Staffing the "Forlorn Hope"

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Continuing my exploration of siege assault tactics....


When you are staffing your Forlorn Hope*, what kind of units do you look for and why?



* For the benefit of the 2-3% of you who do not know this term, the Forlorn Hope is the first unit over the wall or into the primary breach during an assault -- the poor folks who you know are most likely to get the chop despite any prep you've put into the assault.

[saxon_maik]

Continuing my exploration of siege assault tactics....

When you are staffing your Forlorn Hope*, what kind of units do you look for and why?

* For the benefit of the 2-3% of you who do not know this term, the Forlorn Hope is the first unit over the wall or into the primary breach during an assault -- the poor folks who you know are most likely to get the chop despite any prep you've put into the assault.

Several factors influence my choices:

If my troops face a serious cavalry assault then the obvious choices are spearmen or hoplites, backed up by light infantry.

Often the besieged city's barrack type will determine the troops first up the wall or through the breach. I try to use only troops that I can immediately retrain instead of losing some of my higher-level troops.
Example: I play as the Julii and attack Segestica which is held by Dacia. Segestica has militia barracks, so after taking the town I can train hastati but not principes. In that case I use hastati instead of wasting my principes. The principes are too valuable to fend off the Dacian counterattack a few turns later.

Sometimes I also use an all-cavalry attack. This works best with settlements that have only wooden walls. After making three breaches I pour in my equites or other light/heavy cavalry. This is only useful against garrisons of light infantry/skirmishers/archers that have no anti-cavalry bonus or good defense stats. Iberian infantry and Numidian javelinmen come to mind. Warbands and desert infantry are problematic simply because of the sheer numerical advantage in unit size.

There are exceptions to this. Sometimes I deliberately sacrifice a cohort or two of triarii or praetorians when facing tough opposition such as chosen swordmen or armored hoplites. Those one or two units will take the brunt of the enemy's defensive efforts while the rest of my troops get by with minor casualties.

[fallen851]

Heavy infantry (Legionary Cohorts, Chosen Swordmen...) to open the door so I can get the rest of my units in. Depending on what the AI sends to the holes in the wall I create, I usually like to send calvary (in my personal mod, I removed all Legioniare and Praetorian Cav)) to smash through and then immediately go deep into the city so I can use them to flank.

[Monarch]

Merceneries for me, mainly because they are quick additions to my army and I dont care about them much. Especially when it's jsut a wooden wall city, usually I end up with the bottleneck gate. So I have 'waves'. Usually the mercs are heavy infantry, but I dont just sacrafice them, sometimes I'll back them up with light infantry such as Hastati. Then if there's alot of resistance and the enemy havn't fleed to the central square, then in go the principes.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Merc Heavies or Merc Hops, depending on cavalry or infantry defending. Sometimes you have to just attack from every direction with everything you have and hope someone gets through.

[The historian]

Depending on what the opponent has i ussually send med-heavy cavalry to rush in to the flag and after them light cav and whatever infantry to crush the enemy coming down from the wall .If the enemy has a serious defense force that i can,t break with cav (ex hoplites) i send in some heavy infantry to push em back after pepering them as mucch as possible.

[Ordani]

Depends on the faction options. Most cultures get at least one decent heavy infantry unit, I go for the highest experience heavy foot I can muster. Experience is usually the key, since they will have to face nasty odds. The main requirement I have is for a Forlorn to hold long enough for weaker units to get through less defended points and flank the defenders, or in the case of bridge assaults for the archer's flaming arrows to do their bloody business.

If it's actually a full breach in a stone wall, and the faction has really heavy cavalry (just being called "heavy" isn't enough, it has to be something with MASS, like Graal Knights, Cataphracts, or Clibinarii) I will often send light infantry onto the walls to take towers and then ram those through with offensive infantry right behind them.

In BI, Frankish Francisca Heerbans, Saxon Chosen Axemen, and Lombard Berserkers are some of the best. First Cohorts are decent, but mostly because of their extra size, and multiple Plumbatarii/Franciscas are preferable if they can position for throwing. Cavalry-wise nothing even comes close to Clibinarii Cataphracts and Immortals, although the few factions that get Elephants can use those in some situations to decent effect, just watch the rampaging.

In Rome, Arcanii were half-way decent if you could get them to 3+ experience, but the best were Egyptian Axemen and their various barbarian counterparts. Post-Marian Ubarn Cohorts were staples for the Roman factions, but awfully expensive.