Anyone else hate assaulting a city?

[Recoil]

Wow. Syrakousai. Quite a weak army defending it if you considered fighting it in the open right? Well I just assaulted it and took so many casualties I actually quit the battle weird innit?

But it's not just Syrakousai I'm trying to make a point about- has anyone else noticed how assaulting a city always seems incredibly difficult? I mean, fair enough, towers and missile troops picking off some of the men from my units as they advance to the wall is fair enough, but it just seems that once they're actually on the walls it's simply a massacre! Even after sapping the walls the surrounding towers make you wish you'd just invested in a ladder or siege tower instead.

Does anyone else dislike assaulting a city as much as me? I mean, don't get me wrong, they're really tense and epic battles, but it just wrecks the units so much I actually wonder if I should have just waited the set number of turns for them to try and rally out, but then, some might call that an exploit

[satalexton]

assaulting cities ARE suppose to be nasty....this is a fact of real life, so you might as well face it.

I usually let the mercs to the besieging while my army dances around the region killing any reinforcements that comes.

[Tollheit]

Actually, it is far too easy to assault a city in this game.
If there are wooden walls, it is a piece of cake and far easier than an open battle.
Cities with stone walls are slightly more difficult, but still not difficult enough.

[Che Roriniho]

Yes, but only becasuse of the stupid AI making charging cavalry, and maintaining a street-wide phalanx impossible. Or the fact that when capturing a tower, youre men wait underneath it for a good five minutes getting shot to pieces before finally deciding to move in. Also, the inability to retreat off walls. JUST RUN THROUGH THE TOWER DAMN IT!

[Senshi]

I also think battles in cities are way too easy.

Main problem posed here is simply the dumb AI which has absolutly no clue how to use its superior position to any advantage and can quickly be outsmarted.

If there's only wooden palisades there actually is no siege, it's way too easy to pick off the stupid chickens running around behind the walls with some missile troops, eliminating half of the defense before you set one step across the wall line...the rest then easily routs on the first impact of some heavy melee troops due to their casualty ratio (no kills made, but half of your corps dead? That sucks bigtime moral-wise ;) )

When it's about stone walls it gets trickier, but if the enemy has only few troops (that is up to ~8 units) most of them are stationed at the city square (who the hell needs them there??), the rest waits behind the gate while PERHAPS one or two missile units stand around on the walls...
Just bring some siege towers in, slay and massacre the wall troops with your heavy infantry and then send one unit around half the city to conquer all towers and gates. While those towers then again kill half of the army which waited behind the gates until they retreat or rout, you just walk in with your main force having all the time in the world to position yourself behind the walls for your march towards the city square.


But the most annoying part actually is that most of the battles take place around towns and cities...which in the end all look VERY similar, making the battles a bit repetitive...after I'm a bit into a campaign, I tend to auto-calc some sieges (or cheat auto_win/lose if e.g. a 10-star rebel general with his 100 men would slay my 2000 men thanks to autocalc stupidity) and only play the field battles. Or I siege the towns long enough for the enemy to sally forth...

[Dogukan]

and it makes you even happier when you take city.....you understand it's value. More realistic IMO.

[Grriffon]

Wow. Syrakousai. Quite a weak army defending it if you considered fighting it in the open right? Well I just assaulted it and took so many casualties I actually quit the battle weird innit?

But it's not just Syrakousai I'm trying to make a point about- has anyone else noticed how assaulting a city always seems incredibly difficult? I mean, fair enough, towers and missile troops picking off some of the men from my units as they advance to the wall is fair enough, but it just seems that once they're actually on the walls it's simply a massacre! Even after sapping the walls the surrounding towers make you wish you'd just invested in a ladder or siege tower instead.

Does anyone else dislike assaulting a city as much as me? I mean, don't get me wrong, they're really tense and epic battles, but it just wrecks the units so much I actually wonder if I should have just waited the set number of turns for them to try and rally out, but then, some might call that an exploit

The hard thing about assaulting cities for me is when all the troops are in the town center and fight to the die to a man. This can make an army that would easily route have unlimited moral, and thus cause some serious casualties.

Often I DO wait the required ammount of turns for the enemy to sally out, but sometimes some of the heavier units will simply not leave the town, and I'll be forced to assault them or the game declares it a Draw when the time runs out.

Since if they don't sally out I get the settlement without a fight, shouldn't it be an autowin if I outlast the battle timer on their sally?

[satalexton]

=/ i think it does, u may have a draw on the battle, but it also meant their sally was a failure...last it happened to me i basically took the settlement after a 45 minute wait ( i played tetris while waiting)...

...and yes i prefer fighting them in an open battle, where i can cut the lot of them down as they rout. Sometimes u even simply win cuz the whole lot of them are routing back to the square.

[LorDBulA]

Sieges are not to difficult they are way to easy. Unfortunately there is no way to make them as difficult as they where in reality.

[Che Roriniho]

Exactly, LorDBulA, It's just they shouldn't be hard because of crappy AI. If you don't have phalanxes or anything that needs to charge or skirmish, you're fine though.

[Karo]

I really hate assulting so I wait till the enemy sally's out or tell they give me the city. THe only time I attack is when there is 1 unit in the city.

[Atraphoenix]

if you the enemy outnumbers you twice retreat,
if you have same men with the enemy you can attack or defend,
if you outnumber the enemy twice attack,
to assault a city with stone wall (that is the most diffucult battle) you have to outnumber them 10 times...

Sun Tszu Art Of War