Ramblings on siegecraft

Taqwus · #1 November 14th, 2006, 06:50 PM

Hm. Hadn't noted them remaining damaged afterwards -- might be I've never checked due to normally not being besieged immediately.

Does bother me somewhat that it's free, 'tho. Although castles being constructed in such short times is also a bit odd.

Sheap · #2 November 15th, 2006, 07:02 AM

In dom2 if the castle ever gets un-besieged it will revert to full strength immediately. Not sure if it is different in dom3 but I will believe it is the same until there is evidence to the contrary. The formula Fate gives for siege values is/was correct - each unit has a siege value equal to (strength^2)/100 + siege/defense bonus + flying bonus - mindless penalty and then the individual siege values of all units in the force are added. The defender's force is compared to the attacker's force and the castle walls increase or decrease depending on whose score is higher. So it is possible to have a small force of elite units that can easily defeat the enemy in the field but cannot break into the castle. Of course, the defenders inside the castle may starve eventually.

I do not remember if mindless penalty and flying bonus work on both sides of the equation or not. I think flying works on both attack and defense (+1 to the individual unit's total score if he flies) and mindless counts only on defense (-1 to the individual unit's score if it is mindless).

Graeme Dice · #3 November 15th, 2006, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Sheap said:
Not sure if it is different in dom3 but I will believe it is the same until there is evidence to the contrary.

The evidence is in the manual in the section on sieges.

thejeff · #4 November 15th, 2006, 01:43 PM

Should be easy enough to check. Doesn't it display the strength of the walls to the owner?

So when you take a castle is it at full strength?
Or set up a 2 player game and besiege a capital until it's walls are down, then move away.

PhilD · #5 November 15th, 2006, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Graeme Dice said:
The evidence is in the manual in the section on sieges.

If you've followed the thread about the mechanisms of dominion spread, you know the manual may not be always right. Castle defense is not supposed to use any randomness, so checking that it works as described should be possible.

thejeff · #6 November 16th, 2006, 10:08 AM

Played with it last night. The manual appears correct.

It's hard to see since the current defense strength is only shown while you're actually besieged, but I knocked the walls down most of the way, moved away, then back. Defense strength was still low.

Probably should check what happens when you actually take a castle.