Newb questions.

[Ddude97]

In my game right now a city state asks for my help taking out another one. I attacked it with 4 spearmen and an archer and I didn't see the red bar move at all on it while my guys were beat up badly. How do I beat/intimidate them for the other guys, is there a diplomatic option i'm not aware of that says "hey, knock it off" or something so I don't have to get my butt kicked?

As SuperJay said, use seige to take the city's health down, then rush in with your infantry to actually take the city (you have to use melee attackers to actually take the city). Since cities have a lots of health, use more than one seige or one really good one with higher level promotions (logistics + seige I)

 

[callahan9119]

Oh, i just surrounded it with spearmen and went "oh noooooez" as they all got killed.

 

[SuperJay]

Yeah, spearmen aren't too great at knocking down city walls while burning pitch rains down upon them. Spearmen and their upgraded variants are intended to counter mounted units - they're great at that, but lousy for taking a city. Build two or three catapults (you'll need Iron) and bombard the heck out of that city until it's almost dead, then send in some infantry or cavalry to take over.