Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
I am fighting in Bactria and have besieged one of their towns with 5 Persian archer-spearmen - there were only 2 of their units in the town and I had cut off the town with my main armies. Lo and behold and a relief army emerges out of India and is only a turn away from relieving the town. I have no way of getting reinforcements to the besiegers before they are attacked.
Inside the town there is a stack of medium spearmen and also a Bactrian FM. Is there anyway that I could win this fight? I have enough battering rams to knock open the gates but I just can't see how I could defeat the defenders. I am playing on the usual M/VH setting. Any thoughts?
I think you could do it..... by using auto_win attacker.
But thats cheating. Give it your best shot is my advice. SWARM the FM, same for the spearman. Seperate and destroy. If its a proper walled city, circle the city with your men on the walls and you can kill the enemy without taking any casualties of your own.
Otherwise, pray.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cbvani
Otherwise, pray.
Bah, religious nonsense... are you going to sit there and hope for something, or get up off your ass and make it happen?
Just keep them swarmed from all areas. If they attack one of your units before it can get into position, put it on Guard Mode as this will conserve your own stamina while depleting theirs.
Re: Can this fight be won?
If the town only has a palisade or wooden wall, you can just mass your archers along the wall (but out of range of the towers). There is a good chance that the AI will run his spearmen around like complete idiots, so you can pour a ton of arrows into their backs. If that's not an option, try setting a trap. Use one unit of archers in a detached position on the opposite side of the spearmen. Then, bait the enemy infantry by shooting at them with the detached unit. They'll take the bait and you can then shoot them in their backs with your other archers. This will devastate them. Kill the FM by swarming.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
...there were only 2 of their units in the town and I had cut off the town with my main armies. ....
Inside the town there is a stack of medium spearmen and also a Bactrian FM.
I'm confused. How many enemy units are there inside the town?
Re: Can this fight be won?
What I understood: Two, one FM, one med. SPearmen.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Are the medium spearmen just spearmen or a phalanx unit? Then again if you follow Cullhwch's advice (which I recommend since I do that myself all the time) it won't really matter.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Any fight can be won! you just dont need to have your army survive. A Pyhrric victory for him, is as much a victory for you.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
I am fighting in Bactria and have besieged one of their towns with 5 Persian archer-spearmen - there were only 2 of their units in the town and I had cut off the town with my main armies. Lo and behold and a relief army emerges out of India and is only a turn away from relieving the town. I have no way of getting reinforcements to the besiegers before they are attacked.
Inside the town there is a stack of medium spearmen and also a Bactrian FM. Is there anyway that I could win this fight? I have enough battering rams to knock open the gates but I just can't see how I could defeat the defenders. I am playing on the usual M/VH setting. Any thoughts?
You don't have to fight. Cancel the siege and besiege it again. Just keep them there until every of enemy soldiers are starved to death and open the door :yes:
Re: Can this fight be won?
Uhh, AqD, the Bactrian relief army may disagree with that plan.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Go for it what a hell!
(although with VH battle difficutly, those Bodyguards will be mighty strong)
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ziegenpeter
What I understood: Two, one FM, one med. SPearmen.
Bactrian FM are heavy cavalry. I think that 5 Persian archer-spearmen can easily beat one cavalry FM and one medium spearmen (either phalanx or Thureophoroi). Just follow Cullhwch's plan.
However one medium spearman can hardly be described as a stack...
@NeoSpartan: I believe that by "the usual M/VH setting" he means medium battle/very hard campaign difficulty.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Cullhwch
Uhh, AqD, the Bactrian relief army may disagree with that plan.
um i thought it's one turn before the besieged army has to break out :dizzy2:
Well, I'd keep siege. Just withdraw on battlefield after running of ammo, or beat one or two exhausted units. And besiege it the next turn - repeat this again and again until they're all dead. If the OP doesn't mind this boring process :laugh4:
PS: IMO the destruction of that relief army is far more important than to get one nearly-ungarrisoned city. Never keep any enemy alive in your back :yes:
Re: Can this fight be won?
Just to clarify - I am on medium for battle difficulty and very hard for campaign difficulty.
Also I do not have time to waste - a relief army is less than a turn away and unless I take the city I will be wiped out (if I manage to take the city the relief army will be cut off, deep in enemy territory and not a single one of them will survive the march back to their homeland).
I have had problems with FM from this part of the map before (their heavy armour made them very difficult to deal with). I am going to go for it this weekend and will report back on my victory (or humiliating defeat).
