1.4 Siege Battles?

**Fisherking** · 09-23-2009, 19:12

I had one. They tried a few tricks to get over the wall and they also attacked a unit coming on the map.

The cannon on the walls seem to work better and they coordinated the attack on the walls from two directions at once. It just did them no good as they only had two infantry and 6 or 8 cavalry. So they ate it...

**Slaists** · 09-23-2009, 20:00

Originally Posted by Fisherking

I had one. They tried a few tricks to get over the wall and they also attacked a unit coming on the map.

The cannon on the walls seem to work better and they coordinated the attack on the walls from two directions at once. It just did them no good as they only had two infantry and 6 or 8 cavalry. So they ate it...

I wonder if star fort wall cannons finally are the meat grinders that they are supposed to be.

**hoom** · 09-25-2009, 03:12

How was the pathfinding on the walls?

**Boohugh** · 09-25-2009, 10:48

I played a quick custom siege battle yesterday as defender in an artillery fort (not a star one) just to check the AI. I didn't give any siege weapons to either side as I wanted to see how they interacted with the walls and I was pleasantly surprised.

When you deploy the troops on the walls, they still stand at an odd angle at first, but as soon as the enemy start approaching they'll form up into lines facing them and man the cannons (at a decent range now). The cannons themselves don't do much damage (they only fire round shot) but it's better than before and the units will fire their muskets when they get in range too. Unless you have units with weak morale, I think you'll always get them reaching the walls (I gave the AI a load of guard units so they all fought my line infantry on the walls and a couple even made it down to the inside).

The AI attacked from lots of angles by throwing up the grappling hooks and climbing, but some of them did still walk next to the walls to the far side from where they start, getting shot at the whole way. I won the battle fairly comfortably, but that was partly because I had more troops (I gave myself an army of British Line Infantry against a French army of various Guards units, so they had the quality and I had numbers). Can't remember the exact numbers but I think I had 1 unit rout with 2 men left and others had taken a bit of a mauling, with even numbers it could have been a little hairy if it was still their guards against my line. Overall, I'd say it's a huge improvement and makes siege battles playable now (whereas before they were basically a bit broken), but it's still not perfect.

Didn't have time to try with cannons, etc or see how the AI reacts when defending, but I'd suggest just trying a couple of custom siege battles to see the improvements for yourself.