When does one assault a province instead of sieging it?

[TheMeInTeam]

Earlygame vs late the #'s are different. The "x ratio" doesn't hold up very well. For example, I have attacked 15:1 in the early game on a level 2 fort and lost. However, by the mid-late game I can and frequently do assault fort levels 4 and down with 50 infantry regiments and take them easily (5 is a bit dicey without more troops). Morale seems to be a factor, I'm not sure what else is (leader pips were not as of 1.7 when I tested a good 10 assaults each with 6/6 vs no general and got the same outcomes...not perfectly scientific but if shock/fire matters in that context it's marginal).

As for when you do it, the answer is in the mid-late game to speed up wars. The losses are overblown at that point; the cost of an assault is less than a month's worth of manpower.

 

[Nassau]

When stomping a backward nation with far superior troop. Or when just too close to 0 defenders.

 

[balmung60]

^^Eh, the ratios are kinda ballpark anyway.

 

[BaZERGer]

Assaulting can also be important when Call for Peace starts ticking, and you still need to conquer 10+ provinces. Assaulting, and waiting some months for unit recovery is still faster than waiting for the siege, as long as the assuault succeeds and you have the manpower to recover.

 

[Umega]

I only really do it if I outnumber a small garrison or if an enemy just took one of my provinces, I just grab it back by assualting it.

 

[Beagá]

Wow, not sure why I never thought of this... that'd be an awesome way to make France needlessly drain their manpower.

The AI is seldom that dumb. When big AI stacks stop during a siege, it´s often due to frozen AI behavior.

 

[Zenith Darksea]

If an enemy has just taken a province from you, it's a good idea to quickly take it back by assault while the garrison is still low.

 

[MadDjinn]

Beware your own vassals leading sieges.

I had moved a 40 stack off a province to attack an enemy and my vassal stayed to siege. No problem, I moved back to give the cannon support. Problem. My vassal thought that would be the perfect time to assault the garrison and wasted my infantry. So all I had left was Cav and cannons when another enemy stack showed up.

Vassals are jerks.

 

[Less]

I used assaults very heavily once while playing a CN game. You can fight other CNs until you get to 25% warscore, at which point their overlord tries to enforce peace, then quickly assault a few more provinces and peace out the target before the waiting time on the enforce peace request runs out. Helps that 95% of the new world is very low level forts.

 

[RaptorCommander]

Dismantling the HRE.

Always with Mercs (or your 'allies' troops)

 

[Tivann]

When the enemy nation is bancrupt its best.

 

[Kirikano]

When

1) You blobbed enough to have pretty much endless manpower or rich enough to support a massive merc infantry stack. Alternatively, you have a small stack on the province while your ally has a large stack and you want to bleed their manpower (don't overdo it though, unless your fine with them peacing out).
2) The walls are breached or its a low level fort with a reduced garrison, preferably less than 500 men in it (ie freshly occupied provinces).
3) Your attacking Russia. The manpower you bleed from sieging provinces through several winters with stacks large enough to not get wiped by a powerful, militant, lucky nation means that you might be better off making a large merc stack to assault everything.

 

[Osman Pasha]

Assualt seriously needs a buff, most sieges in history requires assault.

 

[riknap]

Beware your own vassals leading sieges.

I had moved a 40 stack off a province to attack an enemy and my vassal stayed to siege. No problem, I moved back to give the cannon support. Problem. My vassal thought that would be the perfect time to assault the garrison and wasted my infantry. So all I had left was Cav and cannons when another enemy stack showed up.

Vassals are jerks.

wait? are vassals independent in terms of assault decision making? I thought only you can order vassals to assault?
(that said, that does apply to allies)

 

[Sorellis]

You can actually use the troops of nations who are in separate wars with one of your enemies. So if France declares on Burgundy and I as Liege also declare on Burgundy I can use the French troops to assault provided I am the siege leader. I had this happen to me in an MP game and I lost ~20k infantry