AGEOD Forums

I've been looking on the forums for some help in this area but not found anything. I'd just like a few tips on siege warfare -
What's the best troop make up to help with a siege
How long should a siege take (ie what factors are involved) - I keep having to retreat partway through because of supply problems (another area I'm still learning). And even after I've make a lot of breaches, it still seems to take a long time for me to take complete control
And finally, what posture should my troops be in??

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

Hi Ird, supply for your troops is one of the most important aspects. Make sure you take note of what month of the year it is before starting on a siege and take a supply wagon or two with you.

Artillery is very important - the more the better. Siege artillery gives you a bonus but is not the cheapest or quickest thing to lug around.
Also look for leaders with traits that will help a great deal in a siege.

If you have a large force and are besiging a small force you may want to try the assault button (especially if winter is coming) but you could take a fair few casualties if the structure is not fully breached (worse against a fort than a town). If the defenders of a town have only been there for a few turns you shouldn't have much of a problem using assault in this scenario.

Be aware of the frontage rules as these will be important when attacking a structure, a large army can only get so many troops into a breach!

It's really just down to experience, try it a few times and you will get a feel for it (as per real life leaders) or if you want the mechanics (from the AACW Guide thread) :-

Siege factors :-
(Besieging side).
Artillery combat factors.
Siege Engineer ability.
Breach achieved.
Defender lack general supply.

(Besieged side).
Artillery combat factors.
Engineer or fort defender ability.
Fort level (pre-war forts: 1. level 5+ trenches: 2).

Each 30 points of artillery will give you +1 (or -1 if defending).

Results
Surrender: SRV > defending units average discipline.
Breach: SRV >= 3.
Hits: SRV > 0 5 hits per SRV point.
Breach repair: SRV < 0.

Note that the defending troops average discipline is an important factor.
Cheers, Chris

Thanks for that Chris. What about posture - what's the best to adopt for a siege? I've been using a mix of offensive and defensive but that's really because I wasn't sure which was best

Stick with defensive as offensive gives you no advantage and defensive will allow your troops to regain or lose less cohesion (unless you expect an enemy relief force to arrive which you want to attack before it gets to the beleagered garrison although this will depend on the % control in the region).

(If you want to try and add a relief force to a besiged garrison make sure you have the enter structure order, the evade order and that the % control of the region does not force you into an aggressive posture - not 100% sure this will work though).

Almost always defensive posture is best when investing an enemy.

Cheers, Chris

I spent months and months and months beseiged down at Ft..shoot...forget it's name. The US Fort down south around Pensecola Bay. I had my troops all making progress in other fronts and never took the time to transport a division (or anything) down there. I kept having breaches made in my walls but they kept getting repaired. Thankfully it was a small force and they just tied themselves up beseiging.

As for my approach, what I normally do is if I severly outnumber the defending force (say they have militia defending a town/fort and I have a division or at least signficantly stronger force than the defender) I just go into Assault mode and the fight is usually over there. I haven't had any large scale, or even equal strength, seiges yet so not sure if I would employ that there.

My problem at the moment is that I've got a force of over 30,000 sieging a level one city with hardly any defenders and they've been holding out for about three months now - I can't work out what I need to do to take the city

ird wrote:My problem at the moment is that I've got a force of over 30,000 sieging a level one city with hardly any defenders and they've been holding out for about three months now - I can't work out what I need to do to take the city

Assault it! (or bring in more cannon).

(and let me know how you get on).
Cheers, Chris

P.S. if you have a besieging force of that size and are having supply problems you could invest the town with a smaller force and use the other troops somewhere else where you can have a better supply situation.

To me, the answer to stance depends on what is happening in surrounding regions. If there is no danger of a relief force hitting the besieging force then I aggree that defensive stance works well.

Either way, once I have a breach or two, if the defending force is relatively small, I switch to assault. Even a small force can hold out for quite a while if you do not assault at some point.

Ft Monroe is tough to take for CSA.

The AI permanently patrols those waters and will send reinforcements to hit you before you can storm it.

If you siege in offensive you're certain to engage the relief forces and most likely lose while in defensive at least you have a slight advantage since they come to assault you.

As a matter of fact, a small force inside a fort or town can last for long since it has a very limited supply cost. Since it's small but you don't always know who's coming to rescue them, a good opportunity mustn't be wasted.

Assault immediately in this case.

