How do I conduct war in Civ4?

[Distraction]

Well, just like everyone else here I'm still learning Civ4. Are there any tips for how to conduct wars successfully? In Civ3 the key was stacks of doom and in Civ4 it's said to be combined arms. Is this true?

[ffifield]

Yes it is. You definitely want to bombard cities with siege weapons (catapult, cannon, etc.) before you start throwing other units in. Archers behind walls are nasty to dislodge. I've found that a combination of archers with melee units to be fairly effective. It also helps to do some pillaging since this will draw some of the enemy units out of the city.

[CitizenCain]

Talior your armies to your opponent's armies. If he likes defending his cities with archers, attacking with something immune to first strike (like horse archers) might be a good idea. If, instead, he's got big stacks of spearmen, maybe it would be a better idea to use axemen or macemen (who get a bonus vs melee) as the backbone of your army.

[bobbobjack]

Yep, CitizenCain got a point. But the reverse is also true. I was razing the hell out of the English with (LOTS of) bombers and fighters, then they suddently started building those damned SAM infantry and destroyers. Man, after a few turns my air army efficiency dropped to almost none...

[Sailsa]

The AI isn't stupid. I've noticed several cities with archers to defend if a melee unit attacks and a pikeman to counter a mounted unit. My advice, artillary is your friend as are unit promotions. Get a barracks and the right civics to upgrade your units ahead of time to counter whatever is defend. First bombard the city to get rid of the defense bonus. If there are lots of units inside then sacrifice a few catapults to cause collateral damage and weaken them all. Then send in your upgraded attackers and hope for the best. Swordmen with city raider and cover upgrades are amazing early on.

[Art Vandelai]

Offensive war is extremely difficult in Civ 4, much more so than in the previous version. Most of the time, the enemy has a very substantial advantage when defending. Usually a few attacks with catapults are needed to soften up a position.

I had in one of my games as India, an Arab rifleman and 2 camel archers landing on my continent. After 1 attack by knights, and 2 by my own rifleman, his were still standing. I had to get cannons in position before I could take him out, and by then he had been able to pillage the town outside my city.

[dorkforce3]

I would also like to know everyones opinion for the best view for managing war because it's hard for me to spot my units in normal zoom