Advanced Bannerlord Siege Tactics - Abandon The Walls!

[@turinnturambar]

Thanks mate. This will be so helpful for the rest of my campaign. I discovered your channel recently and your videos help a lot to get where I wanna be in my campaigns. Depends on your schedule, it would be amazing seeing more saving disaster situations. I wish you a quick recovery. Footnote: Vasinya got pregnant during the siege. I don't know what they were thinking while we all tried to prepare ourselves to survive. I am gonna smack both of them at the one of tournaments.

[@RyanPST88]

Congratulations on increasing of the average height of your family with this grandchild😍

[@Strat-Guides]

No problem, this was a tough one! I probably spent a good 2 - 3 hours trying to figure out a good solution so it was a lot of fun for me :) LOL - "This might be our last night on this earth, we don't want to regret anything do we?!?"

[@turinnturambar]

@@RyanPST88 Thanks! I hope mom's DNA prevails =) Otherwise I will ask my money back

[@agroplode9680]

@@turinnturambar And then 0:35 there was no more Turin.

[@finnleason6916]

I always call my characters Turin Turambar. What a legend

[@pyscoandco]

Strat making a video sounding like he's on death's door. The definition of dedication. A true man of the people!

[@hunnic_warlord1771]

He sounds like he played vlandia campgain without ever getting butter.

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

@@hunnic_warlord1771 No, he sounds like he did a Vlandia playthrough and it went like a normal Vlandia playthrough.

[@anderseriksson7698]

He honestly seems kind of obsessed. I would not be surprised if he becomes a huge youtuber one day, his vids are superb

[@mewan5360]

@@anderseriksson7698 he definitely will get big. He really reminds me of those youtubers I subbed to when they were like 20k ish and then exploded to millions

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah it was a tough time doing the voice over lol you should have heard my first attempt! The ending blooper was the beginning of the 1st attempt lol it was so bad!

[@ilikecatsandstuff1]

Beautiful tactic. I've always loves siege defenses since the original m&b but with the recent changes they seem impossible to win many times with huge armies vs tiny garrisons. One little detail I like though was winning a defense down to the last 10 men I had, and in victory instead of the usual cheering they drop to their knees and looked absolutely exhausted which was really cool and appropriate

[@Numbie.]

Do you have a clip of the animation of them falling to their knees ? I've never seen it before and it sounds very interesting.

[@Strat-Guides]

That sounds like an epic victory! Especially when it take 20 - 30 minutes of constant vigilance and fighting, it can be draining mentally.

[@delinard3401]

@@Numbie. I think it's from Realistic Battles mod since that's the only time I saw that animation.

[@ilikecatsandstuff1]

@@Numbie. I can never find a video and the comments won't let me post an imgur link so I put some old screenshots in a video kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4S2omqXpdllsJI These are in the vanilla game, no mods needed but this was like beta 1.6 or so and I never really saw them again

[@Numbie.]

@@ilikecatsandstuff1 Thank you. It seems like an old cheering animation that was removed maybe ? I can't say for certain but I think this was a cheering animation in an older beta like you said.

[@setenos2439]

One correction I'd recommend to this strategy is to change which side of the gate your melee/archer units are on. (From your sides perspective) You would ideally want your Infantry holding the right side of the gate. The reason for this is simple: Shields are held in the left hand. By forcing the enemy infantry to face their shields towards the walls while engaging your infantry, you open up their right side (no shield) to your archers. This will allow for maximum damage from your archers and should reduce your casualties overall.

[@iamdanieloliveira]

Yes! That was bothering me too. When placing troops I always pay attention to shield infantry and archer positions (both mine and the enemy's). Play enough as a cavalry main and you'll never forget how important the shield position is.

[@georgebarclay8065]

This seems like a great idea

[@FemboyThighsOnTop]

The archers would hit the shields tho

[@Warmaker01]

This is nice. It reminds me that this was something the old Total War games used to account where the incoming missile fire was relative to shield position. Newer Total War games don't do this. It's now just a stat check for them, which is extremely weak sauce compared to what Old Creative Assembly used to do.

