frightening Armies

[thamis]

Hi!

I have noticed that the AI is very, very, very reluctant to attack armies unless they have less than 5 hit points left. This way I can take a whole bunch of units and march right into the middle of the enemy territory (to their capital, that is). I just create one army consisting of defensive units and put all my aggressive units "below" it. I just walk into their territory and all their units will move out of my way! Cool.

I think you can use this for many other things. I once put my artillery below an army and walked through the heartlands of my worst rival. I just bombed away all his improvements and all his cities back into stone age...

It's also a good defence for border cities (especially if they guard an entry to your lands).

Nice!

 

[Jimcat]

Congratulations, you've discovered the efficient way to use Armies. I was just going to post something like this myself.

I used to create "offensive" armies of Cavalry or Tanks. Quite formidable on the attack, and they almost always win if not severely wounded, but they can only destroy one enemy unit per turn! And tank armies are even worse -- they lose the ability to attack multiple times per turn. A stack of three or four tanks is more effective than a tank army any day.

Now, to get the most out of your armies, make them from Riflemen, Infantry, or Mech. Inf. An Infantry army is almost unkillable before Tanks come on the scene, and the AI won't even try. So, as Thamis noted, stack your Artillery with it and go on a rampage! Follow up with Cavalry (or Tanks if you have 'em) to assault the cities and pick off enemy stragglers in the open. But you don't even necessarily need them. I find that a good pile of Infantry and Artillery, including at least one Infantry Army, makes a damned-near unstoppable fighting force. Send one out to capture the Oil if you're caught without it.

If you get an army early enough in the game, try an army of Swordsmen. Their good balance of offense and defense will let the army effectively penetrate into enemy territory (ideally with a couple of Catapults along for the fun).

 

[Jason Fox]

I've had occassion to really appreciate offensive armies. Recently had a rival city that I wanted as intact as I could get it but it was wedged between two mountains and on a hill, protected with Mech Inf. It took an army (three elite tanks) from 15 to 4 hp before I took it out. Fortunately the rest of the cities defense were older units. But had I attacked with a stack of tanks I would have lost at least two, probably more since they fired artillery with every new attack. This way the army rested in the city, regrouped and I had lost nothing.

 

[thamis]

True. Right now I'm playing a big war against the Greeks (I am superpower 1 and the greeks are superpower 2) and their cities are well defended for this age (musketeers). I always attack with cavalry and lose so many units. Except for the armies, they're surviving. They're also good for holding a newly captured city. You take it with the army and place it in the city. The enemy won't attack the city at all...

 

[Mesopotamia]

Actually, if you use an army to attack a city, it will continue to attack with as many attacks as it has remaining until victory or defeat, or the attacks are used up. Eg., if it's a 4-unit modern armor army, it will attack the city up to 8 times in one round. This means you could potentially defeat 8 units at once. This happened to me when I had a 3-unit modern armor army and attacked an English city that was defended by 7 spearmen. I won the battle.

I bet it works the same way vs. stacks.

 

[Jimcat]

Er, I'm going to have to verify this by experiment. I thought that armies couldn't attack multiple times, even if all their component units had multiple-attack capabilities.

 

[Furry Spatula]

Armies cant attack numerous times. What happens is the units in the army all attack, and when one unit looses most of its HP then the second one takes over.

Thus, armies are only useful if you need to take out a strong point with a superior defender. I just use the army to attack first and hopefuly take out the strongest AI defender and then use my normal units for the rest.

 

[brianboru]

That bit about the AI avoiding strong armies is interesting. I agree with the comments that offensive armies are of questionable value. The main value in an army is that units don't die if their attack fails. Fast units already survive failed attacks by retreating. Also, a 3 stack army of cavalry gets only one attack, instead of 3. They're only really useful if the enemy has a powerful defensive unit thats impossible to kill. Another point is not to put elite units in an army. veterans in an army can upgrade to elites but those elites cannot create new armies.

has anybody tried putting together an army of longbows? That would create a high powered attack unit of longbows that could actually survive?

 

[loki]

Originally posted by brianboru
has anybody tried putting together an army of longbows? That would create a high powered attack unit of longbows that could actually survive?

Are you an AI? You seem to have the same questionnable love for the longbow as the AI

Seriously, I use armies of infantry myself, the AI will never attack them. Plus, they quell A LOT of resisters pert turn.

I also used an army of elite cavalry once, fortified in a city, to hold against AI's most beloved strategy, the horseman (knight, cavalry...) rush! I may have killed something like 20 horsemen in a single turn.
This probably belongs to another thread, but has anyone ever seen the AI using something else than horseman rush and coastal improvement bombarding frigates strategies ???

loki

 

[Joben]

In my current game i had a knight army. i was fighting the americans.
while my other units fought on their borders i just moved my army up deap into their land and set it on a mountain on top of their only sourse of iron.
then i found the city the iron was adjacent too was lightly defended so i just took that. lolz i captured a size 12 tacticaly important city in the middle of their empire without any effort.

btw about longbowmen IMHO opinion the defence of one is unrelistic and makes them far too vulnerable. So i uped it to 2 and gave all bow units in the game zone of control.