Battles - Bad luck or ..

[Cromag]

am I missing something? I'll admit I'm a Civ Newbie but I finally sat down and really read the manual after a few games and thought I might actually fair better now. I was pretty sure I had read some things in there about getting defensive bonuses based on terrain type and units fortified in a city as well. I was just playing on my first Regent level game and the Zulus and Germans sure seemed like they hadn't read those pages.......

Their Vet Cav against my city fortified Vet Cav, they attack and I'm losing nearly every single battle. Same thing happened to a few units I had positioned on a hill and were attacked from grassland. I was thinking that with evenly matched troops the one in a defensive position would have a better than 50% win rate. It sure doesn't seem that way so far...

 

[Zouave]

This is hardly the first thread on this topic.

There are many valid complaints about Civ III but combat resolution is not high on my list, even though it is not perfect by any means.

Somewhere on this site is a thread that supplies a combat resolution calculator thing. Use that and see how the results should be.

 

[Ren]

I fell your pain, but more so in Civ 2, as I haven't surpassed Chieftain in Civ 3

 

[Ironikinit]

http://www.columbia.edu/~sdc2002/civulator.html

The combat calculator.

Fight enough battles and you'll see odd results.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Cromag
Their Vet Cav against my city fortified Vet Cav, they attack and I'm losing nearly every single battle.

Of course. Cav are not good on defense. Use a few rifle or infantry for defense. When attacking, bring up the rear with foot soldiers to hold the ground you fought so dear to obtain.

http://www.crowncity.net/civ3/Infantry.htm

 

[Cromag]

I was missing something after all Thanks for the quick response and links, I was really starting to get frustrated. I was neglecting my foot soldier line trying to use Cav for offense and defense. After reading Zach's post and a doing a few number crunches on the combat calculator I'm anxious to try again with some defensive troops in the mix.

 

[Zachriel]

Cavalry are not particularly good on defense*, but there is a great story of the use of Cavalry for defense during the battle of Gettysburg.

Buford's cavalry was the first Union forces on the scene at Gettysburg, and saw that the Confederate infantry was entering the area and would obviously attempt to establish positions on the high ground. Buford dismounted his cavalry, and established a defense in depth**. The Confederates were fooled into believing that Union infantry was already in Gettysburg! To counter, the Confederate infantry took time to form battle lines -- contrary to specific orders to avoid combat.

If they had known, the Confederates could have just swept Buford's forces away. Instead, Buford's bold gambit allowed time for Union reinforcements to arrive.


* Cavalry units are too small in number and too vulnerable to concentrated gunfire to successfully attack riflemen. They work best when they keep moving; that is, attacking isolated enemy units, reconnaissance, or interfering with enemy movements and logistics.

** Fighting on one line, then falling back to a prepared secondary or tertiary defense in order to delay the enemy.

Buford, pictured here, always muttered to himself, a habit he picked up out in the lonely spaces of the American West.

 

[Ripley]

Originally posted by Zachriel


http://www.crowncity.net/civ3/Infantry.htm

Nice site.