Domination without ranged units

After trying to make siege work, I have come to the pretty common conclusion that things before cannons don't work, and cannons only work because they do more damage than crossbows.

^^ People seem pretty happy starting with cannons.

I have to wonder if Denmark, with land/setup/fire all-in-one-turn, could make trebuchets or even catapults work. I have tried, but without success at all. But then I struggle with anything earlier than rocket launchers!

beetle said:

^^ People seem pretty happy starting with cannons.

I have to wonder if Denmark, with land/setup/fire all-in-one-turn, could make trebuchets or even catapults work. I have tried, but without success at all. But then I struggle with anything earlier than rocket launchers!

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I've always thought Denmark's UA was underrated for domination primarily for that reason.

beetle said:

^^ People seem pretty happy starting with cannons.

I have to wonder if Denmark, with land/setup/fire all-in-one-turn, could make trebuchets or even catapults work. I have tried, but without success at all. But then I struggle with anything earlier than rocket launchers!

Click to expand...

If you worker bait out their ranged defender and have a damaged unit to draw city fire you can rain on it with trebs with impunity regardless. Denmark does have that setup advantage but you can only use it in some cases.

A stock xbow can simply walk into range and shoot the city in most cases. Trebs are...not so good hitting enemy units, and getting rid of those is usually the more important consideration. Trebs and cata are so weak that xp farmed chariot archers are probably more viable medieval city attackers.

It's true that if you have logistics arty, especially after it picks up range later, things start to get silly though. That will carry you basically forever, if you can keep enemy air units/nukes off them.

I seem to recall a video of Acken's where he built a bunch of Trebs, and slowly marched them through very rough terrain towards an AI at war. They got off some shots against melee, but mainly their battles were just being attacked while fortified. I thought it was a very clever way to get XP faster while advancing. Once he took a city or two the gold helped upgrade them to Canons.

I have done about 10 Deity domination victories with Artillery - Infantry so that route is definitely very viable. It requires a bit of sim city and infrastructure build up but there after its all war.