[GS] Am I misusing Alexander?

[Arraz]

Hello !

After having a lot of fun playing cultural & science victories, I ve tried to do something new that I usually dont really like : Playing domination.

I ve tried a few games, most of which I ve stopped at ~T150. There were 2 "types" of games as far as I could see :

Either the closest neighbour has a bad a start. In which case I can devour his whole empire by the medieval era. I then just stabilize and expand & it becomes a sci/cult victory. I have also tried to keep warring around but it (almost) always failed. As the other civs had the time to develop in peace, my empire tend to be in a very bad shape comparatively (even if bigger and with a higher potential) and I end up lacking any form of military advantages. (the Deity AI simply has the edge...)

Or (the other case) the closest neighbour has a good start. The guy sets up walls & a good army prior to my attack and I manage to get a few cities (2 or 3 maybe a few more when I m lucky) after which I cant really do anything anymore.

The walls deal more than half of my catapults' hps. So playing with knights + catapults isnt exactly possible....
To be honest I ve even wondered if there was any point in having catapults to begin with? (I had a few of them each game. They are squishy, focused by the AI and cant hit without getting hit in return....)
Playing swordsmen + battering rams seemed to work much better. But it only works during the classical. During the medieval, the walls get much sturdier and I cant go through them anymore. In my last game I ve managed to take a city in the medieval but it took an aweful lot of time and I did so with crossbowmen. (at least they can hold for 2 (or many more with the 3rd promotion) hits before dying!)

During the renaissance, it's even worse, if we are technologically close to each other, even with a whole army vs one single unit, there's no real way of getting the city. Bombards do not deal enough damages. 2 Bombards cant get down a wall without getting killed.

So I think I m doing something (or many things?) wrong.
So here I am looking for advices. Thx in advance.

 

[enKage]

Are we talking about Macedon? You don't want catapults, because there is no card to speed them up and Alkex gratly benefits from those policy cards. And when your unique swordsman has bonus against district and you are pretty guaranteed early great general, building cats is a waste of time.

Later era you just buy sieges. Constant war = pillaging mines = free gold

 

[Arraz]

Are we talking about Macedon? You don't want catapults, because there is no card to speed them up and Alkex gratly benefits from those policy cards. And when your unique swordsman has bonus against district and you are pretty guaranteed early great general, building cats is a waste of time

Sure but at the medieval, it's already too late to destroy walls using the unique swordsmen... So how do we do that?

 

[Victoria]

So here I am looking for advices.

It is not just about attack. It is about science. You have to get campuses and get your science growing very fast.
On deity now early attacks have to be either faster, luckier or more organised. Some civs get walls early but many do not, most civs get xbows quite early now and that I find more of a surprise, just what turn will they appear is what I ask myself now. And because xbows are so good the only real counters are xbows, knights or muskets and of the 3 xbows is faster to get... once again... get that science going

The walls deal more than half of my catapults' hps

Take some non upgraded warriors, the wall will target them rather than the catapult. They can take a hit or even 2 if promoted.

 

[enKage]

Sure but at the medieval, it's already too late to destroy walls using the unique swordsmen... So how do we do that?

pillage mines, buy sieges.

 

[Victoria]

As above, wether a ram or a tower, both do the job well.

 

[Arraz]

pillage mines, buy sieges.

Why mines?

 

[Arraz]

It is not just about attack. It is about science. You have to get campuses and get your science growing very fast.
On deity now early attacks have to be either faster, luckier or more organised. Some civs get walls early but many do not, most civs get xbows quite early now and that I find more of a surprise, just what turn will they appear is what I ask myself now. And because xbows are so good the only real counters are xbows, knights or muskets and of the 3 xbows is faster to get... once again... get that science going


Take some non upgraded warriors, the wall will target them rather than the catapult. They can take a hit or even 2 if promoted.

Thanks for the advice ! I get what I have to do.

 

[enKage]

Why mines?

because pillaging mines gives gold and you want gold to buy sieges. And mines are more common than CH and harbours

 

[Arraz]

because pillaging mines gives gold and you want gold to buy sieges. And mines are more common than CH and harbours

I understand. Thanks !

 

[Lily_Lancer]

It is not just about attack. It is about science. You have to get campuses and get your science growing very fast.
On deity now early attacks have to be either faster, luckier or more organised. Some civs get walls early but many do not, most civs get xbows quite early now and that I find more of a surprise, just what turn will they appear is what I ask myself now. And because xbows are so good the only real counters are xbows, knights or muskets and of the 3 xbows is faster to get... once again... get that science going


Take some non upgraded warriors, the wall will target them rather than the catapult. They can take a hit or even 2 if promoted.