Re: Can this fight be won?
Just go for the town. Attack from different directions. Since you have 5 units including missile units - and enemy 2, make those 2 enemy units engage your 2 units in melee with support of your general to boost morale, and then at the same time make rest 2 missile units of yours shoot enemy from behind while they are engaged. Heavy infantry and cavalry shot from behind die very easy this way even on VH level, and you are playing M ;)
This battle is easy, so go and get the town :) It's yours for the takeing ;) If everything done properly - you should about 20 percent of your army, or even less ;)
Re: Can this fight be won?
Spears. Cavalry. Don't go together.
As Sagittarius said, keep 2 (I would personally go for 3) on the enemy. GET THE TOWERS FIRST! You WILL take a beating if they are stone. The towers can fire back into the settlement on to your troops. If the wall is wood, ignore what I just said. Now the walls are yours, engage the enemy and outflank him. Attack the cavalry from the back! Your archers should bombard the enemy, and then when they run out of arrows they should charge into the melee. Done properly, (I have done this and it worked) you should have about 34 troops left. Ouch.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Timoleon
....
@NeoSpartan: I believe that by "the usual M/VH setting" he means medium battle/very hard campaign difficulty.
in that case then that fight is defenitely winnable.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Never ram a stone wall. Use ladders, as they won't have many defenders, and they aren't vulnerable to flaming arrows from the towers.
Re: Can this fight be won?
As it happened the entire thing turned out to be a farce due to the AI’s stupidity. I entered the town and then peppered the enemy in the town centre (turned out that the spearmen were of the Indo-Hellenic variety). The AI then charged both its units including its 60 strong FM unit at one of my archer-spearmen. Both units were quickly surrounded (the AI effectively boxed both their units in between a corridor of buildings). Whilst this fight was going on the clock counted down to 0 and the town was mine.
The FM escaped the town (he was actually the FL), joined up with the relief army and has now formed a massive army that is heading north through India to relieve another of their towns that I am besieging.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
As it happened the entire thing turned out to be a farce due to the AI’s stupidity. I entered the town and then peppered the enemy in the town centre (turned out that the spearmen were of the Indo-Hellenic variety). The AI then charged both its units including its 60 strong FM unit at one of my archer-spearmen. Both units were quickly surrounded (the AI effectively boxed both their units in between a corridor of buildings). Whilst this fight was going on the clock counted down to 0 and the town was mine.
The FM escaped the town (he was actually the FL), joined up with the relief army and has now formed a massive army that is heading north through India to relieve another of their towns that I am besieging.
Wait, so if a FM survives a siege, he just leaves the town? Interesting.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Are you sure the game didn't spawn a FM for the AI in the army? Every, and I mean EVERY, time I've besieged and won, everything inside dies, even if it isn't dead yet at the victory timer.
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
The FM escaped the town (he was actually the FL), joined up with the relief army and has now formed a massive army that is heading north through India to relieve another of their towns that I am besieging.
When you say that the FM escaped, do you mean that the FM was outside the city walls when the the battle was ended? I've never encountered something like this before.
Re: Can this fight be won?
I did not check the FM's name - it is possible that the faction leader died in the town when the timer ran down (which then promoted the faction heir who may have been in the wilderness to the leader's position).
Re: Can this fight be won?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
duncan.gill
I am fighting in Bactria and have besieged one of their towns with 5 Persian archer-spearmen - there were only 2 of their units in the town and I had cut off the town with my main armies. Lo and behold and a relief army emerges out of India and is only a turn away from relieving the town. I have no way of getting reinforcements to the besiegers before they are attacked.
Inside the town there is a stack of medium spearmen and also a Bactrian FM. Is there anyway that I could win this fight? I have enough battering rams to knock open the gates but I just can't see how I could defeat the defenders. I am playing on the usual M/VH setting. Any thoughts?
I see this investment is now long since passed, however in retrospect, a first question might be; what were your goals; tactically and strategic? Did you want to win a battle in the field, capture a town, both, or did you have something more in mind? As a side note; I’ve often used the ZoCs that extend from single unites (that are mobile) as a screen, in conjunction with specific terrain features, to hinder the advance and generally delay and/or distract relief armies.
CmacQ (in exile)
Re: Can this fight be won?
My goal is world domination - I am about 1/3 of the way there. I was needing to take this town as then I would have Baktria contained to the north east corner of the map and so would then be able to annihilate them. Also it is the city that gate keeps the way to India and so I needed to have them taken out so that I could attack the Indian cities.
