How big of an army/navy do you build?

[uncle bulgaria]

Usually a seige unit in each city with archer/CB etc as back up and at least as many melee units as cities. I try to ensure I'm at least top 3 in soldiers in the demographics which on my difficulty levels is usually enough to ward off aggressors.

Currently got a game going a Babylon with Germany next door, he's out and out military leader but I'm floating between 2nd and 3rd. I carelessly got hemmed in by a crazy Russian expansion so only have 3 cities but I'm destroying the AI in science so trying for that win. Allied myself with Germany, just joined him in a war to keep on his good side. I could probably hold him off if he invaded me as i've just got dynamite. Lacking aluminium is a definite worry at the moment but we've just joint DoW'd against the Aztecs who have a juicy 8 aluminium source in their capital so I'm hoping to nab that.

 

[b7fanatix]

Luck must play a part - I've seen some "Let's plays" where the guy spams 4 or 5 tiny cities with no walls and only 2 military units total and somehow his neighbours leave him alone. Maybe because it was BNW... good luck with that in Vanilla!

I don't think you can build a large enough army to deter every warmonger and still be ahead in science. I've started to learn that city placement counts more for your ability to hold than your army. I like to be on a hill next to a river, preferably with a mountain (failing that, another hill) at my back. If I'm in a tough neighborhood , a crossbow garrison, with an adjoining fort occupied by a pikeman, with "faith healers" on each city is the way to go. Don't think the AI is capable of taking a city with any force when 3 of the approach axes involve a river crossing, the city itself has walls and is on a hill, and one of the axes is blocked by the fort.

Of course since i go mega tall and often build just 2 cities by turn 100, this means the AI thinks i have a small army and i end up in a continuous defensive war. Just had a game where Sweden was at war with me for 4000 years. They got wiped out, but wouldn't take peace because i'm "too weak", they'd build and come again, while my ranged units gain promotions.. Eventually i built some artillery and went after him with +range +logistics gatling guns. Now I have 6 cities, but only 2 were built by me..

 

[Xiao Xiong]

I build one. Two if my scout doesn't promote, or gets killed. I promote my warrior. That gives me three units hanging out in the city I expect the AI to attack, one ranged and two melee. I like the AI to think I am weak and pathetic so that they send all their units my way to be wiped out.

I will advance down honour with this set up and try to keep enough cash on hand that I can buy a couple more units when the attack comes. So I am not as weak as I look. Ideally I also have a barracks and heroic epic so when the ai attacks I am pumping out strong units.

I prefer to keep my units "in cash" until I actually need them, in case I have to buy in a different city, and so they don't cost maintenance.

When I want to start attacking I try to build four range, three melee, and a couple of siege. If it will be a long war I pump out more units, but if you let the AI attack, and waste all its units, that force is good enough to get the counter attack started.

I sometimes build scouts as rodeo clowns, they run in to take the ranged hits, so that the ai won't hit the units I care about. I love when the ai kills my scout, leaving my trebs to take another strip off his capital. You can also fortify a scout on a hill in the path of an incoming attack. You see the attack coming earlier and when they dow they get distracted by the scout while I pump out cb's.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

With BNW I definitely need a couple of archers much earlier. First time I've had a Barbarian Horseman swoop within reach of my borders. Seeing a Worker close by made me panic a bit. One per city seems to be a good rule.

 

[NukeAJS]

Besides the first 40 turns, I don't find it that difficult to keep up a large military (for the time period).

I usually build a horse archer or two and a horseman for barb duty and then sink the rest into spears/swords and composites. I usually find catapults to only be useful for cannon fodder and I rarely bother. This usually translates into a good, solid "division" as you call it. Although, I always try to add horsemen if possible. Their skirmishing ability/ability to take a 1HP city from four tiles away is too useful to ignore. Gets me thinking of companion cavalry ...

Early game navy is pointless. Although when galleases come out, they are great for defending and it's nice that they can upgrade to frigates. As England, I always build several galleases and start something just to get them experience. That being said, if the map conditions are right, caravels/galleases can easily swipe weak island cities -- usually because they were just founded.