Twilight Valor-ed Horseman with a GG. Good Counter if your enemy only have crossbow or only have walls.

If he has both then you may need some better armies.

 

[pkaem]

I find more of a surprise, just what turn will they appear

Exactly this. "rushing" feels like a gamble right now. Either you gamble on iron, or on walls. If you don't have access to iron you are behind, because here you could have 1 - 3 campuses instead. The horse route is better planable but requires the enemy to not have walls. In any case you need to be quick, on deity I saw xbows on t55. They hard counter any early attack. Nitre seems more reliable, but there are times you don't even have this. In any case, attacks with muskets, knights and xbows do a much more reliable work, mostly because they have a bunch of campuses in the back, aswell as more card slots for production and raid. I'm not willing to give up on the classic republic legacy card

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Exactly this. "rushing" feels like a gamble right now. Either you gamble on iron, or on walls. If you don't have access to iron you are behind, because here you could have 1 - 3 campuses instead. The horse route is better planable but requires the enemy to not have walls. In any case you need to be quick, on deity I saw xbows on t55. They hard counter any early attack. Nitre seems more reliable, but there are times you don't even have this. In any case, attacks with muskets, knights and xbows do a much more reliable work, mostly because they have a bunch of campuses in the back, aswell as more card slots for production and raid. I'm not willing to give up on the classic republic legacy card

No you can actually take down those walled cities cause horseman are actually of 46 strength if you combine Twilight Valor and GG.

Only when you face xbow and walls you may be turned down.

 

[Victoria]

The main issue with getting horsemen for twilight valour is the era points for building horsemen, that barb camp next to my capital I destroy and that wonder I accidentally found along with the 3 civs That met me and I was first to settle the continent on a flood plain.
Horses and dark age, you cannot guarantee to get either but if you get both and can get there with horses early enough you can take the cities. It’s a good strategy but not a guaranteed one. I used it with Tomyris and it worked wonderfully the first time I tried....

 

[pkaem]

No you can actually take down those walled cities cause horseman are actually of 46 strength if you combine Twilight Valor and GG.

Only when you face xbow and walls you may be turned down.

This maybe right but you still gamble on the availability of horse and dark age. Also you'll build an encampment. If anything goes wrong here you can hand your game to the can. All I wanted to say that there are no reliable rush tactics with abstract and general gurantee to sucsess.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

This maybe right but you still gamble on the availability of horse and dark age. Also you'll build an encampment. If anything goes wrong here you can hand your game to the can. All I wanted to say that there are no reliable rush tactics with abstract and general gurantee to sucsess.

Yes this strategy does not apply to all status.
No strategy applies to all status.
However, there are many different strategies and there's almost always at least one that suits the situation.

What you're saying is basically "any single strategy is not reliable"
Keep in mind that there exist different strategies for different situations, so there almost always have a reliable strategy (not always the same strategy) to rush.

 

[Civ Chemist]

Even without twilight valor you can get 46 CS hetairoi. Remember that they get an additional +5 CS if adjacent to a general. If you have horses I would go straight for horseback riding (before iron working). By killing some units you can get a great general quite easily. If the AI has already crossbows try to bait them with a builder (or even a great general if you don't have a builder). They almost always go for it

 

[Askia Muhammad]

Its worth pointing out, and I want to make sure you know, as of the last patch battering rams have no effect on Medieval or Renaissance walls. Siege towers also lose their effectiveness after Medieval walls.

That's likely what caused you so much trouble on the other city.

 

[Bitterman]

Catapults are horrible though.

They have no fast-build bonus, they are slow, they are bad vs. units, they can't shoot after moving and they are extremely squishy, specially against walls, which is ironic because they are theoretically designed to destroy them. Then they take forever to upgrade to bombards, which honestly aren't that good against renaissance walls, but still much better than catas.

The only way to get some value is placing at least 3 of them in city's walls reach in the same turn, so they can shoot at the same time before one is killed (one will be killed 99% of the time). If at least they were cheap...

 

[Civ Chemist]

they can't shoot after moving

If they are in range of a great general they can move and shoot on the same turn. In general siege units can move and shoot on the same turn if the start with more than 2 movement, e.g from general, logistics but also from Chandra's war of territorial expansion or Cyrus' surprise war.

In general if you are going for a horseman rush strategy take the first cities with walls asap and pillage everything that gives gold. Then you can purchase a few catapults on the frontline and with the general boost take down walls pretty quickly.