N00b siege question

[unmerged(8876)]

I'm Spain, leader of alliance which includes Brittany.

Brittany declares war on one-province France (just Ile de France).

I join their war.

I get enough Cav (about 11k) to siege into Ile de France, first. Fortress is 10k, I'm pretty sure

Brittany arrives with 30k+ troops and suddenly my troops are evicted from the siege. Brittany then wanders out and I wander back, and then the same thing happens all over again.

What's going on? I can't figure out why those cav kept being evicted. (Plus, Brittany completed the sige and got Ile de France plus CoT. Very annoying).

Using 1.09, if that matters. And my Land Tech was way below French (under 9 versus 13 or 14). No French army that I could see and no popup about battle commencing. Just "a troops have completed movement" type message.

 

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That was weird, really weird.

 

[unmerged(45766)]

Britanny probably had an historical leader commanding its troops. When historical leaders (either generals or conquistadors ; that is, not 'default' commanders) arrive in a province where a siege is under progress, they take command of the siege. If several leaders are present, the highest ranking leader is given command. And the country that has the command of the siege is the country who takes the control of the province at the completion of it.

There is something called "stealing" a siege, taking advantage of that feature. That is, you let your allies (or another belligerent country) do the sieging, and send a lone leader with minimal troops at the end, so as to get the control of the province (and subsequent war-score and availability for tribute askings). This allows you to use your troops elsewhere, or not to use them at all.

 

[unmerged(11075)]

and your tropps may have wandered out because of attrition. you had 11k, this amount can be supported in the prov, so no problem. then comes brittany bringing zillions of troops (the ai just loves bringing all their troops into one province to siege).
brittany and you start having attrition.

brittany moves out and your army has melted away, so that the siege can not be held up, they wander out.

 

[unmerged(45766)]

and your tropps may have wandered out because of attrition. you had 11k, this amount can be supported in the prov, so no problem. then comes brittany bringing zillions of troops (the ai just loves bringing all their troops into one province to siege).
brittany and you start having attrition.

brittany moves out and your army has melted away, so that the siege can not be held up, they wander out.

No, the AI won't leave a province because it suffers attrition.

But if it has less infantry than what is necessary to siege, it'll leave the siege, even if it has ample supplies of cavalry. Maybe that's what happens too.

 

[unmerged(6159)]

and your tropps may have wandered out because of attrition. you had 11k, this amount can be supported in the prov, so no problem. then comes brittany bringing zillions of troops (the ai just loves bringing all their troops into one province to siege).
brittany and you start having attrition.
brittany moves out and your army has melted away, so that the siege can not be held up, they wander out.

No he says:

Brittany arrives with 30k+ troops and suddenly my troops are evicted from the siege. Brittany then wanders out and I wander back, and then the same thing happens all over again.

Even with 40k+ attrition in Ile de France won't be very high.

And it can't be a Breton leader either. The AI can't make you leave a seige (unless they do it through attrition).

I suspect this is the infamous cavalry seige bug. When the AI is in a seige with an all cavalry army it immediately (one day I think) is forced to withdraw. This can royally screw up the AI. And the only solution is to get Brittanny to include some infantry in it's seige force. No idea how to do that.

 

[Taylor]

I have seen this sometimes, too. In my case I was trying to conquer Rhodos, which had a medium-sized fortress, so I had to put far more troops on it than the island could support. But the Knights also had war with France, and France kept sending these little 1k armies, who subsequently got so much attrition that they fled, but somehow this caused my armies to flee, too!
I can understand why the 1k armies fled, this happens all the time: a 1k army that has too much attrition in enemy territory will flee from the province they are in. But why did they take my troops with them?
(Not really an answer to the question but I just recognized the situation.)

 

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From the bug list

76 : Type: AI | Status: CONFIRMED | Severity: MAJOR
AI sometimes leaves and reenters siege constantly when it lacks infantry. Update: actually, when it is all cavalry
Reported In: 1.02 | Correction planned In : | Corrected In :

 

[unmerged(8876)]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I'll have to check if that Brittany army was all Cav. Would it have helped if *I* had had some infantry, I wonder?

It certainly wasn't siege stealing. I've done that and had it done to me, but never seen any forces ejected.

Not sure about attrition either. Have been joined in sieges by allies to well over attrition limit (damn them) and never been ejected. And my force was strong enough to go straight back and restart the siege.

Have to put it down to "one of those things" since I can't see how to make Brittany put infantry in. I'll just have to beat them up to get Ile de France. Now to get a CB on them...