Anyone Else Hate Assaulting Settlements?

[HoreTore]

The obvious answer is to wait it out. That only takes 2 turns, and you can then use your archers to pepper them, the general to charge and the spear militia as reserves.

It doesn't take any more time than what would have been used to construct siege equipment anyway.

[Foz]

The obvious answer is to wait it out. That only takes 2 turns, and you can then use your archers to pepper them, the general to charge and the spear militia as reserves.

It doesn't take any more time than what would have been used to construct siege equipment anyway.

I tend to agree here, the waiting is not too awful at the beginning of the game, especially since you get to fight an easier sally where you're likely to have substantially more survivors which means you can decisively attack somewhere else much sooner (more men survive to be used in other endeavors).

Be careful though: with a force that small, you can still lose the sally.

[Didz]

Assuming you have the battle timer off I would recommend a systematic approach to any seige or assault.

Breach the walls (Not the gate) preferrably opposite one of the main raods to the settlement centre. If you have any artillery take out any dangerous looking towers first.

Having made the breach move forward your missile troops and place them as close to the breach as possible so that they fire through it into the defenders on the other side. (You will probably need to limit firing to one unit at a time, otherwise you are wasting missiles.)

If the enemy bunch on the approaches to the city centre as they sometimes do then then use massed fire arrows to thin their ranks and panic them.

If the enemy fall back from the breach and approachs to the town centre then move your best heavy infantry through the breach and order them to block the approach roads, remembering to cover the approaches from right and left not just the main route to the centre (especially if the enemy has cavalry). Choose this location with care preferably just behind a point where the street narrows and never with a side road just behind one of your flanks (unless you have a spare unit to block that too).

Having established a foothold inside the walls move selected units of missile troops through and deploy them just ahead of your blocking force on the road to the town centre. (Don't let them fire at will, they will just waste arrows in house walls, choose deliberate targets and use fire arrows if the fire is parabollic)

Move the blocking force and missile screen forward slowly preferably using the overwatch system where one group stands firm and the other moves.

Let the missile unit trigger counter attacks by the defenders along the street and then kite the attackers onto the heavy infantry or spearmen and let them deal with the attack. (Remember to switch 'Skirmish mode off' on the missile unit otherwise it will do really weird things, and don't leave your withdrawal too late as missile troops tend to dither before running.)

Rinse and repeat, until your assault group reaches the town centre or the enemy runs out of troops, or both. Upon reaching the town centre don't move anything inside the flagged objective area. Move forward and deploy your heavy infantry around the edge and then march any remaining missile units forward and empty the rest of your missiles into the defenders clustered around the objective.

If you run out of arrows before killing them all bring up your cavalry to deliver the 'coupe de gras' or merely have your infantry finish them.

I find this minimises my casualties during an assault and the only real threat is usually the General's Personal Bodyguard who can normally chew up the blocking force if its formation isn't solid enough to prevent penetration.

The AI seems to do best when the human player rushes the breach and then attempts to rush on to the town centre. Units get very distended in the narrow streets and if not allowed to reform regularly become easy meat for defending cavalry. Its much better to force the defenders to come to you and suffer this disorganisation themselves instead.

[Daveybaby]

I find myself autocalcing sieges more and more lately. Not in order to reduce losses (i actually find the way it applies losses equally among your troops to be fairly annoying) but because i find them to be a bit of a chore.

Camera control is really tricky around the walls, it's really hard to get units deployed where you want them inside the city, and, at the end of the day, its just not difficult enough (archers on the walls should be cutting you to pieces but theyre not - as discussed in that recent thread).

Also they tend to take ages - after the initial breakthrough there's often that long dragged out bit where the two bunched up armies slog it out along one road. In theory i should send units around the back to flank them but it takes so long to do that i can never be bothered.

[Didz]

I tend to keep myself amused by reading the gravestones in the churchyard and just enjoying the scenery. I find I can spend more time watching the action during seiges because there is less tactical movement going on that has to be monitored. So, you can enjoy watching your favorite spearman kick an enemy archer in the crotch before stomping on his head. Getting the camera down and dirty at street level really makes you appreciate the graphic's, but its difficult to do on the battlefield because there is too much going on.

[Gaius Terentius Varro]

I tried a RTW 1.5 siege and must say it has improved immensely in EB. The units in RTW did't care if you moved the siege tower around, they never manned walls to repell new threats after initial placement and basically never responded to any changes.

[_Tristan_]

If you run out of arrows before killing them all bring up your cavalry to deliver the 'coupe de gras' or merely have your infantry finish them..

Actually, it's the "coup de grâce" but you've narrowed it to essentials...

I concur with your strategy on sieges, with a few variations here and there.

[Empirate]

I totally agree with Didz: In a siege, you are finally able to get a closer look at the awesome graphics of this game. I really like to do that - although there are probably a few too many siege battles in the game. The graphics are really nice, of course, but in a field battle you don't get much out of them. It's best to stay zoomed out to the max in order to keep everything under control. It's not as bad as in Supreme Commander, but still... so the tactically less challenging siege battles provide nice breathing room to actually see those finishing moves we all got so worked up about before the game was out.
(The one I like the most is when a polearm wielder draws the feet out from an enemy soldier, causing him to fall down. Then he delivers a punishing two-handed stroke from on high. Ouch!)