# Scouting and sieges

> How scouts read a defense, what the scouting report shows, how rams and catapults bring down the Wall and buildings, and the repairs after a siege.

Military · https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/guia/espionagem-e-cerco?lang=en

Scouting and sieges are special marches: neither one plunders, and each accepts only one kind of troop.

# Scouting

A scouting march carries **scouts only**, with no hero and no other troops. It doesn't fight and brings back no plunder. Each race has its own scout: [Royal Scout](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/batedor-real?lang=en), [Iron Falcon](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/falcao-ferro?lang=en) and [Seer](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/vidente?lang=en).

## Against neutral targets

Your scouts count the whole garrison and all of them come back.

## Against players

- The scouts the defender has at home form a **patrol** that kills spies. The more scouts you send compared to the patrol, the fewer you lose.
- If the target has no scouts, they never learn about the visit. If they do, they get a notice that spies were spotted.
- Scouting never shows up as an incoming attack. The defender only finds out through the patrol.

What comes back depends on how many spies survived:

| Reading | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Partial (few came back) | Only troop categories: infantry, cavalry, archers, siege, support |
| Estimated | An estimate of each unit, the Wall level and the guild's defenses |
| Complete (most came back) | The exact count, the Wall level and the guild's defenses |

Scouting **never** reveals the defender hero, the warehouse resources or the makeup of stationed reinforcements. It only tells you reinforcements are there. Some Omens cards improve the reading or make scouting impossible to detect.

Tip: from a scouting report you can open the **Combat Calculator** with the target already set up.

# Sieges

A **siege** march carries **rams and catapults only**, with no hero, and can only target player villages. It plunders nothing and shows up for the defender as an incoming attack.

A siege happens in two steps:

- First the engines **fight** the garrison, just like a regular attack, using their own attack.
- If the siege wins, the surviving engines get to work. **Rams** knock down levels of the [Wall](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/construcoes/muralha?lang=en), and the more combined attack survives, the more levels fall. **Catapults** take one shot at a randomly picked building, never the Wall (with the Chaos [Technology](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/guia/tecnologia?lang=en) [Oath of the Void](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/tecnologia/chaos-jur-vazio?lang=en), the attacker picks a building and the shot has a chance to land on it; otherwise it's still random). The chance to hit and the number of levels lost both grow with their combined attack, and the chance drops with whatever Wall is left (see below).

If the siege loses the fight, nothing comes down. Since rams and catapults fight poorly, the usual approach is to weaken the garrison with a regular attack and send the siege right behind it. In a regular attack, rams don't damage the Wall.

## The Wall against catapults

Rams act first. Every level of [Wall](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/construcoes/muralha?lang=en) **left standing** after them cuts the catapults' hit chance by **6%**, proportionally, up to **60%** with the Wall at its maximum level. Rams and catapults in the same wave complete each other: if the rams bring the whole Wall down, the catapults roll at full chance. Catapults alone against a tall Wall miss far more often.

## Repairs after a siege

A siege that knocks anything down, Wall or building, puts the village **under repair for 12 hours** (longer if a human defender swore the [Oath of the Eternal Wall](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/tecnologia/humanos-jur-muralha?lang=en)):

- During that time, a new siege against it is refused as soon as you try to send it, with a notice of how long is left. The **Siege** tab of the attack panel shows the same before you put the march together.
- A siege that was already on its way when the repairs began still fights, with losses on both sides, but knocks nothing down. The report explains why.
- Regular attacks, raids and reinforcements work as usual. Repairs protect the structures, not the village.

## Each race's engines

- **Humans**: [Royal Ram](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/ariete-real?lang=en) and [Royal Catapult](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/catapulta-real?lang=en).
- **Chaos**: [Crystal Ram](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/ariete-cristal?lang=en) and [Demonic Catapult](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/catapulta-demon?lang=en).
- **Orcs**: have no catapult. To make up for it, the [Brute Ram](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/unidades/ariete-bruto?lang=en) has more attack per unit and brings the Wall down with fewer engines.

Siege engines are among the slowest units in the game, and a march moves at the pace of its slowest unit ([Marches and reinforcements](https://jds-game.com.br/portal/wiki/guia/marchas-e-reforcos?lang=en)). The defender sees the siege coming and has time to react.