Offensive/defensive gap?

Am I missing something, or is there a giant gap between Cavalry and Tanks? Riflemen tear through Cavalry so easily, one veteran Rifleman took out an army of three elite Cavalry and a few other veteran Cavalry. Or maybe I just had the worst string of luck in history, but it was like I was trying to attack with Warriors. I wasn't attacking over a river, and I don't see any reason the Rifleman should get such a big advantage. Cavalry has offensive of 6, Rifleman a defensive of 6, should be a pretty even fight, shouldn't it? Is there anything that can counter Rifleman until Tanks?

Regardless, I won the game via domination without having to get through England's Riflemen..

Well, first of all, your best bet against Riflemen or infantry (even with Tanks) is artillery. Lots and lots of it.

Besides, the Rifleman could have been in a city or metro, getting defensive bonuses from that. Losing an army to one isn't that rare.

Tomoyo said:

Well, first of all, your best bet against Riflemen or infantry (even with Tanks) is artillery. Lots and lots of it.

Click to expand...

Hmm.. I've yet to give artillery a good try. That is, except for the Catapult fiasco. If the more modern artilleries are as bad as catapults, I might as well just throw waves of units at them

I just had an vet cav army redlined by one vet/elite rifleman defender while trying to take Los Angeles...but that's okay...next turn i was able to complete a rail line up to LA and he paid the price...155mm arty shells for breakfast lol.

JonahRowley said:

Hmm.. I've yet to give artillery a good try. That is, except for the Catapult fiasco. If the more modern artilleries are as bad as catapults, I might as well just throw waves of units at them

Click to expand...

Make sure you get a stack of > 30, at least, since artillery isn't that good in small quantities.

there are defensive bonuses everywhere. no matter what, any unit gets a 10% bonus, so all riflemen are at least 6.6. in a city under grassland, they are a 9.6, in city under hills, they're a 12. don't forget about fortification, another, 1.5 on the riflemen. defensive bonuses can get huge later on, so artillery is definately needed. the ancient times, before acqueducts, when most settlements are towns, is about the only time when conquering is possible without artillery. another exception is early middle ages, knights vs. pikes. once musketmen are invented, get a stack of trebuchets.

when i was a noob and didn't know about defensive bonuses, i was always frustrated when my modern armor (24 attack) would lose to the mech infantry, with only 18 defense. it was cause the mech infantry was fortified in a metro.

What you're seeing, in all truth, is pretty much how it happened in real life.

Military history has always seen a seesaw tussle between offense and defense. Some time before World War I, Defense was king (this is the reason World War I was such a slaughter). This didn't change until the tank and the airplane were sufficiently developed--and then the seesaw swung hard to the side of Offense.

There is a progression in the effectiveness of the land bombardment units. Catapults are lame as you like. Once you start getting to to trebs then things get a little better. But I believe artillery take the land bombardment units into a whole new realm. The difference between artillery and cannons is huge, and it isn't just the extra range, they actually do damage on a regular basis.

Your bad opinion of these bombardment units is probably founded on use, and regular disappointment, with catapults. Roll out a stack of artillery as Tomoyo suggests, defend it with two or three of your best and you'll see bombardment units in a whole new light.

JonahRowley said:

If the more modern artilleries are as bad as catapults, I might as well just throw waves of units at them

Click to expand...

Technically artillery is a collective name for catapults, trebuchets,cannons etc.

My impression is that catapults are bad, you need lots of them to hit anything. However in my experience trebuchets are quite good, while cannons are pretty unreliable. Artillery (available with RP) are very good. I haven't played long enough to test Radar Artillery.

Catapults are good in the ancient age. Against muskets and above they stinks and you need large numbers of them to do some useful damage.