Is this cheating?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

As for the OP, I wouldn't say that is cheating. However, if you feel it is an exploit, you can make a house rule about not doing it to make things more of a challenge.

For the bridge battles, that really isn't a cheat either, but I try to avoid it. Sometimes I will purposely do it, though. Like when an enemy won't stop sending stacks after me and I just want to end the war. It is a whole lot easier to not have to fight a real battle every single turn.

[Intranetusa]

As for the OP, I wouldn't say that is cheating. However, if you feel it is an exploit, you can make a house rule about not doing it to make things more of a challenge.

For the bridge battles, that really isn't a cheat either, but I try to avoid it. Sometimes I will purposely do it, though. Like when an enemy won't stop sending stacks after me and I just want to end the war. It is a whole lot easier to not have to fight a real battle every single turn.

As for fighting multiple stacks, when I encounter so many enemy stacks, sometimes I listen to some music/read a book and "mostly" let the battle run by itself...if I suffer huge casualties then so be it, it's more realistic that way since you can be expected to win every battle with minimal loses (due to AI's stupidity).

[runes]

i lost a bridge battle once :(

[Intranetusa]

i lost a bridge battle once :(

Fo shame! The only honorable course left for you to take is to fall upon your own sword!

[konny]

i lost a bridge battle once :(

Me too,twice. And that was not in one of the earliest games that made in EB.

In the first incident I had hired a unit of Merc Iphikratians as phalanx because I had none of myself around. That didn't do, Iphikratians are whatsoever but no real phalanx.

The second was a result of AI spamming elites: When 6 units of naked fanatics want to cross a bridge, there is nothing that can stop them from doing so.

[Watchman]

Regarding the OP, meh. Lightning sorties aiming to destroy the attacker's siege equipement and therefore factual ability to actually storm the fortress were very much par for the course historically. Heck, fortresses typically enough had purpose-built sally ports for the job, and canny defenders sometimes made holes in their own walls to mount a surprise attack... Granted they weren't usually done in the middle of an assault, but RTW sieges are somewhat abstract anyway.