<header class="guide-hero">
  <h1>Siege Warfare</h1>
  <p class="lede">
    Fortress battles are where artillery and nerve decide the day. Whether you are battering
    down the gates or holding them, the principles below apply in every Napoleon siege.
  </p>
</header>

<section>
  <h2>Attacking a fortress</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Bring guns.</strong> Foot artillery (and howitzers for the walls) is non-negotiable — you cannot take a fortress by muskets alone.</li>
    <li><strong>Breach, don’t ladder.</strong> Bombard a wall section until it collapses, then funnel troops through the breach. Ladders work but funnel men into killing zones.</li>
    <li><strong>Protect your engineers.</strong> Sappers and artillery crews are priority targets for the garrison — screen them with skirmishers.</li>
    <li><strong>Concentrate.</strong> Pick one wall, break it, and pour everything through. A second diversionary attack splits the defender thin.</li>
    <li><strong>Watch the timer.</strong> Many sieges are won or lost on the battle clock — don’t dawdle trading shots.</li>
  </ul>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Defending a fortress</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Man the walls.</strong> Put your best line infantry on the breached section and the gate; stack reinforcements behind.</li>
    <li><strong>Create kill-zones.</strong> Deploy cannon so their arcs cross the likely approach; grape shot shreds a column pushing a breach.</li>
    <li><strong>Use the garrison.</strong> Militia and scratch units belong on the walls — save your elites for the counter-attack.</li>
    <li><strong>Sortie.</strong> If the attacker over-commits to one side, sally out and hit his unguarded artillery.</li>
    <li><strong>Morale is the real wall.</strong> A defender who breaks and routs loses instantly; keep a general nearby to steady the line.</li>
  </ul>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Choosing your breach point</h2>
  <p>
    The single most important attacking decision is <em>where</em> to break the wall. A breach
    under the defender’s heaviest concentration of cannon is a massacre; a breach beside it,
    where your troops emerge into a narrower killing zone, is survivable. Scout with a forward
    unit or a spy before committing, and aim your bombardment at the section whose interior
    gives your men room to deploy rather than the one that drops them straight into a
    crossfire. Artillery that can enfilade the breach approach multiplies the value of the
    breach itself.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Sappers, ladders and the cost of patience</h2>
  <p>
    Sappers let you build a ram or repair a breach under fire, which can rescue an assault
    that has stalled. Ladders are the cheap alternative but they force your men into a single
    file up a wall, exactly where the defender’s grape shot does the most damage. The
    disciplined play is to bombard first, breach, then send sappers to widen the gap so your
    line infantry can pour through in formation rather than climbing one at a time. Patience
    here is not hesitation — it is the difference between losing a regiment on the wall and
    losing the battle.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>The defender’s counter-attack</h2>
  <p>
    Holding a fortress is not passive. Once the attacker has committed his assault columns to
    the breach, his artillery is often undefended at the rear. A well-timed sortie with your
    reserve — ideally cavalry if the fortress has any — can roll up his guns and collapse the
    attack from behind. The risk is over-committing your garrison and leaving the walls thin,
    so the counter-attack works best when you have spotted the attacker putting everything
    into one narrow front.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>On the campaign map</h2>
  <p>
    Sieges are often decided before the battle: a high enough <strong>siege
    bombardment</strong> on the map can force a surrender or soften the garrison. Build
    <strong>fort defences</strong> in your regional capitals so besiegers pay for every step,
    and never leave a frontier city ungarrisoned — in Napoleon a single weak garrison invites
    a walk-over. Remember that a besieging army eats supply and loses cohesion the longer it
    sits, so sometimes the best defence is simply to make the siege expensive enough that the
    attacker lifts it.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Recommended attacker loadout</h2>
  <p>
    A siege stack wants more artillery than a field army: at least one howitzer to crack
    walls and two or three foot batteries to suppress the breach. Bring line infantry as your
    assault troops and keep cavalry minimal — there is little room to manoeuvre inside a
    fortress, and cavalry is wasted against walls. Skirmishers earn their place by screening
    your engineers and clearing defender rooftops.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Choosing your siege artillery</h2>
  <p>
    Not all guns suit a siege. Foot artillery is the reliable workhorse for bombarding walls
    and suppressing the breach, but it is slow to reposition once the assault begins.
    Howitzers and mortars are the specialists: their plunging fire is devastating against
    troops clustered behind walls and against the defenders massed at a gate. Horse artillery
    is the least useful in a siege because it trades the punch you need for mobility you do
    not — there is little room to gallop inside a fortress. A balanced siege train is two or
    three foot batteries plus at least one howitzer to crack and clear the breach.
  </p>
</section>

<section>
  <h2>Timing, weather and the assault</h2>
  <p>
    When you launch the assault matters. Attacking at first light gives you the whole battle
    clock to break in and secure the town before the timer expires; attacking late leaves you
    rushed and prone to a defender who simply runs out your time. Weather and visibility also
    play a role — a foggy or rainy assault reduces the defender's sight lines, which can let
    your sappers reach the wall unnoticed, while clear weather favours the defender's cannon
    covering the approaches. Read the conditions, pick your breach, and commit with the clock
    on your side rather than against it.
  </p>
</section>

<section class="related">
  <h2>Related</h2>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="/guides/tactics/">Battle Tactics</a> — line infantry, cavalry and artillery fundamentals</li>
    <li><a href="/guides/unit-types/">Unit Types</a> — where artillery fits in your roster</li>
    <li><a href="/guides/campaigns/">Campaigns Guide</a> — taking and holding regions</li>
  </ul>
</section>