Alot of great stuff in there
One thing I must ask (or add.... depending), isn't it a good idea to divide your city attacking stacks?
See, too many times I've brought a massive stack close to an opponents city and had it pelted with seige units. So then I'm stuck with ~12 guys who are all too weak to be effectivley attacking a city.
What I've been doing in recent games is starting with the one big stack in my territory, and as the stack moves closer to the city to be conquered I begin to separate and spread out. Usually I am left with 3-4 stacks each with a seige or two, a defender or two, and an attacker or two. This way I can be sure that my entire assault won't be thwarted by a couple lousy seige units.
There are exceptions to this of course, if I see my opponent has no seige on his city but instead has alot of attacking units (elephants or knights or something) then I'll definatley stay as one big stack. However, usually I find the AI's do keep some seige laying around and as long as you defend each of your ~3 stacks properly the AI won't try (or wont be very successful trying) to attack you.
One thing I must ask (or add.... depending), isn't it a good idea to divide your city attacking stacks?
See, too many times I've brought a massive stack close to an opponents city and had it pelted with seige units. So then I'm stuck with ~12 guys who are all too weak to be effectivley attacking a city.
What I've been doing in recent games is starting with the one big stack in my territory, and as the stack moves closer to the city to be conquered I begin to separate and spread out. Usually I am left with 3-4 stacks each with a seige or two, a defender or two, and an attacker or two. This way I can be sure that my entire assault won't be thwarted by a couple lousy seige units.
There are exceptions to this of course, if I see my opponent has no seige on his city but instead has alot of attacking units (elephants or knights or something) then I'll definatley stay as one big stack. However, usually I find the AI's do keep some seige laying around and as long as you defend each of your ~3 stacks properly the AI won't try (or wont be very successful trying) to attack you.