The Slaughter of New Rindyar

[Butan]

BUT we did used to do that on siege all the time when deployable ladders were in, defenders could throw up ladders as anti-ladder blockades in certain notorious shortcut locations.

Its not possible anymore ?

[CrazyCracka420]

Its not possible anymore ?

Public siege servers don't allow you to bring ladders any more

[Butan]

Ah, though you meant it was forbidden to use anti-ladders tactics in strategus battles/sieges 

[Keshian]

Sweet jesus, Arrowaine... you guys are the biggest masochists ever. Medium armor in a castle siege assault?

They had lordly heraldic mail and lordly gauntlets - it was still 50ish armor.  Its just they brought a bunch of swords (2handed heroes) to a bodkins (archers/xbowers) fight.  They only had 1 really good ranged who knew how to use walls and terrain to her advantage as attacker in a siege fight (Desire 30-2), the rest of their ranged seemed inexperienced being attackers on  siege and tended to just be the easiest targets for defending ranged, which made it really easy to shoot the guys climbing ladders because there was only 1 xbower suppressing defender's ranged, which had at least 10 archer and xbower heroes.
Its not like an open field fight where you can just bring a bunch of people with riding skill and give them champion destriers and have them run people over repeatedly for victory - you don't need heroes or have any real skill to do well, just outspend the enemy.

[Lt_Anders]

I got bored that battle and went XBOW even though I'm not on my xbow char this gen. It's still easy as balls to use xbows(especially for someone who is used to using them, with or without prof) on decent sieges.

Considering that was more of a, lets walk info hellfire, it made ranged easy.

[Sir_Winston_Churchill]

I got bored that battle and went XBOW even though I'm not on my xbow char this gen. It's still easy as balls to use xbows(especially for someone who is used to using them, with or without prof) on decent sieges.

Considering that was more of a, lets walk info hellfire, it made ranged easy.

Which again is the point of a castle. It allows soldiers with ranged weapons to fire down on the enemy while not having to worry about being run over by cav etc.

A little blurb (from Wikipedia, but I'm too lazy to find anything better) about an young crossbowman killing Richard the First.

(click to show/hide)

In the early evening of 25 March 1199, Richard was walking around the castle perimeter without his chainmail, investigating the progress of sappers on the castle walls. Missiles were occasionally shot from the castle walls, but these were given little attention. One defender in particular amused the king greatly—a man standing on the walls, crossbow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan which he had been using all day as a shield to beat off missiles. He deliberately aimed at the king, which the king applauded; however, another crossbowman then struck the king in the left shoulder near the neck. He tried to pull this out in the privacy of his tent but failed; a surgeon, called a 'butcher' by Hoveden, removed it, 'carelessly mangling' the King's arm in the process. The wound swiftly became gangrenous. Accordingly, Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Pierre (or Peter) Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo,[113][114] and Bertrand de Gurdon (from the town of Gourdon) by chroniclers, the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy. This boy claimed that Richard had killed the boy's father and two brothers, and that he had killed Richard in revenge. The boy expected to be executed; Richard, as a last act of mercy, forgave the boy of his crime, saying, "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day," before ordering the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings.[115] Richard then set his affairs in order, bequeathing all his territory to his brother John and his jewels to his nephew Otto.

[Ramza]

The whole battle depended on getting through the walls. With whatever happened to our catapult (destroyed/bugged?), we were only left with one choice: ladders.

Here are some of my thoughts concerning this:

1. Getting people to spawn with ladders:
There has to be a large minority of the team to bring ladders. It took us a while to realize that only 3 people spawning with them would not be enough.

2. Placing the ladders:
It's all trial and error. Yes it's very difficult to get it right, and even if you do, it might be targeted by the defenders. Well you don't just say fuck it and call it a day. Keep trying and you'll eventually it right.

3. Replicating the good ladder:
So what's the solution? We could've had better communication amongst leaders to coordinate the ladder positions. I know this was briefly touched upon by Arowaine during the battles, but the message didn't get across. As a suggestion, have multiple battalions, once a good ladder has been placed, put a flag on where to stand and click. Further coordination could be made to place multiple ladders at once, resulting in the defending forces having to spread their forces around the walls. All throughout the match I was placing ladders memorizing a landmark/group of pixels on the terrain to put one. For some reason I wasn't able to place a flag down, not sure if it's an access given to certain people.

4. Climbing up:
Walking up ladders is much faster if you zig-zag up it instead of walking straight up, same with some stairs (it also makes you harder to hit with projectiles). Shielders should go first. Of course the first one is gonna die, might as well make him absorb as much arrows and maul swings as possible and break the defence line so the next person can jump over, and the next, and the next etc.

TL;DR Fucking ladders.

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

One defender in particular amused the king greatly—a man standing on the walls, crossbow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan which he had been using all day as a shield to beat off missiles

Oh god my sides.

[Uumdi]

beat off missiles

hahaha, ew

[Tears of Destiny]

Two attacker kills for every defender kill sounds about right, look at the Siege server with 30+ players on each side, there is a reason why the defender spawn takes so much longer then attacker.


I think the main problem is people for some odd reason expect Sieges in Strat to perform identical to normal fights, and don't want to throw several waves at a castle to win it over when really you should.


Some castles though are brutally designed and should be tweaked, to be fair... But seriously, what the hell is the point of a castle if the damned thing is not... Well... A castle that gives your troops an effective force multiplier?

[Sir_Winston_Churchill]

One defender in particular amused the king greatly—a man standing on the walls, crossbow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan which he had been using all day as a shield to beat off missiles

Oh god my sides.

We now have historical proof that frying pans could be used as shields. If someone changes the buckler to look like a frying pan (perhaps a +3 buckler in the heirloom pack), I will be forever in your debt.