[@curtthehurt9262]

I enjoyed the "Save my battle" style of this video. Get well soon sir

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! It was a lot of fun and need to do more like this in the future :)

[@curtthehurt9262]

@@Strat-Guides especially with all the new players it might change it up for you a bit

[@LoLaSn]

legend of total war type content spreading, nice

[@Erehart]

@@LoLaSn also legend of total war style of abandoning the walls for a favorable outcome

[@ozzylepunknown551]

Reminiscent of "Legend of Total War" videos

[@O.LEO.N]

Absolutely LOVE this game! You sure weren't kidding when you said "prepare for sleepless nights" in that one video. Almost got 200 hours in Bannerlord already! Thank you for your continuous help man. Easily in my personal top 3 best games of all time.

[@afalk1024]

Always wondered why in siege defenses my troops didnt listen to my commands. Now knowing about that scatter command is game changing.

[@awuza7045]

You are a literal tactician genius, perfect placement, intuitive tactics, and exploiting both your and the enemies troops to the fullest! I would've just put my faith in Sturgia and hope we win thanks to the footmen, fantastic video man as always

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! I had fun with this one, it was quite a challenge.

[@Datravan]

As a console pleb new to Bannerlord, these guides have been a godsend. Thanks for uploading!

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm glad they are helpful!

[@guydunn8259]

After watching this video I not only gained more confidence in play but became more proactive in my campaigns. I though it was impossible to win against an army of 1000, I really didn't think I could do it. But after this I tried the tactic. 200 vs 1100 (not exact numbers), and a couple of tries and I did it! Your videos about this game have made me a much better lord!

[@jamoecw]

i have been playing since the beta days of the original game, so i tended to be pretty good and his videos have gotten me to change my tactics a bit as well. his videos are some of the best i have seen, as they bring the receipts and aren't just anecdotal.

[@guydunn8259]

@@jamoecw Absolutely. Incredibly informative stuff. It's like brain candy or something.

[@kahnl4489]

I gotta thank you, im playing as a bandit lord and these tactic guides have helped me dominate evenly matched armies with looters, forest bandits, steppe raiders, and highway-men with little to no casualties. In my game, I thought the southern empire was weak and attempted to take over their remaining fiefs. I failed to scout as all their towns and castles were too well defended. To sue for peace I used these tactics to destroy and capture their lords and managed to keep my bandit losses to an absolute minimum.

[@jaymorrison2419]

I like this trend of disaster recovery videos from experts. One of the guys from the Totalwar Warhammer does these all the time.

[@ak-gp6ug]

Legendoftotalwar being called "one of the guys". i think there is a lot of overlap between mount and blade and total war fans

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah Legend of Total War is the GOAT when it comes to disaster saves!

[@philliporr2478]

Im an old warband vet just getting into Bannerlord. (Lvl 20 or so and finally getting decent troops in numbers) i could tell sieges were gonna be a different animal having been on the offensive sideany time so far. This was a treat to hear and watch, thank you very much. Id have never considered opening the gate to a planned funnel supported by archers. Superb video!

[@ervinsapinis2379]

LegendOfTotalStrat here with another saving your disaster battle... get well soon boss! This was amazing and would be a great series!

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha yeah he's the GOAT! I really enjoy watching his videos.

[@BartMK]

@@Strat-Guides It's like watching the same thing but different games and channels. I abused the AI so much with these strats, didnt know you could apply them in this game too, I will do it when i buy it. cool vid bro!

[@bergonius]

You sound a bit sickish. Get well soon

[@Strat-Guides]

After doing this short video my voice is 100% gone lol i appreciate you sticking through the bad voice over quality on this one.

[@glengrimm4187]

@@Strat-Guides we are with you brother 💪

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

@@Strat-Guides Get well soon Strat!

[@mysteryman8468]

@@Strat-Guides you better go rest, don't push yourself if you feel sick. Brilliant defense strategy in this video, i usually come up with something similar, but never open the gates

[@jaymate4556]

Have i just walked into Arcadia's Cauldron?

