Blitz vs March on Melee?

[Montov]

I agree March is better than Blitz, but the best tactical advantage of Blitz is not so much 2 attacks in 1 turn, but the ability to move after the first attack.

 

[snarzberry]

I take Blitz usually for the reason Mad said. If you take Blitz first you will have both Blitz & March sooner than if you go the other way around due to fast exp points.

 

[Pac-Dragon]

I prefer March first, to reduce downtime, but if you go Blitz first the ability to move after attacking can help survivability as well. When you're surrounding a city with Blitz units, it's easy to attack and then swap positions with a unit behind you who then makes a second attack. You still get two attacks per hex, but the damage is distributed between two units. Also gives badly damaged units room to retreat.

 

[slobberinbear]

truly elite players use amphibious and cover

On certain maps, amphibious is very handy. Amphibious Polynesian Maori/swords can attack anywhere. Great for those pesky coastal cities with only one or two land tiles to attack from.

You can make a case for cover, too. The .275 patch AI loves to build ranged and siege units on defense. Try invading the incans and you'll see what I mean.

I agree that shock or drill are more universally useful.

 

[MadDjinn]

On certain maps, amphibious is very handy. Amphibious Polynesian Maori/swords can attack anywhere. Great for those pesky coastal cities with only one or two land tiles to attack from.

You can make a case for cover, too. The .275 patch AI loves to build ranged and siege units on defense. Try invading the incans and you'll see what I mean.

I agree that shock or drill are more universally useful.

don't forget those 1 tile islands... no more need for a huge fleet to beat it down. just amphib the usual choice for city attacks and the penalties are no problem.

 

[bryanw1995]

On certain maps, amphibious is very handy. Amphibious Polynesian Maori/swords can attack anywhere. Great for those pesky coastal cities with only one or two land tiles to attack from.

You can make a case for cover, too. The .275 patch AI loves to build ranged and siege units on defense. Try invading the incans and you'll see what I mean.

I agree that shock or drill are more universally useful.

Yeah, no kidding. I often see him with 15-20 slingers just hangin' out, waiting for somebody to be stupid enough to invade...

 

[vexing]

I take Blitz usually for the reason Mad said. If you take Blitz first you will have both Blitz & March sooner than if you go the other way around due to fast exp points.

i'd generally expect the opposite. compare attacking 2x one round, healing for two rounds to attacking once every round... 50% more exp for march while maintaining same amount of health compared to blitz.

obviously you don't need to heal every point of damage, but you do need 50 exp, so you're going to have to heal at some point(s) with blitz before you get to march

 

[KrikkitTwo]

i'd generally expect the opposite. compare attacking 2x one round, healing for two rounds to attacking once every round... 50% more exp for march while maintaining same amount of health compared to blitz.

obviously you don't need to heal every point of damage, but you do need 50 exp, so you're going to have to heal at some point(s) with blitz before you get to march

The big ability of Blitz is the ability to attack and then retreat to safety in a single round, so your damaged unit isn't in a vulnerable position. I like March, but Blitz is definitely good in a closer situation.

 

[Deau]

Even though I said I usually go march first early, another thing I like about blitz is it makes it very easy to take a city from full to nothing in a single turn. Thus you get the friendly territory healng benefit early and keep going about as fast as a march attack.

This doesn't quite hold if you don't have a significant tech lead

 

[vexing]

The big ability of Blitz is the ability to attack and then retreat to safety in a single round, so your damaged unit isn't in a vulnerable position. I like March, but Blitz is definitely good in a closer situation.

that's a pretty rare situation, unless you're up to mech infantry or such. it's more likely you could take the city with the double attack and gain safety that way through blitz - that's really the main advantage i see.

regardless, i was just proposing that you'll generally get both blitz and march faster by taking march first, and situational usage of blitz to retreat doesn't help blitz getting the 50 requisite exp.

 

[KevinMiles90000]

that's a pretty rare situation, unless you're up to mech infantry or such. it's more likely you could take the city with the double attack and gain safety that way through blitz - that's really the main advantage i see.

Often there are only 2-3 good hexes in which to attack a city. In that case you can attack, and then swap the unit for a less damaged one and attack. Then next turn move the first unit to safety... which kind of bugs me about civ 5 and the one hex per tile which really amounts to more traffic copping than actual tactics.

Tactics should be about flanking, surrounding, feinting, using terrain to your advantage, etc. not playing tetris with your units.

 

[pirsq]

Often there are only 2-3 good hexes in which to attack a city. In that case you can attack, and then swap the unit for a less damaged one and attack. Then next turn move the first unit to safety... which kind of bugs me about civ 5 and the one hex per tile which really amounts to more traffic copping than actual tactics.

Tactics should be about flanking, surrounding, feinting, using terrain to your advantage, etc. not playing tetris with your units.

Well, that's the thing. A city with only 2-3 hexes to attack from should be harder to attack than one which is open on all sides. In the previous system, you just march your stack of doom up to any city that isn't a 1-tile island and it's the same.

 

[SureYouCan]

Good advice, theory, and in some cases conjecture, all around. I guess that's the great thing about the game, a lot of it comes down to "what if". A lot of it comes down to the current conditions in your game. Take America for instance. If you have a marked tech lead with minuteman promoted all the way up to Mech Infantry then going blitz first would lead to a steamroll of everything in a 100 mile radius.

 

[KevinMiles90000]

Well, that's the thing. A city with only 2-3 hexes to attack from should be harder to attack than one which is open on all sides. In the previous system, you just march your stack of doom up to any city that isn't a 1-tile island and it's the same.

Yes I know, but people have this obsession with "choke points" thinking that every single battle in history was like the movie "300". Instances like that in real life were/are very far and few between.