Castle Deffence

[Legorreto]

I am calling all experts on the subject to give tips and suggestions of how to defend castles along the game. Like which units are best, what should and should not do during a defence and so.

I know there would be many circumstances which we may be looking for, like factions, eras and units, but I am interested in hearing different tips from all of those who can provide help to beginers like me.

Thanks in advanced

[Ciaran]

There´s not much to say about that, because there is not much to do.
You´ll have to make do with the troops in the castle and the AI will seldom attack your castle if it´s well stocked with troops.
About the only thing you can do is plugging any holes in the wall with your units, to keep the towers firing. Morale isn´t that important for a defender, because there´s nowhere to run to and the attacker has to kill all of the defenders anyways.
A big "don´t" are siege engines - you may run in the danger of shooting down your own walls and towers, the AI tends to do that as well.

[Geezer57]

Try to have a small garrison of good defensive troops, preferably with a disposable General with some command stars. If the AI figures you'll starve in just a few years, it won't assault at all - it'll just wait you out in siege.

A few good men in a great big fortification (best with all the add-ons) will do the most killing of the enemy. The longer you can make it last for each "ring" of fortifications, the more damage you will do. Do enough damage, you might even win the battle!

[Patron]

Usually after an unsuccesful battle you have 1 or 2 units with very few people in them. Send them out to harass troops marching to the gate so more of them get killed before they reach it or try and destroy artillery with them.

Everyone in a siege gets killed, so if you want to save your prince or a good general, it is a good idea to deploy him outside the wall then set him to flee once he is pinned against the wall by enemy units. You can then ransom him back. Otherwise always put 1 unit in the ring wall around the keep and the rest of your army guarding the first gate so more of the enemy get arrowed and have boiling tar poured on them. You will have to decide whether to put your general at the first gate or next to the keep.

[Vladimir]

If you have a one man general unit pair him up with your best defensive unit and guard the inner keep. This will encourage the enemy to attack because the troop ratio will most likely be in his favor and you'll take a while to starve out. If you're expecting the horde put a one man general unit and as many of your best defensive units you can into the fort and defend the outer wall. You might want to keep a horsey or two just in case they surprise you with a catapult or something. If you have mostly spears I would recommend standing directly against the gate. If you have sword/axe units I recommend a V-formation. If you have armored almunghavars (or another heavy javelin unit) a gauntlet style defense may be fun. Line up your swordsmen on the sides and face your spear chuckers towards the gate allowing for a decent kill zone. There's so many ways to take out the initial horde assault that I'll let you figure it out.

[The Darkhorn]

These are great fun. A couple of halberdiers or some tough anti-armor troops will really have a go at the Horde. I like to use a unit of Halberdiers, a unit of Huscarles, and a Brigand. Defend every gate with something. BTW, try to get a citadel and babrican in Khazar in time. They always assualt it. The babrican blows them away while they are attacking. The brigand is for a little shooting up of the eventual HA mob that comes, stands there and shoots at your guys guarding the gate. I also include 3-4 Catapults if I can. These shoot everything they have at mobs of troops outside the gate (but not the ones at the gate or they'll hit the gate). I've once seen the catapults wreak havoc and almost break up the first wave entirely. It's loads of fun. You will lose eventually, but you will kill anywhere from 3-6K of them before your last man dies.

[antisocialmunky]

Arrow proof units like habs and a buttload of archers. The whole point of a static defense is to keep the enemy in a place of your choosing and kill him from afar.

[lugh]

I never have much luck with defending keeps and forts, the defences just aren't suficient to offset any numerical disadvantage.
For castles and above, I garisson with a single unit of foot knights, a good unit of archers (Longbow, brigands, vanilla if you have to) and gunpowder artillery if you have any, a serpentine or two or a volley gun maybe.
I've held out in sieges like that against massive armies, because casualties get too high for the AI to bother with, unless their really determined.

[sprucemoose]

i find a couple of sword units with a spear unit to plug gaps and a couple of archer units works for me,i like to build up a good castle on your front line,put 2x archers 2x man at arms and 1x spear unit and sometimes a mounted unit for a devestating charge or for the runners,just pull em back when they get just outside the walls and draw the enemy into attack.i also place a big army in a province nearby just in case.