Castle Sieges

[Tsar Alexsandr]

I think waiting to launch your siege was still beneficial in later games. But I can't remember. More often than not I launched it sooner rather than later to get rid of the defenders quicker.... XD

Typically in MTW and STW I just waited till the enemy defenders couldn't hold it anymore. :D

[quadalpha]

Typically in MTW and STW I just waited till the enemy defenders couldn't hold it anymore. :D

Devious, waiting until your enemies were in the loo.

[antisocialmunky]

Can we pile up firewood around it and have a Ikko-BBQ?

[Prussian to the Iron]

i wnat kite bombs damnit!

"Ooh! look, they're flying kites!"
"yeah, so pretty. weird design though..."
"WHAT THE F-"
*burning city*
:P

[Tsar Alexsandr]

Devious, waiting until your enemies were in the loo.

A man just can't fight like that..... XD

[aimlesswanderer]

No, you need to use the dunny chutes to infiltrate the castle, and don't want them to be used during that time!

[Gregoshi]

Devious, waiting until your enemies were in the loo.

Brilliant!

[Togakure]

A man just can't fight like that..... XD

I remember reading of how David Lowry, a modern-day kenjutsu sensei, first became aware of kenjutsu and began his education. He was at his teacher's house and had to go to the bathroom. While sitting on the pot, his sensei came in, looked at him, told him that he wasn't sitting correctly, and showed him how to sit properly on the toilet while still maintaining zanshin. He emphasized how many great warriors of old were slain because of carelessness while bathing or relieving themselves.

[Tsar Alexsandr]

I remember reading of how David Lowry, a modern-day kenjutsu sensei, first became aware of kenjutsu and began his education. He was at his teacher's house and had to go to the bathroom. While sitting on the pot, his sensei came in, looked at him, told him that he wasn't sitting correctly, and showed him how to sit properly on the toilet while still maintaining zanshin. He emphasized how many great warriors of old were slain because of carelessness while bathing or relieving themselves.

That's pretty interesting. XD I was just joking but you have a point.

I believe Yoshitomo Minnamoto, father or Yoritomo Minnamoto and Yoshitsune Minnamoto was killed during his bath.

[rory_20_uk]

This is a game based in a historic period. I accept that thousands of soldiers dying every 6 months isn't realistic, nor would the constant recruitment drives in all provinces.

Dynasties will be risk averse as loosing is much worse than potential gains. Playing a game of "who blinks first" isn't fun. In STW I enjoyed playing with Peasant-only armies - sure the losses were horrendous, and unrealistic but amusing nevertheless.

That is not to say that sieges couldn't be made more interesting, but I still agree that pitched battles are a large part of the game. I think that game mechanics should be tweaked to increase their incidence rather than avoiding them.

[Daveybaby]

In the original STW, castles (especially in the early game) severely limited the number of troops you could fit inside them. As a result, it was often to the defender's benefit to enage the enemy in the field with a large army, rather than try to hold the castle with a handful of units against a large invading force.

It's probably not historically accurate, but it did keep sieges to a minimum IIRC.

[Karl08]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

"Shogun: Total War doesn’t include the battles that arose from siege warfare because
the long, slow business of laying siege to a castle doesn’t make a very exciting game.
Sieges are covered in the strategic game in a straightforward fashion so that you don’t
have to worry about the details. Siege warfare was often neither heroic nor dramatic.
In fact, most of the time it was a fairly squalid affair. If you want to imagine what a
siege would have been like, think the most overcrowded camping holiday you’ve ever
had or heard about, with utterly dreadful food, no toilets, no reliable fresh water,
constant bad weather, no chance to wash for weeks on end and no chance to move
somewhere more interesting. Now add in random bouts of illness (caused by the
food, bad water, bad weather, lack of hygiene and overcrowding) and random
episodes of small-scale violence when the people you are besieging try to kill you or
you try to break in and kill them.

Of course, none of the intricacies (and boredom) of siege warfare mattered on many
occasions.At Osaka in 1615, for example (and at other sieges), the troops inside the
castle left the protection of the walls to fight it out with the enemy on an open
battlefield. Sometimes this was a good move, breaking the siege in one climactic
action. At other times, such as Osaka Castle, it simply meant the defenders were cut
down outside the walls rather than being starved or slaughtered within them."

- from STW1's The Way of the Daimyo manual

You know, that's something else I liked about the original Shogun. A nice, thick, physical MANUAL. Not a mere leaflet. I think STW is the last game I bought that came in a proper box, and I really miss those.