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Thread: Memorable Siege Moments
I've noticed a lot of postings from people who find the seige battles too frustrating to play. I guess its a matter of taste but to me it is the very frutrations of seige warfare that makes it so memorable. Its like trying to manage chaos which is what I imagine a seige would probably be like anyway.
One of my most memorable moments was in one of the first seiges I had against a stone walled town.
Up until then I had been buying two battering rams (one to use and a spare) and battering in the gate before rushing the hapless defenders. But this tactic went serious wrong when I encountered my first walled town.
My battering ram never even made it to the gate being left in a blazing heap halfway there and my second one quickly went the same way.
All I had left was one cohort carrying ladders which I had constructed really just to see what they looked like never really intending to use them.
With nothing to lose I sent them in against the wall near the gate. Losses were awful as the archers on the walls rained arrows onto them but they bravely raised their ladders and began climbing, shields over their heads.
love it!
The first legionnaires clambered over the wall and began pushing the archers over the edge. Just loved watching those hapless Greeks falling to their doom after all the trouble they had caused.
Having cleared the wall my herioc unit then marched along it taking the gatehouse and pushing another bunch of archers to their doom before grabbing their bows and starting to fire on the greek units below them from the gate towers.
Then charging out of the gatehouse they drove off the Greeks defending the gate and opened it to let the rest of my army in. Yey! who needs a Trojan Horse.
Only 23 survived but they saved the day. If only we could award medals to our men.
One of my most memorable moments was in one of the first seiges I had against a stone walled town.
Up until then I had been buying two battering rams (one to use and a spare) and battering in the gate before rushing the hapless defenders. But this tactic went serious wrong when I encountered my first walled town.
My battering ram never even made it to the gate being left in a blazing heap halfway there and my second one quickly went the same way.
All I had left was one cohort carrying ladders which I had constructed really just to see what they looked like never really intending to use them.
With nothing to lose I sent them in against the wall near the gate. Losses were awful as the archers on the walls rained arrows onto them but they bravely raised their ladders and began climbing, shields over their heads.
love it!The first legionnaires clambered over the wall and began pushing the archers over the edge. Just loved watching those hapless Greeks falling to their doom after all the trouble they had caused.
Having cleared the wall my herioc unit then marched along it taking the gatehouse and pushing another bunch of archers to their doom before grabbing their bows and starting to fire on the greek units below them from the gate towers.
Then charging out of the gatehouse they drove off the Greeks defending the gate and opened it to let the rest of my army in. Yey! who needs a Trojan Horse.
Only 23 survived but they saved the day. If only we could award medals to our men.
Yeah i had a great moment taking Sparta from the greeks, those blasted Spartan hoplites were on the walls and I didn't notice them until my siege tower got into positon and the troops started climbing...
The problem was the troops climbing up to face the Spartans were Hastati!! As the siege tower got ready I had my ballistae open fire on the waiting Spartans... It was a very reassuring sight seeng enemies struck by the bolts and hurtling off onto the ground below.
Suddenly without warning the enemy Captain (who I didn't notice was in that Spartan Unit) got impaled and I was treated to a close up cutscene of him getting struck by a bolt and flying off the wall backwards...
The Hastati attacked but the SPartans still held their ground and began to cut through them all. By this time I had an experienced unit of Principes capture the gateway and attack the spartans on the other side.
The fighting was brutal but slowly they killed the spartans and then went on to massacre more enemies before capturing the walls, those men did very well.
The problem was the troops climbing up to face the Spartans were Hastati!! As the siege tower got ready I had my ballistae open fire on the waiting Spartans... It was a very reassuring sight seeng enemies struck by the bolts and hurtling off onto the ground below.
Suddenly without warning the enemy Captain (who I didn't notice was in that Spartan Unit) got impaled and I was treated to a close up cutscene of him getting struck by a bolt and flying off the wall backwards...
The Hastati attacked but the SPartans still held their ground and began to cut through them all. By this time I had an experienced unit of Principes capture the gateway and attack the spartans on the other side.
The fighting was brutal but slowly they killed the spartans and then went on to massacre more enemies before capturing the walls, those men did very well.
Yep, totally agree. Assaulting a city is tremendous fun.
Last night I was attacking Cordoba in Southern Spain. I had an army roughly equal to that of the Spanairds but of mixed quality. Some Legionary Cohorts as the main assault force with some Gladiators for the other wall. These guys were backed up by mostly mercs, but most importantly a group of Elephants (the Senate had awarded them to me a few turns before).
I built 3 seige towers and advanced. 1 group of Legionaries landed with almost no resistance and advanced on the gate house. The second dropped into a densly packed group of Spanish troops, outnumbered. The third, the Gladiators, found themselves up against Naked fanatics and a group of heavy infantry. Nasty.
Losses where heavy but the archers following the unopposed troops gained the walls and rained death upon the city's garrison. The middle cohort forced their way through and releaved a decimated Gladiator unit, only 13 men. The walls were ours! (Why does that guy sound like Shaggy from Scooby doo?)
