Re: Give me siege tips
Sorry for the college-dissertation-length response, but there are a couple things to worry about. I grappled with the same problem for quite a while.
It depends on the map. But for me, the key to winning Dom2 (especially playing against the AI) is to learn the lesson Hitler never did: Fight your war on one front at a time. Think of it as a "Sword & Shield" strategy, if you'd like.
The "Sword" strategy is something we all understand--an army strong enough to invade opponents and beat them. An army with lots of strong troops, or lots of flyers, is better at sieging than an army without. Typically, after 2-5 turns, you can breach the castle gate. For me, the "Shield" tactics took longer to master.
Find a good "buffer province" that forms a nice bottleneck from other provinces, and station a good-sized army there with some powerful leaders. Doesn't need to be strong enough to seige an enemy castle, just burly enough to drive off enemy attacks. Establish a positive dominion in that province--your troops' morale improves and the other guys' drops--and building a temple there is a good way to establish a "bridgehead" for your own Dominion.
Then, add the crucial ingredient: Defense. If you buff up the Defense, it amounts to free militia that come back every time they get killed so long as you don't lose a province. You can get 15 Defense for 120 gold, 20 defense and a likely additional Priest/leader for 210 gold. Those extra footsoldiers don't dish out that much damage to quality opponents (the Pikeneers are best at keeping low-morale opponents at bay), but they're a good cheap way to soak up attacks and they leave your other units intact much further into the battle.
Some castles have better defense values, and/or better supply stockpiles, than others. You can find out by right-clicking on the fortification in that province from the main map.
I'm often not able to hold an enemy "home province" the first time I take it. In those cases, a little pillaging is a good way to drive up my own gold, while saddling him with a bunch of Unrest that will hamstring his troop protection for turns to come.
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