Help me figure out sieges

[Indagator]

It seems like there's no point in besieging an enemy city vs. assaulting immediately. Here's why: inevitably as I'm besieging an enemy city, the enemy, strengthened by a large number of mob units, will assault my army to try to lift the siege. Unfortunately, even though I typically destroy the force sallying out, my army still lifts the siege. So when I siege again, the city still has two turns to hold out. Worse, the mobs have been replenished!

Given the above, I typically assault right away, even if I'd rather besiege for a couple turns. Am I missing something? Or is the breaking siege mechanic broken?

[Mailman653]

I think it is a bug, it makes no sense to wait X turns, fight the enemy and then have them spawn at full strength over again.

[A Very Super Market]

Those mobmen are rather useless. You can take them, easy.

[Dayve]

Some people think it's a bug, some think it's a feature, and some think a bug is a feature.

Personally, i think it's horrible broken. I don't care about the mobmen, because they are less than useless. I've had times where my cities have spawned mobmen, and i have made use of them, but even at their most useful they are utterly useless.

I don't mind fighting stack after stack of these when besieging a city, because they drop like flies, but what really gets my goat is when the siege is lifted even though you win the battle.

[johnross2007]

I have never had the siege lift after defeating a sallying force.

Oh and btw, one of my favorite ETW moments was annihilating the Parisian mob with my redcoats.

[Kulgan]

Actually those mobs are very nice to get your army experienced. Once you have bayonets and fire by rank you literally mow those mobs over with a simple line of infantry. And since - I think - experience is gained by the amount of kills your units inflicts, mobs are the easiest, by far!

Also when the enemy sallies forth you're the defender so take on the most favourable defensive positions and bring enough artillery, you should easily be able to defeat say 1000 mob infantry with a mixed force of 1000 strong and only suffer minimal losses, but many units will gain a chevron of experience!

And tertio, the game is called Total War for a reason.


Kulgan