[@DigitalNeb]

I like this idea. Shifts the power dynamic in your favor by just repositioning the defenders. I'll definitely put this into my bag of tricks.

[@That1J1]

I was pretty shocked to see how well auto resolve does for sieges now, and feel like it is pretty unbalanced with the AI update making defense incredibly difficult. It is also pretty demoralizing to see the AI quickly handle something that I was yeeting myself off walls, taking command of ballistas, breaking lines, and doing other heroic shit just to fail at.

[@Strat-Guides]

It's also pretty sad to see how many troops they spend to take a fief only to leave it alone undefended and have 50-troop mercenary party come by and take it back with 5 loses LOL

[@mendax2251]

Your videos have been performing super well lately view wise. I’ve been here since 20k subs and you always put a lot of effort into your videos which I assume is why your channel is growing so much.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you so much! Yeah it's been growing quickly lately. The full release has made a huge difference as well :)

[@oblivion9999]

@@Strat-Guides Quality pays off. I'd be interested on you taking on other games also.

[@mikellwehrer]

Your first line would have been even more effective if you put your infantry on the other side of the gate since the enemy's shields wouldn't be facing the archers.

[@shetland990]

Came looking for this comment

[@ozanmrcan]

there archers on the other side too

[@_Asters_]

Your bannerlord content is the best i've seen so far: you have good tactics, good battlefield awareness, and you're good at explaining. Good job man!

[@Strat-Guides]

I appreciate that!

[@bofad6074]

A strat gaming, saving your disaster battles/campaigns would be a great new series !!!

[@Cosmonaut1337]

"Saving your saves'

[@Strat-Guides]

I think it would be a lot of fun and hopefully helpful :)

[@restitutororbis675]

Get well soon Strat! For like the first 200 hours, I would play every battle but ever since I saw your bonus armchair general autoresolve in a castle, my go to was to break into sieges and autoresolve, works everytime and was crucial for when I created my kingdom cuz I would imprison many foolish lords in my dungeon making the wars easier.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! I think next week will be back to normal :)

[@BIDENS_HOG]

I really liked this video. I often find that many people make what I call "advanced beginner" content. It's stuff that is good, no shade to any creators. But it's lacking in depth, specificity, and usefulness beyond broad strokes. Here we have not only general rules of thumb but also specific and actionable advice. There's so many little things that people leave out that make all the world of difference.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you Bradley! I came from a business that asked for exactly what you state - turning nebulous data or theories into action items that get real results :) I appreciate the kind words!

[@AshandStoneNZ]

Ah! The old "Total War Siege Defense" Screw the walls, let's just have a moshpit in a choke point. Very nice Strat. Get well soon!

[@elijahbachrach6579]

The Roman’s used to force their enemies to enter their forts and camps by an entry way that exposed their right side to the the defense, thus rendering their shields useless.

[@НикитаВихарев-з4у]

Great video! I also found an easy way to win almost any siege, although it's very cheesy, and many people are not okay with that. Using siege engines to destroy a portion of enemy troops (insane, if your onangar looks at the ladders when they are piling up), and as soon as you get overwhelmed - get on a horse and run outside the map border, so the battle resets, but not the enemy soliders and siege engines. Really cheap, but it works if you are desperate.

[@qzamap3870]

Abandoning the walls is a pretty common strat I used with Pendor. With Warband's maps, there'd only be a single stairway the enemy would path through. Throwing your inf/cav at the base of that stairway and having your archers farther back would lead to the super packed enemy getting mowed down. This saved me several times, esp. when having my cities attacked by Eyegrim

[@msj1117]

Never considered just opening the gates and setting up for a funneled battle. Definitely going to try it. Thanks for making this video, Strat, and I hope you and your voice feel better soon!

[@Strat-Guides]

Glad you enjoyed it :D Thanks, I'm sure by next week I'll be back to normal!

[@Vampurrya]

As a new player to Mount and Blade, your videos have helped me immensely! Been loving Bannerlord thanks to you.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks for watching!!

