Best thing to kill a fortified spearman

[The Art of War]

It is 450 A.D. and I'm the english. I need to take St. Petersburg, but I can't defeat these two fortified spearmen, what is the best unit to use against them?

 

[Dutchman]

This depends on how far you are in the tech-tree, but if you have Knights it should be easy, or if you don't have knights use swordmen and horseman, and build some catapults to bring them down to 1 hitpoint then it should be easy! And build Barracks so your units will be Veteran!!

Good luck!

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

make sure that you don`t attack across a river, too.

 

[Jason Fox]

Mostly I just concede that I'm going to lose a few men taking the city and make sure I have enough of them to do that. As long as I expect to lose badly it doesn't get to me as much. I've given up 8 or 9 archers to take out 2 conscript (they're elite by the time I kill them) spearman. Somehow I feel better about losing archers than other units.

Catapults are hardly worth it, IMHO. Although I'm a huge arty fan later in the game and for defense any time, offensive strikes with catapults are tedious, you need to bring a ton of them to ensure damage to units before attacking and you ruin the city first, destroying improvements and killing population. When it's just a few defenders and I really want/need the city I'll bite the bullet and take the loses.

Swordsmen rarely do well against dug in spearman for me. I'd rather save them for fighting in the open, but that may just be me.

 

[Fanny Brice]

I'd bring a force of:

* a few Catapults (hoping for the lucky shot to bring down their walls or knock a few hit points. Not essential.)

* then go in with horsemen or knights... since they have possibility to retreat. (If enemy is a militaristic civ, I might not use horsemen since you don't want to give the spearmen a promotion to "vet" or "elite")

* then pile on with swordmen/archers (it is win or die for them)


Think "seige." You want to build up a force big enough to win... and occupy and defend against counterattacks. You will take loses. Don't attack with only 3-4 guys since you will probably lose and end up giving the spearmen a promotion. 6 to 8 units should be plenty.

If you are building up a force, fortify your units on his best shield producing squares so it takes him longer to build more units. Block roads so he can't sneak in extra units.... and you may even cut off his luxuries causing the city to riot and stopping all production. Don't go crazy and destroy too many improvements outside the city since it sounds like you intend to occupy it.

 

[Woody1]

Originally posted by Jason Fox
I've given up 8 or 9 archers to take out 2 conscript (they're elite by the time I kill them) spearman.

Just how did you manage to encounter 2 conscript spearmen? That's only possible if they were found by goody huts. Do spearmen even come out of goody huts?

I think you're lying.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by Woody1


Just how did you manage to encounter 2 conscript spearmen? That's only possible if they were found by goody huts. Do spearmen even come out of goody huts?

I think you're lying.

strong words, Woody1! But I guess Fanny Brice meant "regular", not "conscript", just mixing up the levels...... better be nice when someone says something that probably is just a mixup. Otherwise you end up on the mods "bad guy" list pretty fast..... - just a hint.....

edit: sorry, it wasn`t Fanny Brice, it was Jason Fox. Thanx for pointing that out, Fanny

 

[Fanny Brice]

It wasn't me that said "conscript."

But I agree... Woody 1's comment was completely out of line.

 

[Woody1]

Originally posted by Fanny Brice
It wasn't me that said "conscript."

But I agree... Woody 1's comment was completely out of line.

??? Why was it out of line? If it's possible for the AI to defend with conscript spearmen, then I apologize. That's what I was asking. However, unless someone can explain how conscript spearmen appear, then it's clear he's lying.

You can't draft spearmen. The lowest unit you can draft is a rifleman (no resources required). I don't think goody huts give out spearmen, but I could be wrong. Am I?

 

[Mozenwrath]

Nope, only "skilled" warriors come out of huts. Obviously, you can only conscript riflemen up (nationalism) but can the AI even conscript at all. I don't think I've ever come across any conscripts bar warriors...???

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Woody1


??? Why was it out of line? If it's possible for the AI to defend with conscript spearmen, then I apologize. That's what I was asking. However, unless someone can explain how conscript spearmen appear, then it's clear he's lying.

You can't draft spearmen. The lowest unit you can draft is a rifleman (no resources required). I don't think goody huts give out spearmen, but I could be wrong. Am I?

Dude. Be nice. There is a difference between lying and making a mistake.

 

[BillChin]

Any stack of ten units will do fine. My preference is something like:
2 Horsemen
6 Swordsmen
1 Spearman
1 catapult

Should be a piece of cake. If you have two stacks of ten, you can probably take all their cities, not just one. If no iron, and/or no horses, archers are ok. If you already have resources, it might be worth it to wait until you have enough firepower to take all their cities. If you need the city to get iron or horse, attack when you have ten units.

You can probably take the city easily with four or five units, but that can lead to a messy war. The game is much easier when a player attacks in force with the intent to kill the enemy (or most of their cities), instead of planning to take one city at a time.

 

[FirstNoel]

Originally posted by Mozenwrath
Nope, only "skilled" warriors come out of huts. Obviously, you can only conscript riflemen up (nationalism) but can the AI even conscript at all. I don't think I've ever come across any conscripts bar warriors...???

I ran into some AI conscripts in my current game.

After conquering a Zulu city some of the citizens complaining about the draft...I wasn't drafting, so it could only have been the Zulus. But that is the first time I ran into it. My guess is they only draft in desperate situations...the zulus were getting pounded from all sides.


Sean D.

 

[Aeson]

The first 1.17f patch that was released had the wrong civ3mod.bic file. I think any unit could come out of a goody hut, thats why people where getting armies. It's possible that he is playing with that bugged version of the patch, or with a similarly modified bic file. And I have gotten a conscript Horseman from a hut once.

 

[Zachriel]

The disadvantage of using ground troops is that the defenders get better at anticipating your tactics, i.e. they become elite, or perhaps even get a Great Leader.

Catapults to weaken them first, then attack.

 

[Buecephalus]

I wasn't aware that you could get GL's from defending. Has that happened to anyone? The only time I ever get great leaders is when I'm victorious while attacking.

On the other hand, I could be lying.

Back to the actual topic: I've always had great success with swordsmen against spearmen. 2-3 veteran swordsmen almost always take out 2 fortified spearmen in my experience. Although (and I could be imagining this) it seems as though the swordsmen are more successful when attacking on flat ground (grassland,plains,tundra) than attacking from mountains or hills.
At least it appears that way to me.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Buecephalus
I wasn't aware that you could get GL's from defending. Has that happened to anyone? The only time I ever get great leaders is when I'm victorious while attacking.

You can definately get leaders while defending, but the AI often kills them before your turn.

 

[Jason Fox]

To Woody - They were regular, my mistake. I don't know why you'd assume I was lying, though. Or even why I'd have a reason to. I'm not here to impress anyone, I just like talking about Civ3.

I've also gotten leaders from defending but never in a city and I have never gotten to use one before they are killed.

 

[Special_O]

I'd use a bunch of archers or swordsmen on em. If they won't die, try attacking from another square, since civ3 is buggy like that.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Special_O
I'd use a bunch of archers or swordsmen on em. If they won't die, try attacking from another square, since civ3 is buggy like that.

What a constructive reply. Elephant!