How do you like to organize your armies?

N

necrosmith

Warlord
Joined
Dec 6, 2003
Messages
167
What's your composition like?

Do you organize them in army groups, or theaters or anything like in real life?
 
Meatshields + City Capturers (i.e. 2-3 melee or ships) on the diagonal relative to the target, and row upon row of ranged firepower to mow everything down.
 
I play wide and usually have three or four AI civs on the continent with me. So I end up building two battle groups by the medieval period. Archers and Pikemen. As my technology improves I go to three or four cannon per group and replace pikes with blackpowder weapons. Some of the obsolete units I gift to city states.
By the WW2 era I still have two battle groups of 3-4 tanks 3-4 artillery and up to 10 bombers for each battlegroup if I have the resources.
For the modern era and Future Tech I go with the same two battle groups made of 3 modern Battle Tanks and 1 Mech Robot and 2 Mobile Sams for air defence. I keep the 18 to 20 WW2 bombers also. By this time they are so upgraded they are as strong as B52's in my head anyway :) I also build a group of Stealth Bombers because of their range.
If necessary I also build one or two carrier battle groups of 2 carriers 2 destroyers 2 missile boats and 4 subs.
 
Generally my armies have one or two melee people with cover and a lot of promotions, several archer units, and two or so siege units. (I use a mod that increases all siege units to have a range of 3, so they're not useless compared to archers.) I send in the melee first, so they can get directly next to the city and so the enemy AI target them immediately, and have them sit in the front healing up and soaking all the enemy fire, while the siege and ranged units bombard until there's no health left.
 
I like to organize my armies using my ranged units, particularly seige units, to surround my the target city. Once the city is surrounded by ranged, have all of the ranged or seige units attack. Other helpful units could be melee or mobile units that go in and attack the city so that the city wont easily bombard my seige and ranged units and bombard my infantry units that are adjacent to the city tile.
 
In peace time, my forces are dispersed. Ranged in cities, melee just outside them in likely invasion corridors. Usually a few units around my capital as well. Fleet will be concentrated at likely points of enemy attacks or otherwise outside the capital as well.
 
WE, of the Traveling Hoard, believe strongly in overwhelming force, carefully focused; in melee, ranged, cavalry and support numbers . Our Battle Sages recommend a 'total war' of steady progress, leaving ruin past targeted cities, with healing units and reinforcements, plus siege group to finish stranded cities.

Our support group will have workers, GProphets, Inquisitors, missionaries, and a few settlers for those 'horse empires' who leave huge gaps between surviving cities, when WE need newly spaced airports .

As for naval operations, WE assemble as large a fleet as WE can afford, SS's, BB's, CV's; leftover oceangoing ships, and stack ground troops with warships following the SS's . Sweep the seas clean of enemy, bombard and invade as WE pass . This world will be made OURS .
 
I've developed quite a compulsion regarding unit production/organization. Had an idea during one of my first games; now more than 100 games later, it's kind of unsettling to not do it, almost like a Tourette's tic.

I have to build units in pairs, one with open-field promotions and one with rough promotions. The original thought behind it was that since you usually meet enemies in carpets and the terrain is reasonably varied, there would almost always be an option available for each unit to capitalize on the preliminary promotion. I've since realized better strategies for attacking, concentrating on individual units for elimination rather than wounding several, etc. but I still have the compulsion to produce them and "pair them off" accordingly to the point where it's a fault. Any time a unit is lost I have to figure out which type it was and replace it. When I'm lucky enough to build Alhambra, I need a barracks in a second city so I can build/buy the open-terrain pair for every unit out of the capital, etc.
 
dasaard200 said:
WE, of the Traveling Hoard, believe strongly in overwhelming force, carefully focused; in melee, ranged, cavalry and support numbers . Our Battle Sages recommend a 'total war' of steady progress, leaving ruin past targeted cities, with healing units and reinforcements, plus siege group to finish stranded cities.

Our support group will have workers, GProphets, Inquisitors, missionaries, and a few settlers for those 'horse empires' who leave huge gaps between surviving cities, when WE need newly spaced airports .

As for naval operations, WE assemble as large a fleet as WE can afford, SS's, BB's, CV's; leftover oceangoing ships, and stack ground troops with warships following the SS's . Sweep the seas clean of enemy, bombard and invade as WE pass . This world will be made OURS .
Click to expand...

The support group could be used in different ways particularly if you can purchase different religious buildings from different religions. Do you do that or do you spread your own religion as you conquer?
 
I like to keep about two units in each city during stable peacetime, this gives me the protection I need from barbarians in each city and defends me from most sneak attacks.

During Cold War periods I keep a line of troops on borders likely to be attacked, this gives me a line which the enemy cannot pass and a defensible position if they do attack.
 
WE are glad you picked this up, reddishrecue, for IF the conquered city HAD an available RBuilding(s) to build; it gets built, and then city gets Converted, and Our Battle Priests build Our own RBuildings !!

Opportunity is a terrible thing to waste !! Many times WE have had cities with 4 RBuildings, allowing US RPeople to spare, for Our Visits to strange and distant Places .
 
Knight-Dragon said:
In peace time, my forces are dispersed. Ranged in cities, melee just outside them in likely invasion corridors. Usually a few units around my capital as well. Fleet will be concentrated at likely points of enemy attacks or otherwise outside the capital as well.
Click to expand...

This is what I do too. But I always feel like I'm doing something wrong because I see the AI constantly moving their units around on every turn. So I think to myself, "Should I be repositioning my units every turn or something?"
 
The way I play is to minimize the number of units dying. I just take it personally when the AI is able to kill one of my units. So I take way longer than necessary just so that no one dies. It's just a personal style, I am a very defensive player. Love to see the AI retreat from a city, hopefully with many dead, and I have lost no units.
 
Whenever I conquered, I liked to spread religion and erase their existing religions with inquisitors sometimes. I no longer do that often anymore because it used to be work so it used to feel like I'm did something that I used to do.
 
Although I rue it because I love melee combat, I build mostly ranged units in the early eras, they protect my towns the best while I expand like a maniac, until I get myself into trouble with the AI.
 
daft said:
Although I rue it because I love melee combat, I build mostly ranged units in the early eras, they protect my towns the best while I expand like a maniac, until I get myself into trouble with the AI.
Click to expand...

I used to do that too and I used to upgrade them to composite or xbows even.
 
If I am attacking, then I use 2 ground units and 4 shooters in the first part of the game. If I am attacking with gunpowder and beyond, I change to 4X4. Two groups of 4X4 can go in opposite directions. Add more as you go along.
 
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