Sally No More?

[gardibolt]

I was playing the English, M/M, defending a siege of Zaragoza with an inferior force against Spain (no general, since he was on the run from the Inquisition). I thought I would try to wear them down a bit by sallying; in RTW 1.2 you could do this abusively, and it was restricted to once per turn in 1.5, which seemed pretty reasonable. Things went pretty well, and I did some damage to them while losing a handful of men. I retreated back into the city and exited the battle. But instead of getting the message for a successfull sally, I got a message saying that if I exit I will lose this battle. I thought, well, that's weird, but went ahead. I then went back and while I still held the city, 2/3 of the troops were gone. I had a few losses, but I know nothing like that happened.


Bug? Or is sallying no longer permitted? Sallying was as I understand it a big part of medieval siege warfare, so I find it hard to believe that this is intentional. Anyone else try this?

[magnum]

Must have been a bug. I know that I've had trouble ending a battle if a gate is open (which can happen if 1 man in a unit gets stuck outside the walls.) My experience is that I must have everyone inside and all gates closed in order to end a sally successfully.

[Slicendice]

I've sallied but I've always ruined the enemy with my longbowman. They just stand there and get pummeled. Silly AI.

[Joshwa]

I've sallied, got all my people back in the castle, and gone to quit and it's told me that my sally was successful and come up as a draw, so it definately still works.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

I've sallyed out once, and got them all back in for a draw.

I tend to only sally out now if my walls are taking fire from artillery and my towers (ballista or cannon) are taking their time to deal with the threat.

As soon as you put units outside the gate the enemy stops his bombardment and throws his cavalry towards you (often his Generals unit)

And so I've left a unit of light cavalry in every town that might be besieged in order to take the bad guys best mounted units on a personal tour of my towers/archers/mortars. Then, if any are still alive back up the map to charge their gun crews.

Many thanks
SJR

Champion of unsolicited and off-topic advice...

[Musashi]

I've sallyed out once, and got them all back in for a draw.

I tend to only sally out now if my walls are taking fire from artillery and my towers (ballista or cannon) are taking their time to deal with the threat.

As soon as you put units outside the gate the enemy stops his bombardment and throws his cavalry towards you (often his Generals unit)

And so I've left a unit of light cavalry in every town that might be besieged in order to take the bad guys best mounted units on a personal tour of my towers/archers/mortars. Then, if any are still alive back up the map to charge their gun crews.

Many thanks
SJR

Champion of unsolicited and off-topic advice...

You are an evil, evil man. I like it!

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I was playing the English, M/M, defending a siege of Zaragoza with an inferior force against Spain (no general, since he was on the run from the Inquisition). I thought I would try to wear them down a bit by sallying; in RTW 1.2 you could do this abusively, and it was restricted to once per turn in 1.5, which seemed pretty reasonable. Things went pretty well, and I did some damage to them while losing a handful of men. I retreated back into the city and exited the battle. But instead of getting the message for a successfull sally, I got a message saying that if I exit I will lose this battle. I thought, well, that's weird, but went ahead. I then went back and while I still held the city, 2/3 of the troops were gone. I had a few losses, but I know nothing like that happened.


Bug? Or is sallying no longer permitted? Sallying was as I understand it a big part of medieval siege warfare, so I find it hard to believe that this is intentional. Anyone else try this?

Did you let the timer run out? or did you exit before it ran out.

If the timer ran out its a draw without additional losses. If you exit the battle, it could either a loss or draw but with casualties.

[Test112345]

whats sallying?

[Nebuchadnezzar]

whats sallying?

When one of your settlements are besieged and you use your garrison to attack them.

Its risky because you must go outside the settlement to attack and if you loose the battle you could loose your settlement. Its also open to many player exploits as described above.

[Test112345]

how can you do that? i cant move anything into or out of my city if it is besieged. hmm...i'd do this often because a)fighting in feilds is wawy easier for me and b)i think city batles are much harder in this game for everyone anyway.

[Oaty]

It's a loss if they have artillery even if you destroy thiers. The game should at least make a note warning the besieging army has artillery and a sally will be a loss if they don't route.

It is however limited to certain artillery units, I think if it's considered very long range it is a loss

[phred]

how can you do that? i cant move anything into or out of my city if it is besieged.

Just select your army in the city and right click on the enemy army besieging your city.

[gardibolt]

It's a loss if they have artillery even if you destroy thiers. The game should at least make a note warning the besieging army has artillery and a sally will be a loss if they don't route.

It is however limited to certain artillery units, I think if it's considered very long range it is a loss

Ah, that's it then. The Spanish had a pair of catapults (which I destroyed). So the game treats that as a loss instead of a draw, and imagines that those defunct catapults killed 2/3 of my men after I withdrew? Odd, but at least now I know what happened.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

You are an evil, evil man. I like it!

Ah, their only cheapo Hobilars... You can pick them up with points from your supermarket loyalty card...

Sally forth!... For the glory...For the hell of it!

[Hashashiyyin]

for some reason, whenever you exit a battle before you win, no matter how well you've done, it counts as a lose. It sucks because I used to use a stack or two of horse archers to harass enemy stacks before they got to my main army. If you try that now you lose and with it, most of your men.

[gardibolt]

So there is no more sallying for harassment, only do it if you can wipe out the besiegers....that's a tall order for 4 units besieged by a full stack. Looks like I'm going to need larger garrisons.

[KARTLOS]

i got the impression that sallying wasnt possible any more as well - i had a very similar experience to that you described in you first post and ive never tried sallying since.