Getting used to CIV4, army questions:

[Dr. Zaius]

1. what are the best civics for an all out, take-on-the-world military?
2. catapults/cannons/artillery: bombard or attack? which do you prefer?
3. naval battle, what's the point?
4. friendly AI keeps converting religions/selling secrets to enemy, which should i kill first, the "friendly" advanced civ selling secrets, or the lame, expansive 15 city civ?
5. is there a way to leave your own city in exchange for settlers like in civ3 vanilla?
6. sneak attack or massive world war with allies?
7. upgrading archers->long bowmen: is it worth the money and time?
8. is it possible to get bombers to bomb enemy units within thier range, and if not, why?
finally, one i've been tinkering with for a good 4 days here:
1 massive force of more than 20 units in 1 group, or many smaller groups attacking multiple cities at once?

 

[Sir Toma]

1. Theocracy and Vassalage
2. I usually bombard the city first untill it has less than 10% and then send in a few catapults on suicide missions
3. i don't know. The only thing i use a navy for is to transport troops/settlers
4. The really weak one. You can also try to get your "ally" to also declare war on them.
7. From archers to longbowman it doesn't cost that much and only takes 1 turn. If you have alot of money or have warmongering neighbours then i would upgrade them
9. It depends. If the enemy has a sort of line of cities then just keep going from one end to the other dropping off a few units to garrison each city along the way. But if their empire is really spread out then split your forces.

Hope this helps

 

[Mujadaddy]

1. XP and Production and minimal cost --- in that order, with whatever tech level you have.

2. Both. I've had LOTS of success with stacks of 4-6 attackers and 6 siege engines per city. The problems I've had are keeping enough garrison units for the unending line of cities I "enlighten" to my Civilization. Bombard to zero. Attack with six City Raider siege engines for the collateral damage. Mop up with the attacking units. (just keep making siege engines and garrison---those four-six attackers will last the entire campaign)

3. Same as in real life (except for raiding commercial shipping, but, hey) -- control the seas and you don't have to worry about reinforcements by sea.

4. Situational. If I can knock off number 1, then I don't need to bother with number 6. In Civ4, more cities = more expenses, so...

5. No.

6. I'm the kind of player that doesn't like to share. The planet. At all. So, that would be sneak attack. If that doesn't work, THEN I get some help. THEN I betray my allies

7. If you have the money, it's worth the time. I never have the money though...I just keep the archers AND build longbowmen.

8. I think you can bomb roads & mines, but I think the cities are the only way to affect units. Why? Ummm, probably because the turns are long and the bombing missions are conceptually set up long in advance, whereas units in the field can move 150 yards and be in the spot you didn't bomb.

"9" ... "1 massive force of more than 20 units in 1 group" No. Collateral damage can wound everything in the stack. There are 8 squares around a city. Spread out. "many smaller groups attacking multiple cities at once?" If you can afford it? Yes, with the caveat that the smallest "smaller" should get is "enough to take (the) city in ONE turn."

 

[dar]

8. I think you can bomb roads & mines, but I think the cities are the only way to affect units. Why? Ummm, probably because the turns are long and the bombing missions are conceptually set up long in advance, whereas units in the field can move 150 yards and be in the spot you didn't bomb.

You can bomb units in the field as well, although bombers can never bring a unit below 50% strength.

 

[panasonic]

well, wut i do is to destroy strong civs, i get protection pacts etc from their neighbours. then i piss the strong civ off by asking them to give me rediculous things. theyll get furious w/ me and declare war. then therell be a world war scenario and i move in for the kill

 

[duezeone]

1. theocracy and vassalage
2. bombard, then attack
3. when you get carriers you will want other ships protecting them or you will find out the hard way if youre playing on high difficulties
4. In this case I would just go with whoever is closest
5. i dont think so
6. i would rather have a world war because that way you have others struggling economy wise too so then you have more room for a bigger military without falling too much behind in tech
7. i usually just keep them and if the city seems to be coming under attack soon i will upgrade before the enemy reaches the city but you can also select like border cities and upgrade those and just build a powerful offense which should be able to keep other units off your back
8. im not sure what youre asking

it depends on the defense of the city, i usually will have like 4 artillery and 4 offensive units and that usually does the job, but if i see the city is on a hill or has walls i will move in more units.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

1. Theocracy, Vassalage AND Police State (probably also State Property with Workshops and Watermills for maximum productivity)

 

[picus]

I actually like controlling the sea early. A lot of the CIVs like to settle on the coast which means a lot of fishing boats I can pillage and bombardment I can do later, while saving my bombers/fighters for stack weakening duty.

 

[Mujadaddy]

You can bomb units in the field as well, although bombers can never bring a unit below 50% strength.

Ah! Thank you. I don't have a lot of late-game experience

 

[panasonic]

i play on archipelogo maps, so a stong navy is essentiel. i always bombard liek crazy to lower the defense and use bombers to make the enemy units weaker. that way my invasion can be more quick since i dont have to keep on rebuilding my army. also the civics previously mentioned are very important if u r playin harder difficulties, since the ai will use it as well

 

[Dr. Zaius]

usually when i have the large-ass army, i have around 4 stacks, so i can cut off settlers and people wanting to pillage my cities, so it's more versitile and not all on one stack the giant army seems to be the best bet. thanks for all the info fellers, im now kickin ass in the monarch level with warriors and archers XD