Capturing castles

[ReturnOfTheJordi]

When playing the SJ or 1530 campaigns I always capture opponents' castles in the early stages to save me the cost of building them myself. I notice that after the enemy retreats to the castle, if you then storm it you get to keep the castle if you win. I notice though that if you siege the castle and win that way, the effect appears random - sometimes the castle remains intact - sometimes it disappears.
Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? It seems a little unrealistic to me. You might imagine the castle could be wrecked by storming it but not by starving it out. Anyway, my tactic is always to storm the castle if I have enough force and I want that particular castle in that province. Otherwise it's best to siege them unless it will take too long and the forces are needed elsewhere.

[nokhor]

i think that if you take a castle by siege, it gets downgraded one level. so if it's only a level one castle, it is destroyed

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indeed

[KumaRatta Yamamoto]

I think Nokhor is right, every building, including castles, downgrades by one

[solypsist]

you can avoid some of the damage by assaulting the castle rather than waiting the enemy out. this is a good way to try and keep things intact if there's a legendary-anything in the province and you'd like to get ahold of it that way.

[Zone]

Once you have the ability to produce kensi, have an army of 4 or so and attack the castle. I've been doing alot of it in a campaign today and I have an H8 level 5 general with another H8 Kensi and 2 H7 Kensi. It's a lethal combination. They've been fighting off armies of 200 or so from the province as the ronin (that's who I'm atacking) try to break out of the siege thinking it'll be a pushover. and it is... Just not quite the way they were thinking

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Fight first, ask questions later.

[Swazza-kun]

Kensai are lethal when let into enclosed spaces (castles)... I have the "Special Forces: Demolitions" force (4h5 kensai, 4h3 BN, all legendary everything), who are yet to lose a battle when assaulting a castle... my star performer was Bob (the yak merchant, but I always give my guys history), who took out around 500 ashiguru before valiantly sacrificing his life for his Damiyo... In fact, I think they are too good to be real...

Edit: typo and UBB errors.

[This message has been edited by Swazza-kun (edited 10-16-2001).]

[Swazza-kun]

Oh, and the castle-downgrading thing: if the castle downgrades (beseiged), then only those buildings that need a level of castle are usually destroyed (e.g. Leg. Spear Dojo will, but Leg. Farm will not.)... or at least that's how I see it... anyone?

[Papewaio]

Has anyone attacked a citadel? I havn't actually hit one yet... and shouldn't a castle that holds 8 units yet only has 4 have starvation occur at half the rate etc

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Victory first, Battle last.

[Swazza-kun]

The bigger the castle, the larger the food reserves. So the large castles do sustain troops for longer, especially if there are less in there than the max capacity.

[Kiwi]

If the province has a port in it then it will not lose the castle if you let it go to siege in all other cases it reduces one level.
When you take a province right click on the castle and it will tell you how many men are in it, and roughly (and wrongly) how long it will last. It is always wrong in this - i.e. if it says 2 seasons you can bet it will be 3. If it says three seasons you must decide how long you want to wait. If you attack immediately you have the problem of a larger army to kill but you reduce the chance of a rebellion - one of the upgrades was to make provinces with a siege going on more rebellious - and you receive credit for the koku in that province. If it is at the beginning of the game and you are anything like me you need every man you can get and can not afford to waste units in silly attacks. I watch how many men are lost the first season i.e. you get the message 100 men have died and there are 200 left. It will always reduce at the same amount each season so you know you have two seasons to go - wait until there are 100 left and then assault.

In my opinion unless you have a very good reason against it you should always break the siege as your commander picks up the 'win' which adds to his honour. The trick is how long do you wait.

I hope this helps.

[Zone]

It will say that a castle will survive for 2 seasons. This means that it will be fine AFTER 2 seasons and will collapse after you've pressed enter for the THIRD time. This means that you can choose to attack before you press enter for the third time and you will have a battle.

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Fight first, ask questions later.