Does any one starve the enemy???

[Darius]

Slingers are great because they're ap (Armor piercing) which means they attack any unit and treat it as if it were of an armor value half that which it already is. Early on slingers are only so-so, but once they get about three chevrons you can expect to see them start flying through the experience levels as they continue to tear through enemies.

I originally tried to starve out hostile cities, but it seems like everytime I do my generals get the "Indecisive Attacker" nonsense. I could understand getting that if I outnumbered the enemy at least 2:1, but when they got me practically matched in numbers and a military savant (which seem to be a dime a dozen in the rebel settlements tbh) to lead them, that's just stupid.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I originally tried to starve out hostile cities, but it seems like everytime I do my generals get the "Indecisive Attacker" nonsense. I could understand getting that if I outnumbered the enemy at least 2:1, but when they got me practically matched in numbers and a military savant (which seem to be a dime a dozen in the rebel settlements tbh) to lead them, that's just stupid.

Well, that's appropriate if you're a Casse general, or any barbarian general. Barbarians are impatient, easily bored, and don't enjoy long seiges. They like fighting and killing, cutting off the enemy's heads, plundering their town, ravishing their women, and then getting absolutely blind drunk!

So IMO it's quite realistic for your bored, disgruntled warriors to label you an "Indecisive Attacker." In their eyes, that's exactly what you are! You're delaying them from doing what they enjoy most, and not letting them go home to their wives and children either. In fact, they probably call you a lot worse things than "Indecisive Attacker" behind your back. Things like "Woman", "Greek Merchant", or even "Ball-less Wonder"!

[bobbin]

I usally starve out cities with stone walls, although it rarely comes to that as a enemy stack will come along and attack me after few turns drawing the defenders out to join the battle.

I always attack wooden walled cities though, got to have some training for my troops

[Silence Hunter]

I do not like siege battles so I rarely attack. Most of the time I just siege the city and wait for relieving army to come and help me by killing themselves and their comrades in the city.. i think it's rather historical too as the assaults of large walled cities were a rare and risky thing.

[penguinking]

I hate stone wall seige battles (the rate of fire for those towers is ridiculous), so I often seige or autoresolve those battles. Wooden walls I usually just attack.

[Satyros]

I hate stone wall seige battles (the rate of fire for those towers is ridiculous), so I often seige or autoresolve those battles. Wooden walls I usually just attack.

You just have to concentrate on a one ( or two maximum ) wall sections and ensure you take and hold them . For that you will need skilled units perhaps some big choppa elites of some sort I guess . I've also read somewhere in the forum ( not tested ) that Galatikoi Kludolon do a great job at walls , available at many places .

After that if you feel like exploitiing A.I. dumbness send some crappy unit to take the rest of the walls and gates , but at the very least clear the sections where ( /if ) you're going to fight close to and get some extra help while fighting the defenders .

THEN Enter the city with the rest of the army and butcher them .

That should cut your losses .

Me ? I got issues with the town square unbreakable troops + bonus the s****y pathfinding around there . I always try my best to rout them and push the end battle button , to save some more people .

It seems the last stand of the defenders comes with a stupidity penalty for my troops . God I hate that .

Satyros

[Darius]

Well, that's appropriate if you're a Casse general, or any barbarian general. Barbarians are impatient, easily bored, and don't enjoy long seiges. They like fighting and killing, cutting off the enemy's heads, plundering their town, ravishing their women, and then getting absolutely blind drunk!

So IMO it's quite realistic for your bored, disgruntled warriors to label you an "Indecisive Attacker." In their eyes, that's exactly what you are! You're delaying them from doing what they enjoy most, and not letting them go home to their wives and children either. In fact, they probably call you a lot worse things than "Indecisive Attacker" behind your back. Things like "Woman", "Greek Merchant", or even "Ball-less Wonder"!

The problem is that I'm getting it with my Romani generals, and if anything I'd expect to start maybe seeing a trait like "Troops getting bored, -1 morale" rather than "Indecisive Attacker because you don't want to commit suicide".

[Cute Wolf]

Well, I normally shuttle my FM when laying siege... a FM most often only lay siege just in one year, and then back to my territory.... while another FM joining and lead the troops.... (order the First FM to leave the army alone, and the second FM than joining the siege)... This was roleplaying logistical support don't you

[the man with no name]

Naaw i never

[Aemilius Paulus]

Yeah, me neither. I reload all the time, but never starve. Feels like cheating and takes the fun/adversity away.

[Vasiliyi]

Starving takes too long, and I only do it if the enemy army is hugely outnumbering me, or i have a full horse archer stack

[Ashery]

Maybe my technique would be considered an AI exploit, but when I was playing Casse, (Just last night, actually) I was assaulting the nearby towns with 10-15% to 100% losses...and the sieges started out somewhere around 0% to 70%.

The great thing about Celtic towns with just a palisade (when assaulting at least) is that there will always be a direction that you can attack from that won't be covered by any guard towers. But before I get into that, my stack: 3x slingers, 4x skirmishers, 2x naked spearmen, 2x axemen, 1x Belgae Swordsmen, and my general that rarely saw action. This was the first time I played Casse, so I'm sure that the initial setup (esp the "core" of the force) could be improved.

Anyways, the strategy is fairly simple, attack the wall with three rams and place two skirmishers between each. After that, place the slingers a bit behind them and your two unused infantry can go wherever. Enable fire at will on all infantry.

That's it.

The rest is basically exploiting the AI advancing for the initial defense. They'll only take light casualties as they advance towards you, but the moment they turn to regroup, they'll be massacred. Even better is when the AI will try to move a troop along their side of the wall. With all those javelin comps, any company that decides to try that will wide up completely destroyed (You could save ammo once they get down to only a handful of survivors and just kill the last couple in the square).

Using that technique, I was able to take all eight of the territories and return to retrain only once (I had taken four and my naked spearmen were down to 20-30 in a stack (used the large setting, started with 80)).

Having the infantry use their javelins is also a fairly good way to train them, as my slingers average ~4.5xp and my axemen and swordsmen average ~3.5. The only companies below three are my general (who just got his second while chasing down routing units) and one of the skirmishers.

[Darius]

So how do I get rid of these damnable "Bad Attacker" traits. I've been having my afflicted FM attacking everything in site at the first opportunity from full blown armies and entire cities to a single depleted unit of rebls and villages but has so far only gone further down the path for the trait.

[Andy1984]

In my Seleucid siege of a Ptolemean large town, my foe ended up sending relieve force after relieve force, only to loose over 5000 soldiers. Sadly for them, not one soldier belonged to their beloved garrisson, as they never showed up on the battle field. After 8 turns, their numbers had dwindled down to some 50% of their original strength. Their faction leader (supported by some 1200 soldiers) still managed to kill 900 soldiers of my 2500 men army.

[Cute Wolf]

Bet you siege Memphis, with tons of Klerouchon Agema and Pezhetairoi (maybe some Galatikoi) inside....

This city ALWAYS get tons of elite units as Garrison....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alexandria did also, but you can deploy your troops inside Alexandrian walls, so no problem.....