Sieges are an important aspect of every Mount&Blade game. The most common way for a faction to gain control of a fief is by besieging it (defections are the only alternative).
Since the game is designed so that no faction will ever conquer all of Pendor without the player's intervention, it is expected that the player will participate in many sieges during the course of the game. As a prerequisite, you will need to have a few men in order to besiege something - you are not even given the option if you don't have enough troops in your company.
While a fortification is under siege, some of the usual entry options will be unavailable.
Equipment
No special equipment is required for laying siege. However, to assault a fortification requires construction of ladders or siege towers. The siege equipment constructed is unique to the fortification and takes time based on your engineering skill to build.
If you do not want to assault it directly, you will have to wait until the residents surrender, usually caused by starvation (30 days in a castle and 50 days in a city (in native, cities take 100 days)). If they are sufficiently outnumbered, they may surrender immediately. Additionally, even waiting for the fortification's food to run out does not necessarily mean they will surrender either, and since it takes an extremely long time for this option, it is not recommended.
The following table indicates time required to build siege equipment based on your skill in Engineer. Note that if one of your companions has higher Engineer than you, it will go by their level, plus a bonus added to their skill based on your current level.
| Engineering skill level |
Siege Ladders pre 3.9.0 |
Siege Ladders 3.9.0 to 3.9.2 |
Siege Tower |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 9 Hours | 12 Hours | 90 Hours |
| 1 | 8 Hours | 12 Hours | 84 Hours |
| 2 | 8 Hours | 11 Hours | 78 Hours |
| 3 | 7 Hours | 10 Hours | 72 Hours |
| 4 | 6 Hours | 10 Hours | 66 Hours |
| 5 | 6 Hours | 9 Hours | 60 Hours |
| 6 | 5 Hours | 8 Hours | 54 Hours |
| 7 | 4 Hours | 8 Hours | 48 Hours |
| 8 | 4 Hours | 7 Hours | 42 Hours |
| 9 | 3 Hours | 6 Hours | 36 Hours |
| 10 | 2 Hours | 6 Hours | 30 Hours |
| 11 | 1 Hour | 5 Hours | 24 Hours |
| 12 | 1 Hour | 4 Hours | 18 Hours |
| 13 | 0 Hours* | 4 Hours | 12 Hours |
| 14 | 0 Hours* | 3 Hours | 6 Hours |
Levels 11-14 are only attainable through the party skill bonuses.
*Note that although levels 13 and 14 made the claim that it takes "0 Hours" to build ladders, in reality, it means that building them did take "less than an hour".
Assault
Depending on the number of troops involved, battles during an assault on cities or castles could take place in between one and four theaters. In rare cases, these battles may be repeated.
Sally out
This is where the defenders inside the castle sally out to meet your assault. Often, they will appear quite close to you, and they may keep coming if the castle has a large garrison. This theater typically happens when the defenders greatly outnumber the attackers; it may be omitted if the town or castle has very few defenders, or you may have to fight it several times if the garrison is large enough.
Wall defence/attacks
This theater is the main stage of a siege and the only battle phase which is guaranteed to happen. This is where your ladders or siege tower come into play, the men on the walls will constantly attack you and your troops while they charge up the ladders or siege tower and onto the walls.
An ideal way to win this stage is to bring your best archers, like Empire Armored Crossbowmen or Ravenstern Rangers, and your best melee infantry, often Fierdsvain Huscarls, to this stage. Use the Huscarl's shields for cover while the ranged troops pick off the enemy archers on the walls. When the rain of arrows on your men have stopped, order your Huscarls to charge.
Note: defenders will automatically resupply ammo in this theatre after some time, the player can stock all their weapon slot with bows/crossbows + 3 arrows/bolts so it effectively will be infinite
Streets
This battle only occurs in towns, and may not happen if there are few defenders left after the previous battle. You must go into the streets with some of your troops and defeat the defenders there. It is similar to when you get ambushed in a town. Here you will have about 5-6 men attacking you from all angles and have ~3 other men who will back you up.
Keep
The final battle takes place in the keep. This is similar to the street battle, but in the castle keep instead of the streets. The strategy to use depends on the style of keep you are attacking, but often the defenders have an advantage from being a floor above you. There will normally be about 4-5 men in this area and it will be you and ~2 other men who will lead the attack.
Note: remember to have strong melee troops at the top of your party, as this will drastically increase the chance of these being the soldiers that will help you out in the street and keep fight.
After the siege
In the same way as after a normal battle, you may take any items from the castle or town, and you may also get some prisoners. You can also rescue prisoners held at the castle or town and hire them into your own army.
If you have joined a faction, you may choose to ask your king for the land. After a short time, you will either receive it or not. If you asked the king for the land and did not receive it, you may renounce your oath and fief (you will not get the fief you just took either), or renounce your oath and take every fief including the one you just took, causing you to join the rebel faction, or you can accept the king's decision and take a payout (default is 900 denars).
The prosperity of the fief will also decrease slightly.
If you are already part of the rebel faction, you will just take the city/castle for yourself.
If you had no fiefs and you're not attached to a kingdom, you will take the city/castle for yourself and this will start your own kingdom.