Gee, ain't the AI a funny thing...

[A Nerd]

I the AI did something funny against me while sieging one of my cities and I wanted to share. I had a small army in one of my cities, just north of Sophia and was sieged by a full stack Hungarian Army. He had some militia spears, a few archers and alot of horse archers. I had a few spears, italian militia and armored seargeants, two heavies and two mailed knights, about 1/2 stack. Oh, and the AI had 2 units of catapults. He also had one siege tower, one ladder and 2 rams. I thought he would knock down some of the walls and all the arrow towers and rush the gaps like he always does in sieges, I would plug the gaps and deal with his spears with my heavies and his calvary with my spears and win rather easily. Well, this isn't what happened. As predicted, he made a few holes and knocked out the arrow towers, but instead of rushing the gaps, he moved to ram down the gate and climb what was left of the walls. While doing this, he was hitting my army with arrows from his horse archers. I had no choice but to rush him and try to win that way. Well, I inflicted some casualtties but still lost my entire army. I don't know if the AI was being smart or stupid in his choice of attack. If he had assaulted as he always had, I think I could have won. But I was forced to leave the city and fight in the open where my army was outclassed by his. I was dumbfounded (impressed) with his tactic. I guess I could have retreated to the city center and tried to defend there but it didn't occur to me until after I had lost. Now I must reassess my plans to destroy Hungray because he has a half stack in that city and is building up troops in the other two cities north of it which he still holds. I must say this campagin is quite fun thus far. On an aside, I had to sally out of Sophia to attack a full stack of the Byz who opted to starve me out insted of siege and almost lost that one too! I'm not a very good general but these two instances in my current Venice campaign I thought were worth mentioning.

[Tabuu]

Wow. Very interesting. Yes the AI can be unpredictable at times. Happened to me once while playing as the Russians.

[A Nerd]

I remember this one time, I was playing as France and the AI was England. Both armies were relatively small. Mine was 4 units of spears and 2 calvary, his was 5 units of spears 1 archer and 1 calvary. I used my tried and true method of sending my two calvaries to his far left and right flanks to hit his archers as they withdrew to the rear and perhaps the calvary that usually stayed with them as the infantries engaged, then when the archers and calvary had been dealt with flank his infantry. I know this might be somewhat of a lame tactic but it always works against the AI. :D Anyway, as I sent the calvary up the left flank I panned over elsewere to do something else and he had a unit of spears hidden there that I didn't expect to find there! Very STWesque in my opinion. I lost that calvary unit but still won. It was a great battle early in the campaign!

[Cute Wolf]

did you install XAI? you should expect that then... smarter AI

[A Nerd]

did you install XAI? you should expect that then... smarter AI

I would only install this if I wanted to become frustrated and never play again because I could no longer win any battles! :)

[Cute Wolf]

I would only install this if I wanted to become frustrated and never play again because I could no longer win any battles! :)

*facepalm*

[A Nerd]

*facepalm*

What I would do when an AI most people can compete with routs me for the millionth time! :/ (I'm a lousy general!)

[smooth_operator]

actually, that's my tactic when besieging a tough settlement...I make it a point to punch holes on the defenses as many as i can...continuous bombarding does the trick(at least for me) and a heavy all-out assault follows...is it a lousy strategy?

[A Nerd]

actually, that's my tactic when besieging a tough settlement...I make it a point to punch holes on the defenses as many as i can...continuous bombarding does the trick(at least for me) and a heavy all-out assault follows...is it a lousy strategy?

That's the strategy I use as well. But once you have knocked several holes in the wall, instead of rushing them, attempt to knock down the gate (line up your army like you will rush only the gate) and take what was left of the walls? I would have let the AI do this if it wasn't for his horse archers!

[smooth_operator]

That's the strategy I use as well. But once you have knocked several holes in the wall, instead of rushing them, attempt to knock down the gate (line up your army like you will rush only the gate) and take what was left of the walls? I would have let the AI do this if it wasn't for his horse archers!

and if the settlement is a citadel? what do you do? as for me, i let my culverins(basilisks are better) do the work of punching the walls...i don't put my ram into action yet. once the arrow/ballista towers are down, i then shoot the gates with my cannons conserving my men from obvious arrow fire. i then line up my ladders in a straight vertical behind my ram and once my other troops succeed in routing the enemies into their second wall, i then march my ram and ladders into the city. the ladders will then scale the second wall with some supporting artillery(if within range). my ram batters the second gate and fight rages on. once i reach the third gate, i man the ram again and poof...game over. :)

[A Nerd]

That is a great tactic. I underestimate seige artillary. I usually go for the rush of ladders and rams, and suffer the inevitable casualties. I do move the rams and ladders from one wall to the next, but if there is a large garrison, you will eventually be outnumbered fighting fresher troops. Also, you have to fear your rams being set alight which would hinder a more effective movement thru the inwalls. Use fodder for the ram teams, shock troops to take the walls and spears and calvary in the gaps/gates to counter calvery and like spears or shock troops. There is always the possibility that your seige artillary will still have ammunition as well to batter somewhat the inner wall like the outer ones. This is my tactic, though it has occassionally failed me in the past. More often than not, if the castle is a fortress or larger and the garrison is huge, I opt to autoresolve, but not always! ;)

[smooth_operator]

if you have trebuchets on the other hand, again, never underestimate...they can be a GREAT GREAT GREAT help when there is a heavy heated battle inside the walls...remember the Rotting Carcass ability? :P poor accuracy though

[A Nerd]

The rotting carcass ability is good, but it demoralizes your own troops as well if they are in the vicinity of the diseased animal. Catapults take less time to tech up to so I am usually content with them. By the time cannon are available, trebuchets are obsolete. A flaming projectile is way better than a dead cow in my opinion! Provides a nice ambiance! ;)

[smooth_operator]

less stench too...
but you run the risk too of making a venetian knight barbecue...

[A Nerd]

True. But I would rather have a few friendly fire dead knights than a whole armie of insecure ones! By the way, a sweaty knight is far smellier than the cow carcass! ;)

[smooth_operator]

my siege abilities are quite commendable(not the best) as an attacker especially...but my defending abilities are rather poor... :(

[A Nerd]

I find defending easier and more fun. I wiped out several stacks of the mongol horde defending one castle once during a French campaign of mine. Usually, the AI will knock down the gate and try to take the walls with 2-4 ladders/towers. Some heavies on the walls and the rest of your army near the gate and the AI is toast! If he has seige equipment, he will knock out all the towers and make mabey 2-3 holes in the wall and will usually only rush 1-2 of them. That is of course if he doesn't do what I mentioned in the opening post. The AI doesn't siege well, he may have won as mentioned in the opening post, but still a strange way of doing it.