Stralsund Fortress

[Bertram]

As you can read in the AAR I write, I am laying siege to Stralsund for about a year (game time ) now. I still have to make my first breach.
At first I had only my general forces outside. Though with artillery, they had no siege guns. So I was not very surprised when I didnt make a breach. But for some time now (12 turns) I have got a Brummer at Stralsund. It is supposed to give a positive siege modifier. At the last 4 turns I have added a Sapper unit to the sieging force. This unit also is sipposed to give a siege modifier.

According to my opponent (Squarian) he has no special units inside, just the regular fortress artillery and assorted troops. Nothing that gives a bonus to the defender. As most towns and fortresses get reduced in 2-4 turns, this is getting to look a bit fishy.

Could someone check out the files to see if there is something preventing the Prussians from getting a breach?

edit: not complete true I discovered when I reread my AAR. I made a breach the first turn after I got the artillery - it just got repaired after that. The next 10 turns I didnt get a breach. Though possible, it seems a rather bad streak of bad luck.

[PhilThib]

The main reason while the sieges drags on is that Stralsund is an unblockaded port, and this strongly adversely affects your siege results (as the fortress is continuously supplied from Sweden by sea)

As the Prussians, you just don't have a warfleet to blockade, hence your chances are low. This is also the reason why we have Russian blockade squadrons popping up in front of key Prussian ports on the Baltic (to ensure proper blockade and siege).

This is all WAD. Historically, Frederick never bothered besieging Stralsund as he knew he could not take it in face of the Swedish control of the sea. On the other hand, loss of Stralsund would have meant Sweden out of the war (which the King knew as not possible, but he also did not care much because of his poor consideration of the Swedes)

For game balance reasons, I have made sure that taking Stralsund would occur only through pure luck or your opponent's mistake...

[Bertram]

Ah, ok.

I expected Stralsund to be supplied by sea, so I was not expecting the Swedish to starve. But I did not know this also affected the chance to get a breach n the walls. I suspect the "breach" concept is more an abstract thing then a literal gap in the walls then...

A shame, I could use the troops somewhere else (against those Russian hordes), and if I leave them alone, the Swedish will spread across northern Prussia again.

[PhilThib]

Yes, a difficult trade-off

True, the direct logical consequence of being supplied by sea / vs. walls not breach is not evident, but this is a gamerule artifice indeed

[Schattensand]

To me it happaned, that I took Stralsund easily, to hardly any benefit at all.
The Schwedish Main Force retreats to their island and is not to finish off.
Though without supply and winterstorms they happily survived and remain a potential thread. So if you block them in Stralsund or on the island does not really make a big difference.