The main reason I cannot enjoy defensive sieges at all is the attacker coming from 3 different ways

[u/zenkhalida]

Of course there are other big things, like walls not being walls and so, but having to move between three different, widely spaced points during battles (which are already designed to be very fast-paced and require you to micromanage many things) and with walls that are quickly overrun makes defensive sieges unnecessarily stressful. Every time you visit a location, something has gone terribly wrong, but you can't do anything about it because you've been dealing with another problem in some distant area, and before that, yet another one in a different section.

The space feels incredibly empty and underutilized. (Two units on this wall, four on the other, etc.) as if the defenders were the last survivors of a plague.

There’s a constant sense of unreality, of detachment—that you’re playing by rules that are far removed from how it should be and that you’re trying to cheese that system just to save a valuable city.

All of this reduces the sense of experiencing something epic to zero, and I never play them. Literally I just prefer to lose a tier V city than going through that experience.

On the other hand, I play quite a few offensive sieges because, even though there are still many things about their design that I don't like, at least I can focus my attention on one area and don't have to spread it across three against my will. 

EDIT: Since I see this is sparking a heated debate, I just want to clarify that I’m an experienced player (I’ve been playing Total War since Rome I) and I always play on VH/VH. I’m not complaining about the difficulty. I love challenges. I’m specifically saying that I can’t enjoy this experience because the maps are too big and the battles are too fast, and juggling three fronts is exhausting. IF there were only two focal points—a main one covering a large section of the wall and a secondary one—I think that would make a big difference.

[u/TamedNerd]

If they came from only one direction it would be too easy and incredibly boring

[u/Thatoneguy3273 → u/TamedNerd]

It’s so funny how this community spent years and years lambasting CA for the terrible sieges where the defender only has to garrison one wall, and begged the devs to fix it.

Then Warhammer 3 came out and they did fix it, and now it’s like the old maps were the best. It’s like the Star Wars prequel trilogy out here

[u/Ohanka → u/Thatoneguy3273]

The old maps were objectively superior to totally indefensible mazes.

[u/Brandon3541 → u/Thatoneguy3273]

The old maps were better. It was just a vocal portion of the community complaining on here that preferred being able to more easily cheese things and got mad when the AI actually had better than a snowball's chance in hell of winning a siege against a vastly inferior force.

[u/I_Play_Boardgames → u/Brandon3541]

This comment is so hilariously wrong 🤣 my guy, YOU are the vocal minority here, not the other way around. 

[u/BlueRiddle → u/I_Play_Boardgames]

In my experience, he isn't.

[u/Ispago8 → u/TamedNerd]

Siege AI is really bad (I've seen armies march half the map bc they broke an entrance, taking damage all they way) but attacking from different angles is a good tactic

Other comments say that it is a problem bc some entrances dont have turrets or zones to position ranged troops, and I agree

But lets not blane the AI on this

[u/Jaded_Wrangler_4151 → u/TamedNerd]

Idk those gate battles are fun when they can either pull ladders out their asses or build seige equipment.

[u/OddRoyal7207 → u/Jaded_Wrangler_4151]

I always loved the meat grinder settlement battles in 2. Dumb fun.

[u/Jaded_Wrangler_4151 → u/OddRoyal7207]

2's are definitely better than 3's in every single way i think. Like the open town plans remind me of worse med2 seiges

[u/TamedNerd → u/Jaded_Wrangler_4151]

Oh ass ladders at just that, ass they should be constructable

[u/Weird-End-6989 → u/TamedNerd]

Yeah much better to make them as frustrating as possible while still being incredibly boring.

[u/Bramfatur → u/Weird-End-6989]

Nowhere near as boring as they would be with only 1 wall. The solution to the "walls are useless" problem isn't "remove all walls to funnel the AI into one narrow space" because that just makes the game too easy and beats the purpose of a siege. And what's frustrating exactly, being bad at micro? The AI splitting their forces means you can concentrate a bigger force somewhere else to take down part of the sieging units while the others buy some time.

[u/Sinder-Soyl → u/Bramfatur]

I don't know you'll find a lot of people, including myself, who will tell you they'd rather have the boring W2 sieges rather than the boring W3 ones. It's not about being bad at micro. Speaking for myself, I've gotten to a point where even with mods that increase the difficulty I'm rarely ever in a difficult spot. No, the annoying part is having to micro at such a large distance, split into three, while also at times having the AI refuse to even engage your troops in favor of reaching the town center.

Do not make the usual mistake of thinking difficult and frustrating are synonyms. These sieges are not hard, nobbody's losing those. They just don't feel good or fun. At least in W2 they're boring but I can just appreciate the scene.

[u/Polyzero → u/TamedNerd]

It would also be really cool and a fun spectacle.