Relieving a siege
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:18 am
I cannot find the thread where this subject was being discussed, so I'll start a new one. This is a new variant of the problem, though, and it makes the problem much bigger than it was.
The root problem being discussed was that when a relieving force attacked a besieging force, a victorious besieging force was left in the rural area, not back besieging as it should have been.
Well, the problem is a lot worse than we thought. In fact, the besieging force has the siege lifted BEFORE FORAGING occurs. As a result, the garrison never has to forage, even if all the owner does is throw a 1-factor corps against the besiegers. This really perverts the way things should work in these situations.
The siege should NOT be lifted until the relieving force WINS the combat.
This really changes the dynamics of attempts to besiege a city. Under the original rules and how the rulebook for EiANW seems to be written, a besieging force attacking a city garrison of 1 factor has a 2 in 3 chances of breaking in outright. If it fails, the factor in the city (assuming 3 spires -- about the middle) will die a further 1 in 2 chances.
This problem really needs to get solved. As I'm finding out in my game as GB, it makes it very unwise to attack even 1-factor garrisoned cities "protecting" France's blockaded fleets. What used to be a 3 in 4 chance of killing the fleet outright drops to a 1 in 2 chance, at a cost of 6 infantry for each attempt (assuming France has a corps in the neighborhood.
The root problem being discussed was that when a relieving force attacked a besieging force, a victorious besieging force was left in the rural area, not back besieging as it should have been.
Well, the problem is a lot worse than we thought. In fact, the besieging force has the siege lifted BEFORE FORAGING occurs. As a result, the garrison never has to forage, even if all the owner does is throw a 1-factor corps against the besiegers. This really perverts the way things should work in these situations.
The siege should NOT be lifted until the relieving force WINS the combat.
This really changes the dynamics of attempts to besiege a city. Under the original rules and how the rulebook for EiANW seems to be written, a besieging force attacking a city garrison of 1 factor has a 2 in 3 chances of breaking in outright. If it fails, the factor in the city (assuming 3 spires -- about the middle) will die a further 1 in 2 chances.
This problem really needs to get solved. As I'm finding out in my game as GB, it makes it very unwise to attack even 1-factor garrisoned cities "protecting" France's blockaded fleets. What used to be a 3 in 4 chance of killing the fleet outright drops to a 1 in 2 chance, at a cost of 6 infantry for each attempt (assuming France has a corps in the neighborhood.