Sieges

[kevarms]

I'm not exactly how sieges work. As the French I defeated an army of Lorraine in the field and besieged their capital. Do I just sit there and let the siege take it's course or do I absolutely have to assault if I want to take control. I am a little confused by the options :

Cover - Assault - Besiege.

I know the first allows me to move my army away from the province. The second speaks for itself but the third I'm not certain about. Also, how come a city I'm besieging can still build armies ? This happened to me on my first attempt. The Lorraine capital was besieged and they managed to build a bigger army than mine to lift it. I had to go back with 30,000+ men to sort them out.

 

[unmerged(358)]

As long as the owner of the province controlles it (he'll loose control when you successfully takes the castle) he can build armies there, but remember that any army just built starts at lousy moral and in almost any case will be defeated by the besieging army...You can wait and let the siege take it's course if you are not in a hurry, watch the little numbers in the siege window. The left one is your strenght and the right one is the castle. The higher your number is the faster it goes.... The enemy has to reach -8 or so before the castle falls....
About the options the third one leaves the minimum force needed to beseige the castle and let you move the rest of your army on... This little force is then rather vulnerable to minor attacks, as a few hundred men in losses mean you don't have enough men to continue the siege and have to start again after you've brought in more men. Therefore I only use that option when I'm sure I've defeated everything else from the enemy in the vicinity...

Cobos