Am I doing combat right?

[eisforeccentric]

I picked up CiV about a month ago and love it. There are some things I don't like, and some things I wish they'd kept from Civ IV, but all in all I really enjoy playing this game.

One of the changes I do like is the 1UPT because it does involve more strategy than just sending a stack of death to conquer enemy cities through sheer force of numbers. However (and I know I'm being a complete noob here), I haven't quite figured out the best strategy for attacking enemy cities. I'm not much of a warmonger, but I do go on the offensive every now and then after beating back an opponent who has DoW'd me. However, I don't think I'm doing things right. I usually send 3-4 ranged units and 3-4 melee units, along with a mounted unit or two, to act as a meat shield (and to switch out with wounded meat shields) and eventually take the city, but i always lose 2-3 ranged units in the process, which grinds my war machine to a halt while I bring reinforcements to the front. Simply infuriating

Am I doing things the right way? I know it's not supposed to be a walk in the park, but it seems like I could be doing things more efficiently. Am I using the right amount of units, and am I approching combat correctly in general? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[MyImmortals]

You take 1 melee + 1 spare and 3 ranged + 1 spare. The spare isnt neccesary its so you dont have to wait to heal and you alternate them between taking over cities.

You bring in your melee for shielding and also for vision, you dont set up ranged behind a hill or walk around their city with it, its just position fire and an exit to safety should be only 1 move.

You always attack with ranged before melee in combat, but with melee infront fortified prefebly in defensive terrain.

A scout with +1vis or a mounted unit is only needed respectively for stealing workers or flanking injured units offensively and defensively. But they can also be used for vision with catapults especially with a +1vis buff.

If you are losing so many units your units arnt strong enough to take the city or dont have vision of their back line and get ambushed.
From attack to cap it should be only 2-3 turns and you gotta send in your units all together so all the ranged are involved in the initial attack if possible, sometimes only 2 can be, if its only 1 then it will have to heal or be swapped out.

In early game, I usually use heal as the 1st promotion as well rather than swapping out.

 

[Magil]

You really need to back your ranged units off as they take damage. A city barrage, even with a ranged unit garrisoned, shouldn't be able to one-hit any of your ranged units. If they can you're too far behind in tech.

Coastal cities are a slightly different story because they can triple-hit you if they have both a ranged unit and a ranged naval unit garrisoned. On the other hand, you should be able to use naval units to help bombard the city.

If you are trying to fight enemy units and cities at the same time--don't. Try to lure them away from their cities. You don't want to fight their army and their cities at the same time unless you have a significant tech lead. You ay that usually you go on the offensive after you get DoW'd, well, make sure you take out as much of their army as possible when they DoW, and chase down and pick off survivors before marching to their cities. Use focus-fire tactics to eliminate units outside of cities if the cities are at full health, in other words, hit softer targets before harder ones. Always retreat units that are damaged such that they can be killed by a double-hit. In this way you should be able to stage an invasion against an enemy at roughly tech parity without many losses. Of course, you need the numbers to cycle in fresh units to replace wounded ones.

 

[Scarpa]

- More ranged/siege, less melee (for the city attack at least, and use siege if possible, save archer lineup for defense)
- Sit back and pick off their units first, pillage strategic resources (if they are using them) and farms (if you intend to puppet)
- Line everything up the turn before hand so on 'attack' turn you can move all of it in at once.
- Rotate out units as they get hit
- G&K in general is harder to take cities, so plan your reinforcements before you attack, you'll need them.

 

[mintcandy]

However, I don't think I'm doing things right. I usually send 3-4 ranged units and 3-4 melee units, along with a mounted unit or two,

I haven't played Gods and Kings yet, but that sounds a bit heavy on the melee side for my preference.

It's usually not necessary to have a one ranged unit to one melee unit ratio...you can get away with a 2-3 ranged unit to 1 melee unit ratio. The melee unit is basically there to prevent enemy melee units from attacking your ranged units.

but i always lose 2-3 ranged units in the process, which grinds my war machine to a halt while I bring reinforcements to the front.

