Cavalry based armies in Siege Assaults.

[x-dANGEr]

I don't know about you, but I think Cavalry based armies are just rubbish in Siege assaults, both defence and attacks.
Currently with my Saissaidn campagin, I can never win an assault, why? Simply, because one Plumptarii can kill 3 Levy Spearmen, which developes a huge challenge to me. My cav is supposed to outcast the Romans', though it doesn't. Those Romans has same cav as me and still very stronger infantry. Last time I got assaulted, my enemy had 2 ladders, 1 siege tower, and 1 Ram. I focused my 3 desert archers units on the Siege Tower with 'Fire Arrows' ability on and it was also attacked by 1 of the towers, hoping to burn it. Though, it easily managed to get to my wall, deploy 2 units, and didn't even get 1% damage. Those 2 units were fought by 2 Levy Spearmen, of course, the spearmen didn't hold for 2 mins. On the other 2 places, where each ladder depoys I had 2 Spearmen units ready to fight, and somehow, those coming out of the ladder managed to give me units a hard beating. My strong cav, which lies beneath, stood their with nothing to do. So any suggestions about how to handle assaults in such factions?? (I think this applies to Parthia, Scythia in R: TW)

[The Stranger]

use your generals, youve got the strongest unit in the game and yur still whining

and if you know that theyre rubbish why try...just wait for the enemy to starve or sally...OR USE YOUR GENERAL if you use them well you could just win with one general and one levy unit to open the gates

[x-dANGEr]

Hmm.. You got me wrong..

I can't put my general on my walls for god sake!! Can you not read? And Surely, my general won't kill even 2 Equites Cilbinarii alone on VeryHard Diff/VeryHard Diff.

I just had another battle, my 8 levies who were sitting on a hill routed on first contact when fighting with 2 first cohorts.. (And yes, I used my generals and flanked them 3 or 4 times)
I'm starting to think this Very Hard Diff battle bonus for the A.I. is too unfair.

[antisocialmunky]

Um, you get the same battle bonuses on all difficulty levels.

[TB666]

Um, you get the same battle bonuses on all difficulty levels.
I thought that was fixed with 1.3 :san_huh: and according to my exprience it has indeed been fixed.

[Zatoichi]

I find the best way when defending using poorer quality troops is to abandon the walls altogether, and just defend the city squares. Not only is the enemy tired by the time they reach you, but they've also suffered attrition from the wall arrows. You also get a serious morale bonus defending the town square, so your troops will fight longer - this gives you time to manoeuvre your cavalry around the back of the invaders to catch them in ambushes or just get them in a pincer.

Admittedly, this is possibly a slightly cheesy tactic, but it's classic urban geurilla warfare (apparently).

[professorspatula]

If your infantry is far inferior to the enemy, there's little point trying to defend the walls. Stick your archers on the wall, and just sacrifice a unit or two of infantry to shield them from any enemies that may climb the walls. Most of your infantry should guard the streets. Your archers can attempt to burn siege towers, but I've found it much harder to do that than previously. It's best to have them use normal arrows on the enemy infantry first, and if you do attempt to burn the tower with their arrows, wait until the tower is at the wall. I found in the past that's the easiest time to set towers on fire, but since BI, I've had limited success. Get your archers off the wall when it looks like the enemy infantry will overrun the walls and have them take cover in the streets. Often archers are more deadly firing up at enemy attackers on the walls.

If you have good cavalry, you can set up killing zones in the streets. A unit of spearmen in guard mode will temporarily halt an enemy charge, and you can manoeuvre your cavalry to strike the enemy units from behind. A bit like in the picture below. Luring the tired enemy into killing zones is a great way to turn battles around.

https://img276.imageshack.us/img276/526/siegetactics6au.th.jpg (https://img276.imageshack.us/my.php?image=siegetactics6au.jpg)

Sometimes you need to do a bit more manoeuvring before the enemy falls for your trap, but it's a good tactic to employ.

If things look bleak, pull every unit back to the town square. They can't rout in the square, so will fight to the death whilst the enemy wilts and hopefully runs.

If you have lots of cavalry, sometimes it's worthwhile sending them out the side gates to tackle enemy units still trying to access siege equipment.

[x-dANGEr]

Hmm.. Now that's what am talking about. Thanks for the help everyone. Things are much easier in open battles hehe :)