Siege AI Ftw 1.02

[Owa]

The battle AI seems much improved since the last patch, but I ran into an issue with the AI sieging me, perhaps others have as well.

I have Jerusalem as England, 3 full Mongolian armies are assaulting the walls. Only one of the armies builds any siege engines. I manage to destroy all their battering rams, but at least one siege tower reaches the wall. My armored swordsmen easily defeat the Mongolian foot archers and repel them from the wall. The assaulting army retreats out of tower arrow range and sits there. The other two armies, have not moved the entire fight. There's still a siege tower on my wall that they could attempt to use, but they don't move. I take my army outside the walls, with my catapults and pelt the assaulting army until it's obliterated. The other two armies still don't move. I go to one of the armies and spend the next 15 mins trying to kill their units with pults. They move their archers up, but do nothing other than fire arrows. This exact same scenario happens to me 3 times, where they fail to take the walls with a siege tower and I have to wait 30 mins for the timer to run out.

In the one case where the battering ram actually punches through the wall however, the other armies react and charge through the gates and I lose Jerusalem - woo finally (this is desired behavior, not a complaint).

I'm playing on med/med. Anyone else notice this behavior?

As a side note, what English army configuration beats a Mongolian horde army in the field where there are no walls?

[Brutal DLX]

Yes, the siege AI is still horrible at times, no doubt. Just wait how inept the Timurids are at sieging unless they have bombards.
As for the English army setup... I would say your best bet is massive longbows along with a solid line of spears to protect them, some billmen and DEK in the back line to support any melee and a couple of heavy knights to try to either charge their foot archers or to keep in reserve until the melee for charging them in from behind, especially trying to take our their general.

[Foz]

Longbows (note I include Yeomen and Retinues in that term) are good for that, especially if you are fighting defensively. The stakes buy you a lot of time, and give you a more clear idea of where the enemy cavalry will end up since they generally try to avoid the stakes. That in turn makes it much easier to stack up forces to defend the flanks of the stake wall... and of course your archers will go crazy shredding the cavalry as it runs along the wall trying to get to the edges. That's probably the best thing you can do since your heavies lack the mobility to threaten HAs at all, and your spears do not have stats good enough to be very effective against really high quality cavalry. So I would just try to block up everything on some heavy armor (and/or the best spears you've got) that cap the ends of the stake wall and hope that your archers tear the enemy to pieces before your men break. The lack of good spears or pikes can make fighting the mostly-cav Mongol armies dicey for England though...

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Field army:
1 general (BG)
6 Heavy cavalry (Hospitaller knights/English Knights) (HC)
6 Armored swords (AS)
7 Yeoman/Retinue (LB)

You can also use 5 AS, 5 HC and 9 LB.
Make sure that you have upgraded your units (armor/swordsmith guild)

Tactics:

General deployment.
Preferably on top of a hill in the corner of the battle map. The smallest level of elevation can give you the advantage you need. If you leave a small gap between your battle line and the red line it will be harder for the Mongols to flank you.

Deploy archers in a line (if you defend a corner) or a halve stretched circle (if you defend a hill in the center of the map. Deploy stakes. You can leave small gaps between the row of stakes. The width should be smaller/lesser than a cavalry charge with halve a unit (Mongols keep charging with depleted units). The best position of the stakes is half way down a hill. Your AS should be between 50 or 100 meters behind the stakes on top of the hill. Deploy the general behind the AS in the center of the battle line. The cavalry will guard the rear and the flanks. Once the battle begins retreat the archers to a position just in front of your battle line. Skirmish mode off and fire at will on.

The battle.

Usually the Mongols will attack you with two stacks. Most of the time it is possible to take out one stack after the other. The most dangerous units are the heavy lancers. The least dangerous is the infantry. The Mongols will always attack you. They start with their HAs and close in with the infantry. At one point they will charge with the heavy cav. If they manage to flank / charge through a cap let them attack your archers and counter attack with the AS. Because of the distance between your archers and t he stakes the chance is great that the HAs will either try to flank or die at the stakes. Preserve the ammo of your archers. If you are lucky you can charge their infantry with your HC. Once one stack is destroyed regroup and wait for the other.

Some tips
Yeoman/retinue can defend themselves.
Armored swords can receive a charge and counter charge. don't deploy them wide. You will lose some to arrows but they will be more dangerous for the Mongols.
Your heavy cavalry's main purpose is to destroy / take out the Mongol infantry.
Your main weapon against the Mongol heavy cavalry and the Mongol general are the stakes.

Good hunting:charge: