Tactics for assaulting fortifed settlements?

[econ21]

Does anyone have any tips for assaulting fortified cities?

I was playing in an early British campaign, attacking one of the pirate bases in the Caribbean. However, I noticed too late it was fortified. The idea of going through the meat grinder of assaulting it was too horrible, so I reloaded and starved them out. I suspect that was the best decision, but has anyone got any tips for how to manually fight out a siege assault?

I am familiar with doing it in MTW2, but ETW lacks the siege towers, ladders and rams etc that I would use there. How do sieges work? Can your men scale walls as in STW2? The walls seem impregnable to artillery, although the gates are not.

[Fisherking]

If it is against the pirates it is best to siege them for a turn so you have field fortifications and let them come out to you.

If you just have to assault it here are some tips, but my memory may have some errors.

Cannon will break the walls and if you want to fight it out it is best to take off any time limits.

Cannon don’t have an ammo restriction like the other units. Mortars and to a lesser extent, Rockets are useless now that they have been nerfed. Howitzers are good but that may be NTW. I don’t have the game loaded ATM so I can’t check it right now.

It also depends on what special ammo you have access to.

Your infantry are all equipped with grapnels so they can climb the walls.

It is a bloody affair so don’t rush things. Let them come out if they will and kill as many as you can with canister shot. Your cannon will also take a few men off the walls.

Never put your artillery into emplacements. They can’t move then and you want more than one breech.

It takes quite some time to do it right and sometimes auto resolve works better than doing it your self.

But if you really, really love siege battles then move on NTW. They are much more fun.

[Peasant Phill]

The key is to create local superiority. Just like in a normal battle but now with more care. Scaling the walls will leave you vulnerable so know what you're doing before you send your troops up.

A few tips:
- The AI will defend a gap in their walls heavily, so you may want to avoid breaches all together just so you can keep those troops out of the fight as long as possible.
- There is absolutly nothing wrong with posting a cannon just out of small arms reach and decimate troops garding a breached wall
- Try to lure troops out of the fort. cavalry has the tendency to sally out if you leave a infantry unit a bit isolated.
- Divide your troops over the walls before approaching. The AI will possibly leave one approach unguarded.
- use cheap troops to assault those walls that are guarded, your elites can than scale the walls unopposed.

[InsaneApache]

In NTW I just 'nuke' the place with howitzers and rockets. Any troops left can be picked of with light infantry. Use grenadiers to mop up. It can take up to three cans of beer to achieve this.

[Fisherking]

In NTW I just... It can take up to three cans of beer to achieve this.

[BADDERS]

I never felt like artillery was worth the trouble, especially on those horrid battles where you have to wheel it uphill through half of the map just to get it into place to reliably knock down a wall. Better off just strafing the walls with gunfire from your infantry until they're cleared of enemies enough to safely use their rope ladders.

[saint242]

Definitely use artillery to knock down the walls. Having your units have to climb the walls while being shot at, and having them fight hand-to-hand is never good. Make at least two good breaches in the wall, and attack one with a smaller force to draw in the enemy. Then push a larger force through the second breach and hit the guys defending the first breach from behind. Or just grab the central flag.

Once you get Explosive and Carcass shot for your howitzers, assaulting fortifications is even easier. Put a couple holes in the walls and the enemy infantry will rush to block it off. Before you even move up your infantry, just start dropping bombs and fire down on them. Enemy cavalry may sally out to attack your artillery, but if you're using howitzers, you can safely position them behind your infantry line, effectively neutralizing any cavalry charges.

Best to turn off the battle time limit when using this tactic. It can take a while to really reduce the enemy numbers with artillery fire, but it's basically risk-free. Once I have access to 12-pounder howitzers, I always have at least 4-6 units of them in my army stacks.

[Fisherking]

That is sound tactical advice saint242.

[Barkhorn1x]

Best tatic, IMO; don't assault!

Use a strategic offense = move up and besieg
Coupled with a tactical defense = siege the enemy until he sallies out to attack you

...and, if he doesn't attack you on the first turn of a siege you will fight with the benefit of fortifications

Assualts are too damn costly.

[Vladimir]

In NTW I just 'nuke' the place with howitzers and rockets. Any troops left can be picked of with light infantry. Use grenadiers to mop up. It can take up to three cans of beer to achieve this.

Thinking about buying the game now.

[InsaneApache]

Thinking about buying the game now.

Just make sure you get plenty of beer in. You know it makes sense.

[drummerboy]

Definitely use artillery to knock down the walls. Having your units have to climb the walls while being shot at, and having them fight hand-to-hand is never good. Make at least two good breaches in the wall, and attack one with a smaller force to draw in the enemy. Then push a larger force through the second breach and hit the guys defending the first breach from behind. Or just grab the central flag.

Once you get Explosive and Carcass shot for your howitzers, assaulting fortifications is even easier. Put a couple holes in the walls and the enemy infantry will rush to block it off. Before you even move up your infantry, just start dropping bombs and fire down on them. Enemy cavalry may sally out to attack your artillery, but if you're using howitzers, you can safely position them behind your infantry line, effectively neutralizing any cavalry charges.

My approach is different, but it was not tested in multiplayer.
Do not break walls you will have to repair them :-)

focus your cannons on the one side/corner whatever. use small skirmisher force to rake defenders. They often sally to get your token force.
At the same time from the other side move dragoons or light infantry to the opposite side. Dismount and climb up. You are in.
If defender did not left units inside the fortifications are yours. And the main door button too. You got defenders in the open between walls and your army.
And wall mounted guns are unattended. you just switched from siege to "regular" encounter.

[Fisherking]

Welcome to the .Org drummerboy. Have a nice stay.

[Vanya]

GAH!

Fort-busting tactic that has worked wonders for Vanya's woefully inexperienced farmboys from the rice paddies is to group up all the whiners and complainers and tell them to "go scale that wall, young man!" When they die, the rest keep their filthy mouths shut and Vanya can savor some fine vittles as He watches the carnage unfold without any annoying background commentary.

GAH!