Spyder's web

[gollum]

I think I of the Storm is right on target here. I edited out watchtowers and boarder forts because I was tired of spies being not so useful. I then discovered that they were too good (for my tastes anyway) and put the watchtowers and boarder forts back in. The way I see it, the AI doesn't know how to use spies properly, so editing out the WT/BFs gives the player too much advantage, or at least requires that spies be used with restraint. But if you do want to get the best out of spies, then getting rid of those buildings really helps.

That's exactly right. The border forts are a means to protect teh AI in vanilla and if not present he is at the mercy of the player that is using much better and consistently his spies. This is also the reason why i left the borderforts in the Caravel mod. However, it is true that the agent game is far more enhanced without them. So its "having fun" having a free hand to beating the AI versus "having fun" by not being able to have a free hand beating the AI :) A tough dillema.

By the way if you have modded out the BFs in vanilla you doubly hurt the AI as he gets a +30 happiness that he can't make up from other buildings there and so he is much less stable without them, unless you relegate the bonus to some other early building (say town watch or the fort etc)

I mean, I see the main objective of the besiegers avoiding casualties as much as possible while trying to get hold of the castle.

Not always though. Sometimes the most important objective is gaining the castle asap in a strategic location either tech wise or economically so you can start using it your self. Hence there are cases when assault is actually worth the cost in blood for the prize.

EDIT:
This is especially so when rushing an opponent that has a relatively low level castles that can be assaulted with minor casualties or if you are rushing an opponent with relatively high level castles but have brought siege engines to help you bypass the walls in the assault.

Generally speaking when assaulting, the best is to time the assault to happen from multiple directions so that you can sandwitch the besieged quickly. A bit of heavy cavalry charging in can be very useful in that context. Dispatching of besieged quickly is paramount as the longer you fight frontally, the more they will last and you will receive casualties from towers and artillery.