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I have a question about river boats and sieges. In an email game I am currently involved in, the rebels (my opponent)have St. Lous under seige with about 30,000 men. I have around4,500 in the city and another 15,000 in Springfield. I also have 2 gunboats on the rive prov. just south of Missour. Miss. river prov. and 5 more spread out alng the ohio riv. provinces. I know that gunboats contribute to the overall siege artillery advantage when a person is BESIEGING an objective but would my gunboast contribute anything to lifting a siege? In other words, could they help to possibly tip the artillery advantage to my favor or does it only work if Im the besieger? Thanks for any help anyone can give me on this one. kirk

This is a new question i am sure nobody ever asked.
The Gunboats are supposed to work on the arty advantage on your side but you are defender and not besieger. Coupling this with the fact in order to lift a siege you need to defeat the besieging force in combat, and that you can't engage from the fort, you need support coming from outside the region.

Now, if you fight there, the gunboats won't help and if you don't fight the gunboats will withdraw after the round is over because they can't stay in region with enemy units. I presume they could stay and help your arty factors if the relieving party arrived in avoid combat status and stayed (a risky move) or they could help in the round then withdraw again even without a relieve force but it's just speculation, i don't know. What you can do is simulate this issue by working it out in a single player with 2 human players (hot-seat style) or just wait for someone to clear our mistery [8D]

I'm very curious about this bc u rose the same question i asked myself many times.

Thanks for the hlep. I think I will take your advice and try out some simulation testing in the single player mode. I might not get to it till tommro(fri.) but Ill post a reply on here to let you know what I find out. Unless, of course someone with more knowledge than us on this matter gives an anwer to this question before then. kirk

yes, they count as artillery on defense as well.

Thanks Eric. Your help is appreciated.   kirk