Locked units not released in a siege.

[Zardoz]

Here's an interesting one which I've just noticed. I have cities with locked units. The tooltip says "yada yada ... but will be unlocked if attacked".

But "attacked" doesn't seem to mean besieged? If the besiegers just sit outside the walls and wait to starve me out, these guys never get unlocked. The problem with that is that they then can't sortie to support an external relief force and that was a shame since they would have added considerable firepower.

Is that all by design?

I had the idea of dragging them out of the city on blue/green, so they'd get attacked and unlocked and fall back into the city. That actually worked but since there was no way to coordinate the move with any external force they lost a fair number of troops and cohesion in the exercise since they battled first. Not ideal.

Is there no way to unlock them just by virtue of being under siege? After all they are being attacked... kinda...

[MarkShot]

I know what you are talking about. And I think they will unlock only if they are end up in battle.

They are fairly weak forces and march in lead boots.

I find their main value is mustering in the log so that I know that I should go take a look see.

[Zardoz]

Yes they're usually a bit cr@ppy which is probably why I've never considered this issue before. Being able to sally out in support of an external relief force is probably the most useful thing they can do.

[Zardoz]

For the benefit of anybody reading this thread.

Locked units in cities under siege can be dragged and dropped outside the city and they will attack or defend as per their stance. If they have no chance of winning, you can set them to green/green and the besiegers will probably attack them, unlocking them, after which they will scuttle back into the city. They may suffer casualties but they are unlocked, whereas if they just sit in the city during the siege they will not unlock and will starve and surrender in due course.

Having been unlocked they can then sally out to support a relief force.

Depending on the overall balance of forces this is something you may or may not want to do, but do be aware that it is an option.

Also I've had real success placing low quality garrison troops outside a city under siege when the besiegers are cr@p nuisance troops like pirates. The siege can be broken without having to divert your main forces to deal with the problem.

[Durk]

You are so right, but always leave at least some unit inside the city so if all is a disaster, you can retreat safely.