Top 5 siege nightmares

[Bibor]

There's my list of worst opponents to siege down and why.

1. Ottomans
Undoubtedly the worst of the lot. Since the recent patch, they upgrade their forts on a regular basis, often have 15+ forts and have so... so many troops to defend them. Forts are also naturally positioned in a fashion that they make a natural defense around Constantinople which makes the first war long and deadly, even with a long list of friendly allies.

2. Ming
They tech up mil with ahead of time penalties, have bonuses for fort defense, 10+ up-to-date forts, and worst of all, hundreds of thousands of troops to defend them. The saving grace is Beijing being a coastal, border province and the possibility of tanking Mandate of Heaven.

3. Austria
3 or 4 ridiculous mountain forts with extra fort defense, and an untrackable number of allied troops makes sieging down Austria a logistical nightmare. Sudden appearance of 120.000 enemy troops marching on your siege stack in Tirol is an event as common as "Lack of officers".

4. France
Forts dotting the landscape in a compact fashion, all easily within reach of the deadly and large French army. The only saving grace is the fact that novadays the French army is often not at home, but rather chilling on some R&R in French Guinea.

5. Iberian colonizers
The fifth and final place goes collectively to colonizers of which one will be dominant, either Portugal or Castile. Core lands themselves are a breeze, but chase down level 2 forts and armies in Brazil and Peru for a few years, and you'll wish you attacked the Ottomans instead.

Honorable mentions:

Russia, with its winter.
Mamluks, if you're not the Ottoman, mamluk fortifications are actually quite nasty. Once you breach Karak, though, Kairo is relatively easy to take.

 

[Bobalay]

Though I've thankfully never seen it happen, Afghanistan dominating the Persian region would be a nightmare. +25% fort defense and +1 attrition in a region covered with mountains and surrounded by natural choke-points.

 

[Dakka]

Though I've thankfully never seen it happen, Afghanistan dominating the Persian region would be a nightmare. +25% fort defense and +1 attrition in a region covered with mountains and surrounded by natural choke-points.

Both Persia and Afghanistan are horrific. I’ve fought both; their mountains make fighting them a living hell, especially considering the Persian and Afghan militaries aren’t all too shabby themselves

 

[Metroidkirby]

This guy is the hardest to siege

 

[RoverStorm]

From personal experience, despite them lacking attrition or defensive ideas, Switzerland is utter hell for my troops. Why?

1. Mountains
2. Severe Winters (same as russia)
3. Always takes defensive ideas
4. Scorched Earth
5. About as concerned with a good army as Prussia
6. Rivers, high tradition, and fort spam makes it impossible to ever fight them without a -3 terrain penalty. Even worse at first because they get the age of discovery bonus of +1 combat in the terrain of their capital.
7. Low development means low supply
8. Landlocked, so all money the AI normally dedicates to naval instead goes to army and forts.

Just taking one fort took a whopping 3 years and cost me over a hundred thousand in attrition. Fighting them directly didn't work either; I lost outnumbering them 3-1. The worst was they sat behind their forts while I burned manpower on a siege for two years, then engaged the siege and crushed them.

Seriously, you are far better off leaving that manpower black hole alone.

 

[Kagerou.Echo.三葉]

From personal experience, despite them lacking attrition or defensive ideas, Switzerland is utter hell for my troops. Why?

1. Mountains
2. Severe Winters (same as russia)
3. Always takes defensive ideas
4. Scorched Earth
5. About as concerned with a good army as Prussia
6. Rivers, high tradition, and fort spam makes it impossible to ever fight them without a -3 terrain penalty. Even worse at first because they get the age of discovery bonus of +1 combat in the terrain of their capital.
7. Low development means low supply
8. Landlocked, so all money the AI normally dedicates to naval instead goes to army and forts.

Just taking one fort took a whopping 3 years and cost me over a hundred thousand in attrition. Fighting them directly didn't work either; I lost outnumbering them 3-1. The worst was they sat behind their forts while I burned manpower on a siege for two years, then engaged the siege and crushed them.

Seriously, you are far better off leaving that manpower black hole alone.

There is a reason why they went untouched through 2 world wars

 

[iquabakaner]

Can't resist linking my thread about a war with Russia.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-bad-enough-for-peace-deals-with-ai.1062900/

 

[makaramus]

There is a reason why they went untouched through 2 world wars

"if we pretend we are a turtle they will ignore us... shhhh!"

seriusly I think its one of most defensive lands in german region

 

[Zephyrum]

Russia, though...

The absurdly long travel times, made bigger in the latest patch, make it so even occupying vast wastelands without forts a massive pain.

 

[Mansa Sekou]

Any of the Indian Hyperblobs past 1600.

 

[gia257]

Declared on ottoblob because wanted a final boss fight and russia didnt cut it...

The only nightmare is there's been a single fight, vs a 7 stack... The turks got scared. Poland got easy access with all that plain land. If you have to enter through the mountains I agree its a nightmare.

 

[Kergan]

Salzburg would get my vote.

I usually aim for 40%+ siege ability. Which makes sieging nice and fast.

As if mountains and divine ideas weren't enough of a nightmare, they had taken defensive, had a defensive advisor, and my poorly drilled vassal without offensive was controlling the siege. It was only missing a defensiveness edict to troll me even more.

I almost considered dealing with a coalition in order to vassalizing the OPM and giving it Austria's mountain forts, so as to give my opponents the pleasure next time.

 

[ahyangyi]

There is a reason why they went untouched through 2 world wars

And there is a reason that the Burgundian Inheritance happened