Sieges and Sallying forth

[Heidrek]

I have a couple of questions about sieges.....

A number of times, I've been sieging as castle and the enemy tries to break the siege using troops from outside the province and the garrison sallying.

If I win the battle and continue to hold the province, which troops end up in the castle? Is it just the reminder of those that were originally in there or do they get reshuffled? Lets say 300 enemies flee the battle, do they all go into the castle if possible and the rest flee to another province?

It often seems that even if I defend the province sucessfully, the number of years I have to siege them goes up most of the time?

I'm attacking a province that contains the enemy king. If I win and trap him in the castle, and a relief force arrives to break the siege but fails, can he join those troops that escape to another province or will he be bottled back up in the Castle again?

[macsen rufus]

Having a battle, whether an assault or a sally, prevents any "siege attrition" that year - the only losses that will occur on either side will be those caused during the fighting. In the event of a sally, I believe it resets the "siege clock", so that after the battle it recalculates how long the garrison can survive based on the new reduced garrison size. AFAIK only the garrison returns to the fort after an unsuccessful sally, everyone else escapes back to where they came from. If there's no escape route (eg relieving forces came by sea) I believe they go to a neighbouring safe province, if available, or get caught and ransomed if not. I have noticed that if you have a sally, and kill all the units from the garrison, the fort usually falls, even if you didn't destroy the entire army (making it worth hunting down those few small broken units from inside during the battle). I think it might also vary with whether or not there are relieving forces or just a sally, as I've seen cases where I've reduced the garrison to one or two men, yet next year it is still "about to fall" rather than recalculated.

Kings can sometimes escape, I find it highly implausible, but a few times I've shouted at the game "You can't do that, you cheating !" but it never listens to me

[Ironside]

It often seems that even if I defend the province sucessfully, the number of years I have to siege them goes up most of the time?

It's recalculated with the new garnision size and the remaining food.

I'm attacking a province that contains the enemy king. If I win and trap him in the castle, and a relief force arrives to break the siege but fails, can he join those troops that escape to another province or will he be bottled back up in the Castle again?

He should be bottled up, but as macsen says, thje comp does some odd moves sometimes. The sally got the option to retreat from the province though, but only pre-battle.

[Heidrek]

The sally got the option to retreat from the province though, but only pre-battle.

So if I have a castle under siege that's about to fall, I can sally with the garrison, then at the prebattle stage choose to abandon the province and I wont lose the troops that were previously trapped in the castle?

[FactionHeir]

Pretty much, but you lose the castle that way. I think what the others mean is that you can sally forth, lose the battle, but at least manage to retreat with a few of the sallying force to keep the status quo.

[Heidrek]

Thats very useful to know. I think that this way I could hold out sieges just about indefinitely. When you get down to only a year or two to go, sally forth and sacrifice a few units of the garrison, particularly ones that are sub optimal and up the clock a bit. You were going to lose them all anyway so what's the harm?

[Caerfanan]

Thats very useful to know. I think that this way I could hold out sieges just about indefinitely. When you get down to only a year or two to go, sally forth and sacrifice a few units of the garrison, particularly ones that are sub optimal and up the clock a bit. You were going to lose them all anyway so what's the harm?

Indefinitely, I don't know, your army could be totally eliminated eventually?

[Ironside]

So if I have a castle under siege that's about to fall, I can sally with the garrison, then at the prebattle stage choose to abandon the province and I wont lose the troops that were previously trapped in the castle?

Yes, but if you sally without troops from a neighbouring provinces the AI will often counter with a storming, and even if you win it will still be sieged for that year (aka if it's about to fall it will fall).
And as FactionHier mentioned, by abondoning the castle, your province will fall.

Good way to give more defensive castle battles btw.

[Heidrek]

So, I could bait a castle attack by retreating as much as I can intot the castle, then sallying next turn and perhaps feeding a few suiicide troops to the enemy but keeping my best troops by withdrawing them at the start of the battle?

I can see some nasty castle defenses happening soon!!

[Ironsword]

Yes, it's a great way of keeping those Halbardiers and trebuchets, whilst thinning out the urban militia etc. that take away your valuable food stores at the keep.

Quick siege question. When do your arrow/ballista/catapult towers stop firing? After the wall containing them has been breached? Or after all the men within that part of the castle have been slain?

- My top strategy for sieges, have a small detachment of light cavalry outside the walls. Charge them immediately into the 'usually' isolated siege weapons of the AI. You may lose them, but his troops then have break their way through every gate with potentially huge losses.