To siege or besiege?
 

Hi,

I did a search and didn't see any topics I thought would help, so I'm asking.

I have 3 Iron Dragons, 1 King of E Earth, 1 King of E Fire and the Famed Erborn (now finally healed of all afflictions!) and several small earth elementals trying to conquer Ulm's home province.

These SCs are easily enough to take on any army many, many times their size. Much lower "combat value" armies would be able to storm the castle, why can't these guys? Heck, they can't even beat the doors down faster than they're repaired.

I've also had this experience when throwing in a Siege Golem.

Do I just need to throw in some cannon fodder to inflate my numbers?


Dazed and confused,
V'ger gone

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

Well, you could throw in an "Gate Cleaver", that would help (I hope I got the name right).

There is some info on sieging here :

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000820

Basically, your nice SCs are worth perhaps 5 militias each when it comes to breaching the walls, not enough to do it. They just don't have the numbers to do it.

Solution : give theù magic items designed to breach wall (axe of cleaving is the one I know), of bring in an army to do it.

[ January 08, 2004, 08:01: Message edited by: General Tacticus ]

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

Or wait until the defenders starve to death=) Unless you're up against Ermor...

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">AFAIK strenght and ability to fly gives sieging bonuses. So those SCs are worth much more than just 5 militias. Think about Jotun trying to siege castle defended by 300 militias...

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...;f=74;t=000812

[ January 08, 2004, 10:39: Message edited by: Morag ]

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

I meant to say, 5 militias each

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">oops! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

There are a few Earth spells relating to sieges. One of 'em, if memory serves, does huge amounts of damage to the castle and the resulting collapse can hurt the troops inside, too. Another note -- while assassins can't get inside the castle during the siege, assorted assasination spells can like Seeking Arrow and Earth Attack.
But yeah, bringing more troops will help. They don't even have to be living, thinking troops.

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

Your force looks plenty tough to me (what do I know?), but you're up against ULM for goodness sake! Preach him out!

~Aldin

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

I am hijacking and abusing JK's account and good name here. Siege ability is something like ((siegers strength)²/100)+(bonuses(1 for flying, 1 for city guards etc IIRC))

Johan O

[ January 08, 2004, 17:23: Message edited by: Johan K ]

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

Make it "Siege Golems", "s" being the operative word, and see how much faster you breach the gate. Starving is also an option as Saber mentioned but keep moving troops to the sieging force http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .Items, of course, if you have them are a plus http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif .

[ January 08, 2004, 21:56: Message edited by: Lord Hammer ]

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

Siege bonus is displayed in patch 2.06 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Kristoffer, please, stop taunting. You're just making it all worse... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Mind telling us where? I don't see it.

Thanks.

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

It will tell you the siege bonus on the unit or item. So like a Gate Cleaver will show you an icon on the item that it gives you +50 Troops for Sieging when that unit sieges.

Or Siege Engineers it will display like an Icon that has an arm with a hammer in it and (+10) beside it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif There will also be one for supplies, and other things. I forget the thread, but me and Cherrypie goaded him into doing it on a work night. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Earth Attack (Conjuration-8, E4, 10E gems) and Wind Ride (Conjuration-5, A5, 10A gems) are both great for killing castle commanders (non-pretenders). Wind Ride needs to be used only on the same turn your attackers will enter the province to lay siege (else you will suck one of your own leaders away if they are already in the target province). Earth Attack can be used both before and during the siege. It's wonderful to see how fast the battle is resolved after you breach the walls when the enemy has no leaders inside!

You can get extra Wind Ride-capable casters by summoning Harbingers (Conjuration-6, S4, 25S gems) or Faerie Court (Conjuration-8, N5, 40N gems). Give them a Winged Helm and a Bag of Winds to boost them from Air-3 to the needed Air-5. A Gale Gate (Thaumaturgy-8, A5, 60A gems) is very useful for giving you 20 air gems per turn (aka 2 Wind Rides).

I don't have enough experience with Earth, yet, to recommend effective techniques for creating lots of Earth-4 casters (for Earth Attacks).

Re: To siege or besiege?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Troll Kings (Conjuration 6, 45 Earth Gems) + Earth Boots (Construction 4, 10 Earth Gems) will do the trick, plus, you get 15 Trolls with each king. Probably the cheapest way to get a guaranteed E4 mage.