Sieges | Battles TW: Warhammer Guide
Last update: 14 June 2016
Regardless of your approach - focusing on aggressive military expansion and conquering multiple settlements one after another, or trying your best in diplomacy - sooner or later you will be forced to either lead a siege, or to defend against one. You should know what to do and what to avoid during such events.
General information
We should start by dividing sieges into two types - over settlements that don't have walls, as well as those that do. In the first type the battle will take place on a randomly generated map, without walls, fortress and so on. Both armies have equal chances - except for the fact, that the defending side will have all of its army present on the battlefield, while the attacking one has to wait for reinforcements.
In the case of sieging a settlement that has walls, the whole process is entirely different. The defending side will be protected inside of a fortress with walls and towers - the latter one will decimate infantry units. The higher the level of the walls surrounding the settlement, the better are the defensive capabilities of it - stronger walls, more powerful towers and so on. When sieging a settlement that has walls, the attacking army must bring artillery units with them. If they don't have them, they will have to spend several turns preparing siege equipment - siege towers and/or battering rams.
Siege towers are used to deliver infantry units safely to the walls. Those units are protected from enemy fire while traveling inside of towers. Battering rams, on the other hand, are used to punch holes in walls and to destroy gates. You can also order your troops to set up ladders on the walls, but it will take a lot more time than with the siege towers and your soldiers will be vulnerable to fire. However, if the attacking army has artillery units, it can use them to destroy enemy defenses - walls, towers and gates.
The goal of the attacking army is to kill all of the defenders (or force them to retreat), or to capture the control point located in the center of the fortress. Afterwards, the attacking team needs to hold it for a specific amount of time and the fortress will be conquered. The control point can be captured by placing units inside of a square box around the point itself. The amount of points that the attacking side must "steal" to win can be seen on top of the screen. When the points reach 0, the attacking side wins. The defending side has to kill all the enemy soldiers (or force them to retreat) and prevent them from capturing the control point.
Additionally, there are also control points located on top of gates. If the attacking side places units on top of them, and there are no defending units nearby, a gate will be captured by the attacking side and it will allow soldiers to easily enter the fortress.
Note - sieges can be activated from the main menu -> battles. There you can set your own rules, types and numbers of units, as well as factions that will take part in them.
Defending
Your goal is to eliminate the enemy army, but it can be achieved by a number of ways. The best method is to simply stay inside of the walls and prevent the enemy from breaking through, capturing and holding the control point. You should divide your army into a number of groups and send them to different sections of the fortress. Melee units should be placed on top of walls to engage enemies that will try climbing them. You shouldn't place missile units there, as they will quickly be killed.
Most of the remaining army should be placed on narrow streets of the fortress, not in the center of it, near the control point. This way you will be able to scatter the enemy forces over a larger area, and if something goes wrong you will be able to retreat and regroup your units. The most important thing to remember is to block all of the entrances leading to the control point and prevent the enemy from flanking your troops, or from attacking them from behind.
If your army located inside of the fortress is composed mainly of cavalry units, or units that are very mobile and will be more effective on open ground, you should send them outside of the walls. Cavalry is ineffective during longer skirmishes in narrow passages, which is why it's better to send it outside the walls so that it can move freely. It also has another advantage - by sending some of your troops outside of the castle walls, you can position your missile units on top of walls. This way your melee units will engage and block enemy forces, while your towers and missile units will freely shoot at them thanks to the height advantage.
Placement of your army depends on the build of the fortress itself. If there's only a single gate there, place all of your forces (aside from the ones that are standing on the walls) right in front of the gate to block it. Even if the enemies break through the gate, they will still be limited to the units that are blocking the entrance, while they are taking damage from missile units located on the walls and on the back of your "blockers". Armies that attack settlements are in most cases more numerous, which is why direct engages are ineffective. You should make use of the unique build of fortresses.
Attacking
While on the attacking side you must focus on three things - breaking through the enemy defenses, getting inside of the fortress and killing all of the enemies / capturing the control point.
The first step, breaking through the defenses, depends on the equipment you have at your disposal. If your army has several units of artillery, breaking through the wall will be trivial - a few series of attacks and the gate will be destroyed. Artillery can be used to destroy enemy towers, so that they won't be shooting at your troops. Unfortunately, each tower is capable of withstanding dozens of artillery shots.
You don't have to break through walls to get inside of the fortress. You can use siege towers that can be constructed before the encounter. Those will allow you to transport your units safely to the walls - troops located inside won't take any damage. As soon as the tower reaches the wall, troops garrisoned inside will automatically jump on the walls. Remember that each siege tower you deploy on the enemy walls will serve as a ladder - you can order more units to get on top of walls by using them. When your units are on top of the walls, all there's left to do is to defeat the army standing on the walls and descent to the streets.
You should combine both of those methods at the same time. Send a few units hidden inside of siege towers to occupy the troops located on the walls (as well as missile units) and order your artillery units to break through walls. An even more effective tactic is to break through walls in many places at the same time - especially ones that are far away from each other. By doing so your forces will be able to enter the enemy fortress from multiple places and the enemy will have a hard time blocking them. Remember that you can use cavalry units to break through a blockade positioned in front of a gate. If the enemy used normal infantry (instead of spearmen-like ones) for that purpose, your units will break through them without any problems. Chariots are even more effective at that task.
When you reach the inside of the fortress, the most difficult task awaits you - defeating all of the enemy forces / forcing them to flee, or capturing and holding the control point. Both of those are closely associated, as the enemy will probably try to protect the control point. You should send your forces towards the control point through as many different routes as possible. Streets are narrow and the enemy will be able to block your advance, but blocking attacks from 5 different directions is a lot more difficult of a task. Breaking through a blockade can be made a lot easier by using cavalry, chariots, or large units that cause terror, such as Giants. An extremely effective way to clear a route towards a control point is to use an offensive spell (especially of the Vortex type) - there's not enough place for them to step aside, so they either have to fall back, or be obliterated.