City square, capture time.

[matte89]

Playing as pontus the other day my assaulting army was destroyed and yet i had the poor general left, sense he was sutch a bad one whit losy traits i though wy not, he will pay for his failure. Rusht him in trough the gates that he captured and moved to the city square to find it abandon and the timer start counting down.

It was fun to see the AI army of about 1000 strong run around the city walls and not able to get in and kill the lonely general. So i won and the city was mine, (for one turn) the general got his punishment when the city rebeld.

So enough of the story, about the timer. Is there any way to disable it? Like you got to destroy or rout the enemy army to capture the city.

[overweightninja]

I don't think so no. Turn off the battle time limits and then just don't capture the city centre (the cap is stopped if your troops move away from it).
Cheers

[Long lost Caesar]

also, if a SINGLE (Defending) enemy troop sets foot on the plaza, the timer is stopped and it falls back into enemy hands. talk about aggrivating

[TWFanatic]

I never win by the timer, I always win by sluaghtering the enemy to the last man. They make their last stand on the plaza, so I don't see how I could capture it without killing them all!

[Underhand]

I never win by the timer, I always win by sluaghtering the enemy to the last man. They make their last stand on the plaza, so I don't see how I could capture it without killing them all!

It can be done easily enough in a stonewalled town. Lay siege with an inferior force so that the garrison sallies. Rush ladders to the walls on either side of the gate they're coming out of. Get two infantry units on the walls. Their job is now to run all the way to the other side of the town while staying on the walls, so you capture every tower and gatehouse. They'll beat the enemy troops outside the walls because they're always on the inside of the corners, as it were. Then you just beat whatever the defenders still have inside the settlement and capture the town square.

Cheesy, I know. But in my defence, the only time I've done this the AI got stuck sending its last unit out of the gate and the entire army just sat in front of the gatehouse. There was no way I was going to attack them with my small force within range of the walls, so I had to either wait out the timer or be proactive. In any case, I did kill every man, as I beat the half of their army that failed to make it back inside after they noticed I was on the walls before entering the town properly. (The other half got a bit fried rushing back through the gate just as I captured the gatehouse ) And so did Rome fall to Pyrrhus.

[antisocialmunky]

Lol, that reminds me of how the germans took Forts Douaumont in WWI. Funny what one man can do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Douaumont#Capture

In the event, Douaumont fell without a shot being fired. As elements of the German 24th Brandenburg Regiment (6 Infanterie-Division, III Armeekorps) approached on February 25th, most of the garrison had gone to the lower levels of the fort to escape the incessant German shelling with large-calibre guns. A battery of very heavy 420 mm German howitzers were also pounding the fort, damaging the 75 mm gun turret. The French occupants had been without communication with the outside world for some time. The observation cupolas were unoccupied. Only a gunnery team were at their post in the 155 mm gun turret. A squad of about 10 combat engineers led by Pioneer-Sergeant Kunze managed to approach the fort. Visibility was poor due to bad weather. The battlefield was often covered in snow, sleet and fog. French machine gunners in the village of Douaumont held the German column for French colonial troops returning from a patrol and did not risk opening fire on friendly forces. Kunze and his party could thus lower themselves in the moat surrounding the fort. The pillboxes defending the moat were unoccupied. Kunze managed to climb inside and opened an access door. Most of his men however refused to go inside. They felt it was all going too easy and feared an ambush. Kunze found himself inside Douaumont, and wandered around until he found the artillery team. After he captured them he found the main garrison and locked them in their rooms. Douaumont had been given up without a fight.

This constituted a terrible blow to French pride, and furthermore was costly in military terms also: Douaumont proved to be a near invulnerable shelter and operations base to German forces just behind the front line. The Germans came to refer to the place as "Old Uncle Douaumont".

[Bellum]

There have been a few times when the enemy brings reinforcements to a sally that I've rushed my army in the walls and taken the city gate by gate. Then I only have to worry about the guys inside the city, and the guys outside sit there looking a bit disconcerted.

[Underhand]

Haha, I didn't know about that, antisocialmunky. Must have been really embarrassing for the captured soldiers when they found out.

There have been a few times when the enemy brings reinforcements to a sally that I've rushed my army in the walls and taken the city gate by gate. Then I only have to worry about the guys inside the city, and the guys outside sit there looking a bit disconcerted.

That's cheating (yes, I am aware of the irony of that statement). I rush towards the reinforcements and defeat them ASAP before focusing on the garrison. This approach is good because it is easier to defeat the parts in turn than the whole at once, and because the garrison has to walk quite far to get to you, so they'll be tired as well and will have further to run once you break them. It's just a shame that there's a bug with pursuing routing units in a sally if you haven't captured any gates. (Your men will suddenly lose any attention span they had, and constantly break off the chase to stare at the pretty clouds. Ooh, that one looks like a duckie!)

[iceman7291]

also, if a SINGLE (Defending) enemy troop sets foot on the plaza, the timer is stopped and it falls back into enemy hands. talk about aggrivating

I hate that so much, which is why I like Medieval 2 Total War way better. It goes by majority, so if you have more than the enemy, whether attacking or defending, you control the square.