Stronghold siege - what does it take successfully to defend?
Introduction
1. This guide is for small clans who have managed to advance their SH to level 4 and have built the Tower of Odin.
Two reasons
2. There are two very good reasons for advancing your SH this far. The first is to improve your prospects in Clan v Clan events. A clan which can initiate a siege has a very big advantage over a clan which cannot. As long as no troops are otherwise put at risk, points scored by killing Jottun troops in a siege will be unanswered and will provide a win in no less than three categories - Battles in the Clan SH; Killing enemy warriors during defence; and Killing enemy warriors. To win the event in the face of this the opponent must win all three of the remaining categories (ignoring Capturing an enemy Place of Power) and also amass a greater total score. Tough to do.
3. This advantage does not require attacking Jottun marches to be defeated. It is enough to put just enough troops into the SH to make a very small number of kills.
4. The second reason, however, pretty much does. This advanrage is the opportunity to acquire significant numbers of soul shards. Soul shards are hard to come by. Tile hitting duting CvC or Kingdom events yield a few but not in the numbers which are needed. And this situation gets worse. At first it is just advancing some of the Aesir that requires soul shards but upon your Palace reaching size 36 soul shards, in the millions, are required for every building and for secret knowledge. Gold can be used instead but that is not an inexhaustible commodity. Killing Jottun troops yields soul shards and a successful defence to one march with a level 1 Tower of Odin garners some half a million. An unsuccessful defence garners some soul shards but not so many and at a higher cost in troops lost.
5. Defending successfully is also desirable if up against a CvC opponent who has the ability to run their own siege.
So what does it take to defeat a Jottun march with level 1 Tower of Odin?
My tiny clan having, for the first time and to my surprise, succeeded in a defence I will set out the elements contributing to that victory
To be cont.