Yashkaf
King of my Castle
Last game I played I researched archery. What's so special avout it? I did it after mithril working. Crazy, right? Wrong.
What's the thing you hope to see the most when attacking the enemy's territory? All his archers spread between his cities allowing you to soften them up with mages and siege and take them one by one. And if you lose? Those CD3 archers still ain't good for nothing other than garrison. The solution - proactive defending with melee. The idea is very simple. You want a single stack of units to get to the invading force and attack it. The AI will always give his axemen combat and CR, never mobility. Even with a small city, you have 3 turns to react to an enemy stack before attack. That means your stack has to be 17 tiles away at engineering, 11 before that. That's plenty of room, you basically need one big stack per government center. How to build the stack? First promotion is mobility 1, then combat and shock. After engineering you can postpone mob 1 to 3rd promo, if you can be 8 tiles away from any city. If the AI has CR promos he's toast. If he got combat 3 you still have 50% with just level 3 troops, and you can add some horsemen with withdrawal promotion to soften him up. Mix in adepts/priests if you feel like it. The method is easy to execute, what people don't understand are the advantages:
1. By attacking and not defending, you chooose the terms. Your adepts get the fireballs off, your units do the collateral damage, etc.
1 -> 2. All the enemy's catapults, fire mages, air mages and medic priests that you're so afraid of are worth jack.
3. As well as all the CR and Drill promos everybody (especially the AI) likes so much.
4. Even before engineering, an 11 tile radius (4 move per turn on roads * 3 turns - 1 tile to attack) is at least 5-6 cities. What's cheaper, 3-4 archers each (20 archers) or 10 axemen? Both in the short run (production) and in the long (upkeep). You can lose two out of three units in active defense and it will still be worth it cash-wise. Plus, those that survive will be xp monsters.
4 - advanced. Now let's do the math for a slightly large empire. Let's say 10 cities with some culture. All you need is a couple of hawks to have at least 4 turns warning for any invasion attempt. That's a 15 tile reaction radius (23 with engineering), for an area of around 400-800 tiles ((15+15)^2=900). At 20 tiles per fat cross, that means you easily cover any city. If you don't believe the math, load a game and count the squares. Most people will keep at least 5-6 archers in every city plus the beakers for walls + palisade. A conservative estimate of 3 cities with 3 archers (inland), 7 cities with 5 archers and walls (border) means 44 archers + 7 walls = 3480 hammers + 44 upkeep. Now let's do it my way: 10 warriors to avoid the unhappiness = 250 hammers. That leaves 3230 hammers for the big stack. You think 54 axemen/horsemen/hunters can't do a better job than 5 archers?
5. Attacking gives more xp, so your stack will just grow stronger. It's easier to get your troops to combat 3 shock 2 (+140%) than CD3 (+100%) for your archers, since attacking at 50% odds gives 5-7 xp and defending at 99% gives 1.
6. Let's say you beat off an attack with archers. Now you have some CD3 guys who are stuck in one city and are good for nothing else. Now let's say you did it with melee. Get the next combat promo and you're on your way for a killer counter-attack with a huge promoted stack before the enemy knows what hit him.
7. Pyre zombies? Diseased corpses? Just keep your stack two tiles away and they're worthless.
8. You're going for the metal line anyway, right? Why waste a single beaker on archery, not to mention bowyers?
9. Let your recon units join the party! A hunter with shock 1 (4+60% = 6.4) beats a bronzed axemen with combat 1 and a bunch of CRs. A ranger with shock 2 (7+140% = 16.8) beats an iron champion with combat 5 even (6+2+100%=16), and no one has anti recon promos.
10. The AI took a city with archers? He just got stronger for the next one on all the crazy xp. Often once the first city falls the others soon follow. Took a city because you didn't react in time? Your melee troops will take it right back, or at least make sure it's the only one.
11. Hate how your archers have to sit behind their walls and watch a lousy unpromoted axemen pillage that village? Me too.
12. You built those 30 axemen with mobility and no one is attacking? You don't need me to tell you what your next move is.
13. What's the weakness? Commando promos are rare, but you can just avoid building roads towards your borders or pillage them in time. Mobility promos for raiders? Even rarer, and the AI will usually have the entire stack move at catapult pace, which is 1 tile per turn with no way to get commando. Archers defending the stack? It just means your opponent wasted hammers, plus if not on a hill they're quite useless. Really, only the Hippus can beat you, and they do OK against archers as well with the bonus horses get against archers.
Proactive defending was my basic strategy in all games unless I had Tasunke as a neighbor, and it never failed. The moment I started keeping a single warrior in every city was the moment I jumped from playing monarch-emperor to deity. In a game that values high xp troops, transition from defense to offense and preparadeness for anything, nothing else makes any sense.
P.S.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, I expect some lovely debates.
