Garrison dieing off - Why?

**Cretan** · 07-03-2010, 08:38

Can someone please explain why my Garrison slowly dies while waiting for the enemy army to lay siege to my city?

It doesen't make any sense to me, if my city has food stocks and defenses (that the enemy cannot breach) how are my troops dieing ... maybe of boredom.

**VersusAllOdds** · 07-04-2010, 01:07

Sorry to be so blunt, but man this is a dumb question!
They die because lack of supplies while under siege...

**Cretan** · 07-04-2010, 04:30

Originally Posted by VersusAllOdds

Sorry to be so blunt, but man this is a dumb question!
They die because lack of supplies while under siege...

At first, i too thought it was a silly question but when you think about it logically it doesen't make a whole lot of sense.

A modest city can resist a siege for 6 Turns, which is 3 years, while after just 6 months the garrison starts dieing. So by that logic troops starve to death while the city still has 2.5 years worth of food in storage ....

Even more unrealistic is the attacking force, that in reality would have 1-2 months of food supply (6 months maximum with foraging) does not loose any troops over 3 years of being separated from civilization.

I just thought there would be a more logical explanation, hence my *Dumb question*

**Guyus Germanicus** · 07-04-2010, 07:46

Cretan,

I wouldn't call your question dumb. You're new to the game, right? The game is, of course, set up this way - minor attrition takes place on any garrison under siege. In rare cases there are occasionally no losses suffered. But that's not typical in RTW. Think of your losses while under siege as characteristic attrition such as what might occur in a real life siege. You can lose men for a variety of reasons: skirmishing between your units (on the wall - even if you don't have any that you've posted there yourself) and the besiegers, supply shortages, brackish water, food spoilage, disease from reduced or bad hygiene because of the lack of freedom of movement, accidents caused by the stress of the circumstances, etc. Your city's maximum length of survival time does not mean that your casualties don't begin until the food runs out at the end of that time limit. It really represents the absolute limit of your garrison's morale and will to resist given the size and resources of that particular city.

I've always tried to avoid putting my cities thru a prolonged siege. You can't recruit or do any building while your city is under siege. Valuable time is lost in development. If you have quality mercenary units inside a besieged city, they cannot be 'replaced' with recruitment like your regular units. You can only recruit whole units of mercenaries, and then only as the internal game's mercenary recruitment 'schedule' permits. So siege losses are irritating, especially if the mercenaries are expensive or valuable like Cretan archers.

By the same token, besieging armies should suffer less in the siege process. They can forage from the countryside while your army is bottled up in the city. You will see the land 'blackened' on the 'gameboard' as a result of the besieging army's presence in your territory. That's RTW's way of showing pillage and forage wasteage from an enemy army. The besieging army can get fresh water and food stocks while your army inside the city is depending on stored foodstuffs that might be spoiling or molding from 'poor' storage conditions. Hope this makes sense. :)

**Cretan** · 07-04-2010, 10:15

Originally Posted by Guyus Germanicus

Cretan,

I wouldn't call your question dumb. You're new to the game, right? The game is, of course, set up this way - minor attrition takes place on any garrison under siege. In rare cases there are occasionally no losses suffered. But that's not typical in RTW. Think of your losses while under siege as characteristic attrition such as what might occur in a real life siege. You can lose men for a variety of reasons: skirmishing between your units (on the wall - even if you don't have any that you've posted there yourself) and the besiegers, supply shortages, brackish water, food spoilage, disease from reduced or bad hygiene because of the lack of freedom of movement, accidents caused by the stress of the circumstances, etc. Your city's maximum length of survival time does not mean that your casualties don't begin until the food runs out at the end of that time limit. It really represents the absolute limit of your garrison's morale and will to resist given the size and resources of that particular city.

I've always tried to avoid putting my cities thru a prolonged siege. You can't recruit or do any building while your city is under siege. Valuable time is lost in development. If you have quality mercenary units inside a besieged city, they cannot be 'replaced' with recruitment like your regular units. You can only recruit whole units of mercenaries, and then only as the internal game's mercenary recruitment 'schedule' permits. So siege losses are irritating, especially if the mercenaries are expensive or valuable like Cretan archers.

By the same token, besieging armies should suffer less in the siege process. They can forage from the countryside while your army is bottled up in the city. You will see the land 'blackened' on the 'gameboard' as a result of the besieging army's presence in your territory. That's RTW's way of showing pillage and forage wasteage from an enemy army. The besieging army can get fresh water and food stocks while your army inside the city is depending on stored foodstuffs that might be spoiling or molding from 'poor' storage conditions. Hope this makes sense. :)

That is what i find irritating, its like the game forces you to play aggressively when defensive battles are much more fun.

I guess i simply don't like the way this mechanism works, and was curious about the logic behind it. As unconvincing as it seems, it looks like something i've got to put up with or Mod it out of the game.

Thank you for you insight into how it works. :)

**Cretan** · 07-04-2010, 11:20

Sorry for the double post but this site won't let me Edit posts.

*Thank you for your insight into how it works*

**Quirinus** · 07-04-2010, 11:40

Just keep posting and you should get the ability to edit your posts in no time. =]

Originally Posted by Guyus Germanicus

minor attrition takes place on any garrison under siege. [...] Think of your losses while under siege as characteristic attrition such as what might occur in a real life siege. You can lose men for a variety of reasons: skirmishing between your units (on the wall - even if you don't have any that you've posted there yourself) and the besiegers, supply shortages, brackish water, food spoilage, disease from reduced or bad hygiene because of the lack of freedom of movement, accidents caused by the stress of the circumstances, etc.

By the same token, besieging armies should suffer less in the siege process. They can forage from the countryside while your army is bottled up in the city. You will see the land 'blackened' on the 'gameboard' as a result of the besieging army's presence in your territory. That's RTW's way of showing pillage and forage wasteage from an enemy army. The besieging army can get fresh water and food stocks while your army inside the city is depending on stored foodstuffs that might be spoiling or molding from 'poor' storage conditions. Hope this makes sense. :)

Though realistically armies haemorhage casualties all the time - why should this only be reflected in a garrison under siege?

But I suppose it also makes waiting a few turns before attacking a city a more attractive option, and adds some further incentive for the besieged to break the siege as soon as possible.