[Scott Hebert]

One thing I've noticed about castle sieges is that defending mages can REALLY swing the course of the battle. I know I tried to storm Tien Chi (S&A) several times as Marignon, and got beaten BLOODILY every time. It was quite.. humbling. An issue, basically, is if the defender has a funneling Fortification, and whether or not the defender has (or can produce) chaff troops to clog that funnel until their arrow towers/mages can rout the attacking army. Very similar to HoMM in that regard.

In Tien Chi's case, they had quite the swarm of Dispossessed Spirits attacking, and were able to make Phantasmal Warriors when the Spirits failed. You'd think that Marignon of all nations should be able to handle Disp. Spirits. I even had 6 Witch-Hunters in the battle. Unfortunately, they were scripted to Communion first. All they did the entire battle (after the Communion) was cast Fanaticism... I probably would have been better off without the Communion, as they probably would've cast Holy Pyre at that point.

That was a very eye-opening experience for me.

Scott