I don't get it

[unmerged(1488)]

I really don't.

All over this forum I read 'I played x kingdom and by 1500 I had swept through y countries with ease.'

Oh yeah?

Take Russia, for instance. Should be easy to conquer the khanate provinces, no?

I just laid siege to Kahzan. To keep my badboy at a reasonable level, I had left two provinces from them to annex later.
By the time I took them on, I had the provinces I wanted from Sibir, Azwhatever, and the Order, and have annexed the GH.

So far so good. My general died, but they always do before their 'time' is up.

1502, it's time to annex Kahzan then work on infrastructure and trade (even full bore trade tech will take 15 more years to get to lvl 3).

So I lay siege to the capital with any number of combinations (i.e. a buttload of reloads):
60 Cannon, 15k troops, 20k troops 40 cannon, etc. etc. Every combination I tried had no attrition loss.

Nothing worked.

I tried assaulting -- and watched as 3k troops easily perish while none of the garrison is touched.

Doesn't freaking matter what I do.
I can take it alright but not without a huge loss as it takes all winter to take it down.

Hell, by now you boys have monopolies and tech level 11.

*mutters incoherently and stumbles away*

 

[unmerged(1776)]

I've seen some of those posts too, and I'm no expert by any stretch but from my experience there are tougher 'nuts' to crack then others. I'm playing Austria in GC and just for giggles I tried to take down Venice with 30k troops and a crapload of cannon. I gave up after 5 years and 50k in casualties. Meanwhile Bohemia went down almost without a fight. Also it looks to me it depends greatly on what nation you play. I don't see ANYBODY whipping through Europe with Austria by 1500 (but it's probably been done)

*shrug*

 

[unmerged(548)]

So I lay siege to the capital with any number of combinations (i.e. a buttload of reloads):

What is this buttload of reloads ??

A siege is supposed to be keep up for months (even years later in the game) without moving your troops around, to have an effect. Read my FAQ btw.

Every combination I tried had no attrition loss.

Hu ??
What attrition loss are you talking about ?

 

[unmerged(1488)]

I've read both yours and Orange's faq, I've searched the forum quite a bit.

Mostly what I read is 'the AI is a pushover, I just rolled right over it'.

The reloads came from trying different combinations from assualting the so called pathetic AI and dying miserably each time, even with a superior cannon force.

I paid attention to attrition loss, i.e., having far more troops attacking and losing those troops due to the province being attacked having a support limit (in this case the 22). The most attrition loss I had at any time was one grey skull.

DID NOT matter. Even if I attacked with an overwhelming force and then assualted to lessen attrition loss . .. I died.
I died and died and died.
So, the investment put into taking this province seemed quite disproportional to the gain.

But no one else seems to have these problems winning wars.
Everyone just walztes through their targets with nary a problem.

Again I say 'I don't get it'.
I don't get how you all can have a treasure chest of money to cultivate alliances, gain tech, and conquer your foes all at the same time with nary a problem.

 

[Syt]

Hm...some sieges are indeed very bloody, and the cost higher than the gain (how historical). Have you checked their fort level? (none, small, medium, etc.)

 

[unmerged(168)]

I think I know your problem. Did you cross a river to get to Kazan?

Crossing a River seems to have a big negative effect when you assault a fortress, even when the province has no army.

This is counter-intuitive, since you would expect an unopposed crossing, and then assault from the land side. However, when I went after Ryazan, when the army came from Vladimir (over a river) my assaults always lost morale and sputttered out. An assaulting force overland from Moscow seemed to do OK.

Huszics, am I right on this?

Paradox - Please put something in the game (or at least the manual) to explain this and the other reasons an assualt or siege might fail. I am sick of seeing 'This city will likely surrender in 3 months' in January, only to see it again the following October after no attrition or external interference. What am I missing?

Please throw me a bone here people! I've been frozen for 30 frickin years.

 

[unmerged(548)]

Huszics, am I right on this?

Don't know actually, wouldn't think so but then again I havn't thought about keeping my eyes out for this one. If it does work this way however I would consider it a bug as it shouldn't matter in a siege which direction you came initially.

Paradox - Please put something in the game (or at least the manual) to explain this and the other reasons an assualt or siege might fail.

I guess the best info available is that in my FAQ. Don't believe Paradox will ever come out with anything more detailed I'm afraid.

As for getting a successfull siege, cannons, infantery & patiens is required. DON'T move your units though, as the enemy Fortress will imediately resupply if left alone.

Once the fortress walls has been damaged by the siege you can try an occasional assault to speed up the process (preferbly with a good general present), but usually assaulting a 'undamaged' fortress only leaves a heap of your soldiers corpses.

Patiens is the key word here.

 

[Hartmann]

1) Fortresses shouldn´t be assaulted before they are down to at least -4.
Exception:
a) You have an overwhelming force (at best including and advantage in cannons and a leader with a good shock value)
b) The supply value of the province is so low that Your army will dwindle away by attrition (in this case go in there with a HUGE army and assault immediately)
c) Winter is imminent (also leading to high attrition)

2) Fortresses shouldn´t be assaulted when Your force has a large part of cavalry with it. (It´s best to keep the majority of Your cav for field battle forces anyway).

3) It´s generally a good idea to send a siege army composed of infantry and a number of cannons at least equaling the cannons of the fortress. The overall troop strength should match the supply of the province. Attrition losses (infantry) should be gradually replenished from a neighbouring province so that You can keep up the siege. Make sure, that Your supply line to home provinces isn´t broken (green/red supply value).

4) The 'attacker is halved when crossing a river'-rule only applies to fieldbattles, not to sieges/assaults.

Hartmann