A war fought badly...?

[GONeill85]

Okay the situation is I am the largest empire on the map, and the most technologically advanced. I have only one land barrier though, four of my cities sit on the same island as that of the Aztecs. We've been peaceful for the past 100 or so turns. My four cities are just about to become very independant and be able to defend themselves without the need of the defence force that the mainland had loaned. Just as I was pulling back in order to fulfill more needed duties (and certainly I needed them to defend against the Spanish on set of islands that they were sending spies in and out of - could have been a prelude to an invasion). Then the Aztecs attacked. They attack with a stack of seventeen. And so the major war.

Immediately they took one of my cities, but it wasn't long before I retook it by hurrying along 4 greniders. They were fighting with a group of pikemen, jaguars and catapults. After reclaiming the city I launched a quick counter attack over the boarder and into the Aztec presence on the island. I quickly over run the position. Then came the next important step. I attacked their main land. Armed with 6 units and 2 destroyers (they still had galleys and triemes).

The initial invasion went well and I took a city in five turns (i land troops away from the city and engaged some units on the way down. meanwhile my two destroyer took on a fleet, twenty two enemy vessels in two turns were sunk. But then problems started. I decided to launch an all or nothing attack on the capital. I lost 6 units on the first wave, by this time another two loads from Washington had arrived. I used them to capture the capital. I also had a new weapon, an airforce, four more planes, they completely destroyed the units in the Aztec capital and the remaining four units that I had in the area overran the positions.

At this point I thought I would let the Aztecs have their peace treaty. I lost about 11 units in the war and the Aztecs have now lost their entire navy and their most experienced fighting units, not to mention three cities.

However I think that this was a badly fought fight. What do you think?

 

[Yared]

1st:

I decided to launch an all or nothing attack on the capital. I lost 6 units on the first wave...

Did you use siege units whatsoever in this attack?

2nd: How much do you know about Montezuma as a leader?

3rd: Were you given the option of capitulation?

4th: Please post a screen shot so I can examine the Island.

 

[GONeill85]

1st:



Did you use siege units whatsoever in this attack?

2nd: How much do you know about Montezuma as a leader?

3rd: Were you given the option of capitulation?

4th: Please post a screen shot so I can examine the Island.

1. I did use a seige unit, an artillary unit that was destroyed on its first engagement.
2. I know quite a lot of Montezuma, but he fought so much harder this time around.
3. I tried to agree to a ceasefire three times. Once when I liberated my city, second when I captured his city on our joint island and third when I captured the first city on their main land. They told me on all three to go away. It wasn't until the defeat of their capital that they agreed to talk to me and then it was an equal terms agreement.
4. I'll post the map later when I can transfer it from the other pc to this one.

 

[Yared]

1. I did use a seige unit, an artillary unit that was destroyed on its first engagement.

Well that's a start there. Next time, try having 50% Siege in your SoDs - especially when you got Artillery vs Pikemen!

I'm not gonna go into really advanced CIV Siege warfare but if you have 20 axemen and 20 catapults and your opponent has 40 axemen you could easily win with a lost of about 70% siege?

 

[Gresharas]

11 units for three cities is IMHO, good enought. Simply replace them, if you have a good military city - one that produce a new unit in 1 to 3 turns maximum.

Problem might be that you were using advanced troops against outdated and still got losses. I think Yared stand correct: use more siege. At last until the dawn of machine guns siege weapons are the only way to keep casualty down, except MAYBE for starting revolts with spies [I never use this tactics].

 

[Yared]

Don't forget to use Flight and Navy units to bombard your opponents cities and stacks. Navy units are pretty much unstoppable if you have a destroyers and they Frigates but Air units can get shot down by machine guns. Still, airships can be very powerful before your enemies get railroad.

 

[GONeill85]

I decided to declare war against them, after a brief peace treaty. This time I have 4 fighters, 3 destroyers, 10 cavalry units and 1 seige unit. I won and captured all 6 cities left, and lost nothing. I had only added in a couple more land units and a destroyer that weren't used in the first war. I don't understand how in the first war a group of people armed with bows and arrows could almost defeat an army with guns and then a few years later, a similar army got absolutely whipped. Either the northern island was fortified by highly trained troops and greener troops were used on the southern island.

 

[Kullervo]

From what you were doing, you did fairly well, but you could've done better. A few tips.

1) Use naval units to lower the defense of coastal cities.
2) first attack with units that have a decent chance of withdrawal to soften the defenses unless you are 100% certain that there is no way you can lose.
3) Fortify somewhere in a forest of on a forested hill. Monty is predictable, and chances are, he'll lose 3/4 of his army trying to knock your units out of that place while you kick back and laugh at him.
4) When advancing through enemy terrain, group your mobiles in a stack with single-movers. pillage roads with the mobiles so the enemy can't hit-and run.

Other than that, you did well, and you got the right strategy.

A screenshot would help though.

And what is IMHO? (I'm very bad at acronyms)

 

[Yared]

IMHO = In My [Honest] Opinion

 

[GONeill85]

From what you were doing, you did fairly well, but you could've done better. A few tips.

1) Use naval units to lower the defense of coastal cities.
2) first attack with units that have a decent chance of withdrawal to soften the defenses unless you are 100% certain that there is no way you can lose.
3) Fortify somewhere in a forest of on a forested hill. Monty is predictable, and chances are, he'll lose 3/4 of his army trying to knock your units out of that place while you kick back and laugh at him.
4) When advancing through enemy terrain, group your mobiles in a stack with single-movers. pillage roads with the mobiles so the enemy can't hit-and run.

Other than that, you did well, and you got the right strategy.

A screenshot would help though.

And what is IMHO? (I'm very bad at acronyms)

I did do number 1 and I added planes in to damage the units in both wars. I also used units with a withdraw chance, in the second war, one unit always fought, never won but always survived. The first war was just odd i think or their troops were just incredibly highly trained considering it was gunpowder (me) versus spears (them).
In looking back I also feel that my tactics weren't as high as they normally are I was fighting a reactive war where I had no plans. When in the second war I was fighting a proactive war where I was in control from the start and could lay out plans.

 

[Kullervo]

What I usually do is have only 2 armies, one smaller one comprised of mostly well-promoted mobiles that patrols my border, the other a large assault stack with plenty of catapults. I attack the cities closest to me first, but overall I make a beeline for the capitals and developed cities. Occasionally, I leave them a crappy city that I would have no trouble attacking, because then I can make them pay a VERY heavy price for peace (such as 1 tech, some gold, and a world map or 2 techs.) and they will no longer be a threat for me, because they have only that crappy city.

Can you describe what you did? Maybe I can give a few pointers.

 

[god of crows45]

i think you should have just nuked the bastards, honestly.

 

[Kullervo]

Always fun, but:

a) very good way to spoil relations. I think you get -3 per nuke.
b) triggers global warming, which hurts you quite a bit if it's strong.
c) not always available
d) on the higher difficulty levels, the the AI tends to get nukes earlier. So essentially, you bomb one city, and they bomb ten. You're pretty much shooting yourself in the foot by starting a nuclear war. :suicide: