now, with every upgrade possible for the castle. When i took the province, it was my 5000 soldiers, of which an entire army (16 units that is) was devoted to our good friend the Culevern (sp?). The Turks retreated, and a large army, about 700 men, was locked up in the city. Naturally, I tore that sucker down and slaughtered them all. Naturally. Now, a few turns later, the Turks counterattacked with one nasty freakin army. i lost, and about 800 men were locked up in the castle. I waited, and waited, and waited, and still no castle assault. My men stayed in Bulgaria on purpose, waiting to see if they'd attack the castle, and they never did; i wound up sallying forth with my Bulgarian army and a large naval landing of mercenaries.

So to make a long story short, why wont the AI ever attack your castle ( with the exception of pesant garrisons), even if they have artillery? Has anyone ever seen them attack, or are we in the same boat? Any other wierd habits of the AI you wish to share?

 

[101rstImperial]

So to make a long story short, why wont the AI ever attack your castle ( with the exception of pesant garrisons), even if they have artillery? Has anyone ever seen them attack, or are we in the same boat? Any other wierd habits of the AI you wish to share?

I've never had a castle sieged, they always wait for the units to leave the province or come out of the castle.

As of yet, I've only lost Denmark once -When Saxony rushed my units outside of the fort.

EDIT: I've had a garrison of roughly 250 peasents, and a large German/Holy Roman army still wouldn't siiege it. No idea whats up with that, it's pretty odd.

I know in Early games though, I loathe trying to siege anything worse then a fort with infantry/calvary only.

EDIT II: I have noticed another weird occurence. One of my armies of around.. 600, with only 60 archers and everything else varying infantry, entered a Russian province on accident and I moved out of it quickly, I got noticed the next turn that there much, much larger force had retreated to its Castle. No idea why the AI keeps doing this, as my foot soldiers aren't the most impressive bunch.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

thats odd. I hate it though, when you try to chase down the AI monarch, and he just hops around your provinces causing chaos. I often have this problem when trying to corner those enormous Egyptian armies; if i can meet them on the field i will pwn them, but they just hop around and you cant do crap about it, i try to lure them into fighting a much smaller but technologically superior force, but that sometimes backfires and bye bye Janissaries
But for the most part, Janisarries can dig their way out of all but the deepest holes

Have you ever noticed that the AI gets to react to your move, but you lave to take te cards dealt to you? I wish i could move armies around in response to an invasion of a province!

 

[Dreadnought]

Yea, the AI gets a counter turn so it can repel your invasions but you don't.

 

[Rheinmetall]

I think the game AI can't handle attacking a castle. There's so much more variables involved than in normal field battle.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Well the AI does attack castles, its just only when its sure it can win. I mean, you can still defend against the AI in the Custom Battles, im just agitated at the fact that the game is designed to take advantage of the fact that it is a computer and can calculate that kind of thing ( its chances of winning a match against me). I still absolutely own at defence. If i was a general, I'd get +3 Command on Defence and +2 two Command when outnumbered at least 2 to 1

 

[Rheinmetall]

Ask yourself: Could you do better job attacking the castle than the AI? Or could you defend the castle against yourself/another human player when facing same odds.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

yes, i could. When I have the siege engines available, I lay down the law on fortifications that stand in my path, regularly taking on large armies locked inside. The fight for Constantinople is one of my favorites, it always promises to be a good hard fight. late game, when Switzerland gets a fortress so they can chuck out Swiss Pikes ( jerks), thats fun one too, since then you have gunpowder

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Not so much in MTW, but in RTW I do that in Custom Battles all the time.

 

[Dong2Long]

Anybody ever defended a large siege in-game?

Never in RTW. Normally, my armies are the ones making the sieges on the enemy, and the enemy is on the tactical defensive. I've had small siege defenses (Scipii attack, Carth attack) in early game at Syracuse, while awaiting help to arrive after taking the province from the greeks.

 

[RickFGS]

Yes, Playing Greece, i pinned Antioch with half a pack of archers and phalanx to crush all fullpackers that Egpyt was sending north.

Tips for a sucefull siege defence.

Cavalry doesnt work.
Phalanx or units with a large defense bonus are essential on walls and gates.
You must have at least 6 units of archers set on fire mode:
1st - target Siege Towers
2ns- Battering Rams
3rd- Laders

Have at least 3/4 of your best fighting man up on the walls between archers. See where the AI will prob go with siege tower, the AI lacks a bit inteligence here.

After burning down the siege towers or battering rams (the AI doesnt use much sappers or ladders...) get some fast/weaker unit outside the walls and start harassing the enemy to get him in range of your archers.

Use phalanx to stop gate incursions or wall sections destroyed by sappers/catapults/ballistas.