Early Game City Defences
- Thread starter KBJ500
- Start date
stinkubus
Emperor
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2016
- Messages
- 1,845
Build an army. Static defense is a waste of production. If you get attacked go kill those units before they can get close to your cities. With a little planning and common sense you can build your empire in such a way as to minimize the number of directions that danger can come from, and you'll find that you can leave huge swaths of your land undefended as there's no possibility of an attack force ever getting there.
There are a few things you can do to play a defensive game well.
To do defense well you should understand city strength. City Strength depends a lot on the strongest unit you have. For example if you have 1 swordsmen which is at 35 strength. the city strength of any city without a swordsmen will be minus 10 strength (or 25 strength). If you place a full health swordsmen in a city center. That city strength will be the same strength as that swordsmen (at 35 strength). City Strength also increases with the amount of districts you have built for the city and you capital has "palace guards".
See here for more information here on city strength.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/city-strength.619428/
Anyway I had a few games online where I knew my opponent would attack me. One of my latest success was against a Rome player. One of Rome favorite tactics is to do an early legion rush. I was Egypt by the way. I settled a city about 10 tiles from their city. I Immediately started building walls. At the same time since I knew an attack was inevitable I went after government policy Bastions. This policy increases city strength +6 and Range attacks by wall by +5. Then they declared war on me. I immediately I upgraded my warrior to a swordsmen. 2 turns later my walls finished and the civic Defensive Tactics finished researching for Bastions. This had an immediate effect and slowed down his ability to capture my city. I was then able to successfully send reinforcements and rebuff his attacks.
Other strategies you can try to increase city strength is to go for great generals that can either create corps or create strong unit in the early game. A corp unit has plus 10 strength of the original. Having a corp swordsmen in your city would increase its defense to 45 Strength!! Or getting a great general that can turn into a knight (48 strength) early game would make your all your cities nearly impervious in the early game. I had games where my opponent got an early knight. This immediately stopped my attack and put me on the defensive.
Other strategy to consider is to go religion and get Defender of the Faith.
Hope this has been helpful to you.
To do defense well you should understand city strength. City Strength depends a lot on the strongest unit you have. For example if you have 1 swordsmen which is at 35 strength. the city strength of any city without a swordsmen will be minus 10 strength (or 25 strength). If you place a full health swordsmen in a city center. That city strength will be the same strength as that swordsmen (at 35 strength). City Strength also increases with the amount of districts you have built for the city and you capital has "palace guards".
See here for more information here on city strength.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/city-strength.619428/
Anyway I had a few games online where I knew my opponent would attack me. One of my latest success was against a Rome player. One of Rome favorite tactics is to do an early legion rush. I was Egypt by the way. I settled a city about 10 tiles from their city. I Immediately started building walls. At the same time since I knew an attack was inevitable I went after government policy Bastions. This policy increases city strength +6 and Range attacks by wall by +5. Then they declared war on me. I immediately I upgraded my warrior to a swordsmen. 2 turns later my walls finished and the civic Defensive Tactics finished researching for Bastions. This had an immediate effect and slowed down his ability to capture my city. I was then able to successfully send reinforcements and rebuff his attacks.
Other strategies you can try to increase city strength is to go for great generals that can either create corps or create strong unit in the early game. A corp unit has plus 10 strength of the original. Having a corp swordsmen in your city would increase its defense to 45 Strength!! Or getting a great general that can turn into a knight (48 strength) early game would make your all your cities nearly impervious in the early game. I had games where my opponent got an early knight. This immediately stopped my attack and put me on the defensive.
Other strategy to consider is to go religion and get Defender of the Faith.
Hope this has been helpful to you.
Last edited:
I admit that you could be correct. It depends on the your game needs though.
I had games online where we agreed to no great general stacking. So when we got a second great general using their abilities is a wise thing to do.
Or if you have very few units in the early game facing a hord of classical units, an early knight can shut down the attack by itself.
Everything I say is just a suggestion...
I had games online where we agreed to no great general stacking. So when we got a second great general using their abilities is a wise thing to do.
Or if you have very few units in the early game facing a hord of classical units, an early knight can shut down the attack by itself.
Everything I say is just a suggestion...
Last edited:
stinkubus
Emperor
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2016
- Messages
- 1,845
Understood, and I was assuming SP. MP is a different animal entirely. In SP the extra movement alone is almost too good to pass up although I have burned El Cid for the early corps a time or two, and I've retired Gustavus Adolphus upon earning him for the free bombard.
It probably depends in part on your difficulty level. If you are on deity walls will become essential. When the AI gets to knights they have a habit of gathering a large army of 5 or 6 knights and swarming your closest city with a surprise attack. If you have walls and one or two xbows, you can easily take them all out. If no walls, you will be dead quickly.
Similar threads