With the gates open my Elephants charged...cue lot's of flying bodies and carnage. Within about 5 mins my heavy cavalry had stormed the main throughfare and taken the square. unfortunately my Elephants decided to go bonkers at that point and killed a few mercs, but hey..who cares? The city was mine.
Shame I had to order the Elephants spiked. Siege's are excellent, one of the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Unlike MTW where auto-resolving normally left you with less casualties.
Last night I was attacking Cordoba in Southern Spain. I had an army roughly equal to that of the Spanairds but of mixed quality. Some Legionary Cohorts as the main assault force with some Gladiators for the other wall. These guys were backed up by mostly mercs, but most importantly a group of Elephants (the Senate had awarded them to me a few turns before).
I built 3 seige towers and advanced. 1 group of Legionaries landed with almost no resistance and advanced on the gate house. The second dropped into a densly packed group of Spanish troops, outnumbered. The third, the Gladiators, found themselves up against Naked fanatics and a group of heavy infantry. Nasty.
Losses where heavy but the archers following the unopposed troops gained the walls and rained death upon the city's garrison. The middle cohort forced their way through and releaved a decimated Gladiator unit, only 13 men. The walls were ours! (Why does that guy sound like Shaggy from Scooby doo?)
With the gates open my Elephants charged...cue lot's of flying bodies and carnage. Within about 5 mins my heavy cavalry had stormed the main throughfare and taken the square. unfortunately my Elephants decided to go bonkers at that point and killed a few mercs, but hey..who cares? The city was mine.
Shame I had to order the Elephants spiked. Siege's are excellent, one of the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Unlike MTW where auto-resolving normally left you with less casualties.
I found out that as as soon as the defender has at least one archer unit, it's better to bring ladders instead of towers.
The defending archer unit can use its fire arrows to set the slow moving towers on fire with only a few volleys, disabling the tower completely. The same is true for rams. I would guess that a single unit can destroy at least two towers.
If you build ladders instead, two or three units of yours can quite quickly approach the walls. They will of course take losses but in the end they will be able to get up the wall which is impossible once your towers are burning.
Sapping is nice too but since your sapping unit basically stands at one point, they can be easily decimated.
Btw, I haven't seen a single bug in a dozen sieges. No falling between siege tower and wall and such.
R'as
The defending archer unit can use its fire arrows to set the slow moving towers on fire with only a few volleys, disabling the tower completely. The same is true for rams. I would guess that a single unit can destroy at least two towers.
If you build ladders instead, two or three units of yours can quite quickly approach the walls. They will of course take losses but in the end they will be able to get up the wall which is impossible once your towers are burning.
Sapping is nice too but since your sapping unit basically stands at one point, they can be easily decimated.
Btw, I haven't seen a single bug in a dozen sieges. No falling between siege tower and wall and such.
R'as
The towers of the stone wall cities set my towers als oon fire, whats the point in using towers anyhow???
Sap points are much better, theres nothing they can do about that or is there??
Anyone seen the AI use sap points???
Sap points are much better, theres nothing they can do about that or is there??
Anyone seen the AI use sap points???
Originally Posted by Jeanne d'arc:
The towers of the stone wall cities set my towers als oon fire, whats the point in using towers anyhow???
Sap points are much better, theres nothing they can do about that or is there??
The sap points are always in shooting range of the towers or archers on walls. You will take heavy losses, spreading out into loose formation helps though. The towers of the stone wall cities set my towers als oon fire, whats the point in using towers anyhow???
Sap points are much better, theres nothing they can do about that or is there??
R'as
Never seen the AI use anything but rams to siege a town/city. Siege towers are great if you have a couple or distract the defenders with a ram, then they focus on the ram and the siege towers nip in. My problem with siege towers is the length of time it takes to get up the thing into the attacking platform, thats frustrating.
Units wasting ammo in sieges hacks me off too, endlessly firing at will into the wall because a unit is beyond it.
But i do enjoy sieges both defending and attacking - especially sallies as it is often quite challenging to succeed in getting out of the city to form up before they attack
Units wasting ammo in sieges hacks me off too, endlessly firing at will into the wall because a unit is beyond it.
But i do enjoy sieges both defending and attacking - especially sallies as it is often quite challenging to succeed in getting out of the city to form up before they attack
Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul:
I found out that as as soon as the defender has at least one archer unit, it's better to bring ladders instead of towers.
Personally, I never use towers or rams on stone walls.I found out that as as soon as the defender has at least one archer unit, it's better to bring ladders instead of towers.
My standard build is two saps plus two ladders. The ladders being mere backups just in case something goes wrong with the saps.
I love watching a wall collapse with an archer units on it. Half an enemy cohort fall to their death in an instant.
I had an interesting seige/sally battle last night. My former City Garrison was besieging its home city of Halicarnassus. It consisted of nothing but Archers and Town Watch plus the former governor and so although over a 1,000 had no chance of taking the city which had risen in a Gladiatorial revolt. I've seen Town Watch slaughtered by Gladiators before and so had determined to starve the city into submission until I could bring up the extermination squad.
