Castle Garrisons for MTW

**Martok** · 10-05-2006, 22:16

CrossLOPER pretty much has the right of it: it all depends.

For garrison duties in the more secure interior provinces, a militia unit or two will usually suffice. If you're looking to garrison a border province that can both withstand a protracted siege AND repel a castle assault, then the best setup is usually a combination of CMAA's, Halbs, and/or Chivalric Foot Knights. Which precise combination of units you use depends, however: on cost, availability, and the size of the castle you're garrisoning. (Citadels & Fortresses can house 3-4 units without starving immediately; but Forts & Keeps can only hold 1 or maybe 2 units for any length of time.) In the end, you just have experiment a bit and see which combination works best for you!

Oh, and in case I didn't say so before, welcome to the Org Ledge.

**Digital** · 10-09-2006, 07:25

My garrison usually consists of 1 spearman(Chivalric Sergeant), one swordman(Chivalric men-at-arms), and one armour piercing(usually axeman, or best if it is also good against horses, example Jannisay Heavy Infantry, billmen, halbadier, etc). Usually the computer send spearman to assault your castle so swordman is a must. Spearman can hold back horses while the armour piercing flank and cut the horses to pieces.

**Kavhan Isbul** · 10-09-2006, 20:20

Everything has been said, except that keeping a depleted high valor heavy cavalry unit as a general may also help. In such situations lonely horsemen tend to turn into jedis, especially if they have a virtue such as great warrior, killer instinct, pride, etc. It happens all the time for the AI, and it has happened to me once on expert. If the AI has too many units, then the time limit will be extended and finally, your few infantry units will eventually get depleted and tired, and subsequently destroyed. In that case a lonely Jedi who holds off seemingly forever may be your only chance of getting to the end of the time limit.
Such cavalrymen are perhaps the only garrison worth it maintaining when expoecting a siege in a keep. Otherwise the keep will probably only hold out for two years at the maximum even with 60 or so men inside. That assumes of course that you can only keep several men in a province without causing a rebellion. I do not think maintaining a garrison for the purpose of a siege in a fort is worth it - forts for a year at the maximum with anything more than 20 men inside and besides, if the AI storms it, it can simply break through the wall quite quickly, and there is no pitch and very few arrows causing damage to its units.

**Ciaran** · 10-10-2006, 11:06

Castle garrisons? Whatever for? You need a defense army in provinces that share a border with other factions. Either you win the field battle, then you don´t need a castle garrison, or you lose it, then whatever is left of your army retreats to the castle anyways, either to be starved out or (hopefully) relieved.

**CountMRVHS** · 10-10-2006, 15:27

Hence the tiny number of castle assaults most players see in MTW.

It can be fun to goad the AI into assulting by leaving your province with a tiny but seigeworthy garrison. If the siege will last 3 or more years, usually the AI will assault, and when they do you can inflict massive losses on them if you're prepared for it. This can also be a way of defending a border province more cheaply than by having a full-stack defensive army -- useful if you're playing a small faction. Retreat to the castle, fight off the assault, and then counterattack their depleted force with reinforcements the following year to drive them out of your province for good. Although I wouldn't recommend this tactic with anything less than a castle, preferably with ring wall (but no catapult towers -- they tend to wreck your own walls). After building a keep, my next build is usually the curtain wall, which adds a layer of stone wall rather than flimsy wood that the AI can just hack down.

I *do* wish there was another option before a defensive battle wherein you could choose to withdraw everyone *except* those forces sitting in the castle. That way you could leave a suitable garrison in every castle and not worry about having a larger force outside the castle in the same province.

**Ledge** · 10-10-2006, 17:51

After quite a bit more playing castle seiges seem to be a nice tool in the strategic armoury. Fighting lots of big battles against 9* Byz generals with lots of Varangian Guards and armoured cavaly was sapping my military strength and preventing me advancing quickly. With strong castle garrisons I could dictate the strategic position and maintain strong, mobile field armies not tied down in province defending. Tying up large Byz armies in seige operations meant I could take the offensive elsewhere before coming back to the rescue. It also drew the Byzantines away from my advance up through the Middle East taking his richest provinces on the way to joining my field armies in Asia Minor.
At a minimum I used a keep with outer walls which would hold out for 2-3 years with my preferred scale of garrison. Obviously such garrisons need to be lean and mean with high stats. As such I ended up using 1 Chivalric Sergeant, 1 CMAA and 2 halberdiers in each garrison which proved effective in chopping up the Byz armoured units. I relied on the castle defenders for missile firepower though I did use an Organ Gun occassionally for a nice demoralising blast! Furthermore I didn't use any cavalry or high ranking generals as they were more use in the field armies. All in all a nice little change to my usual tactics the only problem being castle seiges, whether as defender or attacker, tend to be a little on the dull side!

**Kavhan Isbul** · 10-11-2006, 17:54

I agree that a full cavalry unit is more useful in other battles, but I always find myself having depleted units of early royal knights/ghulams that I cannot retrain in High, and then in late I have the same problem with the high royal knights and any early ones that remain. If I use a general with only a few men, he is completely inefficient in a battle, taking the place of a full unit. Also, if his participation is limited or none in a few battles in a row, which tends to happen when he is the only cavalrymen left of the whole unit, then he gets a vice that decreases morale which tends to negate the bonus from the stars. In a few instances such lonely generals have been quite useful in castle defenses, but I am sure they are not really needed in most cases.