Meanwhile, in Solaria...

[Indirik]

According, once again, to The1exile's numbers, you (very roughly) need a twenty percent CS advantage per level of walls.  And that's assuming your CS is, as it should be for a fortification assault, in heavy infantry.  Archers get discounted, and cavalry is almost completely useless.  Light infantry is also less useful.  This was without SE's, but with lots of banners.

Assaulting high walls without SEs is folly. Especially when you start getting up into the higher numbers. Attacking heavily defended Lvl 5 walls without SEs? Better bring more than a 3:1 advantage.

Also, if you have enough SEs, you could potentially breach the walls in a single round. That will let your cavalry join the battle quickly, albeit without the charge bonus. Which makes it pretty much equivalent to infantry.

[Solari]

Also, if you have enough SEs, you could potentially breach the walls in a single round. That will let your cavalry join the battle quickly, albeit without the charge bonus. Which makes it pretty much equivalent to infantry.

Fancy a 400 hour pleasure cruise through the mountains? Come see the scenic Divides!

[Bedwyr]

Assaulting high walls without SEs is folly. Especially when you start getting up into the higher numbers. Attacking heavily defended Lvl 5 walls without SEs? Better bring more than a 3:1 advantage.

That is just not true.  I've had crushing victories with sufficiently heavy infantry at a 2:1 ratio and effectively nonexistent SE's (we had five between all the armies for over a thousand troops).  It depends a lot on what troops you have attacking vs what they have defending.  If you have 90% of your CS in elite heavy infantry, and most of their CS is in crappy archers, I'll bet you could have a lot lower ratios.

SE's do make it much easier, though.  Arcaea sacked Niel once with, what was it, 8K to 6K with sufficient SE's for all the troops, and they had high walls, and we still butchered the defenders.

[Zakilevo]

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Siege_of_Valkyrja

72 SEs against level 7 fortification 

[Woelfy]

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Siege_of_Valkyrja

72 SEs against level 7 fortification 

That is a great thing to have on the wiki. Dear lord, I enjoyed that. Thanks Zaki.

[Indirik]

That is just not true.  I've had crushing victories with sufficiently heavy infantry at a 2:1 ratio and effectively nonexistent SE's (we had five between all the armies for over a thousand troops).  It depends a lot on what troops you have attacking vs what they have defending.  If you have 90% of your CS in elite heavy infantry, and most of their CS is in crappy archers, I'll bet you could have a lot lower ratios.

When I'm talking ratios of attackers to defenders, I'm only counting infantry. Theoretically you could win with a lower CS forces if the attacker is pure infantry and the defender is pure archer. Something like that happened the last time the NA sacked Barad Gardor. The duke had packed his militia with almost all archers behind his level 5 walls. We marched in with a force that was barely bigger than the defender, had less than 10 SEs, and racked up a crushing victory.

Also, with low CS forces (<10K or so on both sides) each individual unit counts a lot more. A large infantry unit with low cohesion that retreats early can make a huge difference, and throws off any predictions.

[Velax]

When I'm talking ratios of attackers to defenders, I'm only counting infantry. Theoretically you could win with a lower CS forces if the attacker is pure infantry and the defender is pure archer. Something like that happened the last time the NA sacked Barad Gardor. The duke had packed his militia with almost all archers behind his level 5 walls. We marched in with a force that was barely bigger than the defender, had less than 10 SEs, and racked up a crushing victory.

Also, with low CS forces (<10K or so on both sides) each individual unit counts a lot more. A large infantry unit with low cohesion that retreats early can make a huge difference, and throws off any predictions.

Not sure which battle you're talking about, but it certainly wasn't the last attack on Barad Gardor. I had just been made Margrave of the city and used every gold piece I had to recruit infantry. I just didn't have enough gold and the attackers hugely outnumbered what militia I could recruit.

[Indirik]

I don't remember who was lord at the time. We were just walking by, not intending to sack it, when we noticed that the militia was almost all archers, and the Corian army was nowhere near. *sack* Bye bye walls, too.

[Stabbity]

It was a great hit.

[Samboji]

Still, the 20% advantage rule is good to know. But as said, it does depend on troops and morale heavily.

Militia doesn't get the leadership or captain's bonuses that a noble's unit does, but they may get some from a marshal's/lord's leadership (I'm fairly unsure of this though). The archer disparity is pretty much normal, they tend to either win through firepower (which seems to be about 1/4 of an infantry unit's hitting power per turn, depending on wind), or lose a lot when in melee.

It would be interesting to know just how well an archer unit does in melee if it still has high stats and banners. Is a 75/85 archer unit with banners, high morale/cohesion/training just always bad at close combat, because they're archers? Or are they an average infantry unit with a bit of ranged punch as well?

Possibly the wrong thread for the question, but it does link into the above posts.

There's an strange situation of semi-stalemate right now in Dwilight, where neither side really wants to attack due to superior fortifications on both sides, compared to mobile CS available. Which is good in a way, it forces diplomacy and strategic rather than tactical warfare.

[Chenier]

Captain's bonus... was it ever actually implemented?

[^ban^]

Captain's bonus... was it ever actually implemented?

Yes. Years ago.

[Chenier]

Yes. Years ago.

What does it do?

[Dante Silverfire]

What does it do?

I think it aids battle performance in some manner.

Not sure, but I've had my +15 captain leading 800 cs of cavalry beat 1500 cs of monsters in one cavalry charge. (with a lot of casualties to my cavalry though)

[Chenier]

I think it aids battle performance in some manner.

Not sure, but I've had my +15 captain leading 800 cs of cavalry beat 1500 cs of monsters in one cavalry charge. (with a lot of casualties to my cavalry though)

Cavalry deal a lot in the first strike, monsters retreat easy. 800 cs of cavalry beating 1500 cs of monsters is impressive, but not surprising.

What stat does the captain influence? Leadership score? Cohesion?