Castle Garrisons for MTW

[Ledge]

Just wondered what sort of castle garrisons other players use for provinces likely to be attacked by the AI. Yes I know it tends to happen rarely if at all but I've been trying out different strategies for a while.

In my current French hard/early campaign I own the western area and the resurgent Byzantines the east with a few scraps left in between. Well the Byzantines have some pretty huge armies with lots of Varangian Guards left (the year being 1305!) and 9* natural leaders. However, I control the seas and thus can pick and choose where to attack. As such I sent out moderate sized forces to draw off the Byz armies and raid his best provinces. Thus a moderate sized force was able to seize Serbia and capture the castle. By this time most of the Byz armies were north of the Black Sea so I headed for Constantinople taking Bulgaria and Greece on the way. However, I lacked sufficient forces to secure all the new territory so I left small garrisons in the Citadels after trashing the troop building and economic resources. Eventually I ended up with a large force in Constantinople and garrisons in Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Nicaea. They each comprised a Chilvaric sergeant and two units of halberdiers, tho I should have used two CMAAs in place of the fancy spearmen. They had supplies for about three years which gave me a chance of relieving them. after a few years the Byz had a crack at the Bulgarian Citadel. Out of curiousity I held off sending in a relieving force and waited to see if the AI would assault. The next year he tried with an unbalanced force heavy on missile troops but led by one of his 9* Jedi. 100 Slav warriors and 40 Byz Lancers perished forcing the gate and then Byz lancers stormed through. 50 Chiv Sergeants faced them with Halberdiers poised to take them in flank and routed them. He then thew in some Spearmen which were routed as well followed by his Kataphract General at full strength. Well he minced up the halberdiers forcing me to send in my reserve halb unit and eventually I got the 9* hero and his forces legged it.

All in all casualties caused by fighting units were roughly equal but the castle defences, inclduing demi-culverin towers, added on another couple of hundred. Not bad for a 2* general leading a hadful of halbs and Chiv spearmen! He even got a good assault defender bonus which I've never seen on any general, AI or player, before.

Any other views on good units for castle sieges? CMAAs would seem useful for general fighting capability and morale alongside halbs for anti-armour/cavalry roles. Missile units don't seem necessary with the inherent castle defences. I was gonna use CK's but I had lost quite a few in combat and you don't get an option to eat their horses!

[CrossLOPER]

Chivs...

It all depends. If the province is deep in your territory, there's no need to worry all that much and you can have a few militia units to stand guard. However, more sensitive areas need a minimum of four or five units. Usually a ranged unit, a couple of foot units and a cavalry unit will do well, but there is no need to follow this model precisely. It's best to have a few good, strong, regional armies anyway.

[Martok]

CrossLOPER pretty much has the right of it: it all depends.

For garrison duties in the more secure interior provinces, a militia unit or two will usually suffice. If you're looking to garrison a border province that can both withstand a protracted siege AND repel a castle assault, then the best setup is usually a combination of CMAA's, Halbs, and/or Chivalric Foot Knights. Which precise combination of units you use depends, however: on cost, availability, and the size of the castle you're garrisoning. (Citadels & Fortresses can house 3-4 units without starving immediately; but Forts & Keeps can only hold 1 or maybe 2 units for any length of time.) In the end, you just have experiment a bit and see which combination works best for you!

Oh, and in case I didn't say so before, welcome to the Org Ledge. ~:wave:

[Digital]

My garrison usually consists of 1 spearman(Chivalric Sergeant), one swordman(Chivalric men-at-arms), and one armour piercing(usually axeman, or best if it is also good against horses, example Jannisay Heavy Infantry, billmen, halbadier, etc). Usually the computer send spearman to assault your castle so swordman is a must. Spearman can hold back horses while the armour piercing flank and cut the horses to pieces.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Everything has been said, except that keeping a depleted high valor heavy cavalry unit as a general may also help. In such situations lonely horsemen tend to turn into jedis, especially if they have a virtue such as great warrior, killer instinct, pride, etc. It happens all the time for the AI, and it has happened to me once on expert. If the AI has too many units, then the time limit will be extended and finally, your few infantry units will eventually get depleted and tired, and subsequently destroyed. In that case a lonely Jedi who holds off seemingly forever may be your only chance of getting to the end of the time limit.
Such cavalrymen are perhaps the only garrison worth it maintaining when expoecting a siege in a keep. Otherwise the keep will probably only hold out for two years at the maximum even with 60 or so men inside. That assumes of course that you can only keep several men in a province without causing a rebellion. I do not think maintaining a garrison for the purpose of a siege in a fort is worth it - forts for a year at the maximum with anything more than 20 men inside and besides, if the AI storms it, it can simply break through the wall quite quickly, and there is no pitch and very few arrows causing damage to its units.

