Mount & Blade: Will the AI capture their last city? Or must I capture it myself?

Here's my situation. Please advise if you know how the AI works.

Everyone has beaten Swadia into their last city, Uxkhal. There are 12 Swadian lords inside, each with about 20 troops, plus 60 garrison. That's too many dudes for my modest Nordic crew, so I need one of the other factions' help.

But none of them can finish the job. Khergit Khanate tried for a bit, then left. Rhodoks tried, then left. And now my own Nord king is trying. I just want one of those morons to finally capture Uxkhal, because my army needs to be out there beating down the Khanate, not sitting on top of Uxkhal and molesting the fleeing lords.

So, can I leave my this (often lonely) siege and trust them to finish it? Or do I need to capture this city myself?

Solution 1:

One trick I used to use (for non-seige engine attacks) is to load up on good archers, and organize them top of the list. I also had several NPCs with good medical skills etc that help convert "deaths" to "injuries". You also need pretty good morale going in.

Basically, you siege, attack by merely parking your archers in a right at your spawn, (or if needed advance so that they can actually hit stuff), line up and have them shoot until they expend all their arrows and switch to melee weapons. Make sure any of your infantry that spawn are as far back and parked as you can.

Retreat. Repeat.

Once you whittle the castle down a bit, then switch the order of your troops to a better mix of archery and melee, line up the archers and send the infantry up the ladders. You can recall them after then get to the top so you surge and charge a few times. If you manage to get a group of your guys over the wall, then go all in.

With this tactic, I have taken castles where I was outnumbered 3:1. If you get knocked out though this falls apart.