Stack Attack

Do you use the Stack Attack option?

I voted yes, as I just recentley began to use this option and find it extremely convient and useful. Since the expansion the computer brings huge stacks to my doorstep and I find it a bit tedious managing which of my fighters should attack. I rather wish the penalty of losing in a stack fight would be death to all as it was prior in Civ 2. I find it a lot more fun and rewarding with a one on one fight utilizing the strengths and weaknesses of the units. The stacks are all the rage now and it seems. For example, the computer brings a stack of 5 Catapults and two elephants...Normally if they were separted this would be easy. I'd have a few swordsman with a siege promotion making them effective. Unforuntunately the elephants will waste my swordsman...if I use my spearman the cataputls will win, the chance is relatvely 30ish %. Well basically i'd have to suicide a unit or two and I hate this kind of gameplay The stack attack options seems to work rather well so I don't have to think about blindly killing my troops as I like to be a General that makes decisions to keep my troops alive. Well that's my rant I guess haha The game is still fun I just wondered if anyone else thought the same as me, feel free to input

Only in the late game where I can't be bothered to attack with my 30+ tanks individualy

Can't say I do. Prefer to manage them individually.

Fire.Soul said:

Can't say I do. Prefer to manage them individually.

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Well either my version is bugged or yall know how to play right...I mean whenever I manage them individual they AI is always choosing the strongest ones to fight against my units...so it really doesn't matter if you use them individual or stack attack...you still always need the bigger stack and a lot more power then your enemy to succeed.

I've been very tempted, but I worry that the computer might not make the most efficient possible use of my units. Also if I'm unlucky and see that I'm loosing too many units early in the battle, I have the option of halting my attack and withdrawing to defensive terrain to brace for counterattack. With stack fighting that ability is lost.

Galatian said:

Well either my version is bugged or yall know how to play right...I mean whenever I manage them individual they AI is always choosing the strongest ones to fight against my units...so it really doesn't matter if you use them individual or stack attack...you still always need the bigger stack and a lot more power then your enemy to succeed.

Click to expand...

I'm no pro, but perhaps I can give you a hand here. Sisiutil's Stack Composition article really helped me understand the mechanics behind it and how to successfully create a Stack of Doom that really lives up to its name.
Check the article here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185838

As to the AI picking the strongest ones, that's automatic and applies when they attack your stack: your strongest units defend it. That's actually an important detail that's covered on the article.

For those that don't know, I would like to remark that there are no different combat rules in the stack attack option. Units still fight individually and the strongest defender is still picked to counter them. The only thing is that not everything is shown to you.

In the stack attack option, the program will pick the attacker with the best chance at victory and attack with this unit. Then it will pick the next unit and so on until all of the units have attacked or the defending stack is destroyed.

I don't use the stack attack option as I think I can make better choices myself.

I don't like the stack attack option as the computer doesn't always make the best choices, such as wasting a couple extra catapults for collateral damage you don't really need, or such. I haven't yet had a situation where I had more than 15 units in a stack, so convenience is not a problem for me.

Being that the computer goes with whichever of your attacking units has a higher chance of victory, I never use the stack attack option. The AI doesn't take into consideration that I want to use my siege units first to weaken the whole stack before attacking.

I make stacks with ALT and sent troops in by type usually, or send the first two low XP bombard units in, send good bombards in, then send in the rest of the army.
So I guess I make the important inital choices and would send in the rest by best % odds anyway, its a convinence thing.

I only use stack attack occasionally. It can save time when my army has a huge advantage. If that's not the case, then stack attack tends to kill off my most valuable (i.e. strongest) units by sending them into battle without softening the target first - which is why I prefer to choose the sequence manually.

Stack attack has its place. When you have x number of even matchups (three CRII sword vs three unprometed archers) it's straightforward.

Later on, when I start bringing larger stacks to bear, I will choose some of the early attackers (suicide some troops, do some collateral damage, who is close to upgrade), then bulk attack with a middle section, then choose who I want to dish promotions out to in the cleanup round.

