Quote Originally Posted by 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.
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....