Best way to garrison castles in a losing war?

[th3freakie]

Huzzah, after 3 sieges and dozens upon dozens of dead men, the Rhodok Castle near Jamiche Castle is mine!

Unfortunately, while I was busy taking it, the whole Sarranid army was busy getting slaughtered defending Urhim. Now the Sultan's a prisoner and most surviving lords barely have an army. Considering 3 faction are at war with us... things ain't pretty.

So now I have to upgrade the garrison in 2 castles, both at only 50ish troops atm, while fighting random incursions into my villages, praying that the massive armies of the enemy don't come for my castles, and unable to risk going forth and getting new recruits from the nord lands.

Ups... o

Is it better to just recruit as many people as I can in each non-looted village I pass, hoping my training skill will upgrade them to veteran footmen/archer and sticking them immediately into the castles, or should I try to upgrade them further? Or should I just stick the raw recruits into the castles?

Cheers

 

[Owen]

You could take this as a sign that it's time to rebel?

 

[Terry68]

A stronger garrison will cost more money. All a stronger garrison will do apart from bleed you dry, is deter small armies from seiging it. They will simply wait for more Lords to join them before commecing the seige. So all a stronger garrison will do effectively is buy you time. The AI will not attack unless they are sure they have enough troops to take the objective.

What you need in your position is a cheap and effective garrison that will serve as a back up to your own force. You will need to be able to move from castle to castle and repel the seige before moving onto the next place under threat. To that end I would reccomend you make your own force as moblie as possible, making it all calvary or certianly mostly calvary.

The best cheap garrison troops are rhodok crossbowmen. They need only 1 training upgrade from tribesmen. They cost 3 dinar a week. Very very cheap and these guys are superb value for money costing 1.5 dinar a week garrisoned, meaning u can have loads of them.

The strongest garrison troops in my opinion are Rhodok Sharpshooters and Nord Hurscalls/Rhodok Sgts. Sharpshooters are very versatile. They do massive damage with their crossbows, but unlike most ranged troops they are very tough in melee, their military hammers doing high damage, coupled with nasty knockdowns.

*edit*

Forgot to mention. At the begining of my current game I did some experiments with my garrison compositions. I tried Sarranid Skirmishers, Veigir Skirmishers, and Swadian Skirmishers as well as Rhodok Crossbowmen as my main garrison archers. I found in a seige outnumbered by attackers 5/1 (enemy Sarranid) I took significantly less casualties with the rhodok crossbows than with the Veigir/Sarranid skirmishers. The Rhodok crossbowmen performed about equally with swadian skirmishers (which need 1 more promotion and cost x2 the price).

The taleworld forum is awash with people complaining that Rhodok castles are 'impossible to take'. They aren't impossible, but they are certainly the hardest. The reason is simply their elite troops are the best at defending static positions in the game period.

 

[th3freakie]

The taleworld forum is awash with people complaining that Rhodok castles are 'impossible to take'. They aren't impossible, but they are certainly the hardest. The reason is simply their elite troops are the best at defending static positions in the game period.

Yeah, I sorta noticed o

Problem is, I have a hard time recruiting Rhodoks, considering I'm at war with them, and although I hold 2 ethnic Rhodok villages they both still dislike me from past actions. o

In any case, 1 promotion is nice, so I'll try to place my crossbowmen in the Garrisons. Do Garrisons come out to help you in battles near the castle?

Also, how can I best speed up the end of a war? This 3 front bullshit is going to bring the Sarranids down

You could take this as a sign that it's time to rebel?

But I like the Sultan!

 

[Terry68]

Although this is of little use to you now, forward planning before you start a game will counter these problems.

For example my next game I will probably start next week, I've decided on my weapon skills. My choice of 8 companions, and what party skills they will cover.

I've decided to allign with the swadians in my next game. I will put the nord and swadian alternative leaders on the throne before settling down with swadia. I will seek to push war with the rhodoks to capture as much of their territory for myself, and cultivate good relations with their villages. As marshall of swadia I will push back boundries with Rhodoks and Sultinae, while just repelling nords. I will hope to maintain good relations with nords to avoid conflict with them in early days of my own kingdom.

This wont all go 100% to the plan I hope. But I should be able to fashion a territory for myself along these lines. Being marshall is crutial to influencing where your kingdom makes it territorial gains. Alligning with Swadia means there will be no shortage of wars in the early game as they border so many other kingdoms.

I never raid enemy villages. Its just not needed. If I want to cripple an enemys economy by raiding I simply order other lords to carry out the raids. This works best with lords of a nastier disposition, and can even increase your standing with them.

 

[Yellowjacket]

never tried the rhodok xbowmans, but it sounds like LIffy knows what hes talking about.

I wholeheartedly agree with what he said about a mobile defense force. Just bring a bunch of guys with you when your on the defensive.

As far as troop types go... well in older versions (haven't defended siege yet in 1.27) if you can get about 50 swadian knights (I'm sure the elite troops of other realms work just as well) you can hold out against vastly superior size foes army with really really small losses.

I'm talking you kill 240 they wound 8 or so... but again maybe thats just the way it used to be, you'll have to see for yourself.

Just plug that hole!

Also agree not to raid villages, theres generally better ways to make money. Good idea about sending your lords to do it for you!

 

[unmerged(96606)]

May I say I don't agree with Liffy?

Actually I found out that if I bring 120 sharpshooters to a castle defence it is pretty much over. Unless you get an advantage of -15 or more, in which case you are screwed no matter what ya do.

I have seen entire waves fall before and on the ladder before they could even reach my troops. Their reinforcements arriving long past the previous wave could have been a threat.

So in my opinion; crossbows/archers/sharpshooters ... heck everything that is accurate and can do a lot of damage.

Works like a charm for me.

 

[Archonsod]

Thing to note is that the AI only looks at troop numbers when deciding whether or not to siege, not their quality. While Rhodock sharpshooters are certainly better if you have to fight a defence, getting 300 recruits means the AI won't even consider attacking it unless it's gathered a sizeable force.

 

[unmerged(169164)]

That's double-edged because in a losing war, you probably have lost your reliable troop supplying villages because of loot. Making it up to 300 will be tricky.

The other point is that when the AI has enough troops to attack a 300 men garrison, it does not forcefully choose the least peopled. It might go for other places depending on different assessments.

If you have a city garrisoned with 300 men and a castle garrisoned with 150, the AI might go for the city. At this point, either the garrison is quality or the bluff is called.

In a losing war, the best is to destroy the enemy main army.
If you have a consistent faction, doing it on the open is the most direct way as you will benefit from having a consistent faction working well together.

If not, you might trap the enemy army in a siege. Let them break through while waiting on the outside, when they are in, ask your lords to go to the castle (could be a hassle if you have to ask to more than four lords), they will break through, join them to crush the enemy army in an epic scale battle.

Once the main army is destroyed, well, the tide of war has changed.