The biggest addition to sieges I'm not seeing many talking about

neverending#5226

Check out the bridges above the central street. That's kind of a big deal, almost at a fundamental level (more so than buildable towers/barricades. An attacker, unless he just wants to get shredded by missiles above will have to control all those bridges.

The main problem is this city seems really huge and any competent player (read: not AI) will just go around it. The other avenues of attack seem to lack those disadvantages.. So if the AI does attack up the center, I doubt we'll see them trying to control the bridges first. I suppose we'll have to see, but I doubt it.

mecanojavi99#6562

CA said on the blog that the AI has been improved to be able to target things better, meaning that it know better where to attack first and how, we will still have time test that ourselves, but at least we know work has been done on that department.

Valkaar#2507

There might not be raised BRIDGES specifically to the left and right.

But there are raised ELEVATIONS, with ramps on the left and right, with chokepoints leading up to them.

So I think the defender's advantages/attacker's woes will not just be centrally located.

Obviously, how the AI deals with these things is key. But It's not a matter of 'just attack from the left, and you're fine'...regardless of what the AI can or cannot handle.

LennoxPoodle#1380

Valkaar said:

There might not be raised BRIDGES specifically to the left and right.

But there are raised ELEVATIONS, with ramps on the left and right, with chokepoints leading up to them.

So I think the defender's advantages/attacker's woes will not just be centrally located.

Obviously, how the AI deals with these things is key. But It's not a matter of 'just attack from the left, and you're fine'...regardless of what the AI can or cannot handle.

This. The flank zones have two layers of defense, with the secondary being only accesible through two very thin chokepoints (with height advantage no less) flanked by presumably dockable shooting positions. The center is just one wide street leading directly to the center. It will take a much wider melee line to block that off.
The bridges allow to shoot the enemy into the rear though! I wonder if they will be destructible. That could drive rather interesting tactical decisions, especially if they create rubble barricades below.

AxiosXiphos#9040

Honestly the map reworks are the biggest things for me and always have been. I actually quite enjoy the Empire Fort battles; and that is purely because there is more I can do - simple elevation makes a huge difference.

SusaVile#9835

LennoxPoodle said:

Valkaar said:

There might not be raised BRIDGES specifically to the left and right.

But there are raised ELEVATIONS, with ramps on the left and right, with chokepoints leading up to them.

So I think the defender's advantages/attacker's woes will not just be centrally located.

Obviously, how the AI deals with these things is key. But It's not a matter of 'just attack from the left, and you're fine'...regardless of what the AI can or cannot handle.

This. The flank zones have two layers of defense, with the secondary being only accesible through two very thin chokepoints (with height advantage no less) flanked by presumably dockable shooting positions. The center is just one wide street leading directly to the center. It will take a much wider melee line to block that off.
The bridges allow to shoot the enemy into the rear though! I wonder if they will be destructible. That could drive rather interesting tactical decisions, especially if they create rubble barricades below.

Wondering if the bridges could be destroyed as well. That would certainly bring a certain strategy element to it.

brago90#3911

What I suppose is that there will be cities that will be a hell to conquer where the defender has a lot of advantage, which will obviously be the capitals of the race and certain key cities for that race, but most cities will be much simpler because they will not have as much defensive relevance and their design will be focused on trading instead of defense.

Maelas

I'm gonna put so many cannons on those bridges

Jerroser#9933

The central pathway seems to be a direct route to the main capture point and is wide enough that it requires multiple units to properly lockdown. So when attacking, you basically have to make a choice about going for a direct but challenging route or the smaller more intricate paths that will expose you to more of the buildable defences.

Knowing how they program the AI, I assume a full sized 20 unit army will spread itself out over the walls quite a lot so you can't just concentrate your defence on a single point.

Ferestor#5771

Maelas said:

I'm gonna put so many cannons on those bridges

And then open the gate.....

Jerroser#9933

Ferestor said:

Maelas said:

I'm gonna put so many cannons on those bridges

And then open the gate.....

By the looks of it, the first bridge at last should be able to cover part of the area in front of the gate until the enemy get too close and artillery on it might even be able to target units that have climbed on the gate.

55JoNNo#4925

Well the front gate gives you the most direct route to the victory point but as a consequence you run the gauntlet

Lord_Kell55#4745

Little detail on the bridges I like seem to be the limited escape routes for any units on them. I'd be careful with any artillery places on the first bridge, they'll have to move past either of the side front gates on retreat and with their lack of speed will probably get swallowed up by the invaders pretty quickly.

Just nice to see the bridges being a double edged sword.

#326352

Map is called Nan-Gau-1 (City of Smoke)




Map is called Wei-Jin_4 (Capital)

Dragonsteel82#3883

Honestly the new maps look like they have enough room to really use cav inside the city without too much issue.