Stolen Sieges

[unmerged(30848)]

Perhaps my brain has been addled by all this desert fighting and colonizing the tropics. I was under the impression that stolen sieges had been fixed in EU3, that whoever had been besieging a city for the longest time would gain control when that city fell. However, I've seen that go awry a couple times recently; maybe I've forgotten what is the true determinant of winning sieges.

Could someone enlighten me, who gains control of a successfully besieged city? Is it the army that's been there the longest, or the largest army, or the army with the most talented general, or what? Or does it have to do with characteristics of the countries, such as ruler attributes or prestige or something?

 

[dharper]

My understanding is the same as yours - that the army that has been in the province the longest gets the siege.

Keep in mind that this is not always the same as saying "the country that has been in the province the longest". Moving, splitting or combining your armies may screw up the order.

 

[Kazmir]

Also, if you assault, and only have infantry while the other army(ies) have cavalry and all the infantry dies, you lose control of the siege.

 

[Shiggs]

it is a bit weird.... usually whoever has troops there first gets the province... but I think that rule changes if an assault is made....

For example, I was recently playing as Mecklenburg and I was allied with Norway, we were at war with Sweden. I march my 6,000 (2/4/0/) man army up to a province where Norway was already sieging... I had more troops than them, and a better general, yet they ordered the assault, and when it fell, somehow it was in my control.... I've had it go the other way a few times and was pissed, but I'm still not exactly sure what the parameters are.

 

[Lord Stuart]

I'm not quite sure if it depends who was there first. I'm currently playing Scotland (the brave ) and I was called to war upon ulster (or tyrone is the correct name) by my english allies. When I reached the province, the english army was already assaulting and ahen we won the siege, ulster fell to my hands. So the english were a bit pissed, but it was me to annex them
I do think it has something to do with the infantry or the leader, too. I sent James III as my leader to ulster, their army had none.

 

[comagoosie]

I did read this somewhere it was quite interesting, but I suffer from short term memory loss

I think it went like this.

The country who is the leader in a war, gets sieging province automatically.
Then talented general
who got there first
Then most troops

 

[lenny]

AFAIK, first come gets the siege. But, I remember to have lost control of a siege due to reorganizing armies. Also, I think I once gained control of a siege after a battle took place in the province where my leader was in charge.

 

[unmerged(40278)]

The country who is the leader in a war, gets sieging province automatically.

generally speaking, no. what i can definitely confirm working:

your ally is besieging a province. you send an infantry stack to join the siege. your ally starts assaulting thanks to the fresh infantry and takes the city. the city is now controlled by your ally.

imho the decisive factor is still who starts the siege (and then doesn't move or reorganize while other nations units are present, or lose all infantry in an assault - again while other nations infantry are present). only when multiple armies arrive before the siege starts (eg because theres a battle with an enemy army going on in that province), do those extra rules kick in as tiebreakers. general rank (this is actually a skill separate from fire/shock/siege, check the history/countries folder to see what a historical leader looks like as raw data) factors in heavily, and i guess alliance leader factors in even more heavily.

ie if the alliance leader is present, he will start the siege. otherwise the general with the highest rank will start the siege. otherwise whatever...

one thing to add. if you want to "take" control of a siege, send a properly sized army to join the siege. this should trigger your ally to start the assault, now give your infantry a move order, which should cause your ally's siege to fail and his infantry to be killed off. now cancel your move order, and voila your army is in charge of the siege and can start assaulting.

 

[unmerged(67425)]

What Kazmir and Dharper said is how it works.

 

[Gurag]

to my experience lenny and vercetti hit the nail on its head about how sieges work.

 

[Wizzington]

it is a bit weird.... usually whoever has troops there first gets the province... but I think that rule changes if an assault is made....

For example, I was recently playing as Mecklenburg and I was allied with Norway, we were at war with Sweden. I march my 6,000 (2/4/0/) man army up to a province where Norway was already sieging... I had more troops than them, and a better general, yet they ordered the assault, and when it fell, somehow it was in my control.... I've had it go the other way a few times and was pissed, but I'm still not exactly sure what the parameters are.

The AI will sometimes order its army to wander off if you're besieging the province too, based on some "oh that place is already taken" logic. If they do this after they start an assault, they will immediately turn back to join in on what is now your assault. (You can see them start walking and then immediately stop)

It's pretty funny.

No clue why the ai would get a siege if you were there first tho, never had that happen to me.

 

[jmschaub]

It's still broken, but in very select cases. I've had it happen several times. I start the siege, an ally joins me. They secure peace as a minor partner, the siege resets to 0%. It's annoying, but not a game breaker.

 

[unmerged(30848)]

My understanding is the same as yours - that the army that has been in the province the longest gets the siege.

Keep in mind that this is not always the same as saying "the country that has been in the province the longest". Moving, splitting or combining your armies may screw up the order.

Yeah, that jives best with what I saw. When I went back to my previous save and checked them out, it was all sieges where I had reorganized after allied infantry had arrived.

Thanks guys, you're all the best.