Seiges as the defender

[Revelation]

Apologies if this has been raised before, I don't get alot of time to visit these boards.
Playing as the Julii and defending on a Stone wall or anything larger, I find that my troops on the wall itself are prone to , well, just to run off and either start decending via the tower or climbing down the ladder. The only way I seem to have any control over them at all is to click a the point on the wall which I need them to defend and hit the halt button when they get close to it. I can never hold them there in an organised formation. It's always in a rough peltast sort of mixed up formation. Extremely annoying when i'm defending a city which is attacked on 3 fronts, as i'm costantly having to keep the camera moving to check that none of my units has started to run away. Anyone have/had this problem?

[Quietus]

Do you put them on Guard Mode so they won't move? Also if you use skirmishers , disable "skirmish mode" so they won't run away when enemy units are closing in.

[The Stranger]

so???

[Shadar]

Probably the best and easiest method to deal with this problem.. simply string out your Roman legionaries in the deployment stage of the battle on the walls, and put them onto Guard mode (in other words, they will pretty much fight to the death unless they rout.. kinda hard on a wall). Plus, in Guard mode, they are a LOT harder to shove away and return to formation.

That way, you can put your attention to other parts of the town when you are being assaulted. A good idea is to get a strung-out archer unit to support the troops on the walls, does wonders for the amounts you kill, and your troops will last considerably longer time than if they were being slaughtered without any support, at least be able to deal more damage.

Oh. and note that many early Roman troops tend to overcharge very easily probably due to their training status i think it is. If you want them to be nice and good and ordered on the top of the castle, DO NOT ORDER THEM TO ATTACK AFTER THE BATTLE HAS BEGUN, ONLY GUARD AND FIRE AT WILL (ordering them to attack leads to hassles like when they decide to walk OFF the wall to engage by rushing through the gate rather than to stay and fight on the walls). Or if you really have to, order them to walk, since running means they'll overrun the point you want them to get to, and will definitely ruin your nice neat formations. Pretty much view them as an expendable force who's job is to simply cause as much death as possible and delay the enemy (they won't get off the walls fast enough to be any good anyway. Don't expect them to be any good defending elsewhere once they're on a section of the walls.)

If i'm wrong on any of this, you're more than welcome to correct me. This is pretty much what i've gotten from playing so far..

[brutii_warrior]

i have found that in protecting a wall it is easier to string out your archers on the wall to cause fear and rain down death to the enemy.

i almost never put foot men on the walls.
i have the archers do their stuff and put the real fighting units in the town center for the final fight.

the archers will do super damage to the enemy and will slightly hold off the enemy when ladders and stuff come to your walls.(i always have at the LEAST 6 archer units to protect the walls)

after the rain of arrows if your attacks are still all big and bad, set up a thick formation of spearmen and other stuff to really slow down the enemy charge on your center.
i would then bring your cav. around to the back of the final battle to start plucking off the enemy.


((( i don't get to defend my castles very often so their may be an even better way, but on siege i know alot, and on a flat land battle i am supreme)))
((( 296 flat land battles won out of 316)))

[Mikeus Caesar]

I've had the problem where my men think it's a good idea to see what's at the bottom of the ladder or siege tower. It's annoying. What's even worse is if you attack a city, and think you've killed all units on the walls, and then rush all your men to the town center and capture it, only to notice that a small group of enemies is still alive, having sneaked down one of your towers or ladders and are standing around outside. That means you can't reach them in 3 minutes, so you're total crushing victory is stolen from you.

[Shadar]

I found one really easy way to counter that... Use your Field army as your siege army. When you're attacking, send LOADS of Infantry storming their walls, taking their gates and then finally rushing into the city (cavalry are fairly useless in cities anyways, because they get bogged down and slaughtered fast). Leave your cavalry outside to mop any troops sneaking around...