For late game navy, I usually go with battleships and subs with a destroyer or two thrown in for good measure. Battleships hit the shores, subs sink navy, destroyers take cities/find the enemy subs.

So to answer your question -- basically as much as my GPT will allow. I don't press my GPT limit close to 0 though, I like having a nice reserve of cash I can spend for odds and ends like founding a city and immediately buying a worker ... stuff like that.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Interesting reading the replies and I believe it highlights differing styles and situations.

I am not a warmonger. I play on small continents or continents plus, so eventually a navy of some sort is required.

Usually I keep a ranged unit in every city and maybe a horseman or other mobile unit to deal with barbarians (I play with raging barbs). To a large extent Oligarchy takes care of unit maintenance costs.

As for a navy, I keep a few frigates around- again helpful with barbs on isolated islands- and to protect trade routes. I head for refrigeration as soon as I can to build a fleet of submarines which I deploy as wolfpacks of three or so.

Air force - just enough for protection. At this time I should have sufficient manufacturing capacity to build fighters pretty quickly.

Of course, the early game would be different if I am sharing a border with a very aggressive Civilization.

 

[thereter]

Similar to OP: I will have 5 divisions of 1 siege and 2 cavalry/tanks each. Depending on how many fronts of warfare I am fighting, I will group them together or send them to different parts of my empire. If I start to get in a pickle, I will buy/build some infantry to soak up enemy damage.

 

[dexters]

Army I keep adding until I'm in the top 3 ranks. Having a few Military CS ally/friend is great in this regard as it frees up production for other things!

Navy I build as needed.

I admit I don't pay as much attention to it as I need to. I just lost 2 of my cargo ships to barbs just now!

 

[Bibor]

I guess it depends on difficulty and the number of aggressive civs around you. My minimum is 3 units per city (1 ranged garrison, 1 horseman, 1 melee/other).

 

[TomKQT]

I don't build military units for a LOOOOONG time. My second military unit (after the first free warrior) usually is a navy unit made for exploration. And it even can be directly caravel...
Only sometimes I make an archer or a siege weapon. One.

When I see that somebody is clearly going to attack me, I may make some more units (very few). I usually get the biggest army when I already am at war - and I buy them mostly for gold.

This game is quite easy to defend if you're clever, so you don't need many units for defense. And if you have few units, they get ranks quickly and become very strong (+1 range and 2 attacks for ranged, healing every turn for melee etc.).

 

[radster_X]

In the ancient era, I'll build 2-3 archers to protect my cities, and upgrade those to composite bowmen. Once I get iron working, I build 2 swordsmen and upgrade the free warrior. Depending if I need to go offensive, I'll build some catapults as well. Those do pretty well until the industrial era, by which time I may just start building more infantry and cannons.

As for navy, I build 2 triremes and upgrade them into caravels, and 3 frigates. Navy expanded as and when necessary.

 

[cpm4001]

An army? What's that?
Unless I meet and befriend a Militaristic City-State, I usually only have my original warrior and one archer garrisoned in each of my cities until at least the Renaissance Era.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

Emperor/Immortal player.

Classical/Medieval/Renaissance/early Industrial
1 ranged unit per city, upgraded to crossbowman ASAP
2 mounted for barb defense/scouting. 2 scouts for scouting. 2 triremes (later caravels) for scouting.
1 seige upgraded to cannon.

Industrial and later
Upgrade all XBs to Gats.
1 artillery per city I plan to conquer.
2-3 cavalry with medic or sight promos
3-4 Melees upgraded with Cover or medic promos
3-4 Battleships ASAP, use 2 caravels to grab cities after brought to 0 health.
AS MANY BOMBERS AS I HAVE OIL. (Plus 1 triplane for every 4-5 bombers)
as many nukes as I have uranium

 

[dexters]

It's very interesting how some people approach their army building. New insights to how people approach military organization.

