How to use armies - a guide

Since armies seem to be underestimated by most players and questions on their use pop up frequently, here`s a thread to discuss them at length. I`ll put my ideas in here and hope all other army users will, too.

Please don`t write: "Better use your leaders for wonders!" ten thousand times - this thread is intended for discussing the use of armies - not leaders!

Here`s how I use mine:

Armies have several wonderful uses:

1) attack army: composed of fast units ONLY. You can clobber any city defender without waiting for cannons or such. Also a three Knight Army will attack and then be strong enough to defend other attackers in the same square - you don`t need to bring defenders to grab a city. Just to defend it when the Army moves out to take the next town
Also clobbers landing party defenders - mop up the rest with obsolete troops.... so an army saves money since you don`t need to keep lots of strong troops to defend against maritime invasion...

2) defence army: composed of defenders only. Block an isthmus, defend a city - all well and nice. But the best use is this:

Imagine going to war against a strong neighbour. You have a home island, he has one, too and you share a third. He`ll come for you there. Wouldn`t it be nice too distract him with a landing party on his homeland?
Use a defensive army (best elite defenders only) plus lots of Horsemen/Knights/Cavalery/Panzers/Tanks to land on his homeland. Move your army around in hilly terrain and use the fast troops to pillage. The AI will do almost anything to get that army outta there - while you take the common island for your very own! I usually force him to a bad peace rtreaty and withdraw without losses.....


3) Leader creation: use an obsolete army to which you add a modern (fast) defender (after building Pentagon) to create leaders. The army should be full of elite troops and you can place it out in the open, let it be attacked, then draw it back to heal. Do that with two 3-Knight-1-Mech Inf Armies for 10 turns and get several leaders.........

I like to use armies of infantry to defend a large number of artillery during an offensive. The AI will not even dare attack it, so your artillery are safe. I don't think you can get leaders from an army though. I could be wrong.

You can get leaders from Armies no sweat, but remember: you don`t get a leader when the other guy retreats!

Use an army of defenders to pillage. It can move through enemy territory burning and pillaging and no one dare attack it.

Disband that obsolete army for 100 shields. Unless your nostalgia gets the better of you.

I tend to keep armies until they get killed. I once had an army of elite swordsmen that had been responsible for the deaths of probably 100 enemy units in the ancient and medieval ages. I couldn't bring myself to disband it, and was quite pleased with its last, heroic stand. It killed two english tanks, and then 3 cavalry, and then was finally overrun by a fourth cavalry. It was fortified in a size 13+ city on the other side of a river. Definately worth keeping around.

Armies of either infantry or cavalry are useful for taking out that one enemy infantry unit defending a city. Usually, once you clear that guy out, the units 'under' it are riflemen or worse, which can be realistically dispatched by cavalry units.

Another reason why I keep old armies: most AI will not even attack a 3-Knight army with Cavalery! Place them on an important resource and watch the Ai fret around with lots of attackers - but never go for it...

Originally posted by Killer
Another reason why I keep old armies: most AI will not even attack a 3-Knight army with Cavalery! Place them on an important resource and watch the Ai fret around with lots of attackers - but never go for it...

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Yeah. I wonder why this happens. Of course, the few times I have come up against an AI army (that was not poorly constructed) I have tended to shy away from it. I guess I would not see much point in attacking an army of infantry unless I had truly superior numbers or modern armor. I have seen some really dumb AI armies. The best example consisted of a pikemen, a musketman and a ****ing tank!

eyrei wrote:

a pikemen, a musketman and a ****ing tank!

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well, eyrei, that`s what I also see quite often. I think the Ai is smart enough to try to add the hitpoints of a now useless army to a modern army (as I do), but why doesn`t it fill up the army when it builds it????

The best use that I have found for an army is my preliminary invasion force in the modern era. Here is the scenario. one transport will work, but I have found two or more to be the best. Create an army comprised of veteran/elite mechanical infantry (hopefully the Pentagon has been built, so you can load four units). The rest of the units in the transports are artillery. Land this force on a mountain square in your enemies' territory, hopefully close to the capital. You then proceed to bombard the heck out of every improvement within your artilleries range. You will accomplish two goals with this maneuver; force the AI to throw units against your position, which they will lose, and to prepare a proper sight for your main invasion fleet.

