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Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 10:24 pm
by Kitano1314
We know the Roman legions can build siege equipment when they lay siege to a city but what options do the other civ's have?
I know we can assault the city if its fortification is only lvl 1 so I guess what i'm asking is if there's anything I can do other than set up camp outside the city walls and wait for it's inhabitants to surrender in cities that are lvl 2 or more ?

edit: I also would like to know where I can find some cash to pay for my troops upkeep, this is my first time playing as any non-romans.

Cheers

Re: Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 1:04 am
by Durk
Scenarios vary, so some general notes and ideas. For the most part, non-Romans must simply infest the time necessary to starve fortresses into surrender.
Some non-Roman forces can build siege towers. If so, you will see these in your troops available boxes.
In a few scenarios, siege towers are card options (decisions icon). I think you only get this option once a year when it is available.

Cash is a challenge. In most scenarios you will have the option to raise money for some cost in EP and NM. If you are successful in battle, you will often get the option to sell prisoners.
The usual method is to spend EP for requisitions or enslave&punish. These do impact loyalty.
In the earliest scenarios, cash is not really an option.

Re: Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 2:04 am
by arsan
As Durk says, your only real option is to wait until the defenders starve and surrender.
Siege towers or RGD cards can make a breach from time to time but it's hard to get two or more before the defenders repair them, so usually It doesn't help much.

And bear in mind that if the city has an unblockaded port they will never starve.
So if you play as a pure land power like the Parthians, just forget about trying to take coastal cities with level 2 or higher walls. It will never happen!

Being barbarians is hard! ;)

Re: Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 8:41 am
by Kitano1314
Thanks for the help, I had considered using the decisions 'requisition' or 'enslave' (I've never had to use them in-game yet)but I didn't fancy the loyalty hit and I was hoping the cash would appear from somewhere else . Unfortunately the army wont be able to save us from Roman annihilation without funding of some sort so I guess it will have to be done.

It's interesting you mentioned that cities with harbours can't be starved out by land-based besiegers because in my current scenario i'm able to build two ships and up until now I couldn't work out what I could do with them!

Re: Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:47 pm
by arsan
To starve a city with a harbour you need to blockade the sea zone where the harbour exits. For this you need at least 10 naval combat elements on the sea zone. Transport elements won't work.
Of course if the enemy has a stronger fleet they will attack your blockade fleet and scare them away.
So for susccesfully besiege coastal cities you need some kind of naval superiority or at least equilibrium of naval forces.

Regards!

Edit: Regarding cash, as you probably already know, each year on march you recieve the taxes from all your cities. You have to try to administer this money well as it will be your main source of income through the year.

Additionaly, winning battles, getting war prisioners and selling them is another big source of money. But of course, you have to win battles for this to work, something difficult in some scenarios.

For monthly troop manteinance using your Mechant RGD helps. Yous put them on enemy or neutral cities far from the war front on the first turn of the scenario and they will give you each 5 denarius a month. Its a use and forget RGD. Just do it once at the game start and they will give you some money until the game ends.
Once they are set you can try to upgrade them with the Trade Post RGD buy honestly, i rarely do it as it cost and it's failiure chance don't make it a very sure bussiness.

Re: Anyone any tips for beseiging cities while playing as 'barbarians'!

Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:06 pm
by Baris
Another thing for siege consideration I think is the amount of supply wagons given in a scenario. In Cantabrian wars there are only 2 for Cantabri. Also cards for increasing Roman loyalty is available. While it is not possible for the other side. It is good balance for comparative strenght of the armies.