Forts...sigh forts

[Wheat]

Can units under siege in a fort attack out on their own without a relief force and the sally out command button?

If you do have a relief force, and click the sally out with relief force, can the "locked" units participate?

Siegeing a fort doesn't seem to qualify as an "attack" on locked units, but if the sieger attacks, and wins, won't the locked (and unlocked) units just surrender, or can they retreat?

Can units move in and out of a fort/city that is under siege? You certainly can use ships to move units in and out if the fort/city has a harbor.

Why can small units like say 60 men, lay siege to a force of thousands or tens of thousands? And it doesn't seem those thousands can attack out.

Why don't fort guns fire when you land an attacking force on them?

[Captain_Orso]

Can units under siege in a fort attack out on their own without a relief force and the sally out command button?

If you want to attack a besieging force in the field with a force in the besieged location, simply drag-n-drop them into the field part of the regions and set them to OP.

The Sortie Out SO (Special Order) is for non-locked stacks--stacks with locked unit in them are considered to also be locked; leaders must be activated so that they could be set to OP, but I don't believe they must be set to OP to use the SO-SO button--inside a besieged location to Sortie Out of that location and fight vs the besieger along side of a relief force--friendly units entering the region to fight the besieger--. If there is no relief force in or entering the region that turn, the SO-SO does not take affect.

Leave Sally at home, she's not fond of the battle noise

If you do have a relief force, and click the sally out with relief force, can the "locked" units participate?

No; see above.

Siegeing a fort doesn't seem to qualify as an "attack" on locked units, but if the sieger attacks, and wins, won't the locked (and unlocked) units just surrender, or can they retreat?

Only field combat, which includes assaulting forces inside a structure-location, or bombardment from ships, but does not include besieging, unlocks locked units if the locked units took part in the battle; in other words, the locked unit appears on the Battle Display.

An enemy stack can attack units inside a structure-location (forts, cities, depots, settlements, etc.) by ending its turn in that region and being in in AP (Assault Posture).

Can units move in and out of a fort/city that is under siege?

Yes, drag-n-drop them from inside the location into the field or visa-versa.

You certainly can use ships to move units in and out if the fort/city has a harbor.

Yes, but if the besieging force has attained entrenchment level 3 or greater they can bombard such shipping as it enters or leaves the harbor, if they have artillery, their stack leader (if any) is activated, and they have the Bombard Shipping SO button pressed.

Why can small units like say 60 men, lay siege to a force of thousands or tens of thousands?

Because you let them. Put any unit, even a locked garrison unit, into the field to end the siege. (The siege icon might still remain, but that would be a bug)

And it doesn't seem those thousands can attack out.

Drag-n-drop them into the field of the region and set them to OP and watch them go. Pesky partisans tend not to stick around under such circumstances

Why don't fort guns fire when you land an attacking force on them?

You can only land in the fort's region and not 'on' the fort. Because it would be--how can I put this diplomatically--tactically unwise to land directly in front of the fort itself as opposed to landing a couple of miles up or down the coast, it is a given in the game that it cannot occur.