I do wish there was a way to specify offense/defense preferences, in particular with regards to suicides (if all units are <30%, choose the unpromoted one). Or if any unit level 4+ is less than 70%, don't defend unless there is no one left or they are all 4+ (or possibly all other defenders are 30%).

It's pretty complicated, which is certainly a reason for not doing it, but strongest vs weakest was always a bit annoying. Of course, that's also a part of why the human is still better at combat than the AI.

The problem I'd have with the stack attack option is sometimes you're outside a city have stripped all the defenses away, I count the defenders to see if I have enough attackers to take the city and defend it also from any counter attacks, there's nothing worse than capturing a city with you're last unit and having that as the only defender only to reveal a stack of enemy reinforcments next to the city . In that case I'd rather get the city down to the last defender and wait til next turn to hopefully get some promotions to heal you're units.
Or sometimes you go through all you're CR troops and are left with spearmen who have some pretty lousy odds.
Capturing cities aside, on the open battlefield if I had a huge stack to contend with and a much stronger army I might think about it.

Anyway I find just as quick selecting all units of one paricular type and holding right click, checking the odds, if they're good release the button. As long as there are no reatreats the unit that attacked will be deselected and you can rinse and repeat. Withdrawals complicate things unless they have Blitz, that's why tanks rule.

Stack attack, no . Quick Offense, yes. It just takes away the animations of attack and can save you a lot of time, unless you really want to see that rifle blow off a head.

Quick defense, no. You can miss vital things happening to your units.

BTW, how does Dale's combat mod fit in? Did he improve the AI behavior in stack attack?

Always in MP

computer still attacks with single units, however, its SoD are seen way more than its individual units lol. I remember a few wars where my SoDs were being sent to protect a city, because the AI was sending Stack after stack to attack the city. in some cases my production slowed, my economy crippled, and the Cities were taken, in other cases my production in many cities grew, my economy grew, and my military grew. A war with the greeks started with a small stack of their troops heading towards a city( i moved all military to the city so my 4 other cities were left undefended because this city was about to be attacked) this defensive move, destroyed the greeks stack, and bought time, they agreed to peace, I built up a larger military, my defenses in Cities were decent, but I planned on being on the offense and forcing them to defend instead. I started building stack and they declared war on me again, I kept building units to replace any fallen ones and to increase the size of the stack, the greeks had attacked before I was ready, so I sent the stack to the South where they first approached, sat them on a hill in the way of the city, they attacked they all died, none of mine did, I sent the stack to the north where they started to appear again, I was able to position them blocking the way to the city, and had enough time to heal most of the units. This kept going on, and eventually I formed a Northern and Southern Defensive stack, then I formed a middle stack which would be pure offense. we'd fight for 10 turns then have peace for ten turns, then fight for ten turns, and so on. I found out that a defensive way of offense can be extremely handy. They had a border City, that contained a stack(i guess they were preparing it) and my spies could see another stack coming down the road, rather than attack the city and then be attacked, I fortified outside the city few turns later they attacked slaughtered the stack, healed up after 5 turns then went to attack the city, It was a fight to the death lol, They had one unit left in the red. If i had a warrior i would of had the city lol. Stacks make good defense.

No, becuase I frequently don't know the odds before I try to attack (I'm not Rain Man ), I'd like to keep my option of going "Whoah, better reconsider this!". I do use "No combat zoom" and "quick combat" frequently, so stack attack wouldn't save that much time.

I use stacks, but I send them in a city attack at one at a time, picking promotions to head into battle and watch the odds. If you are talking about how I procede to war, and enemy lines. I split my army into task forces, objectives to reach (crush improvements etc) and to stop what would be my one massive invading stack being battered to bits and pieces by seige and flanking enemy cav.

I like to keep units along the border, in the forested hills to pick off any strays.

I'm surprised so many people have it off.

It's definitely always on for me. I plan my odds checking with each unit/type. And then once I get what I like, I usually send only like 3-4 at a time to make sure I still want to do it. Stack attacks really isn't only for super large stacks. I find it just saves so much time (along with Quick Offense and Defense) I can't possibly go back on it.

Basically, stack attack saves time, and there's no drawback, so yeah, I do it.