Noob Question About Defense of a Besieged City

[BlindWatchmaker]

Still fairly new to the game and coming up against a surprise aggressor who has besiged my capital with a hefty stack of units, including a few catapults that are steadily breaking down my city's defenses, though my units inside (mostly longbows) remain unaffected by collateral damage while the walls hold.

What is the best counter strategy in this case? Because of the terrain and defensive bonuses, it is fairly useless for any of my units to leave the city and attempt to take down the stack. But if I just stay in my city and play defense, won't the cats just keep lobbing in from the next tile, causing collateral damage until my stack is dead (with no damage to the enemy units because they have not attacked)?

I've tried to counter with my own cats, but I can't seem to bombard the adjacent tile - just attack, which does cause collateral damage to the stack, but is still a suicide mission for the cat. I also can't seem to attack a particular unit in the enemy stack. How can you utilize attack/defensive advantages (eg spearmen against mounts) if the game picks which units in a stack will fight? Or do these advantages always go to the defender?

Am I missing a key defensive strategy? Or do I have to bite the bullet and send some units out to get killed?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[Continental Op]

Well, horses with flanking are best against catapults, but if you have against you a monster stack with many kinds of opponents, just build catapults and sacrifice them. Keep those horses and other units ready though - when you have weakened your opponent enough, you can send them. Don't be afraid to sacrifice siege units - that's what their meant for.

 

[SirBackflip]

I have to agree, i remeber GK brining a stack of keshiks and cats to me. my only saviour was slavery and spamming siege weapons, till they were broken down and i could use my fresh horse archers to mop up. horse archers not being ideal, but i hadn't intended on waring early.

 

[BlindWatchmaker]

Great, thanks for the quick info!

So how is the combat order of a stack determined? Is there anything I can throw at this stack in order to root out the catapults? Or will they always be protected?

The Ottomans will have some hell to pay when I get home tonight!

 

[Continental Op]

The best defender always defends the stack, so catapults usually are in a pretty good place. I don't think there is much more to do except soften the stack with your own siege units.

 

[Ghpstage]

Mounted units can indirectly attack the siege, when they survive attacking enemies they perform a flank attack on siege units of they're era and before.
For you horse archers would be what you need, promote them with the flanking line and send them into battle, if they win or withdraw they will damage the catapults for you.

 

[Willem]

...if they win or withdraw they will damage the catapults for you.

I don't believe they'll do any damage to the Cats if they win, they must retreat in order to do that.

 

[6K Man]

One trick I have tried is Flanking II HAs and Catapults. The HAs have a 50% chance of surviving at least, plus if they do win, they gradually flank the enemy seige to pieces.

 

[Scoottr]

But be sure to use all your cats in the same turn and then attack with your troops that same turn or the stack will start healing itself and it ends up being a waste. Especially if the stack has a medic in it.

 

[UWHabs]

Also looks like you're getting confused between bombard and collateral. Their cats will continue to wear down walls and cultural defenses with the bombard function, but units inside are never damaged. Cats (and other siege) don't deal collateral damage unless if they attack.

 

[Willem]

But be sure to use all your cats in the same turn and then attack with your troops that same turn or the stack will start healing itself and it ends up being a waste. Especially if the stack has a medic in it.

Yes, but quite often the AI won't attack with wounded units. It will pull them back to it's own borders so they can heal. So even just wounding them can help you out. I've had plenty of games where a civ has called off an attack on one of my cities because it no longer had any damage free units and pulled the whole stack back. If you don't have a lot of units in order to wage a counter-attack, it may be worth the gamble just damaging them instead.

 

[UWHabs]

Plus if they're on a good defensive tile, when retreating, they often go over crap tiles, so you can pick them off then.

 

[sabo]

Yep, I make sure I have some siege weapons peppered throughout my land with collateral damage upgrades, then after the first SOD attack they have some damaged units I bring in my siege weapons with fresh calvary or knights and attack HIM. You will very effectively kill his SOD off, or at the very least you will hurt him enough so he can't attack you anymore, not only that but the AI is too stupid to retreat to safer grounds

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I don't believe they'll do any damage to the Cats if they win, they must retreat in order to do that.

HAs damage cats based on the damage they do to the target (assuming they survive). Killing the target is IDEAL for withdraws.

Beating a large stack while on defense is easiest via siege + something to clean up, and mounted is frequently best due to its high base str and countering of the one type in the invasion stack that is immune to collateral from siege.

 

[BlindWatchmaker]

Thanks for all the great tips and "Flanking 101."

Also looks like you're getting confused between bombard and collateral. Their cats will continue to wear down walls and cultural defenses with the bombard function, but units inside are never damaged. Cats (and other siege) don't deal collateral damage unless if they attack.

You are correct, I am confused! But this is great news, and now makes much more sense. As I was understanding it (incorrectly) the cats could just keep hitting my city and kill my units without actually attacking. But since the other units will have to rush in to attack anyway, I may stay inside an enjoy whatever defensive bonuses I still have left.

Which brings me to another question: how and when does a city regenerate its defensive bonuses (walls, cultural, etc)? Do they grow back over turns, or will I have to rebuild some things?