I think it's been said before, but I believe you are being far too aggressive with your ranged units OR your ranged units are two to three techs behind the opposition...or both.

In Civ IV, it was suicide not to finish off enemy units. A similar paradigm exists in Civ V: eliminate enemy units outside of cities before weakening city defenses. Also, if an enemy city starts to target your ranged units, move them away QUICKLY. You want enemy cities targeting your melee meat shields, not your ranged units.

Any unit you use to lay siege to an enemy city should be capable of withstanding at LEAST a turn of counter fire from the enemy city. If your units are incapable of doing so, it means that you haven't been keeping your front line army up to date with technological advances.

Losing two to three units on average per city is abysmal....losing two to three RANGED units per city is even worse.

 

[CaptainKapow]

Cover promotion on siege units greatly extends their lifetime.

Try to get at least 2 (preferably 3+) siege units into range at the same time so you still get some shots in even if they are taking hits from the city guns.

If the city you are attacking can't be hit by more than one siege at a time because of line of fire restrictions you should reconsider your attack until you have artillery or a technological advantage.

If the target city is coastal, bring ships if possible. A combined attack from multiple sides will rapidly take even powerful cities.

Losing some units when attacking a superior foe is fine as long as you have a steady war machine and you are making progress against them.

Do not be afraid to attack a city with your melee units if it will let you capture a turn earlier.

 

[Syntax Error]

You'll need a lot of ranged units to whittle down cities AND at least one melee unit to finish the job and actually capture the city. In the classical Era, you can capture cities with CB's (Composite Bowmen) and a melee of your choice. Some civs are better at early conquest than others. IIRC, Keshiks (Mongols) and Camel Archers (Arabs) can move after attacking, allowing them to take potshots at cities while making sure they are not hit themselves.

 

[eisforeccentric]

A big thank you to everyone for the tips. They have already paid dividends. I knew it had to be an issue with my army composition, and by simply replacing several melee units with ranged and siege, conquest is going much more quickly. I also wasn't pillaging resources or using the Cover promotion (instead I would try to beeline towards March via Drill), and by following both strategies I'm seeing my units last longer. Of course, you all knew this would happen, but it's still exhilarating for me to see a few simple choices make a big difference in my army's performance.

To clarify a few things, I'm playing as Russia on King on a standard Continents map. My continent has Napoleon, Haile Selaisse, Elizabeth, and William, and the other continent has Monty and Darius (the Babylonians also spawned right by Monty, which didn't end well for them ). I'm about up to par techwise with the French and the Ethiopians (Monty also took it to the Persians, which severely hampered their early science; no idea what was going on over there). On my last save I finished Steam Power. I'm on good terms with the Dutch and Ethiopians, not so much with France and England.

Like I mentioned in my original post, I've been able to hold off their (Napoleon and Lizzy's) advances against me, but I had been having difficulty attacking them. Since reading your suggestions, I've taken Paris (had a little help from a Dutch crossbow that Napoleon somehow let sneak in by itself - the AI really is funky) and a couple smaller French cities, so I don't think he's not too much of a threat anymore, especially since he's almost to Steam Power, his army is a shell of its former self, and he's still at war with William and me. England is an entirely different story, since she's got the southern third of the continent to herself. She has naval superiority and her main cities are well placed on peninsulas where I even if I could get enough forces down there, they'd be sitting ducks for her ranged units, especially with the +1 range from her units that were originally longbows.

I think conquest is out of the question in this game; I'll probably just take the advice you all gave me and sit on it while I try for a science or diplomatic victory. Thank you all again!

 

[Profanity]

In that case, Lizzy is probably making loads of cash, keep an eye on the city states or the devil woman might grab a diplomatic victory if you happen to be a little short on money when the UN vote commences.