Capturing a strength 41 city - what units to use?

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If their defending army has already been defeated, you should be fine. Altho, I'd take 3 or 4 xbows (instead of 2 of the lancers and 2 of the muskets) if it was me.

It's better to be over prepared for a siege than unprepared.

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byzantine bomb said:

it's better to be over prepared for a siege than unprepared.

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this.

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I voted for Yes, Attack! because you can pull it off if you move everything into siege range on the same turn. Usually the AI will focus on hitting weaker stuff than your siege; try shooting the city with everything after its been set up, then attack it with a lancer to suicide and draw its fire for the next turn.
3 lancers is really bad to bring to a siege, otherwise. I would get them to screen the area around the city and make sure no enemy units can attack the cannon, when not sending them to die horribly in frontal assaults on the city walls.

Bandersnatching said:

I voted for Yes, Attack! because you can pull it off if you move everything into siege range on the same turn. Usually the AI will focus on hitting weaker stuff than your siege; try shooting the city with everything after its been set up, then attack it with a lancer to suicide and draw its fire for the next turn.
3 lancers is really bad to bring to a siege, otherwise. I would get them to screen the area around the city and make sure no enemy units can attack the cannon, when not sending them to die horribly in frontal assaults on the city walls.

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Don't waste lancers, make sure one musket is wounded when you move ur units in. It will draw fire. Few more XB would be nice, but you have plenty of troops for much larger sieges. As units take damage rotate them out, and keep shooting. If new units appear kill them first. You can kill cities up to 65 strength easily with this setup.

I'm not sure you need to move a wounded musket in to take fire. IMX, I just need to put in a musket within one turn of capturing the city and the AI priorities killing it, even if it has Cover 2 and heals insanely fast. Wounded would seal the deal, of course, but it doesn't seem to be strictly necessary.

Strength 41 is too damn high. I recommend waiting for XCOM squads.

Hold back 2 of the muskets until your range units are all in place

If all units are at full strength it won't shoot the muskets but will try to take out range and siege. If it spawns another range it will then kill one of your units either a XB or cannon. It's more of an insurance policy then strict necessity, but I just always play that way

I only need 1 lancer 2 muskets 2 cb 2 cannon enough

With little-to-no resistance, the 4 cannons should survive long enough to take the city down to 0 hp, even if the city targets the cannons only. At least 2 cannons will survive long enough to take the remaining hp down, and the muskets can help block anything that tries to attack the cannons in melee. Ultimately, any other ranged units you have can join in the attack, and in the end, a single lancer can take the city when it's down to 0 hp.

Really, though, this all depends on terrain. In open terrain, it's 1 turn to move the cannons in, and 1 turn to set-up and start firing. But on rough terrain, or with an enemy Great Wall in place, it may take 2 turns to move the cannons into range, and then a third turn to actually set-up and fire. Moreover, sometimes obstructing terrain makes it so that the only spot your cannons can fire from is from tiles adjacent to the city itself, which adds the danger of the AI suddenly finishing production of a melee unit and killing a cannon with it.

So, the equation is not just your force vs a 41-str city, but also what the terrain is like, as that may mean an extra turn of city bombard on a unit while just moving up, let alone if the enemy has even just one or two ranged units that will also get an extra turn to attack. Which would very possibly make a difference.

If they have no units, it will be very easy to capture. I've used six composite bowmen and a couple of suicide units that did little to no damage to capture a 40 strength city because it was undefended. Just swap out wounded units to heal and reinforce your army with more cannons during the siege.

This should be an easy job, don't wait for it.

I was playing the American Civil War last night and Washington had a City strength of 56.

It took me 15-20 turns to take the capital - Washington.

I attacked with x8 CSA Rifled Cannons x1 Rifled Cannon X4 CSA Infantry Corps.

I'm sure there was a bug with that city. I've spoken to a few friends and the max, they saw Washington was 23 City Strength.

Frigates can bring that city to 0 hp if you're patient enough and keep on rotating the wounded frigate out to repair.

Maxym said:

If all units are at full strength it won't shoot the muskets but will try to take out range and siege. If it spawns another range it will then kill one of your units either a XB or cannon. It's more of an insurance policy then strict necessity, but I just always play that way

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I'd like to highlight this to dispel a misconception IMO. I often bring both melee and siege together into range at the same time against Prince AI. I have no reason to believe that higher setting AI behaves differently. The AI will often target the melee unit preferentially if you have many units (like 8, in this case), especially if you only bring one or two melee units into range and many siege units.

I do not know why this is, or how often this happens, but it does happen commonly when I attack AI cities. It'll even prioritize the melee inspite of Cover 2 promotion. It's a little weird, but I get the logic. Sometimes, when the AI fights other AI, killing all the melee units allows it breathing room to attack a lot of ranged, since nothing left can capture the city.

Nuke that thing out of the way. If you can't find uranium, settle for diplo. Either way works.