I had built saps but had no intention of using them, however, the defenders were clearly anxious and decided to sally forth and drive my besieging army off. I figured I stood no chance and so deployed my army back and to the right of the gate with its left flank resting on the city wall and its front covered by archers.
The gladiators emerged from the city gate and launched a mass charge driving in my archers and then routing the two right hand cohorts of the watch near the wall. However, the left of my line held and my archers poured flaming arrows into the struggling gladiators breaking some of their units that fled back towards the wall. My generals cavalry units attack those enemy chasing my right flank units in the rear completing the rout and allowing me to rebuild my line. This time with the archers at lined up at right angles to the watch so that they could keep firing even into the melee.
When the second charge came the archers showered it with flaming arrows and my Town Watch (now on Guard mode) held their ground as the Gladiators got deep fried and finally broke and fled back inside the walls.
I thought that was the end of the battle. Then I realised that it wasn't being timed for some reason and that I had my saps built. So, I used my saps to break down the city walls and fought my way into the city, lining the walls with archers to drive off the gladiators and my Town Watch to bait them forward into attacking, wearing them down and finishing them off with my Generals Cavalry.
It was a long battle and the enemy leader still put up a brave fight in the City Square but amazingly I recaptured the city with its own garrison and put the entire revolting population to the sword.
I use a mix of ladders and towers. The towers go to the wall section that holds the defenders. The ladders go to undefended wall sections. The tower provides the pushing unit some cover from the arrow fire, and if it happens to make it to the wall without igniting, it will take a bit for the unit to climb up and be ready to jump out. The ladder guys get on top of the wall faster, and a lot of the time the wall defenders near the gate turn and start marching off to face the ladder guys. Then the guys from the siege tower jump out and catch them from behind.
Great story man but I think you started hallucinating about here:
One of my favourities was a desperate defense of a recently taken Numidian town (with only wooden walls) which I had "liberated" from the Egyptains as the Scipii... It was the first time I ever heard the "defending against a siege" speech (very inspirational) and the battle was a blood soaked nightmare of desperately blocking the town roads, charges, routs and counter charges...
The egyptains (the attackers) had three battering rams and knock though the gate and the wall to either side... Then the charge through each breach was led by chariots... We only have legionaries (including one unit or Praetorians, Velites, a unit of merc hoplites (life savers) and a young inexperienced general...
Dispite early losses to the chariot charges and the crumbling of the flanks we pinned the bulk of the enemy in a narrow street with the Hoplites and then showered the with pilums and got stuck in hand to hand...
Almost went pear shaped when the last of the egytians (leader's chariots and the archers) charged into the melee.. But then the brave young general rapidly manuvoured through the streets ot fal on the rear of the enemy , routing the last of them! Unfortunately he and all his men fell doing this...
There where only a few hoplites and Praetorians left in the end... A bitter sweet victory but the town was safe....
God, I am getting emotional just remembering it...
Originally Posted by Didz:
before grabbing their bows and starting to fire on the greek units below them from the gate towers.
before grabbing their bows and starting to fire on the greek units below them from the gate towers.
One of my favourities was a desperate defense of a recently taken Numidian town (with only wooden walls) which I had "liberated" from the Egyptains as the Scipii... It was the first time I ever heard the "defending against a siege" speech (very inspirational) and the battle was a blood soaked nightmare of desperately blocking the town roads, charges, routs and counter charges...
The egyptains (the attackers) had three battering rams and knock though the gate and the wall to either side... Then the charge through each breach was led by chariots... We only have legionaries (including one unit or Praetorians, Velites, a unit of merc hoplites (life savers) and a young inexperienced general...
Dispite early losses to the chariot charges and the crumbling of the flanks we pinned the bulk of the enemy in a narrow street with the Hoplites and then showered the with pilums and got stuck in hand to hand...
Almost went pear shaped when the last of the egytians (leader's chariots and the archers) charged into the melee.. But then the brave young general rapidly manuvoured through the streets ot fal on the rear of the enemy , routing the last of them! Unfortunately he and all his men fell doing this...
There where only a few hoplites and Praetorians left in the end... A bitter sweet victory but the town was safe....
God, I am getting emotional just remembering it...
Originally Posted by Bob the Insane:
Great story man but I think you started hallucinating about here:
No. As soon as they captured the gate the enemy began dropping to arrow fire from the gatehouse towers.Great story man but I think you started hallucinating about here:
I had no provided any archers, so it must have been some of the Legionnaires who grabbed the bows and manned to arrow slits.
In my first castle siege with a siege tower:
I had my hastati climbing all the way to the top. While they go around to take over arrow towers, they were greeted by a group of whatever poor militia on the wall. They suffered a great deal of losses probably due to the VHard setting, and became shaken. Then I rushed my general close to the wall to cheer for them. Finally them won the duel with only 28 men left.
I had my hastati climbing all the way to the top. While they go around to take over arrow towers, they were greeted by a group of whatever poor militia on the wall. They suffered a great deal of losses probably due to the VHard setting, and became shaken. Then I rushed my general close to the wall to cheer for them. Finally them won the duel with only 28 men left.
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