Universe is chaos. Life is balance. Life in Universe and balance in chaos, etcaetera. Not gravity: fluidity. Not therory: prescognition. The deeper art is not about telling something true (science) or even hidding something false (politic) but about making a step in a world which not yet exists. Such an art can't be understood because then it's not art anymore but history. However, it can and should be practiced.
Game start. You have a settler & a warrior/scout - some others girls and/or AI on the board too. There's also one thing you know: they gonna attack you; and one thing they don't: what the battlefield looks like. Don't build defense for your empire. Don't even build an empire. Build an embuscade - and make it looks like an empire.
Defend because it's universaly proven to be the best possible attack strategy - and most ignore it. Attacker needs moves to reach defender, while defender is in place so may start the battle far earlier - and have no excuse if loose. Being on the battlefield, your immediate goal is to dominate it (extenso make units & move them well) - not build silly cottage or feed stupid science theroryst. You'll have all the time for playing simcity once your agressors got taken care of.
As a consequence: settle vigourously in place - better here now than farest later. Tech wisely: one food source, scouts, archers, horses and roads. skip the useless (masonry mysticism potry). charriots in cities, warrior forest & archer hills on border or xp. Scouts xp to medic while revealing 4-8 adjacent squares, Then make them watch diagonals of your cities. Diagonals are where the danger come from - never N/S/E/W (extenso road diagonals - but never outside cultural border). Then - water. Experienced generals may attack by sea - masters often use early amphibious units because move fast is key. If you near sea quickly build few sentry boats and expect naval invasion. In such setting not need to fear land invasion as much because it will most likely come from low level tactician. Knowing irrelevant piece of land has far less value than knowing the land where battle is going to happen - never open frontier. Knowing other units & various tedious details is optional too - just know how you gonna make them fall whatever their number & shape.
Next step is bronze working for counter units - make them usefull by emphase on use of forest & adequate promotion. Long term goals with this strategy are mathematic (fort) and engineering (+1 movement) - then grenadier, cavalry, flying stuff and so on but generally at that point you do what please you because game is virtually over. Note that a well used unit will destroy it's next-age equivalent. Don't hurry, don't upgrade but promote, attach generals and let units have their time of glory then die. Use them as lure is also an option. Matter of fact a little stack of old unit + old general may make you win a war being used this way (gambit).
Very important is positionning in regard of potential move. It means that the important thing in positionning is the possible moves it enable; and that repositionning should be considered each time something change on the board. The worst thing you can do with your units is stack them in towns. Towns are for citizens and carnivals. Horse units are ok there because of the horse being a beautiful quick clever animal. It generaly negate the cavaler. Example: two unit in town = one unit at 1 turn of two towns. It's only an example because fight should never happen in towns.
Some make use of complex venn diagram to find optimal positioning and momentum. Prediction and luck works well too - even throwing a dice or look at clouds if it helps you in this matter. A prediction is absolutely mandatory for this strategy to take place. One can't really transmit relevant knowledge because practice is the only real master. I can give you few practical quick tips but you'll need to know which squares/turns matters to use them well:
- Sentry 2 move unit: 1 turn from city, look for exposed diagonals on land or see. Sentry is the promotion to use after you level flanking 2 units.
- Outdated but promoted 1 move units: promoted for forest, hill or fort (garison) - 1 turn from city, external border. A plane square where fight gonna happen is better used with fort than cottage or farm, especially if river-side; may prebuild few fort and have a workr ready. Generally, you don't put those units where they will defend but where ennemy will pass and split/move them at the last time to force their advance along the chosen (confusing) path.
- Flanking horses (and only them) in cities, prioritize where battle gonna take place.
- Defensive stack (one or several, any size) : interior of your land, but ready to move inside the battle in two turn. Hide your forces as much as possible.
