What do you do???

[Dutchhoplite]

The situation: I´m besieged, outnumbered, have no chance to win and no help from the outside is expected.

Usually i tear down every building, in that way ruin the city and die fighting in the burning rubble...

What do you do??

[woad&fangs]

If you think you can recapture the city in the next 5 years then I'd kill as many enemy as possible and then let them take the settlement.

If I'm not planning on recapturing the settlement any time soon I usually destroy everything like you do.

[Hooahguy]

pretty much the same that you do. but if there is time, i bring in reinforcements, and i can usually defeat them in battle.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Well that's with me always like:
Oh crap, I didn't see that coming -- where was the army?
But... that besieged garison is the army; and way too weak. Oh well, now where's the other reinforcements I sent to that border lately? Cool! That general should make it just in time.

---

To realise myself later: oh, no: that General is wearied has been doing some forced marching and is getting seriously depressed...

---

Ah well, should've torn down everything. Next time...

Of course, next time goes the same as that time, but ah well: next time...

---

However most of the time I tend to have a spy around my 'unprotected' borders which gives me usually enough time to respond. Then again, I don't play on VH campaign difficulty; I prefer the somewhat more sensible AI at Medium.

[Socy]

Pretty much what the others have said. Tear everything down, and prepare to die with glory! Take as many of the invaders as possible with you to Hades!

But! Keep the siege "locked" as long as possible. Dont sally, wait for the enemy to come. If you have larger walls the towers will probably cause some casualties aswell (The more enemies dead, the better). And, by keeping the enemy army locked in the siege, armies that are in the near vicinity (Of your own faction) can reach the settlement and re-conquer it pretty soon after the enemy have taken it. If you have huge squalor problems in the town, take this as an opportunity to... Decrease that squalor a little aswell *Hint* *Hint* (=Enslave/Exterminate). The dilemma is wether to tear down all the buildings or not. If you have an army nearby and you're confident that you will reclaim the settlement in a couple of turn, dont destroy anything. If its more of an isolated pocket (Can happen in Alexandreia-Eschate in an early Seleucid campaign, for example (Not 100% sure about the name, the one to the right of Marakanda, above Baktra)) then tear everything down . Except for "wonders".

Ofcourse, all this might be tweaked more with roleplaying and what not, wich can certainly make certain situations interesting .

[Apgad]

When the final assault comes, don't let your missile troops waste their ammo shooting at the enemy from the front. Keep them on the walls to the side, and after the enemy have taken the gate and strolled in, run around behind them and shoot them in the ass from above!

[/Bean\]

and keep all ur infantry in the main square so they dont turn and run. if ur fighting an enemy of the same civilisation make sure u definately tear down the barracks complexes so they cant replenish their weary forces after you have done all you can, and if you look like your are going to lose the settlement, tear down all happiness buildings, so that the settlement may revolt in a few turns anyway.

Sometimes, things do go horribly wrong, and you can lose important settlements. But those few defenders have to look at the bigger picture. The more you take with you, the easier time your comrades outside will have defeating them. Another good suicide mission for the greater good is making all your surviving units head straight for the enemy general, especially is he is an FM. This has a lot of effect on later turns...and also, you can turn a completely lost battle into a victory, just by the timely death of a general...

[||Lz3||]

targeting enemy generals is not honorable!! that's a shameful conduct for a true gentleman

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

nah just kidding I always try to kill their general :P

[Matinius Brutus]

You might call what I do cheating, but here it is: I always try to have at least one cavalry unit in the city and position it in the center square. When all is lost and the enemy positions itself in that square i run my cavalry to a nearby street and when the counter for the enemy victory reaches 30 seconds i charge with the cavalry to the square, interrupt the counting and retreat. The enemy usually stops the pursuit when my unit is out of the square. So the clock starts again and I repeat that until the time limit has elapsed. Works 90% of the sieges.

[/Bean\]

thats not cheating as far as the game is concerned, its using avaliabale resources well lol. however that just obviously wouldt work in real life, so it depends what type of game your playing i guess. Losing a city can be painful, but sometimes neccessary if your playing a roleplay or realistic campaign

[Megas Methuselah]

thats not cheating as far as the game is concerned, its using avaliabale resources well lol.

LOL!

I'll have to try this something. Who knows, maybe it will work for me? I hope so.

[overweightninja]

I find having a unit or two of archers stationed in settlements often helps, the fire arrows (with a little luck) can take out enemy rams and towers and either send the enemy packing or if they've brought ladders and/or sap points, decrease the number of chokepoints to hold the enemy at.

[Jolt]

I find having a unit or two of archers stationed in settlements often helps, the fire arrows (with a little luck) can take out enemy rams and towers and either send the enemy packing or if they've brought ladders and/or sap points, decrease the number of chokepoints to hold the enemy at.

This topic reminds me of an epic battle I had in vanilla RTW. I was Scipii and began a war with Egypt. I took all of Egypt but Alexandria. At that time Egypt had steamrolled everyone all the way to Pontus and had really huge armies (I was playing in VH/M). After I took Thebes and Memphis, they came swooping down from Syria with their 10 Full Stack armies and one came to besiege Memphis (Which, thank god, already had Epic Walls) my army was faar far outnumbered and outgunned (They even had Heavy Onagers and Elephants) while my army was composed mainly of Auxilias and a few elite Units (The first Praetorian Cohorts I managed to have), as well as a few standard Legionary cohorts. I thought of razing the city to the ground due to the very likely defeat I was about to suffer. They attacked mainly through a wall and side through a gate.