It's Manassas that I'm having problems with. I've sorted out the supply problems but they are still holding out - so next turn I'm putting them in assault posture and will let you know how I get on.
Thanks for all the advice

We all await the outcome

Well I'd just like to say a big thanks to all of you - I assaulted it and Manassas is under Union control. It was over with a bit of a whimper in the end - if I'd asked for a bit of help earlier I think I'd probably have saved myself three months. Thanks again (and I'll have much more idea next time now)

You get your first general's star * Ird!

(Glad our advice didn't get you into trouble )

I hope you find some warm quarters for winter.
Cheers, Chris

Winter's just ending - I've also now learnt the cost of leaving your troops out in the open during the winter months!!!!!!!!!
No doubt I'll be on soon with my next problem - but this game is sooooo addictive

Hobbes wrote:Stick with defensive as offensive gives you no advantage and defensive will allow your troops to regain or lose less cohesion (unless you expect an enemy relief force to arrive which you want to attack before it gets to the beleagered garrison although this will depend on the % control in the region).

(If you want to try and add a relief force to a besiged garrison make sure you have the enter structure order, the evade order and that the % control of the region does not force you into an aggressive posture - not 100% sure this will work though).

Almost always defensive posture is best when investing an enemy.

Cheers, Chris

If you are in defensive posture, a mobile garrison can escape without your troops attempting to stop them. Against the AI, probably not a problem. Against a human, they may try to escape.

If you are concerned with a seiged garrison escaping, it is best to use offensive posture.

Jagger wrote:If you are in defensive posture, a mobile garrison can escape without your troops attempting to stop them. Against the AI, probably not a problem. Against a human, they may try to escape.

If you are concerned with a seiged garrison escaping, it is best to use offensive posture.

Good point! I have always been in offensive posture when sieging since it never occurred to me that I can siege a structure while in a defensive stance Since I read this thread though I have started doing it and it works well but I will have to revert to the assault posture approach in my PBEM since, as you stated, an aware human player will escape and live to fight another day.

Guru80 wrote:Good point! I have always been in offensive posture when sieging since it never occurred to me that I can siege a structure while in a defensive stance Since I read this thread though I have started doing it and it works well but I will have to revert to the assault posture approach in my PBEM since, as you stated, an aware human player will escape and live to fight another day.

Although you can gamble on a defensive posture because your opponent cannot tell whether you are in defensive or offensive mode. If he tries to escape he can only hope that you are in defensive mode.

wait, if you move out of a structure when besieged, you should be reverted to offensive, is this not working?

It is at all possible to move to an entirely new location on the map when trying to merge tab on tab and missing by very little. This moves the stack in the region just on top of the tab and if you issue a move order the movement will start from the new location (instant teleport). I've cancelled the move and next second the stack was brought back to the original location.

This has nothing to do with sieges but thought about writing it down before i forget

Pocus, i know you're busy but i'd like to see your opinion/explanation in the Reinforcement/Replacement puzzle thread pls...and i think i'm not the only one

GShock, yes I have experienced that as well (the unit appearing in the region right above the tab when trying to merge them). You can either merge them or move them and push delete and they go back to their original location.

Minor but worth looking into to since it obviously isn't intended to happen.

Guru80 wrote:Good point! I have always been in offensive posture when sieging since it never occurred to me that I can siege a structure while in a defensive stance Since I read this thread though I have started doing it and it works well but I will have to revert to the assault posture approach in my PBEM since, as you stated, an aware human player will escape and live to fight another day.

what I often do, though I am not sure how valid the tactic is, is to have my main besieging force in defensive stance. I also have a couple of screening cavalry units on offensive stance to hopefully engage anyone who tries to leave the city.

Pocus is right.

Assuming that you have greater than 95% (?) military control of the region, any enemy troops entering the region or attempting to escape from the beseiged town will automatically assume offensive posture and will attack the defending beseigers regardless of whether they have offensive or defensive posture.

Jagger wrote:Pocus is right.

Assuming that you have greater than 95% (?) military control of the region, any enemy troops entering the region or attempting to escape from the beseiged town will automatically assume offensive posture and will attack the defending beseigers regardless of whether they have offensive or defensive posture.

This makes sense, and it's something to consider when besieging a settlement. If the forces inside are numerous enough you CANT stay on defensive as it doesn't increase MC (when opposed to enemy forces in the same region).