[@italianspartacus]

The best of the best!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks Sparty! Celebrities are always welcomed here :D

[@enthusiasticarsonsist2366]

Never thought of abandoning the walls, but start gaming shows once again he's one of the smartest banner Lord players, and I hope you get well soon

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! I hope so too, it's really annoying because I dealt with it for a week for my oldest kid, then my wife and I got it for another week wasted and now my youngest has it and wife and I are still dealing with a nasty cough and voice loss. Oh well, that's life :)

[@Mikalent]

Fighting a siege defense in another lords domain as a Merc is the BIGGEST pain in the butt I have experienced, but because of how siege defense is structured, It is an amazing source of renowned and skill farming. Fighting on just a 2-1 disadvantage is a guaranteed and quick 50ish renown and a LOT of 2/1 hander, medicine, and tactics for very little risk to your army.

[@JayJay-wf2oe]

Take care man. Your work ethic is really admirable

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! I'm so far behind work right now lol I had plans to do 2 - 3 guides per week after release and it's been one calamity after another haha but that's life :) I appreciate your support after all this time Jay!

[@oliverkt555]

I love defending, but I usually place a shield wall outside the gate, which often takes aggro from enemies and with this your archers has free casting.

[@portman8909]

The tip about scatter formation was very useful actually. You can just put all your archers into one group and then they'll get the buffs from your companions banners easily.

[@QueRedFire]

Pure strategy - exploit the weakness of the opponent, no matter how. Great video :)

[@Alex-ip1dn]

You're always thinking outside the box. Thank you for all the helpful advice

[@igor8770]

Get well, man. Very informational and funny as always. P.S. Funny to see Turin himself asking for help

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you for watching! Yeah I was looking through his characters, army composition, perk selections, etc. and everything was solid. Seems like a very good player, but to be fair that battle was one of the hardest I've had to figure out. I think it took me 4 or 5 tries before I figured it out, but was a lot of fun!

[@jasoncramer6717]

loved this video man, specific application of your past tips giving us really clear ideas on how to execute good tactics.

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

4:12 yeah, I wish there was an option: "if I go down, the troops follow the last order issued by me and not go for a wild suicide ride."

[@Jeda_Tragumee]

Hello!

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

@@Jeda_Tragumee :)

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah I agree, I would rather them do nothing than yolo lol it seems like it would be more realistic too. Not sure if losing my commander would make me charge madly at the enemy or frozen in fear??

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

​@@Strat-Guides Yeah, I would understand a retreat or even rout of the troops. I mean an attack would make sense, if they tried to (re)cover the body of their commander, and then retreat. Might be wrong though, medieval warfare is not my strong suit.

[@Gaudron-fp4nc]

Sounds like a neat concept, saving disaster battles/campaigns. Though be careful not to spend too long on them, they can be time consuming.

[@Skylersthemann1]

Not only was this some great info but I'm about to get attacked at this exact same castle while being vastly out numbered so I'll be giving this setup a try! Thanks and get well soon!

[@Strat-Guides]

Wow perfect timing! Thank you, I think by next week I'll be back to normal :)

[@Sarcartico]

Our fearless leader, I hope you get better soon.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you Mario!! I appreciate that. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging for another week lol It's been weeks since I got an actually day of work in but kids are almost back to full health and wife and I not far behind! Next week I think everything will go back to normal :)

[@gobtheglob7449]

you just made me really excited to come back to bannerlord, love your quick and concise videos so far!

[@Strat-Guides]

Nice, welcome back! It's gotten a lot better in the last 4 - 5 months or so. Even more so if you're open to using mods :D

[@gobtheglob7449]

@@Strat-Guides you should make a video about bigger mods, i saw the one with smaller ones already :)

[@Mis0ph0nia]

I was waiting for a Bee Gees meme at 9:22 lol. Great video as always

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol that would have been a good beat for the beating :)

[@hans1783]

Beautiful... a siege where the wall is practically a divider for a melee range combat. Turning everything into defending a narrow pass.

[@Eyeless177]

"Does not hold walls, opens the gate himself". LegendofTotalWar, is that you?

