Defending too easy?

[DaEezT]

In all my Civ3 games so far I found that defending your territory becomes way to easy as soon as your have a decend rail network and with an average of 2,3 workers per city that isn't really hard!
I was attacked by the russians, thanks to their rail network they moved 12 cossacs into my territory(onto 1 square). I then moved all the artillary from my cities(25) to my two frontline cities, bombarded all the cossacs down to 1 hp and finished them off with the infantry i removed from the cities that aren't threatened by the enemy. Especially easy is defending as soon as you get Panzer/Modern Armor! Attack multible times = once per move = 3 times per round on your own rail network!
And with the slow ship movement it becomes even easier. as soon as the enemy declares war it's land units are on you but it's sea units still need a few turns. enough time to move the troops from my costal cities to the frontline, kill some enemies and move them back. perfect strategy with mob. infanry. they have 2 movement points but can only attack once! you move them to the frontline, attack and move them back to the city they are supposed to defend. nothing easier as that!

 

[ACM]

Certainly, however, rough terrain like mountains and hills near your border cities can offer good cover for the enemies. Of course not enough to loose a war, but to loose a few battles (and cities) and take a lot of damage.

 

[aiya]

I agree that it's way too easy for easier levels.

So why not try bumping the difficulty level up, become out teched, and watch the battleships and bombers raze hell on your units and cities while the marines attack and enter your cities from transports. To top it off, paratroopers land and helicopter drop tons of infantry onto your island immediately after fortifying their positions.

Of course, this is the most extreme, as I have yet to encounter. Can someone post if they really got their @ss kicked this badly by the computer? Otherwise, I think something with this scope will require multiplayer.

 

[DaEezT]

the only reason why I didn't bump up the difficulty is beacause there is simply no way to prevent enemy bombers from doing their job. (/me slaps bug)

 

[Peteus]

You find defending becomes really easy when Modern Armour hits the scene? You mean when the defender has MA and the attacker doesn't, I assume?

I disagree! Defending becomes easy when infantry arrives. Attacking comes back in vogue when Tanks make the scene, and becomes very easy with Modern Armour and Radar Artillery. What makes those two particularly effective on the attack is their range - they can move into a typical size-3 culture bubble and attack on the same turn, allowing you to pick off border cities and raze them before the enemy has a chance to respond. And no, the AI isn't as clever about this as an MP human might be. He does do some intelligent stuff (like parking on hills/mountains and advancing with large stacks), but the tactical scope of Civ III goodjob: BTW!) is somewhat beyond him. Still, in the situation DaEezT is describing it sounds like the defense is going well because the agressor is making a hopeless attack! 25 artillery can chew up a lot of cossacks... That same stack on the attack, suitably defended and moving along neutral rails into range of enemy cities and then pulverizing them, would make defense seem a lot dodgier, wouldn't it!

Oh, the sweet thing about all this is that it's pretty true to life! Infantry bring about a period of battlefield stalemate (WWI) which is ended by Tanks (WWII.) I like it!

 

[ACM]

Have you ever heard of conter-attack with modern armour ? It's as efficient as attacking, and your artillery under constant cover (your cities and prepared fortress on chokepoints) can rain hell over the attacking enemy as soon as it gets in range. The slow radar artillery must be escorted and slow down the modern armour, as well as other attacks combos.
Now if you let a dozen modern armour or cossacks come in range of your cities through "neutral rail" then you need some serious thoughts over your battlefields strategy. By letting the enemy come knocking your door, he will surely have a chance to take a city and raze it.
By protecting your rugged terrain and forcing the enemy to expose itself in clear ground you get a serious edge in defending, mainly because of the rail unlimited movement and the retreating capabilities of your fast units(counter-attack again).
Aiya, however, made a good point: if you don't have control of the seas, your rail system is useless, because both air-attacks (invincible because of the bug) and marines landings.