- siege are ok for aestetic purposes which negate the fact they are weak. Note: they're only unit that make sense to be chopped because they are made of woods. Beginners tend to overestimate collateral damages. Look at the composition of any army and reckon that few units only are a threat. collateral damage will mostly weaken the majority made of non dangerous unit while feeding to the few dangerous ones - eventually without scratching them. A clear way to use siege units as an advantage is yet to be find. Some propose to have them on forest green hill and to take few 3/4 high zoom decentred screenshots, then use them at lure. Some other succesfully tricked newcomers by exposing them precisely where they didn't want the battle to happen. However yet another way to trick a newcomers is hardly said to be a valuable advantage.
- try to not have more than 3squares between cities, that is 2 move units can go from one to another in a turn; after engineering you can space cities more thank to incresed movement.
- road every important square: road is x2 movement and movement is definitively what will make you take on attacker.
- forest are a very good tile as long as you deny their advantage to agressor
From there time, slow tech pace and low graph is you ally and will pull your victim to you. Be sure to got as few tech as possible by choosing only what you really need. Same in city: don't build the useless, don't grow on crappy squares. Settling on the battlefield negate part of army cost: use this as a solution to build less cottage and be carefull to not overtech. It doesn't means don't build cottage at all - but they are far from being the priority. Only build money on those squares where nothing important will never happens. Same spirit for specialists: it's ok to have them only if it doesn't make a difference.
With some practice you'll be able to substain war with several armies at a time quite easily. Most of the time let others attacks you and destroy them will provide you enough benefit (promotions, reduce army cost, generals) and cost them enough to make you win the game. However, if attacker is near enough and no other threat is planned for next 20 turns you may want to raze or take a couple of cities, especially if there's an holy city to raze here (make opponent mad enough to play poorly). Such a strategy makes use of oppenent stupidity to slowly create a definitive edge. Most opponen - even (more) AI - will take on the girls/bots you defended against all odds (considering them weak) then on you (considering you equaly weak, but lucky - which's precisely why they'll loose). Once in a while some girl doesn't attack you at all: it's likely a silly builder with no troop and a lot of luck. When you feel safe send her a stack to pillage and raze the capitol she spend 250 turns (epic) to make efficient. When victory is secured it's time to go for any fantasy you love like specialist economy or spies spam; a kind of a bounty.
In hope this helps, have a better game.
Game start. You have a settler & a warrior/scout - some others girls and/or AI on the board too. There's also one thing you know: they gonna attack you; and one thing they don't: what the battlefield looks like. Don't build defense for your empire. Don't even build an empire. Build an embuscade - and make it looks like an empire.
Defend because it's universaly proven to be the best possible attack strategy - and most ignore it. Attacker needs moves to reach defender, while defender is in place so may start the battle far earlier - and have no excuse if loose. Being on the battlefield, your immediate goal is to dominate it (extenso make units & move them well) - not build silly cottage or feed stupid science theroryst. You'll have all the time for playing simcity once your agressors got taken care of.
As a consequence: settle vigourously in place - better here now than farest later. Tech wisely: one food source, scouts, archers, horses and roads. skip the useless (masonry mysticism potry). charriots in cities, warrior forest & archer hills on border or xp. Scouts xp to medic while revealing 4-8 adjacent squares, Then make them watch diagonals of your cities. Diagonals are where the danger come from - never N/S/E/W (extenso road diagonals - but never outside cultural border). Then - water. Experienced generals may attack by sea - masters often use early amphibious units because move fast is key. If you near sea quickly build few sentry boats and expect naval invasion. In such setting not need to fear land invasion as much because it will most likely come from low level tactician. Knowing irrelevant piece of land has far less value than knowing the land where battle is going to happen - never open frontier. Knowing other units & various tedious details is optional too - just know how you gonna make them fall whatever their number & shape.
Next step is bronze working for counter units - make them usefull by emphase on use of forest & adequate promotion. Long term goals with this strategy are mathematic (fort) and engineering (+1 movement) - then grenadier, cavalry, flying stuff and so on but generally at that point you do what please you because game is virtually over. Note that a well used unit will destroy it's next-age equivalent. Don't hurry, don't upgrade but promote, attach generals and let units have their time of glory then die. Use them as lure is also an option. Matter of fact a little stack of old unit + old general may make you win a war being used this way (gambit).