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol we must have been twins separated at birth :P

[@Wanderer1258]

"The AI follows the Sun Tzu tactics of F1-F3". That sounded great! I personally feel like an AI sometimes, with urge to F1-F3 my units into battle, because controlling sutuation may be hard at times, especially in large open field fights. :)

[@B-roni]

Get well soon Strat :) Been loving your Videos on both of your Channels, the Robin Hood campaign is very fun to watch.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks B! I'm glad you're enjoying both :) The Robin Hood campaign is so much fun, I highly recommend people try it out :)

[@borat_]

"Welcome gentlemen come right in" part made me chuckle love the videos dude

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol it sounded so odd with my raspy voice though, but I kept it in the final edit :)

[@Cavemanner]

As usual, I learn something from every one of your videos! Thanks for all your hard work. Get well soon, brother!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you, working on it!!

[@Shayrin2]

The end cracked me up lmao. Rest well and recover fast mate !

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha I had to do the voice over twice because the first time was so bad! I cheated and used honey + hot tea before each sentence lol

[@michaellowe2305]

I freaking love this tactic! Simple yet elegant.

[@Greek_Oak]

Bannerlord AI is atrocious....

[@tjpatton8562]

They really do have 2 brain cells. One says "stand on that hill" the other says "charge".

[@CMAzeriah]

Shut up. Do you want the Devs to hear you and make a monster?

[@Vethavear]

Great video. Big respect for helping one of your vievers!

[@smalfable]

A small thing that would improve efficiency on the gate trick would be to have the infantry on the right inside. This way the enemy's shields wouldn't block as many projectiles.

[@WildWombats]

I noticed this too with the siege defenses - Auto resolve almost always outperforms you manually doing it, unless you really micro-manage and know what you're doing as you have done in the video. But I find the extra time needed to do all of that isn't worth it when auto-resolve in sieges usually do you good favors. For best results with auto-resolve, invest in Tactics. These tips will save you when you need to auto-resolve. I always try to have some tactics in every playthrough I have. I count it among one of the must haves. Steward is nice, but really, you can make a whole playthrough without steward perks just fine.

[@Strat-Guides]

Yeah I agree, I think battles like this are great for those early kingdom battles to get a nice head start, but after a while I usually resort back to auto resolving them to save time :)

[@Myrth1]

FINALLY! The game works again! It only took TaleWorlds nearly a month, but it works again!

[@WildWombats]

One of the guides I think would be really helpful is how to deal with clans. I.e., how to recruit them into your kingdom, how to get rid of an entire clan, and managing relations with executions. I think the game needs to be a bit more forgiving with the execution repercussions. It makes it so even as much as 1 person cannot be killed without mega consequences even outside the kingdom you're at war with. I think it should either A) only be reserved for friends of the person you've executed or B) only be reserved to those within their kingdom. It wouldn't make sense for the enemy kingdom to be mad that I killed their enemy clan for example. It can also have a cooldown period where the more people you execute in a short span of time, the more relation damage it will do, but if you give a cooldown period, an execution's relation damage can be managed. I just think there needs to be a way to damage control the negative relation especially to the other factions.

[@jamoecw]

one may think this is unrealistic, and in some ways it is, however fighting from a defensible fallback position is prime castle doctrine. there are several castles that are actually designed to have the first layer of defense breached and then having a strong defense while putting the enemy at a big disadvantage. sort of like the bailey in the game, but the stronger gate would be the second one that the infantry have to get through without the ram. since some of the towns and castles are partially copied from real castles you will notice walking around them that there are secondary walls that can't be used in the sieges, which is exactly where you want the archers if they have too many archers, instead of the walls when falling back. basically they did a good job with the architecture for the whole fief, but you only get a small amount in order to give the enemy a game style chance at winning (realistic numbers would be 10 siegers to 1 defender to even have a chance in most cases). most of the time you can't use the onager to take out siege towers that have made it to the walls, so it is nice to see that they can target the ladders in that map, though the angle for them is wrong and they take out your own men, but if they had a siege tower it would have been nice that they could take it out. the range of motion will probably get patched out though. that being said even siege ladders are not that great, and without ladders as backup an AI that targets siege engines will crush an enemy that brings towers more likely than ladders i think (i didn't upgrade from 1.8.1 because of mods and a campaign i am doing).

