My first castle assault as defender...

[Roark]

(English/GA/1258/High/2.0)

Well, last night I experienced my first castle assault... on the receiving end, and DAMN it was fun.

Alfonze, the King of Spain, assaulted my Castle (with ballista towers), which they had beseiged two years earlier. I guess the siege casualties were getting a bit annoying for him, hehehe...

In the red corner: My latin opponent was packing 2 units of Royal Knights, 1 Pav Crossbowmen, 3 archers, and a unit of Feudal Sergeants.

In the blue corner: I had remnants (under 50% strength) of 2 FMAAs and 2 Militia Sergeants. Roughly equivalent to 1 of each.

I had all my men locked in the inner courtyard, safe in the knowledge that he had no siege engines, and few assault troops. Nevertheless, he made a move which I wasn't expecting, and which proved to be reasonably effective: His full squad of Pav Crossbowmen started inching up the hill towards me, with the rest of his army staying just out of my towers' bowshot. The unit took light casualties, but were mainly protected by their Pavises. Before I knew it, they were under the shadow of my outer wooden stockade, and hammering away with their melee weapons.

I scrambled my troops, charged through the portcullis, and arrived under my outer walls just as they hit 100% damage (and fell to the ground with a crash). I was pretty surprised by how quickly the wall came down, and therefore how effective his move was (initially anyway).

The Pavise Crossbowmen tried to haul ass inside to set up a defensive wall, as the rest of his army started the climb up the hill to my castle. My FMAAs and Militia Sarges fell upon them in a desperate attempt to route the unit before the rest of the army arrived. The Pavs were decimated. I ordered my men to get back inside the inner defences, as the Royal Knights charged over the lip of the hill, and the portcullis clanged shut in the face of King Alfonse. This was exactly what I had hoped for. The 2 units of Royal Knights, whose pursuit of my men had failed, were now used for target practice by every arrow and ballista tower in the complex, while the rest of his army struggled up the hill. It was butchery. Switching to loose formation didn't slow the casulaties, and one of the RK units routed at 5 men.

The Spanish Feudal Seargents had finally arrived and were busy getting hot oil poured on them. After a ballista bolt took out one of their men, they began to waver. My gatehouse was at 80% damage, so I grabbed a remnant of FMAA and of Militia Sarges, opened the portcullis, and charged them in a suicide run to the outer defences. I wasn't expecting them to return.

The timing was perfect. The Feudal Sarges routed, shortly followed by the second unit of Royal Knights after Alfonse's lucky death (courtesy of my arrow towers), and my troops chased them down the hill and out of my province.


OK, so maybe a little long-winded, but "you had to be there". It was lots of fun seeing my boys (which were my worst troops at the time) hold on like that, and I've never been the defender in a castle assault before. Awesome.

[Martok]

Sweet battle, Roark. Nice timing with your men charging out of the gate.

[Mount Suribachi]

Yep, Castle battles are fun, shame there's not more of them. Nice timing with the charges, though I would probly have let them take the outer courtyard (those wooden walls are as much use a chocolate fireplace).

I still remember a castle defense of mine in VI, as the Saxons with the Vikings assaulting and that creeping feeling of impending doom I got as I realised the Vikings were going to take my castle and there was nothing I could do to stop them...

[Knight Templar]

Yep, Castle battles are fun, shame there's not more of them.

Right, AI usually assaults my castle 1-2 times per campaign (mostly Forts). I'd love to see them assaulting Citadel

[dgfred]

Fun battle and excellent post!

[Procrustes]

Right, AI usually assaults my castle 1-2 times per campaign (mostly Forts). I'd love to see them assaulting Citadel

I just got the Horde to assault my citadel - when I can I'll post pictures in the "lots of bodies" thread. I was outnumbered something like 20:1 - I won by a hair's breadth. (Them having no seige weapons, and me having an organ gun and a seven-star Boyar general, sure made a difference! Unfortunately the organ gun only had something like 8 shots, after that it was just hand-to-hand.)

[dgfred]

Lurking forward to the pics!

[Odin]

Curious is there is some condition or trigger to getting a castle battle? I have been attacked many times in my provinces but dont seem to get them.

[Procrustes]

Curious is there is some condition or trigger to getting a castle battle? I have been attacked many times in my provinces but dont seem to get them.

The horde seems prone to it - build up Khazar before they arrive and I'll bet you can get them to assault you there. I've been assaulted a couple of times in other games recently; once by the French - I think to avoid an excomm, and once by some rebels in a cut-off island province. The first was a glorious but fateful last stand for my men; the second was a glorious narrow victory for a general who went on to earn 8 stars.

It's been said here that you can sometimes provoke an assault by sallying with only the troops in your castle. I mean, don't bring in any outside troops when you sally. The AI may choose to assault you instead. (I can't yet vouch for this method myself.)

[Geezer57]

Curious is there is some condition or trigger to getting a castle battle? I have been attacked many times in my provinces but dont seem to get them.

I think the biggest single factor in triggering an AI assault against your fortifications is the ratio between your garrison and the capacity of the stronghold. If the AI figures you're not going to starve for a looooooong time, then it's much more likely to assault. Siege times can get very long when a small garrison is in a large capacity fortification - so the AI jumps in instead of waiting forever.

[dgfred]

So you have to guess what the perfect ratio is for men/capacity/seige-time,

etc....and then the AI STILL will not always cooperate .

[Odin]

I think the biggest single factor in triggering an AI assault against your fortifications is the ratio between your garrison and the capacity of the stronghold. If the AI figures you're not going to starve for a looooooong time, then it's much more likely to assault. Siege times can get very long when a small garrison is in a large capacity fortification - so the AI jumps in instead of waiting forever.

That sounds pretty logical and to be frank I dont normally allow garrisons to ween away, if its lost its lost I normally counter attack or give up the province. I will have to rethink that in the future for potential siege battles !

[Geezer57]

That sounds pretty logical and to be frank I dont normally allow garrisons to ween away, if its lost its lost I normally counter attack or give up the province. I will have to rethink that in the future for potential siege battles !

If you're wanting to trigger an AI assault against your defenses, there's nothing better than a very small (but elite and well-led) garrison. If the enemy lacks siege weapons, you can do absolutely astronomical casualties against them. After all, your troops only have to hold the gatehouse, while the fortification does the rest.

[Budwise]

Right, AI usually assaults my castle 1-2 times per campaign (mostly Forts). I'd love to see them assaulting Citadel

I would love to see them vs a fortress. Even if I had only 1 man, I wonder if they would make it in without siege engines.

[Geezer57]

I would love to see them vs a fortress. Even if I had only 1 man, I wonder if they would make it in without siege engines.

You can set this type of situation up in Custom Battles: pick a map with the Fortress, make your faction the defender, and give the AI a bunch of money. Then let the bloodbath begin!

[Procrustes]

You can set this type of situation up in Custom Battles: pick a map with the Fortress, make your faction the defender, and give the AI a bunch of money. Then let the bloodbath begin!

True, but I believe that the AI can never pick more than 16 units in a custom battle. Give 'em a lot of money and they attack with 16 very good units. Fun, but not the same as facing 20,000 horde troops.

It took forever, but I started a game as Novogrord in early just so I could make sure I got to a citadel in Khazar before the horde arrived. Very long, very fun battle. I managed to get a fortress in Muscovoy at the same time, but that wasn't were the horde arrived. The big disappointment is that they didn't bring any seige weapons - if I ever do it again I'll make sure to build a seige engineer in Khazar, too. (I build a +2 armorer there and all the horde troops had gold armor.)