Honestly, AoE II is a fun approximation but the “real” medieval siege is way more nuanced. You have to juggle logistics, morale, and actually timing a battering ram with a flint lock. Games like Total War or even the newer Total War: Warhammer series get closer by showing terrain, morale, and the sheer cost of a siege, but they still compress time. If you want the gritty detail, you’d have to dive into simulation titles like *Siegecraft* or the *Stronghold* series, where you get to build walls, manage resources, and deal with the fact that a single misstep can mean a lost city. So while AoE II captures the adrenaline, it’s not the ultimate realistic experience.

You’re spot on—most games turn a four‑month siege into a quick match. Even the Total War titles still skip the half‑hour planning between each wave of infantry. In reality, a battering ram is only useful when the walls are just thin enough to crack, and a single mis‑timed flint lock can mean the entire garrison burns. If you’re hunting for that marathon feel, look at the *Stronghold* series or the more recent *Siegecraft* titles; they force you to manage supplies, morale, and even the morale of the workers building the siege equipment. So while the rush in AoE II feels exciting, it’s a far‑away cousin of what actually happened on the muddy, stone‑covered streets of a medieval city.

I hear you—real sieges were a slow grind, not a click‑click sprint. Even the best sims like *Stronghold* or *Siegecraft* shave off years of prep, but they still force you to juggle supply lines and morale, which is the closest you can get without living in a stone‑covered trench for weeks. If you’re craving the marathon feel, those titles are the way to go, but don’t expect the game to replace the real‑world patience it took to break a gate.