[@subhamanand5416]

I like these 'Save my game' type vids a lot

[@LaniusXIII]

Hope you and the family are recovering quickly! Loved the informative video🤙🤌

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks! The kids are mostly back to normal now, just the wife and I clawing out way back now lol I appreciate it :)

[@tulaihtilaihi1271]

@@Strat-Guides what happend?

[@chrish4439]

I seperate my infantry into 5 groups. 1 group on each ladder crammed against the walls and one on the gate. Archers in 3 groups all across the walls. Haven't lost a siege yet including an epic victory where I was being out numbered 600 to 2400.

[@blakethegreatone2058]

Glad I'm not the only one who has used the open door policy on castle defense

[@TheMoronicNorwegian]

As a Silmarillion reader, I find it appropriately amusing that someone using Turin Turambar as their handle, was in a doomed situation.

[@kopazwashere]

Advanced self preserving AI *shoots fireball into your own troops*

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol gotta love it! They were aiming at the troops coming up the ladder too, it's hilarious! The accuracy you would need for a shot like that compared to the massive 100 unit huddle at the base of the ladder... I guess target prioritization isn't a thing?

[@Coldashex]

Get well soon Strat! Great video as always :)

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you! Hopefully by next week :)

[@singuto]

I haven't watched your videos in a while but love this new style!

[@Selfency]

I didn't even recognize it was Strat until I read comments lmao, assumed it was just some heavy smoker- a very smart one.

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol yeah my voice was so bad!

[@rustyshackleford1508]

All those arrows in your back shield does tell me that you were soaking up a lot of that potential damage your archers could have been dealing to the enemy

[@wIzd0m4]

hands down the best banner lord KZbinr, great job! zoinks!

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks!!

[@ashutoshtripathi.]

This tactic reminds me of when Tokugawa Iyeyasu opened his gates wide open with like a dozen men with him against an entire host of Takeda Shingen

[@TheUberjammer]

Reminds me of when Caesar said "Hey... what if we didn't fire the ballistae into our own troops? Let's try that."

[@farn1991]

Nice video, thank you! One part that I annoying about siege is that sometime game just took control of your troop. Archers on the wall is wonderful. Troop 'tend' to siege engine, though, is very annoying. I got into a fight with Dether, and he greet whatever the game send up the wall with +100 crossbow men.

[@kylerburch3664]

Waiting on the last part to my new pc build, so I can jump back into Bannerlord! You’re content has been great updating me on all the new features. If you ever want some extra content or another cool game to play. Crusader Kings 3, is another game I’m personally excited to jump into. I think your audience will have a lot of crossover with that series, and there isn’t really anyone dropping rich content on CK3. Just something to think about. I will say it’s a bit more mellow in action, but the stories that can create themselves are just so much more interesting.

[@Strat-Guides]

That's exciting! I always love getting a new PC built. It's that same feeling when you're a kid waiting to open presents :) Yeah for sure man, I keep having everyone telling me CK3 and for some stupid reason I'm picking all these other games like Vicky3 (currently a bit of a turd) and HOI4 (Fun but not as much crossover from Bannerlord).

[@chadpower3228]

Someone get this man a cup of tea! Mrs Strat, you're needed!

[@Strat-Guides]

Haha funny enough - I had a cup of tea for this voice over. I had to take a drink with each line or my voice would dry up again, it was an interesting process lol

[@killeanmcchesney5138]

That was cool I haven’t played yet but I hear it’s coming to Xbox in October and I can’t wait. Thanks for the content bud I appreciate it

[@The_Custos]

Khuzaits are also really strong during sieges, if they are a mostly horse archer and marksman army. They can pick the walls clean before finishing with a charge. I've joined them, and it is sickening what they do to defenders.

[@EnzoVinZ]

I would've done this differently by having one group of melee each side of the gate. I would start by one group close to the entrance and once the battle commence, I'll issue a charge to the second group. Then have the second group form a shield wall while the first group go on a charge. Rinse and repeat. The reason for this is charge gives a lot of damage bonus from movement. I also like a small group of bodyguards, about 20 men, following me to insure I won't get myself killed. But yeah that was a tough one. Good job.

