Sieges

[Matty]

Is there any way to lengthen the duration of a siege? I find this an annoying feature in that you can build a fortress and unless you man it with 25 peasants it still falls after a couple of years. Surely a small city of this size should resist starvation for a decade even with a sizeable defending force. It would also justify the creation of siege equipment which is currently rendered more or less irrelevant. I always try and role play storming the castle rather than parking an army outside for 3 turns.

Thoughts, anyone?

[macsen rufus]

* Build castle upgrades (not an option once you're fully teched up, though...)
* Use a smaller garrison (1 man garrison usually results in "won't fall without assault", but you're ed when they do assault....)
* When besieged, sally and retreat. When you start a battle the enemy can't assault that year.
* There is a virtue along the lines of "skilled siege commander" (not to be confused with "skilled assault defender" which gives extra command during an assault) or somesuch, which I've only ever seen once on one of my generals, and I don't know how to 'farm' it either, but it did double the length of time a given garrison could hold out once I put him in charge. Very useful, though, if you have to leave a province undefended for a while.

I always assault, I just LOVE my artillery too much to wait it out

[Ludens]

As far as I know, no siege ever lasted longer than a decade. There is a limit to how long you can keep food, even if it is non-perishable. Therefor, I think it rather excesive if it takes three years to starve a small hill fort to surrender. Cities are even worse: there are simply too many people to feed, even if the storehoused are stocked to the limit.

There is a virtue along the lines of "skilled siege commander" (not to be confused with "skilled assault defender" which gives extra command during an assault) or somesuch, which I've only ever seen once on one of my generals, and I don't know how to 'farm' it either, but it did double the length of time a given garrison could hold out once I put him in charge.

I am afraid it cannot be farmed. Only historical heroes have these virtues.

[King Kurt]

I have often found that if the battle screen says the fort etc will fall immediately, it is better to fight, - unless it is close, I always autocalc in this situation - loose then retreat into the fort. The seige then seems to go on for a few years, often long enough for you to get support to the beseiged forces.

[Matty]

As far as I know, no siege ever lasted longer than a decade. There is a limit to how long you can keep food, even if it is non-perishable. Therefor, I think it rather excesive if it takes three years to starve a small hill fort to surrender. Cities are even worse: there are simply too many people to feed, even if the storehoused are stocked to the limit.

True.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sieges

But within the context of the game, there is usually no time to bring up siege equipment before the castle falls, hence making it more or less useless (although I endorse the prettiness of watching your cannons take the place apart) and also rendering the whole lengthy upgrading process useful only for the other building upgrades you then implement. So I role play allowing myself 1 year of sitting back and watching before I have to attack or quit the province. And I don't autocalc as for some reason the AI is very generous to the attacker in terms of casualties - its a bloody affair if I manage the attack (or for that matter defence) personally without siege equipment.....

The virtues of defending / attacking castles come from doing just that.

My 99 peasants and 1 jinette in their fortress will apparently be untroubled by their current besiegers for at least the next 8 years. I'll put the kettle on then....

[Mooks]

Yes, it is ridiculous.

In seiges, I usually carry a seige train right behind hte main army. When a seige does happen, I got enough cannons coming to tear any castle apart.

Its not good to starve a garrison out. The fortification will auto demote.

I have gotten a "Expert seige commander" It was win I had a army stuck behind enemy lines and kept on beating them over and over again in seiges, luckily I had enough mercs available to bring my now skilled commander out of there.

[Geezer57]

I like to use agents to break a siege whenever possible. When flush with cash, a pack of Emmissaries to bribe the enemy General is good (never send just one, 3 or 4 is much better). If it proves to be out of the question to bribe (enemy stubborn or cash lacking), I'll use my best spies (especially after receiving the "it is about to fall" message) to try opening the gates. Either way, you usually get the province with minimal damage, and can put it to work for your realm right away!

[Sensei Warrior]

Its not good to starve a garrison out. The fortification will auto demote.

By "auto demote" do you mean the fortification will automatically drop at least 1 level (like from Castle to Keep)? If you did, I wish I knew that earlier. I've never really paid attention to seiges, but if you're right then I'm going to start paying attention.