Are siege units used in competitive multiplayer?

[Mango201]

I feel like I've mastered early war, but as soon as walls go up I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. Are siege units the answer in competitive multiplayer? If so, can someone post an explanation, or a link to a guide on how to use them?

If not, can someone detail what mid-game conquest of cities looks like? Do you basically just throw melee units at a city and expect to lose some?

 

[CPWimmer]

I don't know about multi-player, but in single player it's all about the battering ram. I would think that the same general rule of thumb applies.

 

[Tabarnak]

Battering rams until the Ren. era. Then Bombard units. Then artillery units.

Rams come obsolete when walls get over 60 strength approximatively. Not that they are completely useless, but to speed up things it's preferably better to get 2 or 3 bombard units to conquer faster.

 

[Pietato]

Rams come obsolete when walls get over 60 strength approximatively.

Really? I thought it was just when Steel was researched. Although there was this one strange case where my ram failed to work against an enemy without Steel...

 

[Disgustipated]

I thought it was just when Steel was researched

My experience is its when steel is researched by the opposing player, not by you. Which makes sense. Only time I've had problems is with Hungary and levied troops. My levied troops did not work with a battering ram, but my own troops were fine.

 

[The googles do nothing]

Build one or two battering rams early. Even if you don't need them right now by the time they are built and out to the front line you probably will need them.

 

[Pietato]

My experience is its when steel is researched by the opposing player, not by you. Which makes sense. Only time I've had problems is with Hungary and levied troops. My levied troops did not work with a battering ram, but my own troops were fine.

Ya, I know. When the enemy has Urban Defenses. But I remember my rams not working against someone without them. Non-levied troops.

 

[S1AL]

Battering Ram is king in multiplayer until you can get at least bombard + general. But the wall changes and map changes really screwed with combat in multiplayer, generally speaking, so now it's rush planes ftw (bombers will eat steel walls with ease, and you can't shoot back without AA, which are awful and come super late and have a bad tech prereq and and and and and just go planes).

To clarify earlier comments, rams do not work against Urban Defenses (a change made... a long time ago, not sure precisely when). Akkad does work, however.

That said, due to how various mechanics work, again, just go planes. If you don't go planes, you need to pillage districts because they give a cumulative city combat boost.

 

[m_mus]

I found that since GS combat against a likewise strong opponent is a bad option for the greater course of the game. Either rush before city walls go up, or wait for bombers and / nuclear weapons. In between it takes hellishly long time to take cities. In our most recent game (online speed), I had 4 artillery corps with promotions firing via drones from safe distance for literally hours, as he had Victor assigned as a governor. The whole war dragged my economy for little gain ... as human opponents will take notice of a sudden increase in military strength, an element of surprise is a rare thing. This is how those rather powerful enemies who need to be stopped, are the worst targets in that period of the game. In the end, me and him exchanged one tiny city as the effect of a mass slaughter that lasted for hours, took down our economy and enabled another player - up until then rather weak - to supersede us and shoot for a SV. We kind of felt as WW1-Europe being overtaken by America.