View Full Version : How to assault town successfully?
Kris Rhodes
01-02-2007, 23:09
In my last couple games, I've been playing on "easy." Yet I have not been able to pull off a town assault. Granted, I am attacking just with nine units of saracens and nothing fancier. But the enemy marshalls are, at this early point in the game, just running around with mostly peasants anyway. So I don't know that that is the problem.
But when I assault a town, his little peasants demolish my saracens. This despite the fact that my marshall has +2 to friendly morale and -1 to enemy morale, and the enemy marshall just has useless (for the situation) bonuses like siegecraft.
His having town guards doesn't help. (BTW How do I train town guards? I can't find an option for it anywhere. I can only hire peasants to guard my own towns.)
Is there a known reason why it should be that peasants would beat saracens in this situation?
Is there something I should know about how to assault a town?
-Kris
kevincompton
01-02-2007, 23:36
are you charging at all? Also you don't "train" town guards. They are generated from the town watch building. Only for garrison, you never recruit them.
And these generated town guards are powerful units!
There are certain buildings that give seige defense bonuses as well .
Kris Rhodes
02-02-2007, 00:37
Do siege defense bonuses apply also to non-siege town assaults? Maybe that's what's doing it to me.
As to whether I'm charging, I double click whenever I attack. Does that cause a charge?
-FrL-
FrankishHero
02-02-2007, 01:49
Yes, a double click causes a charge. It's always good to have a balanced squad. Ranged units, cavalry and infantry. Earlier in the game, you can skip the cavalry as it's expensive and you need a trade good for it.
It's important to always carry some ranged units though, as they can take out a lot of enemy soldiers without them being able to fight back.
Get some archers and siegecraft. And try to attack with 2 marchals at the same time.
it will be better when you have some archers.
Kris Rhodes
02-02-2007, 17:10
Hmm.....
The reason I went with all infantry was because in a previous game, when I had tried to use archers with infantry, things went badly. But I will try it.
Someone here said I should get seigecraft. This occasions once more my previous question: Do seige bonuses apply in non-seige town assaults? Because if so, that could explain how it is that my saracens are getting killed one on one by his peasants.
-Kris
Siege bonuses (defence & attrition) only apply in sieges.
Largefry07
03-02-2007, 17:11
Take your time with assaults. That's a big thing you must discpline yourself to do. Study the town gaurds and other enemy units. Find a weakness and send your infantry in under the cover a archer/crossbowmen. Use those range units to have the enemy move away from the wall and have your infantry take out the gate. Let them rest and slowly move into the town.
Attacking a town without a wall is in my experience more difficult, because you get immediately attacked.
Attacking a town with a wall is just routine. The enemy will never attack you out of his town; take advantage of that. Place archer near gate, whack down the gate, lure enemy squats into the range of the archers and see them die. Repeat until the defenders are weakened enough, then place ladders, put archers on the wall with inf at the flanks. Archers on the wall never run out of arrows and are therefore very powerful.
The real challenge are towns with advanced defensive structures; there I am lost and leave it to the marshal to siege.
Kris Rhodes
03-02-2007, 18:54
Take your time with assaults. That's a big thing you must discpline yourself to do. Study the town gaurds and other enemy units. Find a weakness and send your infantry in under the cover a archer/crossbowmen. Use those range units to have the enemy move away from the wall and have your infantry take out the gate. Let them rest and slowly move into the town.
When I assault a town, the defending troops immediately come out and engage mine. I don't have any opportunities to take things slowly in the way that you describe.
As for "taking out the gate," I don't know what you're referring to. Maybe there's some basic aspect of assaulting towns that I'm missing?
-Kris
--
Attacking a town without a wall is in my experience more difficult, because you get immediately attacked.
Attacking a town with a wall is just routine. The enemy will never attack you out of his town; take advantage of that. Place archer near gate, whack down the gate, lure enemy squats into the range of the archers and see them die. Repeat until the defenders are weakened enough, then place ladders, put archers on the wall with inf at the flanks. Archers on the wall never run out of arrows and are therefore very powerful.
The real challenge are towns with advanced defensive structures; there I am lost and leave it to the marshal to siege.
This post explains why I was confused about the last person's post. I'm not talking about attacking towns with walls. (In those cases I just siege.) I'm talking about attacking towns which have no walls.
When I attack a town without walls, the enemy immediately engages my forces, and also, his peasants somehow beat my swordsmen and saracens.
Often when I auto-resolve, though, I beat him handily. So there must just be some tactical knowledge I'm missing.
(Does the AI in fact build walls then? I have yet to see a walled AI town!)
-Kris
Well, if the AI has built town guard and most do have town guard, then you are not just fighting peasants, you are fighting very strong town guard unit(s) as well.
Kris Rhodes
03-02-2007, 19:27
Well, if the AI has built town guard and most do have town guard, then you are not just fighting peasants, you are fighting very strong town guard unit(s) as well.
I know this, I'm talking about peasants, not town guards.
-Kris
Could your troops be receiving damage from ranged units not seen by you? Or perhaps the morale and home territory bonuses and penalties are affecting the outcomes.
Largefry07
03-02-2007, 21:53
In attacking a town without a wall I place my archers in the front of the lines and have the enemy come to me. They usaully send squads in moderation so my archers don't get overwelled. In case you don't have any archers, all you can draw your infanty in a tight line formation and have all of your squads attack one or two of the enemy squads. The enemy squads are overrunned and their morale drops. Usaully the drop in morale effects the entire army and all peasants surrander. Some times just the squad surrandeds, and you repeat process untill all of the peasants surrander. In an ever rarer case the squads just retreat. If that happens keep your squads close together and engage only a few squads at a time. And finally in all cases keep an eye on your marshall. Sometimes an enemy squad or two slips by and kills your marshall. Hope this helps:go:
As for "taking out the gate," I don't know what you're referring to. Maybe there's some basic aspect of assaulting towns that I'm missing?
I mean have your infantry attack the gate itself. The infantry can destory the gate but the wall remains. With the gate gone you have an enterince into the city.
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