Very important is positionning in regard of potential move. It means that the important thing in positionning is the possible moves it enable; and that repositionning should be considered each time something change on the board. The worst thing you can do with your units is stack them in towns. Towns are for citizens and carnivals. Horse units are ok there because of the horse being a beautiful quick clever animal. It generaly negate the cavaler. Example: two unit in town = one unit at 1 turn of two towns. It's only an example because fight should never happen in towns.
Some make use of complex venn diagram to find optimal positioning and momentum. Prediction and luck works well too - even throwing a dice or look at clouds if it helps you in this matter. A prediction is absolutely mandatory for this strategy to take place. One can't really transmit relevant knowledge because practice is the only real master. I can give you few practical quick tips but you'll need to know which squares/turns matters to use them well:
- Sentry 2 move unit: 1 turn from city, look for exposed diagonals on land or see. Sentry is the promotion to use after you level flanking 2 units.
- Outdated but promoted 1 move units: promoted for forest, hill or fort (garison) - 1 turn from city, external border. A plane square where fight gonna happen is better used with fort than cottage or farm, especially if river-side; may prebuild few fort and have a workr ready. Generally, you don't put those units where they will defend but where ennemy will pass and split/move them at the last time to force their advance along the chosen (confusing) path.
- Flanking horses (and only them) in cities, prioritize where battle gonna take place.
- Defensive stack (one or several, any size) : interior of your land, but ready to move inside the battle in two turn. Hide your forces as much as possible.
- siege are ok for aestetic purposes which negate the fact they are weak. Note: they're only unit that make sense to be chopped because they are made of woods. Beginners tend to overestimate collateral damages. Look at the composition of any army and reckon that few units only are a threat. collateral damage will mostly weaken the majority made of non dangerous unit while feeding to the few dangerous ones - eventually without scratching them. A clear way to use siege units as an advantage is yet to be find. Some propose to have them on forest green hill and to take few 3/4 high zoom decentred screenshots, then use them at lure. Some other succesfully tricked newcomers by exposing them precisely where they didn't want the battle to happen. However yet another way to trick a newcomers is hardly said to be a valuable advantage.
- try to not have more than 3squares between cities, that is 2 move units can go from one to another in a turn; after engineering you can space cities more thank to incresed movement.
- road every important square: road is x2 movement and movement is definitively what will make you take on attacker.
- forest are a very good tile as long as you deny their advantage to agressor
From there time, slow tech pace and low graph is you ally and will pull your victim to you. Be sure to got as few tech as possible by choosing only what you really need. Same in city: don't build the useless, don't grow on crappy squares. Settling on the battlefield negate part of army cost: use this as a solution to build less cottage and be carefull to not overtech. It doesn't means don't build cottage at all - but they are far from being the priority. Only build money on those squares where nothing important will never happens. Same spirit for specialists: it's ok to have them only if it doesn't make a difference.
With some practice you'll be able to substain war with several armies at a time quite easily. Most of the time let others attacks you and destroy them will provide you enough benefit (promotions, reduce army cost, generals) and cost them enough to make you win the game. However, if attacker is near enough and no other threat is planned for next 20 turns you may want to raze or take a couple of cities, especially if there's an holy city to raze here (make opponent mad enough to play poorly). Such a strategy makes use of oppenent stupidity to slowly create a definitive edge. Most opponen - even (more) AI - will take on the girls/bots you defended against all odds (considering them weak) then on you (considering you equaly weak, but lucky - which's precisely why they'll loose). Once in a while some girl doesn't attack you at all: it's likely a silly builder with no troop and a lot of luck. When you feel safe send her a stack to pillage and raze the capitol she spend 250 turns (epic) to make efficient. When victory is secured it's time to go for any fantasy you love like specialist economy or spies spam; a kind of a bounty.
In hope this helps, have a better game.
