a lesson learned..(a terrible flaw in strategy)

[Grrrble]

i was playing as the egyptian empire in noble mode around early BC to late AD.

my plan was to go to war with the aztec and use all of war chariots to take him out easily. but little did i know that the aztec special unit was the jaguar, which is an almost equal match, more leaning toward jaguar if it is fortified.

so after many futile attemps with my war chariots, i started training swordsmen and axemen. after taking their second town and razing it (bad idea!), i went in search of their capitol.

by the time i had found their capitol, many of my troops were out in the field, and only a few warriors were left defending my cities.

immediatly after seeing this through our open borders agreement (bad idea! #2), the mongols declared war on me. i immediatly converted a few warriors to pikemen in an attempt to survive, but i was flat broke by the time i had upgraded a few.

in the time i spent upgraded my units, the jaguars over at the aztec capitol attacked my macemen and swordsmen, killing them.

the mongols swept in and easily took down my pikemen due to their high upgrades, and were taking all my cities one by one. i tried to make peace with both mongol and aztec, but i had too little money to bribe a peace treaty.

after all but one of my towns was taken over, i retired.

rating: dan quayle

i hope you see my terrible flaw. by attacking a far away land with all my troops, i ended up leaving my homeland vurnerable to attacks. i'll sure never do that again...

 

[Shillen]

Hehe, I had a game I started on a continent with just the Aztecs and myself as Egypt. The aztecs declared war on me really early. Axemen >>> war chariots when waging a war with the Aztecs. It kind of sucked because I had wanted to use my war chariots in that game just like you.

 

[Penitent]

I was winning as england for most of the game on a terra map, but now my lead has gone, I annoyed everyone on my borders with constant attacks to take their cities so they all hate me. Every time I send my army to one side of my empire I get invaded on the opposite side, my infrastructure is in tatters.

 

[Dragonlor]

Never go to war without protecting your borders even if there appears to be no other civs nearby. In my current game on Prince I had some catching up to do score-wise so I built a stack of Praetorians/Catapults to go beat up the guy in the lead. Since I also shared a border with the grumpy Japanese I made sure to keep several units on key locations along my border in case they wanted to start something. Just enough units to hold off an attack while I built more without having to interupt my offensive push.

 

[siff]

Classical overextension

Siff

 

[Gufnork]

I think your most serious flaw was using war chariots in the medieval era. They're totally outdated. And you're lucky it was Jaguars you met, since they suck. Sure, they don't require Iron, but I might as well use Axemen or Horse Archers if I don't have it.

Did you have low production in your cities? I generally don't worry about this since when I'm at war, my entire empire is concentrated on producing troops. If someone is dumb enough to declare on me while I'm geared up for it, I use my fresh troops to fend off the initial onslaught while I pull back my main attack force (and get a truce with the one I was at war with).

 

[khumak]

My biggest mistake when I'm at war is forgetting to garrison my coastal cities and watching the AI unload a few boatloads of axemen into my empty coastal cities... DOH@!

 

[Mujadaddy]

I think your most serious flaw was using war chariots in the medieval era. They're totally outdated. And you're lucky it was Jaguars you met, since they suck. Sure, they don't require Iron, but I might as well use Axemen or Horse Archers if I don't have it.

That's what I thought when I read the word "Macemen" in the same post as "Chariot" ...

Egypt can TOTALLY do the ancient rush----IF you do it right. Probably shouldn't have razed that first city you captured, first of all... but think about this for a second-----Jaguars cost 40...War Chariots only cost 25... Bottom line? You should have built MANY MANY MANY more War Chariots ...and attacked MUCH earlier.... and not had open borders unless you were spreading a religion... and.... and...

 

[Wlauzon]

Chariots are pretty pitiful actually, I only ever build them to explore because of more moves, if I build them at all. Poor attack and no defense.

 

[Harv72b]

I generally don't worry about this since when I'm at war, my entire empire is concentrated on producing troops. If someone is dumb enough to declare on me while I'm geared up for it, I use my fresh troops to fend off the initial onslaught while I pull back my main attack force (and get a truce with the one I was at war with).

This is exactly why I like to keep several good offensive units in reserve, to guard the homeland. The last thing I want is to have punched through my enemy's border cities and see his last few defended by just a few outdated units each, then have to halt the offensive and sue for peace in order to beat back some other civ that's pillaging my empire.

Pick a couple cities that are strategically (centrally) located along your civilization's borders, and stockpile those with just enough offensive units to beat back a counterattack on their own, without having to watch all your resource tiles being plundered while you helplessly defend your cities. If you really have the time (and economy/production capability), throw a catapult or two into each of your border cities as well, to soften up those stacks the AI likes to march up to your city walls.

 

[quail]

Heheh, I'm trying to the same thing to the AI in my current game. It's me at the bottom of the continent, the Incans in the middle and the Persians on top. I've just bribed my best friends the Incans into going off to fight the Perisans, so that I can sweep in for the kill while their troops are away/dead