Defensive Siege AI...

[ReiseReise]

I've also found that once you punch a certain number of holes through the walls, the defending AI retreats to the city center, at which point they are at the mercy of your arty/missile units. Haven't experimented to find out how many holes, if it works on castles etc, its just something I noticed.

[Old Geezer]

From my experience in Kingdoms the AI does not always abandon the walls in such circumstances. I have shot the walls out from under men on the walls quite often when the AI has a large force in the settlement.

[rvg]

From my experience in Kingdoms the AI does not always abandon the walls in such circumstances. I have shot the walls out from under men on the walls quite often when the AI has a large force in the settlement.

I do not have Kingdoms, but in vanilla game this tactic works time and again.

[ReiseReise]

I actually first noticed it in Americas as Spain, I have never used much arty in vanilla. Punch a few holes in the walls and all the natives group together in the square to receive my lovely gift.

[alpaca]

Yeah I've been using that tactic, too, until I got bored with it and introduced a house rule that forbids using the cats for anything but breaking down the walls.

Besides: This is also the reason why I'm playing with the thought of removing cats/trebs/cannons altogether from my game.

[Cadwallon]

Clausewitz said that an attacker needs a 3 to 1 advantage to ensure victory in a siege situation. The AI needs that when attacking me, but I only need parity to attack his cities.

Storming a city needs to be more costly - there is a reason why long sieges and blockading were favoured. The problem with any AI is that after a while it stops giving you trouble, and you work out what it will do in any given scenario.

I've played VH/VH with most factions and find them almost laughably easy - still enjoy the game though, and every now and then it suprises me.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Interesting....

I've been so focused on the campaign aspect of the game that I haven't bothered too much with reducing casualties unless I have critical battles ahead and I need the troops. Typically I disband troops I don't need anyway, and being lost in battle saves me the trouble.

I will use this tactic if I ever decide I need artillery for some reason. Not sure when or why I would need any.

If I were playing a serious campaign or against a human, I would actually bother with such details. Good tip, though!