Come to think of it, I may know the answer to this. The AI seems to distinguish between offensive and defensive units, and seems to construct armies on the combined arms principle. What it doesn't distinguish between is relative attack and defense strengths. I think the AI's poor choice of army units stems from the problem the military advisor has regarding numbers and the actual strength of a military. As far as constructing an army, the AI probably adds the closest (geographically) combination of units (2 defensive + 1 offensive) with the most hit points. Usually when I see a horribly obsolete unit in an army, it is elite, and thus adds the most hit points to the army. Is the attack/defense strength of an army simply an average of the units' attack defense strengths?

I sure could have used an army last night. Fought off hundreds of bowmen, winniing who knows how many battles with elite Immortals... my golden age came and went, and no leaders.
He called off the war when I sent a team of Immortals, horsmen and catapults to destroy a city.... that did it.

There's really no reason to keep that old army. Let it go. Its just eating at your revenue. With the military academy you can build modern armies that do the same job, better. Since your conquering far away cities, 100 shields goes a long way.

And if you were a real die-hard that army should've died by now anyway.

I would NEVER waste a leader on an army again. Why discuss how to use something that's really just useless in the game?

Originally posted by Special_O
I would NEVER waste a leader on an army again. Why discuss how to use something that's really just useless in the game?

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Please explain your sweeping statement.

Originally posted by eyrei
As far as constructing an army, the AI probably adds the closest (geographically) combination of units (2 defensive + 1 offensive) with the most hit points. Usually when I see a horribly obsolete unit in an army, it is elite, and thus adds the most hit points to the army. Is the attack/defense strength of an army simply an average of the units' attack defense strengths?

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Your probably right on the way the Ai constructs armies...

As far as I can see, attack and defense aren`t averaged (I´ll check that and get back) but what you essentially get when you combine 1 offense and 2 defence is 3 offence at attack and 3 defence for defence.... At least that`s the way it looks to me. When I use a 3 Cav 1 Mech Inf Amry the defender will ALWAYS be a Mech Inf (in picture and result) even when the army is badly hurt and the attacker will always be the Cav, even when 3 Cav have retreated.....

ah, why don't you guys see the light? save all great leaders till modern times (while getting real close with everyone else) and trash the enemy with armies of elite tanks!
:tank: :tank: :tank: :tank: :tank: :tank: :tank:

That's dense light you've got there, I can barely make out your face.

Get great leader, build army, win victory, build heroic epic, get more great leaders to use on wonders whilst building armies with miltary academy.

Then your tank armies can sweep the globe clean.

Your tank armies magically lose their multiple attack abilities. Way to ruin a bunch of tanks.

Originally posted by Special_O
I would NEVER waste a leader on an army again. Why discuss how to use something that's really just useless in the game?

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Losing the chance of a free wonder just for an expensive 'super unit' is a difficult hit to take and puts off many players. However, you have to look beyond the meager immeadiate benefits of creating an army:

1. That super unit can be extremely useful if used wisely. Allowing you to conquer otherwise invicible cities and defend indefensible squares.

2. Using you first army will eventually allow you access to three small wonders not otherwise available: heroic epic (more leaders to replace the one you have spent on army building), military academy and pentagon. All these wonders will count towards upping you final score apart from their specific benefits.

3. The military academy allows many more 'super units'. One army will not make much of a difference to your military strategy. Four or five however, will make a huge difference later in the game. Read the posts above for the details.

To clarify my own tactics, I usually make an army from my second or third leader, the first always goes into a forbidden palace, the second into another useful wonder depending if one is available to be built. Often this means that my first army does not appear until the middle or industrial ages.

I used to agree with you about armies being useless, however further experimantation with them has really changed my mind. Try it again and work through the above details, I'll think you'll find it is worth it.