posted 09 July 2011 12:57 EDT (US)
After realizing I was no good at assaulting settlements, and preferred to let the computer do it for me, I decided not to take the easy way out anymore and work on my own strategy. My problem was obvious enough to me, I had gotten used to fighting on the field and the tight, cramped confines of the city assault led to an inability to flank (properly) and too many infantry casualities (many of which were from friendly fire). So I tried this out and it works well. This may not be the best way, and for all I know it may be nothing that nobody already knows. But I'll explain the method I took and if anyone has any insight to offer they would be most welcome.
You need 2 battering rams. Set them up ready to march on either side of their main gate. Set your infantry into a column formation (I find it quicker and neater to march through this way), adjust these accordingly if there are too many troops. Likewise put your cavalry into a column formation and I personally like to set them into wedge, not directly behind each other but to the sides so you have one big triangle spear point of cavalry. Use skirmishers to man the rams (in the field I prefer archers but for this I like using javelineers better, although it might be a good idea to use fire arrows to demoralize their soldiers before the real fun starts). Have your infantry behind one of the rams and your cavalry behind the other. If you have any more missle units put them directly behind the rams, in front of the infantry/cavalry. You're ready to deploy now. Get your rams moving to the walls and have the troops follow behind. Get them all moving together, you want to be quick because they could be shooting missles at you over the walls, and there's really nothing you can do about that but to be fast. And of course if you have units that can use testudo then it's a good idea. Try to time it out just right so that both walls come crashing down together (press pause before giving them the order). More often than not the enemy will be waiting for you at both locations. This is where your skirmishers after dropping the siege equipment immediately start firing away through the broken wall. It won't take long for these units to rout or die. I find it's best to have your skirmishers in guard mode when they start attacking so that they don't rush into the city and get overwhelmed. Let the enemy run around a bit before they decide to stick with a position, and from here you can analyze best what to do. Send in your infantry which will hopefully attract the largest portion of their forces. On the other side you might want to send your skirmishers in to distract whatever is over there, and now comes the spear through the heart. Rush your cavalry in and you should have a nice big exposed flank for them to charge. Now that you've dominated the initial battle, you're basically going to repeat the process several times. Send your large infantry unit (you don't need missiles anymore, I find them to be very unreliable in the fight at the square) to march up the main street toward their town square. Send your cavalry down whatever side road you must take to reach the other side of the town square. There are usually several roads throughout you can send your cavalry through to flank while your infantry engage in their mini battles on the road. Make sure you always initiate the attack with your infantry and send the cavalry crushing in from behind. You'll probably have to improvise when called for but that's for any battle.
That's pretty much it. Maybe it's nothing short of obvious to many of you, but hopefully someone will benefit or have more to add. I probably lose half of what I used to when taking this approach.
Just tested this again. Me as house of julii against house of scipii. Equal units of 4 hastati, 3 equites and 2 velites on hard difficulty. 322 units deployed, 101 remaining. I messed up one of the flanks and my cavalry turned around and went the wrong direction, I didn't catch it in time and just let it happen, that made a big difference and I had some unit routs at the center battle. But it still worked.
A few side notes:
Don't let your units chase their runners, lead the attack at your own pace.
This works even better for the initial clash if you can draw them outside of their walls, I did this with my velites after they ran out of ammo.
Keep a close eye on those damn cavalry when your maneuvering them through the city, sometimes they have to have their hands held the whole way.
Now to work on a strategy for stone walls!
You need 2 battering rams. Set them up ready to march on either side of their main gate. Set your infantry into a column formation (I find it quicker and neater to march through this way), adjust these accordingly if there are too many troops. Likewise put your cavalry into a column formation and I personally like to set them into wedge, not directly behind each other but to the sides so you have one big triangle spear point of cavalry. Use skirmishers to man the rams (in the field I prefer archers but for this I like using javelineers better, although it might be a good idea to use fire arrows to demoralize their soldiers before the real fun starts). Have your infantry behind one of the rams and your cavalry behind the other. If you have any more missle units put them directly behind the rams, in front of the infantry/cavalry. You're ready to deploy now. Get your rams moving to the walls and have the troops follow behind. Get them all moving together, you want to be quick because they could be shooting missles at you over the walls, and there's really nothing you can do about that but to be fast. And of course if you have units that can use testudo then it's a good idea. Try to time it out just right so that both walls come crashing down together (press pause before giving them the order). More often than not the enemy will be waiting for you at both locations. This is where your skirmishers after dropping the siege equipment immediately start firing away through the broken wall. It won't take long for these units to rout or die. I find it's best to have your skirmishers in guard mode when they start attacking so that they don't rush into the city and get overwhelmed. Let the enemy run around a bit before they decide to stick with a position, and from here you can analyze best what to do. Send in your infantry which will hopefully attract the largest portion of their forces. On the other side you might want to send your skirmishers in to distract whatever is over there, and now comes the spear through the heart. Rush your cavalry in and you should have a nice big exposed flank for them to charge. Now that you've dominated the initial battle, you're basically going to repeat the process several times. Send your large infantry unit (you don't need missiles anymore, I find them to be very unreliable in the fight at the square) to march up the main street toward their town square. Send your cavalry down whatever side road you must take to reach the other side of the town square. There are usually several roads throughout you can send your cavalry through to flank while your infantry engage in their mini battles on the road. Make sure you always initiate the attack with your infantry and send the cavalry crushing in from behind. You'll probably have to improvise when called for but that's for any battle.
That's pretty much it. Maybe it's nothing short of obvious to many of you, but hopefully someone will benefit or have more to add. I probably lose half of what I used to when taking this approach.
Just tested this again. Me as house of julii against house of scipii. Equal units of 4 hastati, 3 equites and 2 velites on hard difficulty. 322 units deployed, 101 remaining. I messed up one of the flanks and my cavalry turned around and went the wrong direction, I didn't catch it in time and just let it happen, that made a big difference and I had some unit routs at the center battle. But it still worked.
A few side notes:
Don't let your units chase their runners, lead the attack at your own pace.
This works even better for the initial clash if you can draw them outside of their walls, I did this with my velites after they ran out of ammo.
Keep a close eye on those damn cavalry when your maneuvering them through the city, sometimes they have to have their hands held the whole way.
Now to work on a strategy for stone walls!
[This message has been edited by Hologen (edited 07-09-2011 @ 01:25 PM).]
