I don't know if you'll consider these Intermediate Tactics, or even good tactics, but they work for me (admittedly Prince Single Player, no mod or funky rules)
1. Skip archery and use axes as your defenders. They'll kill swordsmen, the primary city taker of the era, and they'll spare you researching a dead end tech. If there are cavalry roaming around throw in a spear. By the time Machinery comes around (maces and crossbows), I get archery in peace negotiations, or you could research it in 1 turn.
2. If a city's defenders are mixed, your attackers should not be. If a city is defended by archers and axes, you'd be stupid to attack with CR swords and axes, because your axes will fight their archers and your swords will fight their axes. It seems better to me to throw all axes into the fray, do well against the ax defenders (you've got city raider and they don't have city garrison) and poorly against the the archers (you'll have to rely on numbers to overwhelm them), or else all swords and do badly against the axes and well against the archers. This breaks down after siege weapons are introduced, along with most elements of strategy.
1. Skip archery and use axes as your defenders. They'll kill swordsmen, the primary city taker of the era, and they'll spare you researching a dead end tech. If there are cavalry roaming around throw in a spear. By the time Machinery comes around (maces and crossbows), I get archery in peace negotiations, or you could research it in 1 turn.
2. If a city's defenders are mixed, your attackers should not be. If a city is defended by archers and axes, you'd be stupid to attack with CR swords and axes, because your axes will fight their archers and your swords will fight their axes. It seems better to me to throw all axes into the fray, do well against the ax defenders (you've got city raider and they don't have city garrison) and poorly against the the archers (you'll have to rely on numbers to overwhelm them), or else all swords and do badly against the axes and well against the archers. This breaks down after siege weapons are introduced, along with most elements of strategy.