No.. it can't be.

[Timoleon]

I'm just curius, what was the composition of your 2830-men army? I guess you didn't have enough Thureophoroi or peltasts (to win the wall battle) and archers/slingers to kill the elephants from the safety of the walls.

[Chris1959]

Should have starved them out.

[Celtic_Punk]

Should have starved them out.

Baktria does not have the luxury of time man. You gotta be fast or youll be swept out.

[whatthehell6]

Baktria does not have the luxury of time man. You gotta be fast or youll be swept out.

I tend to disagree, in the very beginning yes. If you're quick enough though you can sweep to the west and take a few AS settlements and with luck Pahlava and Saka won't attack you. Then you have all the time in the world to starve them, considering it is only 8 seasons (maybe 6, I don't remember).

Basically, I think that it is possible. In my current Baktria campaign I did that exact thing I describe about 20 years in; starved, essentially the same army, into sallying and defeated them because their numbers were very dwindled.

[Tellos Athenaios]

I'm just curius, what was the composition of your 2830-men army? I guess you didn't have enough Thureophoroi or peltasts (to win the wall battle) and archers/slingers to kill the elephants from the safety of the walls.

Reconsider that statement when looking at the actual army composition of those Indos valley cities.... By the time those cities have sorted their recruitment out, then those armies are worthy of a human player. Actually it is one of the few areas where the slave AI does recruit some pretty nasty armies, armies I could've thought of myself for a highly effective campaign army.

[Terraforce]

Actually I had 2 units of Persian archers and 2 units of a new kind I decider to try out. I had 4 units of skirmishers. 4 phalanx, some light infantry the rest cav. The thing is is that they had so many archers and slingers that a good 70% of the front wall had some kind of ranged unit on it. Example I had a unit of skirmishers with ladders. By the time I finally reached the walls I had 64 men left out of a unit of about 210 it was. I did manage to get one unit of phalanx on the walls only to be promptly swarmed and destroyed. Honestly most of my men did not even make it through the gates. One phalanx did, it went through the hole in the wall made by the sap point, only to be charged by a unit of elephants while forming up. On a good note I did manage to kill the general.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Actually I had 2 units of Persian archers and 2 units of a new kind I decider to try out. I had 4 units of skirmishers. 4 phalanx, some light infantry the rest cav. The thing is is that they had so many archers and slingers that a good 70% of the front wall had some kind of ranged unit on it. Example I had a unit of skirmishers with ladders. By the time I finally reached the walls I had 64 men left out of a unit of about 210 it was. I did manage to get one unit of phalanx on the walls only to be promptly swarmed and destroyed. Honestly most of my men did not even make it through the gates. One phalanx did, it went through the hole in the wall made by the sap point, only to be charged by a unit of elephants while forming up. On a good note I did manage to kill the general.

You should never engage in combat on a wall. You will always be at a disadvantage there. Especially if it is phalanx you are using on a wall. Phalanx's main purpose is to engage the enemy with its pikes, keeping the enemy a sufficient distance away with the long sarissas, not to battle in tight spaces with shortswords.

You should attack a walled town with couple of groups of your units attacking the town at different sides but at the same time. Have three diversionary groups and one main one. The diversionary groups could be as little and weak as a unit of levy spearmen or skirmishers, just as long as it draws the AI units to away. Try to get the main force to climb an unguarded section of the wall with ladders, capture a gateway, and let the other main units swiftly rush in and take their positions. After this you should have no trouble with the AI. You can also put some missiles on the walls, for extra effect. Archers and especially slingers are real killers when they're shooting from the walls.

[Conqueror]

Ah, the Indian longbowmen! Those guys sure are scary to fight against. And they were holding the walls? Then you should have forgotten about trying an assault; even if your units could have survived the rain of arrows, they'd been butchered in melee by the nasty armor-piercing machete swords

They are perhaps the best unit (cost vs performance) in EB for defending a stone-walled city

[Onehandstan]

ouch... I'm glad my campaign is in europe so I don't have t6o fight those Indian Longbowmen... but .saying that it also meams I can't recruit them.

[Ibrahim]

you should have learned from Alexander the great's India troubles

yeah, India is a nasty place to go to war to.

[Leviathan DarklyCute]

Shitsucks.

[fenix3279]

Shitsucks.

Well said, Leviathan. I think you just discovered my new all time favorite word.
Either way, back on topic for me. That shit does suck.

[Timoleon]

I guess you didn't have enough Thureophoroi or peltasts (to win the wall battle) and archers/slingers to kill the elephants from the safety of the walls.

Reconsider that statement when looking at the actual army composition of those Indos valley cities.... By the time those cities have sorted their recruitment out, then those armies are worthy of a human player. Actually it is one of the few areas where the slave AI does recruit some pretty nasty armies, armies I could've thought of myself for a highly effective campaign army.

This was the way I conquered these cities in my Baktrian campaign a couple a weeks before.
I used 2 units of thureophoroi and 2 units of peltasts to storm simultaneously the wall from different directions and killed the Indian longbowmen, having about 30-50% casualties. When the job was done, I sent on the walls 2 units of eastern slingers and 2 units of persian archers targeting the elephants. Slingshots and flaming arrows killed some of the elephants and made the rest mad, so they started moving around killing their own men. After the elephants where gone, I sent 2-3 phalanxes and my general to kill the rest (mainly Indian spearmen). I have to mention that I play without the battle time limit.
It was a great siege battle, I really enjoyed it.

[bobbin]

When it comes to the city with the stone walls i just starve them out, fighting on walls is bad enough without those machete weilding devils around.
My glorious indo-hellenic army (4 indo-hellenic hoplitai, 2 indo-hellenic agema, 2 indo-hellenic peltasts, 4 indian longbows, 2 sereni) got really badly chewed up invading one of the other towns but that was due to me forgetting about the beefed up elephant stats.
"Ho there Demetrios! do not fret over those elephantoi one volley of our mighty javelins should send them to hades....err maybe two" (stamp.stamp.stamp.)

[Terraforce]

All I know is thank you for alliances. Right now everyone is a war with arche seleukeia. We are all allied against them, Pontos, Ptolemaioi, Hayasdan, Pahlava, and Saka which makes for some good allied battles. Pahlava has been deflecting most of the stack that come my way.

[Cullhwch]

All I know is thank you for alliances. Right now everyone is a war with arche seleukeia. We are all allied against them, Pontos, Ptolemaioi, Hayasdan, Pahlava, and Saka which makes for some good allied battles. Pahlava has been deflecting most of the stack that come my way.

Hmmm. It's interesting that your allies are actually attacking your common enemy. That usually doesn't happen. But as soon as Parthia and the AS sign a ceasefire, crush the nomadic bastards.

[seriousbusiness]

It would depend greatly on the difficulty. On Very Hard and Hard that would be a difficult battle, although on Medium it should have been reasonably winnable. Indian longbows and elephants are especially dangerous, particularly defending walls. I would have starved them out.