[Ciaran]

Castle garrisons? Whatever for? You need a defense army in provinces that share a border with other factions. Either you win the field battle, then you don´t need a castle garrison, or you lose it, then whatever is left of your army retreats to the castle anyways, either to be starved out or (hopefully) relieved.

[CountMRVHS]

Hence the tiny number of castle assaults most players see in MTW.

It can be fun to goad the AI into assulting by leaving your province with a tiny but seigeworthy garrison. If the siege will last 3 or more years, usually the AI will assault, and when they do you can inflict massive losses on them if you're prepared for it. This can also be a way of defending a border province more cheaply than by having a full-stack defensive army -- useful if you're playing a small faction. Retreat to the castle, fight off the assault, and then counterattack their depleted force with reinforcements the following year to drive them out of your province for good. Although I wouldn't recommend this tactic with anything less than a castle, preferably with ring wall (but no catapult towers -- they tend to wreck your own walls). After building a keep, my next build is usually the curtain wall, which adds a layer of stone wall rather than flimsy wood that the AI can just hack down.

I *do* wish there was another option before a defensive battle wherein you could choose to withdraw everyone *except* those forces sitting in the castle. That way you could leave a suitable garrison in every castle and not worry about having a larger force outside the castle in the same province.

[Ledge]

After quite a bit more playing castle seiges seem to be a nice tool in the strategic armoury. Fighting lots of big battles against 9* Byz generals with lots of Varangian Guards and armoured cavaly was sapping my military strength and preventing me advancing quickly. With strong castle garrisons I could dictate the strategic position and maintain strong, mobile field armies not tied down in province defending. Tying up large Byz armies in seige operations meant I could take the offensive elsewhere before coming back to the rescue. It also drew the Byzantines away from my advance up through the Middle East taking his richest provinces on the way to joining my field armies in Asia Minor.
At a minimum I used a keep with outer walls which would hold out for 2-3 years with my preferred scale of garrison. Obviously such garrisons need to be lean and mean with high stats. As such I ended up using 1 Chivalric Sergeant, 1 CMAA and 2 halberdiers in each garrison which proved effective in chopping up the Byz armoured units. I relied on the castle defenders for missile firepower though I did use an Organ Gun occassionally for a nice demoralising blast! Furthermore I didn't use any cavalry or high ranking generals as they were more use in the field armies. All in all a nice little change to my usual tactics the only problem being castle seiges, whether as defender or attacker, tend to be a little on the dull side!

[Kavhan Isbul]

I agree that a full cavalry unit is more useful in other battles, but I always find myself having depleted units of early royal knights/ghulams that I cannot retrain in High, and then in late I have the same problem with the high royal knights and any early ones that remain. If I use a general with only a few men, he is completely inefficient in a battle, taking the place of a full unit. Also, if his participation is limited or none in a few battles in a row, which tends to happen when he is the only cavalrymen left of the whole unit, then he gets a vice that decreases morale which tends to negate the bonus from the stars. In a few instances such lonely generals have been quite useful in castle defenses, but I am sure they are not really needed in most cases.

[caravel]

Decent siege defenses are rare in my experience as the AI will often wait 2 years for your garrisson to starve rather than assault. If you are defending with a small garrisson it will buy you considerably more time, but the AI is more likely to assault and easily defeat your undersized force. I prefer to use Chivalric Foot Knights and Chivalric Sergeants to defend. The CS I use as gap pluggers and the CFK's as flankers/anti-cav. Some arbs/crossbows can be useful as well positioned behind the gatehouse shooting through at the enemy. As the Muslim factions I send to go Saracen and missile heavy with some Ghazis.

[Duke Malcolm]

I don't like Castle Garrisons. From time to time I end up with a pile of spearmen or something a little better as I wait for new troops to become available, but these generally Join the Crusade to Fight the Good Fight...