City Defence

[Eikon the Magistrate]

Cities Defense
1)As a general rule I will try to sally and destroy the towers rams ladders etc. Militia are good for this. The AI very rarely reuses a ram or tower so all you have to do is engage the unit pushing it,make sure that unit is engaging urs and the siege equip isnt moving, then run ur unit over to the next ram/tower to stop it.

2)It can be said that any unit you send out the gate is in most cases toast. You should not expect to get it back at least not in 1 piece. They will rout back to your gate (which will not open of itself) this is the final act of bravery for that unit because it will draw the whole AI force behind it...right into the *kill zone* in front of the gate. Better to lose 200 militia and set up the fight how you want it, besides after retraining they often get chevrons and the towers will more than avenge their loss.You can try and open the gate to let em in as they rout but make sure the way is clear so the gate closes or else the AI will pour in eventually the AI will back off then its safer.(Ill usually just wait,more die but as long as 1 guy in the unit lives I can retrain afterwards).

3)Will try to leave a tower/ladder as is so that the fools will send their whole inf force to that spot. Of course this *spot* on the wall is where Ive placed the rest of my inf that I havent sent out the gate. Its useful to have at least 1 unit of cav of some sort (missle/light cav, but any old cav will do with decent morale) to harass the AI and cause ur towers to inflict more dmg(just run em about near your walls and watch the chase)also they can be used well to break up the ram/tower forces since they move faster than inf.

4)If you have killed off the inf or they are all going onto the walls try opening the gates briefly to lure in the enemy cav within better range of your towers,once they start chasing run in and close the gate again.

5)If the besieging army does not have the ability to break a hole in your wall theres no reason to lose the extra firepower from your towers by not manning them,its free and long range so may as well use it. If its just 1 ballista or catapult attacking that you have the ability with archers or cav to destroy then you should try to do that if possible.

6)Some siege engines are good for defense like trebs since they throw cows and can take out towers,also throw over walls easily so they are useful as a component (1/2). Catapults and ballistae for shooting down the streets or as a *wall* to stop a charge or plug a hole; I cant get them to shoot over walls unfortunately.

7)I too dislike Milan. Intense hatred of the lowly xbow militia here...

[Duke Bart]

I also go for the u shape but then the problem is that a single unit of heavy infantry will tear up all of my spearmen and that narrow corridor suddenly becomes a deathtrap.

Therefore i always try to leave myself an out for two reasons, First of all if it is clear that resisting is a waste of time, i leave the city for the AI and go for hit and run methods because they are so intent on just marching to the center. This way i take few losses and they take many so i can just retake my city in notime.

The other reason i try and have a side street or two available is so that i can move my units around so i can counter superior troops with better positioning. Even dismounted knights will lose when trapped like that.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I find schiltrons slaughter cavalry, although I also keep some Town Militia to counter enemy infantry. I've noticed Town Militia can even cause significant casualties to Armoured Sergeants, because the sergeants cavalry bonus works against them when fighting infantry.

Nobody else a fan of the defensive Ballistas then? Come on, 500+ casualties...

[Pater Familias]

Desperately short of defenders (400+ Mad Hungarians at the gates of Iasi vs. about 200 brave Russian lads), I needed something using fewer troops than a U-formation (I had two militia and a spearman, plus my general). So I set my spears at a 45% angle just inside the gate, with my bodyguard a short distance opposite them.
The attackers coming through the gate turned toward the spearmen ... then took a full cavalry charge from the rear/left flank.
Result: Routing, confusion, dead enemy general, more routing and heroic victory.
It's high-risk to commit your general in the first charge, but it worked.

[Ramses II CP]

I always sally out to stop the ram and then hold them on the walls. Having the defensive bonus on the walls is better than having the infinite morale of the town square nine times out of ten. The AI is pretty much incapable of capturing Huge Walls from you without a ram, so stop the ram = win. I haven't lost a siege in vanilla in so long I can't remember the last time, which is why I go after the AI in the field.

[ReiseReise]

[Monsieur Alphonse]

@ReiseReise: that is a beautiful piece of art and it explains how to defend a wall.

@Caledonian: I prefer a catapult over a ballista because a catapult can fire over the heads of your men.

@Ramses: I prefer the enemy to breach the gate. In that case I am certain that I will slaughter the enemy.

[Cadwallon]

Stakes. Any bowmen with stakes are the best defenders. I had the polish bowmen following a successful crusade in Antioch, and absolutely wiped out the Mongols when they invade with their typical cavalry heavy stacks.

You initially position your archers on the front gate, position your spearmen and melee infantry in a u shape and then start the battle. Send you archers back up on the walls, wait for them to smash down the gates and the killing field starts. Stakes seem to kill cavalry - even heavily armoured elite mongol cavalry - so easily this function must be broken. Even elephants seem to succumb.