How big is your garrison?

[Buecephalus]

I was reading a thread on a different topic (monarchy) and someone wrote that a good advantage was being able to keep citizens happy w/ only 3 troops in each city. Is this a good number? I have always kept only two defensive units in each city. Does having more than that make happiness easier to maintain? If so, my early game would probably go smoother. Let me know what you think.



"do or do not, there is no try."

 

[Ohwell]

Me? In my border cities I will keep 5 defensive units, 3 bombard units, and when flight is researched, 2 interceptors, as well as several other mandatory bombers, and offensive units.

 

[Dark Sheer]

No fixed rules for me on the number of units. If the one next door is weak I keep 2 defender/1 attacker/1 bombardment in every city I have. Of course with flight 1 intercepter/1 bomber

If the AI next door is pretty ok then I will up it to 4 defender/2 attacker sometimes. On the frontline then its different. Newly captured city will have 6-8 defender with hordes of attacker ready to pounce the next target. I generally keep at least 1 reserve Army at home and the rest spread on the frontline. Maybe thats because sometime I like battle on multiple fronts

I usually keep a force of about 250 during industrial and up them to 400 or more during modern even during peace time

 

[LayZMan]

Garrisons depend on what I'm doing. During peace times it is at least 3 per city (2 defensive + 1 mobile offensive). During war I might move some of my men from the interior off to war (unless they're producing a happy face, then I leave them. If the guy next door has a large empire of his own, then chances are they have a large military to back it up and will throw the kitchen sink at you if you don't keep those cities well protected. Main reason you have a mobile offensive in there instead of ordinary pierce infantry is to pick off an isolated/wounded enemy in your territory and return to the safety of home. On border cities an aditional offensive/mobile unit might be desired to kill off the annoying pillaging stack (usually a couple defenders and maybe some offensive unit).

 

[FullofHoles]

If I own an island and my enemies will be forced to make sea-borne attacks, I do not garrison my cities at all. I just keep a few OFFENSIVE troops at strategic places.

My only needs of a garrison in that scenario is if I am using a government that allows me to repress my own citizens.

 

[BillChin]

Depends on your style of play. In the early game, two units are good for the Despot military police effect. When I shift to attack mode, I often move some of these units to the front line to bolster the defense there. Once I am to Republic (Monarchy isn't worth it) and have destroyed a couple of opponents, I often leave cities empty. I have a couple of mobile units that can quickly respond to any threats. Barbarians are gone and any ship landing usually only involves two to four enemies.

Border cities get all the units and the best defense is a strong offense, so again actually garrison units are usually one or two. This is important if there danger of culture flipping the city. You lose the entire garrison, so what I do is place troops outside the city to retake it in case of flips.

So where do all the units go? To attack formations near the enemy. Huge stacks of ten, twenty or more. Attack hard, attack fast, attack with overwhelming force. When defending, make them pay a heavy price. A catapult or artillery inside the city is good for softening up units that venture near a city. A damaged unit has little chance attacking a fortified defender. Station mobile units as pickets so they retreat into the city when hit. The computer rarely attacks with mobile units in high numbers so the pickets minimize casualties.

I keep a mobile reserve to respond to emergencies, but large garrisons are not needed for the aggressive style that I play. I am playing Emperor difficulty, random civ, standard size map. Think about this, if you garrison three units in every city and you have twenty cities that is 60 units. Think of the damage 40 units massed into huge stacks can do on offensive and you see where I am coming from.

 

[Zant]

I normally have 2 or 3 def units per city plus one artillery unit. I normally stack my offensive units in my central border city depending on who I'm intending to attack next

At the end of the game I normally have a total of about 250-350 units.

 

[Cantankerous]

Buecephalus:

As far as troops maintaining happiness of your citizens, this is only effective with Depotism, Monarchy, and Communism. With any other form of government, one or one-thousand troops make no difference regarding citizen happiness.

One troop in a city will make one person content, but depending on the type of government determines HOW MANY citizens will be effected by this technique:

Depotism: max 2
Monarchy: max 3
Communisim: max 4
Republic: zero
Democracy: zero

The TYPE of troop is not relevant (a stone-age warrior is just as effective as a tank in this regard), but bombard unit (catapults, cannons, artillery), naval units, and aircraft DO NOT count as garrison troops for this effect.

 

[History_Buff]

I keep two in every city in a democracy. As for borders. . . just fight your way to a good mountain range, build fortresses, and put 2 or 3 good defenders, a bombard unit, and a ZOC unit. Then build pointless cities behind the range, build airports in them and name then Airbase 1, Airbase 2 etc. Can you guess what thier for????

Or use jungles, or simply fight them off your continent.