Sieges - is it better to...?

[PJL]

1. Send just a large enough army to cover the supply value of the province and siege it for as long as it takes

Pros - little if any attrition losses (except in provinces affected by winter).
Cons - lasts longer than the brute force method, also susceptable to counter attacks (due to length of time asd size limit). Also supply value in a province may be so low, it may never happen!!!

OR

2. Send as large as force as possible and assault it ASAP.

Pros - takes less time.
Cons - lot more attrition (and also combat) losses.

 

[unmerged(1457)]

Don't think an immediate assault will usually succeed - you'll need to do #1 at the start. When the fortress is weakened then send in the extra troops to assault. This all changes when you get high enough land tech and/or face Mighty+ fortresses. The high land tech reduces your max attrition so you can send a large force and not suffer as much. The Mighty fortresses require massive numbers of troops (100k+).

 

[unmerged(1457)]

Also, don't send in multiple small forces to reinforce a siege in a province in which you expect to experience significant attrition. Combine them all first and then send the one force in. Each separate force you send in will increase the unit size of the besiegers by approximately 1/2, above and beyond the actual troop numbers. This occurs because each force's numbers are rounded up to the nearest 1000 before they're added together.

For example, Ten armies each with 1500 men will have a unit size of 20 while one army with 15000 men will have a unit size of 15.

 

[Griffon]

actually Robo, I think it rounds down. So if you have an army of 566, you'll have 0 below your sprite. If you have an army of 1999, you'll have 1 below your sprite and so forth.

I might be wrong, but I doubt it

 

[unmerged(1457)]

The numbers displayed below the army graphic on the screen are indeed rounded down but the actual unit size when figuring attrition is determined by rounding up - just like for boarding ships.

 

[Griffon]

got it! my mistake

 

[unmerged(1457)]

Actually, I'd like to see that changed in EU 1.9 if possible; Round up the numbers displayed on the screen. I see no reason for them to be rounded down. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Zardon]

Originally posted by PJL
2. Send as large as force as possible and assault it ASAP.

Pros - takes less time.
Cons - lot more attrition (and also combat) losses.

I have found that 20k of Infantry & 1000 Cannons do short work to even the mightiest of fortress. And you usually only lose the 20k of Infantry.

 

[unmerged(1255)]

I usually sends in sufficiently with artillery to have a 3:1 artillery advantage (ie 60 guns to a level 2 fortress) in order to gain the +3 bonus. I top them off with as much infantry I can taking attrition into account. I then besiege for a couple of months. If the fortress strength then is negative, and I am impatient, I assault. If not, I wait. I always assault when the winter comes, however, hoping to take the fortress and withdraw before I lose all my troops...