How to beat the battle timer...with time

Yes, it is possible to "beat" the battle timer. Also, you do not have to edit the game in any way to do this. All it takes is time, and patience. This is especially useful for stone fortress assaults.

First, besiege the settlement of your choosing. Then, construct sap points and roll up your ballistas and onagers and what have you. Once you join battle, move your men into the sap points, and roll up your seige weaponry. Wipe out every wall section, guard tower, the gate house, and finally the gate itself. Since you'll likely have plenty of ammo left, feel free to use it ALL upon the defenders on the ramparts (at least those that didnt go down with the walls) and feel free to turn on flaming ammunition with your onagers, a lucky shot can incinerate half a company or more in an instant.

If you have archers, go ahead and let them shoot if they dont have to worry about return fire. Heck let your skirmishers and slingers and all those crazy guys have a go. Let everybody throw/shoot stuff til they drop.

Then, move your men to safety, and click fastforward. Wait for the battle to end. Get a drink, a snack, take a break. When its done, march your army back the next turn and renew your seige. Once battle is joined, you now have a very clear and complete entrance. All thats left is to fight through the streets.

So far this has been the best way to manage to take cities without fear of my army being lost due to the time running out. While some might argue it's an exploit, I find it is valid. Why any commander would force his men to take a city in 20 minutes is beyond me. Whoever thought of this must have had the "Unhinged Loon" vice.

Currently I have a group of 9 onagers plus some infantry (just in case).

Works fine even against the epic walls. A kind of an ancient MLRS ~D

Many people actually complain that you cannot attack and fade like you have done. The main problem is that if you don't have a clear path to a ship or city to retreat, your army will be destroyed completely. So if you're going to use this strategy, either make a fort near or have a fleet nearby (A strong one that could repel attacks.)

Before I started using TILN to switch off the timer in my campaigns, my frustrations with having to rush when assaulting cities plus the pathfinding insanity that sometimes occured, led me to prefer to starve them out instead.

I'd besiege the city with a specialist army consisiting of an onager if I had them, one or two cavalry just for variety, then the rest would be split equally between archers and infantry, often led by a captain rather than a general since I didn't want my leaders sitting around doing nothing for 2-4 years. I could then just forget about the siege and get on with other things.

The enemy would rarely sally and if they did I'd quickly get my infantry into a good defensive line while the defenders exited the gates, setting up my other troops behind by infantry. I'd take the archers off fire-at-will and instead micromanage them, splitting them into two equal groups and concentrating them on just one or two enemy units. The sally always failed and I'd capture the city, usually exterminating the populace as a 'role-playing' gesture. Most times the enemy wouldn't sally and I'd just capture the city anyway, although in this circumstance I just occupied or enslaved unless I knew I couldn't hold the city without extermination.

Something else that I realised recently, that might be old news:

In summer you get 30-35 minutes
In winter you get 15-21 minutes

so always wait for summer!

What a great feature

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GFX707

Something else that I realised recently, that might be old news:

In summer you get 30-35 minutes
In winter you get 15-21 minutes

so always wait for summer!

What a great feature

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Well obviously in winter everyone is in a tearing hurry to get home and put their feet up in front of the fire.

The days are shorter....that's what the time limit represents.