Useless sieges

[RedArmy]

Is it supposed to be how medieval warfare worked?

My vassal Banû Yâs is sieging Medina's capital without enough men, so the siege is completely inefficient.
At the same time Medina is sieging Banu Yas's capital, and it doesn't have enough men either... (see screenshot below)

AI should protect its own territory with a higher priority than attacking foreign territory. The effects of having its own cities occupied or sacked should be more devastating for post-war economy, so that one (AI or human) should try to avoid it at all costs. Especially the capital.

 

[holyvigil]

Sometimes.

 

[Laurent1944]

Well, warriors of both side like better to plunder around enemy cities rather than risking death in battles.

 

[Ixal]

Is it supposed to be how medieval warfare worked?

My vassal Banû Yâs is sieging Medina's capital without enough men, so the siege is completely inefficient.
At the same time Medina is sieging Banu Yas's capital, and it doesn't have enough men either... (see screenshot below)

AI should protect its own territory with a higher priority than attacking foreign territory. The effects of having its own cities occupied or sacked should be more devastating for post-war economy, so that one (AI or human) should try to avoid it at all costs. Especially the capital.

View attachment 637927

Technically their homeland is protected just fine.

 

[mysticdueler]

Besides, this way all you have to do is send enough troops to make the siege progress. Means less of your manpower drained from attrition

 

[WolframS67]

...
My vassal Banû Yâs is sieging Medina's capital without enough men, so the siege is completely inefficient.
At the same time Medina is sieging Banu Yas's capital, and it doesn't have enough men either... (see screenshot below)
...

Funny situation. Or to get desperate and frustrated about once more.

Just a few days ago a similar threat dealt with the topic, why AIs leave their homeland. Going deep into detail.
But as it is, both AIs decided in your case to start a siege race. Both have a 3-stack.

The coastal fort of Medina is a level-2 fort, so it needs a 6-stack minimum. Thus Banu Yas's siege is indeed useless. Next are an unfortified province and the capital province of Medina, so AI Banu Yas has options to do something productive.

The capital of Banu Yas (Liwa) is just a level-1 fort, so Medina's 3-stack suffices to start the siege. The problem is that Liwa is arid and thus the attrition in a siege is 2%. While the reinforcement rate in the province is just 10%. I assume the general of Medina has 0 pips in maneuver. So the monthly losses by attrition are higher than reinforcements. Thus after the first month the siege of Medina's army got incomplete.
Actually there is an easy way to avoid this problem (or to correct the mistake). If Medina's army would have occupied a neighboring unfortified province, before going to Liwa, the reinforcement rate goes up from 10% to 50%.

So what both AIs should have done is, first occupy unfortified provinces and then go for the siege of the level-1 forts.
Conclusion: The AI has no understanding of base concepts of the game and is thus acting stupidly.
Not for the first time and prob not for the last time. Very sad.