When their army came through the wall, I put out most of my available army to cover the breach (They had 2 towers but didn't use them, and I had put my Elite Units on the walls. >_>) The elephants came charging and began killing everyone (One of the very first to die was my General).

The rest tried to cover the breach at all costs but they were basically slaughtered and began routing. I had to call my Elite units from the walls to act as a rear-guard for the routing units.
Anyways, as the Egyptian army attacked the gate with like 400 soldiers (3 Desert Infantry and 1 Eastern Inf merc.), I assigned my mere 80 spearmen to defend the gate when they broke through. After the gate broke, Desert Infantry began pouring in from all sides of the gate. One of my most valuable allies was the boiling oil which killed dozens. The auxilia's moral fell rapidly due to the difference in numbers, but managed to hold the line for a while.

Meanwhile my Elite units managed to defeat their main army who had already suffered somewhat in the passing through the wall. I managed to rout a few units, and some of my routing units recovered organization, and I sent them to kill the Elephants, who were already crushing my Praetorians. Fortunatly, the large contingents of auxilias quickly made the Elephants go berserk and managed to gang up on the coming enemies. With many deaths, I managed to counter a much larger army back through the wall. (By the end, I had somewhere around 90 survivors, of these. Total)

Anyways, back to the side attack, the auxilia valiantly held the line (but was being pushed back), and then for every Desert Infantry killed, two Eastern Infantry guys appeared in it's place. The only unit dispached to help was the only one whose organization did not recover until they reached the plaza (It was my former General's bodyguards, numbering a whooping total of 3.. And exhausted.) When they arrived, the auxilia line was basically more a semi circle with only 20 guys (With "Shaken" morale, or worse) trying to hold back 100. By then, I had managed to turn back the main army, and for some reason, when those three knights in dusty armor arrived, the side army began routing.

It was most likely, the most satisfying battle I ever played. And I used the save city to pump out Praetorians, which would some 10 years later kill the Egyptian tidal wave.

[duncan.gill]

I sack the city. Then if things get dire I try to gift it to one of my enemies allies in the hope of starting a war between them.

[/Bean\]

This topic reminds me of an epic battle I had in vanilla RTW. I was Scipii and began a war with Egypt. I took all of Egypt but Alexandria. At that time Egypt had steamrolled everyone all the way to Pontus and had really huge armies (I was playing in VH/M). After I took Thebes and Memphis, they came swooping down from Syria with their 10 Full Stack armies and one came to besiege Memphis (Which, thank god, already had Epic Walls) my army was faar far outnumbered and outgunned (They even had Heavy Onagers and Elephants) while my army was composed mainly of Auxilias and a few elite Units (The first Praetorian Cohorts I managed to have), as well as a few standard Legionary cohorts. I thought of razing the city to the ground due to the very likely defeat I was about to suffer. They attacked mainly through a wall and side through a gate.

When their army came through the wall, I put out most of my available army to cover the breach (They had 2 towers but didn't use them, and I had put my Elite Units on the walls. >_>) The elephants came charging and began killing everyone (One of the very first to die was my General).

The rest tried to cover the breach at all costs but they were basically slaughtered and began routing. I had to call my Elite units from the walls to act as a rear-guard for the routing units.
Anyways, as the Egyptian army attacked the gate with like 400 soldiers (3 Desert Infantry and 1 Eastern Inf merc.), I assigned my mere 80 spearmen to defend the gate when they broke through. After the gate broke, Desert Infantry began pouring in from all sides of the gate. One of my most valuable allies was the boiling oil which killed dozens. The auxilia's moral fell rapidly due to the difference in numbers, but managed to hold the line for a while.

Meanwhile my Elite units managed to defeat their main army who had already suffered somewhat in the passing through the wall. I managed to rout a few units, and some of my routing units recovered organization, and I sent them to kill the Elephants, who were already crushing my Praetorians. Fortunatly, the large contingents of auxilias quickly made the Elephants go berserk and managed to gang up on the coming enemies. With many deaths, I managed to counter a much larger army back through the wall. (By the end, I had somewhere around 90 survivors, of these. Total)

Anyways, back to the side attack, the auxilia valiantly held the line (but was being pushed back), and then for every Desert Infantry killed, two Eastern Infantry guys appeared in it's place. The only unit dispached to help was the only one whose organization did not recover until they reached the plaza (It was my former General's bodyguards, numbering a whooping total of 3.. And exhausted.) When they arrived, the auxilia line was basically more a semi circle with only 20 guys (With "Shaken" morale, or worse) trying to hold back 100. By then, I had managed to turn back the main army, and for some reason, when those three knights in dusty armor arrived, the side army began routing.

It was most likely, the most satisfying battle I ever played. And I used the save city to pump out Praetorians, which would some 10 years later kill the Egyptian tidal wave.

That was an entertaining story lol (loved the 3 knights who routed a hundred :-)). But this kinda implies that if your majorly outnumbered and outdone by a beseiging army, your tactic is to play and hope for the best lol

[Jolt]

Pretty much. I really thought I was going to get owned, but those Praetorian fellows miraculously turned over the battle. Or phreaps the enemy army was already exhausted. That'd explain how those Praetorians Cohorts managed to put everyone running away. This battle didn't really change much in my campaign, at least immediatly. The Egyptian armies managed to erase my army directed to take Alexandria and another one on the way of Siwa to help Memphis. They reached as far as besieging 3 units defended Siwa with a full stack, though (Thanks to RTW AI) they retreated from besieging it, and basically spent their time fighting my armies in Egypt and later in Sinai. But yeah, I did raze some cities to the ground in RTR when I was being attacked by three factions and one of them was Uber-Macedonia. In EB, I still haven't got in a situation where I needed to destroy everything.