Beseiging a City

[samwise]

I have read the manual, the wiki, and many threads on this issue. But I am still not 100% sure how to attack and capture a city or fort. An example is that I have been beseiging Bowling Green as the gray for over two months. I have included in my stack artillery, engineers, infantry and have set the status to attack. And yet no progress.

Does anyone have a more sure fire approach to attacking and capturing cities and forts. It seems like single militia units can hold off armies with over 15 units. Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

[Rafiki]

By "attack", do you mean assault? In order to capture cities with someone defending them, you need to set your stack's posture to "assault"

[samwise]

I am not at my desk, so I will do this from memory. Is assault the "RED" icon? Not the "Orange" icon? Correct.

[Rafiki]

Correct, "assault" is the red icon, i.e. the left-most one of the posture icons

[arsan]

Hi!
You may want to siege and starve until surrender cities with strong garrisons (maybe half as big as your force).
With small milita garrisons you are better assaulting (red button) them ASAP.
Forts offer defend bonus, so in this cases you should be a little more cautious.
Anyway, you must have been very unlucky in your rolls. leure:
A big force with guns in siege against a militia garrison usually invest the cities sooner than two months...

[samwise]

Thanks to both. Very helpful. The assault begins!

[Hobbes]

Sometimes it can be a good idea to also press the enter structure icon on the same turn you plot an assault. In rare cases you may sucessfully assault only to see an enemy relief force enter the empty strucure near the end of the turn (This happened to me in BoA at least).

Cheers, Chris

[kcole4001]

Ah ha!
A very good point.
I had no idea why this had happened to me after a successful (and very bloody) assault a couple of times.

[Brausepaul]

...In rare cases you may sucessfully assault only to see an enemy relief force enter the empty strucure near the end of the turn (This happened to me in BoA at least).

Cheers, Chris

For me, this usually ends with my besieging force being IN the structure and the enemy relief force besieging me

[Tordenskjold]

Hi!
You may want to siege and starve until surrender cities with strong garrisons (maybe half as big as your force).
With small milita garrisons you are better assaulting (red button) them ASAP.
Forts offer defend bonus, so in this cases you should be a little more cautious.
Anyway, you must have been very unlucky in your rolls. leure:
A big force with guns in siege against a militia garrison usually invest the cities sooner than two months...

I besieged Paducha. It looks as if it was defended by only 1 Milita unit. I attacked (the red button) with a force of 1 infantry, 2 Sharpshooters, and a general (not in a division), and lost. (249 vs 56 men) It was so bad that I found my force on the other side of the Mississippi..... I have 2 questions:

1. Why did the force retreat to Charleston MO and not to the nearest town (Colombus KY)?
2. Was it the total lack of artillery in my forces or just to few troops (more than 3 times his forces), or a combination?

[Pocus]

1 - what are the 2 percentages of military control in both regions?

[arsan]

I besieged Paducha. It looks as if it was defended by only 1 Milita unit. I attacked (the red button) with a force of 1 infantry, 2 Sharpshooters, and a general (not in a division), and lost. (249 vs 56 men) It was so bad that I found my force on the other side of the Mississippi..... I have 2 questions:

1. Why did the force retreat to Charleston MO and not to the nearest town (Colombus KY)?
2. Was it the total lack of artillery in my forces or just to few troops (more than 3 times his forces), or a combination?

2- Probably both. Paducah its not even a fort but an entrenched militia can give you a bloody nose if you atack them with a small force like that.
Add another brigade with some guns to that force and you will wipe them. Also, a good leader helps...
Besides, in this small fights i think luck play bigger role than in a big battle. Just one failed or susccessfull retreat roll can have a big impact on the result.
Probably if you repeat the same battle a couple of times you will win it.

As for 1... dunno, but Pocus will...

Cheers!

[Tordenskjold]

1 - what are the 2 percentages of military control in both regions?

Checked it out and in the region I was in (McCracken KY) it says: "Controlled by USA (43%). Also her CSA (20%)"

In the region I retreated to (Scott MO) it says: "CSA (100%)". I guess that gives the answer. Strange thing is that the force could easily retreated to the region south, (Hickman KY). It's 93% CSA. Then the force also would avoid to cross the Mississippi.
Migh be because the force came from (Scott MO) in the first place?

Btw, thanks for you input arsan.

[lodilefty]

Checked it out and in the region I was in (McCracken KY) it says: "Controlled by USA (43%). Also her CSA (20%)"

In the region I retreated to (Scott MO) it says: "CSA (100%)". I guess that gives the answer. Strange thing is that the force could easily retreated to the region south, (Hickman KY). It's 93% CSA. Then the force also would avoid to cross the Mississippi.
Migh be because the force came from (Scott MO) in the first place?

Btw, thanks for you input arsan.

The retreat logic places a high priority on 'retreat to where you came from' that usually outweighs other probabilities...

See Control&Retreat.opt in settings folder for the details.....

[Tordenskjold]

The retreat logic places a high priority on 'retreat to where you came from' that usually outweighs other probabilities...

See Control&Retreat.opt in settings folder for the details.....

Great, thanks!

[Jabberwock]

If you assaulted as you were entering the region, that could help explain why you lost. Crossing a major river in assault posture is generally a bad idea.