[@DestroyerOfOgis]

"The best part of a Vlandian is the crushed skull." - Svana

[@Sam-uv2mv]

Your character in first scene has the exact same kit as mine, and I've recently been defending against sieges on this castle map a lot recently. For a second I thought I was watching my own gameplay.

[@Strat-Guides]

This was the actual save file from one of the viewers and I didn't touch anything - it's all his gear, characters, etc. Haha you had to do a double take?!

[@Seeraphyn]

I recently did a 500 sturgians vs 1500 battanians on that exact siege map. I won after several tries but at some point I was considering sending you the save file :D Could be really fun if you develop this into a video series, trying to rescue viewers from their own mistakes.

[@Strat-Guides]

I'm glad you were able to figure it out! Were you able to hold the walls in yours? Yeah I would love to turn this into a series - maybe not just for sieges but any battle or probably what most people struggle with... starting a kingdom!

[@theunknown4645]

Sally out call army real ez

[@Seeraphyn]

@@Strat-Guides I held half the walls :D On the right wall section I had one group of infantry on each side of the ladders, but standing a few meters back from the ladders to let the attackers get onto the wall and in the process get shot a bunch by my archers below. On the left it wasn't as straightforward because the ladders are on a tower that isn't easily defendable, but once they get up the attackers will try to rush the main door to open it. So I pulled my infantry back from the walls, put some archers in the courtyard to shoot enemies while they were walking on the walls above my troops, and put a shield wall at the bottom of the stairs close to the main door where the enemies were trying to get off the walls. It's something I learned from Total War, sometimes it's better to let enemies get on your walls and deal with them later. From there the main challenge was not to die, because as you pointed out in the vid, as soon as I died my troops started brainlessly rushing out to get decimated by fian champions (and my character started the battle with I think 65hp). It took me about 3 tries to figure out a good defensive strat, but then at least 4 more to execute said strat without dying :D I should specify that about 400 of the 500 defenders were my party, so only elite troops, mainly heavy axemen with a few heroic line breakers, all archers were veteran bowmen (but they were only about 20% of my force), and I had a few Druzhinik sparkled on top of that. I've had a few similar (although less hardcore) sieges since then, and I find that the best thing to do is generally to exploit the fact that your archers have unlimited arrows. I pull them off the walls and always put them below where the ladders are going to be, then I make sure I have one group of infantry on each side of the ladder to box enemies in as they arrive, but you gotta make sure your infantry isn't positioned right on the ladders otherwise they'll obscure the view for your archers and you'll loose that immense advantage. So always leave a few meters between the top of the ladders and your infantry, so that your archers get a clean shot on attackers. If you have a good castle (better than the one in this video) you can repel any number of attackers with a few hundred elite troops.

[@BigBroKuma]

1:03 idk why I found this so funny just imagining how this group of archers felt after getting demolished

[@shawnwolf5961]

Strat, A) hope you feel better soon, you sound like the living death my friend! B), it would be awesome if you did a video highlighting various strategies and when to use them for both field AND siege battles, because this was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. I know you do a lot of tactics and unit vs unit videos, but this sort of thing hits different, and can really help those of us who, like the AI, typically follow the F1-F3 logic and get outclassed when we -try- to use grand strategy.

[@Strat-Guides]

Thanks! Yeah it sounds much worse than it is haha it's pretty much just voice and runny nose that's left, all the other bad stuff is passed :) Yeah for sure! I was going to start doing the army tactics videos soon and was thinking about doing more videos like this, but using the tactics series info and applying it to other people's campaigns. I think it would be a great way to see theoretical testing turn into real world practical info.

[@shawnwolf5961]

@@Strat-Guides Nice, great to hear! As for adding videos like these to your army tactics videos, that is really cool, I could spend hours watching those!

[@hero_on_youtube]

Damn, bro, you sound really sick, you are too dedicated. We can wait for you to feel better, we aren't going anywhere.

