Attacking Renaissance Walls

[Mango201]

How do you do it?

Battering rams and siege towers don't work. Which leaves you with:

1. Bombards: Let's say you're attacking a moderately well defended city e.g. a one district city on a hill fortified with a Musketman. The city has a defensive CS of 76 (base 55 + 3 for hill + 4 from the district + 9 from wall defense + 5 from palace guard*) to your bombards CS 55 so if I've understood the damage formula correctly your bombard is dealing a pathetic ~13 damage... Even a Bombard Corps with a Great General only get you to CS 70 which gives you ~23 damage per shot - so it would take one bombard ~17 turns (probably a little less because the damage starts snowballing at some point as the wall loses health) or 3 bombards ~5 turns to knock out 400 HP of wall. This starts to look doable, but you really need everything to break your way.
2. Frigates - same CS as bombards but with a 50% penalty for not being siege damage.

* Can someone explain the palace guard defensive bonus to me? The fandom city combat wiki seems to suggest this is only applied when attacking a capital but I see it on non-capital cities all the time.

 

[Archon_Wing]

The palace guards buff also shows up if they have Victor and he has other abilities that makes taking it harder.

That's why you usually have to threaten 2 cities so they can't just easily move him around

And yea I don't war during this era if I don't have to, unless I have stuff like Crusade or a military alliance.

 

[Mahi]

Unless I can do it with frigates I just don't bother before I get flight and use observation baloons. From there I usually end up waiting to get Bombers really.

 

[Linklite]

I usually attack cities with 3 siege weapons. So long as they're up-to-date and my infantry/cavalry can keep the units at bay, that's pretty much fine. The siege weapons are able to take down the walls before they get a chance to take out a siege weapon. Still, sometimes that period just before you upgrade your siege weapons can force a breather.

 

[aieeegrunt]

Its the magical city strikes that is the real issue.

 

[Buktu]

Even a Bombard Corps with a Great General only get you to CS 70 which gives you ~23 damage per shot - so it would take one bombard ~17 turns (probably a little less because the damage starts snowballing at some point as the wall loses health) or 3 bombards ~5 turns to knock out 400 HP of wall.

Once you get your bombards to level 2 you can take the +10 against district defenses which is a nice boost to around 35 damage per shot in your scenario (and +50% in general). Also renaissance walls "just" have 300 HP not 400, 400 are the steel ones. So level up your units and bring 3 to 4 to kill the walls in around 3 turns (ofc there is some randomness in every shot).

Or

just don't bother before [you] get flight and use observation baloons.

 

[Socrates99]

If I dont have a few upgraded bombards (3 with the shells promotion works quick enough imo) I'll wait til flight. That's when dom really goes into warp speed.

During the renaissance my favorite thing is light cavalry with depredation. Pillage yields are so so so nice.

 

[iammaxhailme]

once the renaissance walls go up is about when i abandon the idea of conquering anything that isn't right next to my land until I have actual bomber planes

 

[Laurana Kanan]

Moderator Action: Moved to Strategy & Tips. ~ LK

 

[The Highwayman]

I dealt with this very thing in a Gaul game last night. Ren walls with mountains and hilly terrain proved to be a challenge when paired with Deity bonus. 4 bombard corps with Line Infantry and Cuirassier corps and a GG took the cap down once surrounded after a few turns. Ren walls really do their job as they make teching and Nationalism that much more important. If bombard corps still won't do the trick, then you must decide if you can get to artillery/tanks fast enough or if you should divert to flight/advanced flight. I know the feeling though: cruising with Riflemen and siege towers and the like and then all of a sudden you can't touch a city. Makes the timing pushes all the more critical.

 

[Victoria]

I deal with this fairly often.
By the time of Ren. Walls you should be way ahead in science and be +10 to +20 which makes the difference, your bombards should not be bombards for long, artillery and a GG and a spy normally do.
It is all about having a science advantage.

 

[Stacked_Deck]

Ren walls generally appear laaate into the Ren era, so it should only be a small gap between when they appear and when you can roll out artillery.

If my science game is going poorly then it's a good time to focus on my economy and do some pillaging to get things back on track.

 

[Socrates99]

Ren walls generally appear laaate into the Ren era, so it should only be a small gap between when they appear and when you can roll out artillery.

If my science game is going poorly then it's a good time to focus on my economy and do some pillaging to get things back on track.

Lots of cavalry with depredation makes me a happy camper in those situations

 

[Civilopedian]

Once you get to Medieval it's time to go mad on science and culture to get to Corps, Balloons and Supply Convoys as quickly as possible and commercial hub every city to get the gold to support them. Also build a bunch of Trebuchets to upgrade to Bombards

In the mean time you have Beowulf potentially to remove any city defender and really if you are going with just 1 Bombard you're doing it wrong.

 

[PiR]

How do you do it?

I wait for artillery, sadly.

 

[Socrates99]

I wait for artillery, sadly.

or flight. You really just need your bombards out of range. Balloons are awesome.

 

[PiR]

Agree, but I feel bombards are too slow to take those walls down... 1 or 2 artillery, not even armies can do it much faster.