I posted this already in the hints thread on the main board, but it really belongs here.
What's the thing you hope to see the most when attacking the enemy's territory? All his archers spread between his cities allowing you to soften them up with mages and siege and take them one by one. And if you lose? Those CD3 archers still ain't good for nothing other than garrison. The solution - proactive defending with melee. The idea is very simple. You want a single stack of units to get to the invading force and attack it. The AI will always give his axemen combat and CR, never mobility. Even with a small city, you have 3 turns to react to an enemy stack before attack. That means your stack has to be 17 tiles away at engineering, 11 before that. That's plenty of room, you basically need one big stack per government center. How to build the stack? First promotion is mobility 1, then combat and shock. After engineering you can postpone mob 1 to 3rd promo, if you can be 8 tiles away from any city. If the AI has CR promos he's toast. If he got combat 3 you still have 50% with just level 3 troops, and you can add some horsemen with withdrawal promotion to soften him up. Mix in adepts/priests if you feel like it. The method is easy to execute, what people don't understand are the advantages:
1. By attacking and not defending, you chooose the terms. Your adepts get the fireballs off, your units do the collateral damage, etc.
1 -> 2. All the enemy's catapults, fire mages, air mages and medic priests that you're so afraid of are worth jack.
3. As well as all the CR and Drill promos everybody (especially the AI) likes so much.
4. Even before engineering, an 11 tile radius (4 move per turn on roads * 3 turns - 1 tile to attack) is at least 5-6 cities. What's cheaper, 3-4 archers each (20 archers) or 10 axemen? Both in the short run (production) and in the long (upkeep). You can lose two out of three units in active defense and it will still be worth it cash-wise. Plus, those that survive will be xp monsters.
4 - advanced. Now let's do the math for a slightly large empire. Let's say 10 cities with some culture. All you need is a couple of hawks to have at least 4 turns warning for any invasion attempt. That's a 15 tile reaction radius (23 with engineering), for an area of around 400-800 tiles ((15+15)^2=900). At 20 tiles per fat cross, that means you easily cover any city. If you don't believe the math, load a game and count the squares. Most people will keep at least 5-6 archers in every city plus the beakers for walls + palisade. A conservative estimate of 3 cities with 3 archers (inland), 7 cities with 5 archers and walls (border) means 44 archers + 7 walls = 3480 hammers + 44 upkeep. Now let's do it my way: 10 warriors to avoid the unhappiness = 250 hammers. That leaves 3230 hammers for the big stack. You think 54 axemen/horsemen/hunters can't do a better job than 5 archers?
5. Attacking gives more xp, so your stack will just grow stronger. It's easier to get your troops to combat 3 shock 2 (+140%) than CD3 (+100%) for your archers, since attacking at 50% odds gives 5-7 xp and defending at 99% gives 1.
6. Let's say you beat off an attack with archers. Now you have some CD3 guys who are stuck in one city and are good for nothing else. Now let's say you did it with melee. Get the next combat promo and you're on your way for a killer counter-attack with a huge promoted stack before the enemy knows what hit him.
7. Pyre zombies? Diseased corpses? Just keep your stack two tiles away and they're worthless.
8. You're going for the metal line anyway, right? Why waste a single beaker on archery, not to mention bowyers?
9. Let your recon units join the party! A hunter with shock 1 (4+60% = 6.4) beats a bronzed axemen with combat 1 and a bunch of CRs. A ranger with shock 2 (7+140% = 16.8) beats an iron champion with combat 5 even (6+2+100%=16), and no one has anti recon promos.
10. The AI took a city with archers? He just got stronger for the next one on all the crazy xp. Often once the first city falls the others soon follow. Took a city because you didn't react in time? Your melee troops will take it right back, or at least make sure it's the only one.
11. Hate how your archers have to sit behind their walls and watch a lousy unpromoted axemen pillage that village? Me too.
12. You built those 30 axemen with mobility and no one is attacking? You don't need me to tell you what your next move is.
13. What's the weakness? Commando promos are rare, but you can just avoid building roads towards your borders or pillage them in time. Mobility promos for raiders? Even rarer, and the AI will usually have the entire stack move at catapult pace, which is 1 tile per turn with no way to get commando. Archers defending the stack? It just means your opponent wasted hammers, plus if not on a hill they're quite useless. Really, only the Hippus can beat you, and they do OK against archers as well with the bonus horses get against archers.
Proactive defending was my basic strategy in all games unless I had Tasunke as a neighbor, and it never failed. The moment I started keeping a single warrior in every city was the moment I jumped from playing monarch-emperor to deity. In a game that values high xp troops, transition from defense to offense and preparadeness for anything, nothing else makes any sense.
P.S.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, I expect some lovely debates.
I posted this already in the hints thread on the main board, but it really belongs here.