defending or attacking walls

[brokguitar]

Sorry I don't know how to edit my messages. I was also curious if anyone has compiled a list of retinues that are tradeable? If so, can someone link me?
Thanks

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

Spears are definately no good for wall defense. Spears get a bonus vs. cavalry, but swords get a bonus vs. spears. Since you won't be finding any horsies 50 meters up on your walls, spears are just a liability. Put them down at your gates if the enemy army is cavalry-heavy.

I use Janissaries to do wall defense, they are your one-unit-does-all bunch of guys. I'd say halberds are the best for taking walls, because most of the time their long weapons can peg the single-file enemies as they come in one by one and massacre them with little to no losses. Swords are also good for walls. You really can't go wrong with swords - just make sure your sword unit is better than the one that's attacking. Then again, any unit that's defending a wall gets huge attack/defense bonuses anyway, so sometimes an inferior unit that's defending can actually defeat an elite unit that's attacking. Case in point: my Naffatun regularly beat Feudal Knights in sieges when I'm defending, despite the Feudal Knights being almost the best sword unit in the game stat-wise.

So in summary, I go with halberds or polearms to defend walls. Spears are no good. Swords are good too, especially when you're using those elite archer units that can double as effective sword-armed melee units, like Retinues, ottoman infantry, guard archers, and Janissary or Cossack Musketeers. Being able to soften up an attacking enemy with missiles before engaging them while they have to ascend your walls always gives you an enormous advantage.

[Murfios]

Happy New Year.


-Murfios

[akodo]

As far as i've seen, fighting on walls is very much diffrent than on the ground. Inferior wall defenders can easily destroy units that would normally cut them to pieces, so having peasents defend against dis. feaudal knights isn't such a ludecris idea.
As for attacking walls, the thing to look for is attack speed. Even heavily armored 2 handed swordsmen and axemen will fall to the defenders if they climb one-by-one, so you need to look for units that can swiftly kill those around them to secure some more space to fight in. Swords do well, and spearmen are also quite good.

[Quillan]

I've seen my town militia send off dismounted chivalric knights on a wall before. The most important factor to keep in mind when contemplating assaulting a city or castle is this:

You'll take far more casualties from the towers than you ever will from the defenders

It's missile fire from the towers that causes most of the casualties. It will kill some friendlies too, but the ratio isn't 1:1, it seems more like 3 attackers for every defender who happens to get in the way of a bolt. What's more, the towers seem to do more casualties than any missile unit would. I don't know if it's that they have an absurdly high attack rating, they have the effective against armor ability, the game treats them as shooting at the rear of the unit so it doesn't count shields as well as defense skill, or some combination of the above.

If you have artillery, destroy the towers near where you're going to launch the assault at the walls; you'll do much better that way. On the other hand, if you have artillery it might be better just to breach the walls and make a dash for the square. It depends on circumstances.

[A. Smith]

If you have artillery, destroy the towers near where you're going to launch the assault at the walls; you'll do much better that way. On the other hand, if you have artillery it might be better just to breach the walls and make a dash for the square. It depends on circumstances.

Or a combo of both, if you have enough ammo.