Ramblings on siegecraft

[Taqwus]

Fueled by caffeine, wander my odd mind does.

On sieges:

When a castle is seized, it is immediately at full strength for the new owner. Depending on the level of violence (ex. victory because small garrison tried to break out and lost; slow starvation; walls brought down via sappers; Maker of Ruins smashed the walls), this may or may not make sense. It strikes me that it would not be unreasonable to penalize the maximum defense, even leaving as ruins in extreme cases, based on what was used. Ex. -- take each besieger's siege value, deduct a floor, round up to 0 if it's less, sum up these reduced values, and do something with that. A mass of slingers won't hurt the walls much; a mess of giants throwing boulders, and sappers tunneling under the walls, -should- wreck the fortress pretty well.

And at that point, it doesn't make sense that the attacker gets an as-new fortress.

For that matter, this damage makes sense even if the -defender- wins because the besieger left or was driven off. Maybe the relief force saved the garrison, but if the castle was facing sappers for a few seasons, would it really be intact?

The damage would perhaps be repairable with time and gold, and commander use, if not too severe. If it IS severe, well, maybe you have a ruined fortress on your hands. *shrug*


Then, historically, brute force was not necessarily the only way to take a stronghold. It was not entirely unheard-of for a town or fortress's starving defenders to surrender in exchange for safe conduct, for instance. The mechanics of this would be a bit tricky, and it's not entirely clear to me that this could be implemented in a way that would improve gameplay.

Guile is another factor. In particular, a ruler who coveted a particular walled city might have taken the care to have agents inside that city. These spies might be useful for providing information on the fortifications or the enemy's disposition; they might be able to take more active measures, such as identifying possible traitors who might be bribed with gold or promises of position et al in order to open the gates. In game terms, spies on the inside might have a non-trivial siege bonus (perhaps a bit random!), in exchange for a risk of getting caught and executed by the defenders.