[@Strat-Guides]

I had not made a legit guide in like 2 weeks, I had to get something out this week! :)

[@brettbender534]

So, one thing that might help once they start scaling walls, I am pretty sure if you close the door to the main gate, the AI freak the fuck out and sprint back to try and open it again. Position your shield wall on either side of the gate to take out that wave and then open it back up once you're ready to move back to the original strategy. This is all theoretical and not tested, but there's another strategy of just using the main gateway to completely hide and force the AI to try and open the door while archers hit them from the back.

[@daryl6758]

I do this but like to keep the enemies coming in from the walls. Infantry shield walls at the base of every plausible staircase. Archers spread out in sight of aforementioned walls. Enemies get caught up with shielding from the arrow barrage, shields break, and an easy win no matter the power differential.

[@Calanon]

This is very similar to what I used to do in Medieval II Total War when I was defending with 3 militia spearmen and 2 milita archers

[@Nightstick24]

So that was my problem. Trying to use my GINORMOUS STONE DEFENSIVE WALLS for defence. Glad to see I'm not crazy though, I hadn't played Bannerlord in a LONG time and came back a bit before the official release to play some and I kept losing defensive siege battles that I was pretty sure I should have been able to win, but they kept flooding the walls while my guys didn't seem to be anywhere. Using the infantry to draw them to somewhere and then getting the archers to absolutely annihilate them works wonderfully though.

[@LCInfantry]

I seen some videos where they destroy the ram, and then put the troops into the gate house. They leave the outer gate closed and leave open the second gate. The enemy AI paths their way to the gate to open it. Position your archers well behind the gate to shoot enemies backs.

[@jayimperator8088]

Ah the Legend of Total War method. Interesting to see it works in two very different games.

[@SpookyRumi]

I pulled a 230 vs 1100 battle with this kind of strat, and only lost 46 troops +28 wounded. It's insanely op. I put my archers on the side walls but close enough to the edge to not get hit

[@vinusubhash9106]

This guy is an expert. Get well soon

[@CnfuD-Choticstreaming]

Thank you youtube for putting this in my way and now I am going to obsess over MnB for the next couple of weeks.... And to think I had managed to quit the habit...

[@Strat-Guides]

Lol I know the feeling!

[@synthelione3714]

This is looking more and more like total war warhammer siege defence. Especially legendoftotalwar's playstyle.

[@itlog3722]

Local superiority is a good callback to the olden days of destroying the walls before seige cause the ladders were broken lol. Good times.

[@MostBlunted]

Siege auto resolve is the new F1 > F3 strat, good that the game was finally released and has zero bugs and issues.

[@Strat-Guides]

yeah it's nice to have a use for auto resolve finally lol better than losing fians to 5-strong looter groups :)

[@nikollasassumpcao8006]

o7 thanks for your sacrifice Strat and I wish you a speedy recovery

[@Strat-Guides]

Thank you!!

[@thewhitetortoise9336]

You calling Sun Tzu with his chinese name caught me off guard lol, I'm impressed

[@Strat-Guides]

There was a point where I was trying to learn Mandarin, but not so much anymore hehe :) I know how to speak some and my tones are decent, but I can't have a legit conversation unfortunately. I wish I didn't stop, but you know how life goes sometimes!

[@KwstasTsiropoulos]

I can see Strat becoming the equivalent of LegendOfTotalWar of Bannerlord saving everyone's disaster battle which would honestly make for some great content if you ask me on top of the guide videos ahahaha

[@Strat-Guides]

He does a really good job fixing everyone's blunders and making it entertaining to watch :) I'm try to learn from the best!

[@lupus_lupi]

Well fought. Khuzaits are pain in the arse in the sieges, maybe the toughest opponent because of their archers. I wouldn't employ sturgian archers too much, maybe on the edge of inner keep which is usually on higher position, infantry would be in three maniples, one in shieldwall, two with throwing spears in the flanks, I usually put missile troop on the left flank because enemy carries shield on the right to me. This kind of formation is similar to what Carthaginians did to Romans at Cannae.