I feel inadequate in comparison as I tend to prefer a rapid reaction core force in the early game then build out from there, not keeping to any specific ratio or formulas.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

It's very interesting how some people approach their army building. New insights to how people approach military organization.

I feel inadequate in comparison as I tend to prefer a rapid reaction core force in the early game then build out from there, not keeping to any specific ratio or formulas.

I also build my force according to need, most games just tend to have the same needs.

Scouting/ranged defense early, low-risk attacks (air/artillery/Battleships) late.

 

[Zezima]

BNW has, in my experience, made wars more predictable since AIs are less recklessly aggressive.

I primarily play epic standard emperor continents. I don't build anything except my scout until CBs. The maintenance and upgrade cost on archers is just not worth it in the brief very early game, unless I'm really getting hammered by barbs or something.

At classical its 1-2 melee and 2-5 CBs, depending on the need to defend or eliminate a close neighbor. No siege yet. My real military effort begins with crossbows, after my NC is up, Unis are staffed and I have 3-4 nice cities as a foundation. Then it's anywhere in the neighborhood of 4-9 crossbows, 2-3 melee, maybe a siege or two if the terrain permits, and a horse if I really can spare the production. Successful wars are about attrition, not overwhelming force. I strive to lose no units, play defensively by letting the enemy come to me, and seize the opportunity to capture when they are spent and my forces are vets. Fewer resilient units means my empire can prioritize infrastructure while my army expands the borders.

At renaissance, this army will last till gats. I like to rush buy a caravel or two to explore. Frigates are off my tech path in most games and +range xbows are more versatile. Upgrade to gats ASAP and beeline plastics. Even if the enemy outnumbers you 4:1 a single infantry properly utilizing terrain advantage will make rifles and even GWI cry.

Don't bother with airforce until fighters and by the time I am feeling the need for frigates I've probably hit the tech for battleships. 1-2 subs if there is a serious naval threat, all that is needed. Airforce is used mostly as interception while the army mops up landlocked cities and navy frees up some of their time by taking coastal ones.

I'm mostly an agreeable but expansion loving player. I don't take kindly to people hogging nearby land. If someone is friendly to me I am happy to make DoFs, trades, RAs, denounce their enemies, and maybe even support them in the world congress if I am unlikely to host. I like the idea of forming alliances. Otherwise they are likely to get eaten up in my eventual conquest of the world. Also anyone who terrorizes CSes gets an immediate target from me.

 

[Teaf]

Enough to rival the biggest threat near me. I never bother with a Navy unless I'm on small islands or archipelago. Might just chuck a few subs out to boost military score.

 

[manu-fan]

As I get rolling, by the mid game, my army/navy consists of:

3 Ranged (e.g. Crossbow)
3 Melee (e.g. Musketman)
2 Mounted (e.g. Knight) and maybe 1 or 2 specialty mounted (e.g. Lancer)
5 Ranged weapons (e.g. Cannon)

5 Ranged ships (e.g Frigate)
4 Regular ships (e.g. Caravel)

Every time one dies, I replace it. So I keep this pretty much for the duration. I play on Continents, so I always need a navy.

Cheers.

 

[Carmack]

I like to speak softly and carry a big stick. My armies are typically # 1-3 rank in the world, #1 as often as I can manage. I don't like to be shoved around and when somebody like Germany or Shaka shove me, I shove back.

 

[arand86]

I tend to play with an unorthodox army which imo may be the reason I can compete with immortal/deity but also may be the reason I can't get extremely proficient with the difficulties.

On high difficulties (Deity especially but immortal as well), I find it much easier to camp on a couple cities and use a civ with good benefits when doing so. Siam is a great example.

I Often sit on perhaps a couple ranged units and a couple melee units I build myself, and whatever citystates give me. Then, I proceed to ally all CS adjacent to my borders. City states provide a suprisingly good defense to invasions given that the AI not only has to march an army through it (which is extremely difficult) but it tends to like to attack and try to capture the city state as well, using tons of units.

with warmongering out of the question, I normally don't need many units.