scooblerboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 51
every time i start a war i seem to loose, and i allways have a big army, someone help me before i explode!
how do i win wars?
- Thread starter scooblerboy
- Start date
The strategy depends on which age you are in:
Acient
Setup 2-3 groups of 10-15 archers/swordmens (if archers, make sure you tag along with a few spearsmen) at the emeny border with each group target at a different city. Declare war and attack simultaneousely. Send reforcement to stationed at the newly captured cities launch another attack as soon as you have 10-15 fully healed units available to attack. NEVER attack with less than 5.
Medieval
This is difficult: using knights with 4 attack against pikemen with 3 defence (and bonus against mounted units and 50% bonus for +7 size cities) is too costly. I would rather use longbowmen with a few pikemen as escorts (if I really want a war). The alternative is to build tons of knights get military tradition ASAP, do cheap upgrade to cavalries. Use similar offensive strategy as acient time
Early Industrial
Ton of cavalries will do the trick. Just make sure to claim as many cities as possible before seeing too many riflemen. They are too fast to have escorts to attack but make sure have a few riflemen to protect the frontline cities from emeny's cavalries. A group of 10 to attack will do (if not then they are obsoleted). Revolt is a major problem. I like to raze them but just can't crank out settlers fast enough.
Mid Industrial
Artillery and Infantry combo: slow but effective. By now all of the cities should be connected by railroads so this helps a lot. Group 20-30 artilleries and 5-10 infanties as one and bomb them until all defending units are red (size down to 6 or lower would be nice too). If down to only 2-3 infantries and still can't capture the city then bring in the cavalries. I never have enough time to build a second group because by the time I get my 40th artillery I should have the tech for the tanks.
Late Industrial
If you are smart enough not to finish off the last civ you have defeated it is time to use it! As soon as you have the tech to build tanks, mobilize your civ to build nothing but tanks. When you have enough (40?) attack that weak leftover civ and switch back to peacetime. Station your troops carefully with 2-3 groups of 10-15 tanks and attack simultaneously. Revolt and warwariness is a major problem.
Modern
MA's and Armies are all you need to attack; to withstand counterattack, use armies of MI's. Conquer the world before boredom kicks in.
Acient
Setup 2-3 groups of 10-15 archers/swordmens (if archers, make sure you tag along with a few spearsmen) at the emeny border with each group target at a different city. Declare war and attack simultaneousely. Send reforcement to stationed at the newly captured cities launch another attack as soon as you have 10-15 fully healed units available to attack. NEVER attack with less than 5.
Medieval
This is difficult: using knights with 4 attack against pikemen with 3 defence (and bonus against mounted units and 50% bonus for +7 size cities) is too costly. I would rather use longbowmen with a few pikemen as escorts (if I really want a war). The alternative is to build tons of knights get military tradition ASAP, do cheap upgrade to cavalries. Use similar offensive strategy as acient time
Early Industrial
Ton of cavalries will do the trick. Just make sure to claim as many cities as possible before seeing too many riflemen. They are too fast to have escorts to attack but make sure have a few riflemen to protect the frontline cities from emeny's cavalries. A group of 10 to attack will do (if not then they are obsoleted). Revolt is a major problem. I like to raze them but just can't crank out settlers fast enough.
Mid Industrial
Artillery and Infantry combo: slow but effective. By now all of the cities should be connected by railroads so this helps a lot. Group 20-30 artilleries and 5-10 infanties as one and bomb them until all defending units are red (size down to 6 or lower would be nice too). If down to only 2-3 infantries and still can't capture the city then bring in the cavalries. I never have enough time to build a second group because by the time I get my 40th artillery I should have the tech for the tanks.
Late Industrial
If you are smart enough not to finish off the last civ you have defeated it is time to use it! As soon as you have the tech to build tanks, mobilize your civ to build nothing but tanks. When you have enough (40?) attack that weak leftover civ and switch back to peacetime. Station your troops carefully with 2-3 groups of 10-15 tanks and attack simultaneously. Revolt and warwariness is a major problem.
Modern
MA's and Armies are all you need to attack; to withstand counterattack, use armies of MI's. Conquer the world before boredom kicks in.
scooblerboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 51
thanks for the tip, now i should win all my wars
I like to attack early because AIs spend most of their early game making settlers and so their cities are not well defended. Comparing the best offensive and definsive units of each era, the swordsmen vs spearmen battles are clearly baised toward the swordsmen (without the size 7+ bonus and mounted unit bonus) and they have the longevity (the success rate against the pikemen is the same as the knights). Horsemen are good for nothing!
MAS
Deity
Make catapults, not only are they ACtually of some use when used in large (many ppl underestemate them) staks. But they can be upgraded, a better way to get way more than 40 artillary before tanks doesn't exist.
1) plan your war ahead
2) don't just mess arount, calculate your chances and movement points needed, etc.
3) build a good economy, war is a battle of economy's nothing else!
4) make sure you safe up a large pile of gold before going to war, you never know when you need to rush something
5) transport: road and railroad your empire, you will sometimes even have to bring workers to your enemy's territory to make those improvements on your way.
6) destroy your opponents economy, use explorers to pillage roads on resources, and that connect to their capital! They are cheap so it doesn't matter if you lose them! nothing wrong making 20 explorers before you start a war!
7) check the battlefield, investigate city's, steal plans, or just simply do a terrain info on a city to make sure it isn't build on a hill.
8) don't attack over a river, walk arount the city and attack from the other way!
9) movement again, quickly move your units on the defensive ground to prevent having to kill units that the AI moves on those tiles!
10) nothing wrong with some distractions to devide enemy forces!
11) planning ahead again, make sure your enemy doesn't trade with anyone and make sure he doesn't make a big pact against you with the other AI.
12) Most importandly, read how other ppl play the game in the succesion games forum. Or read Sirians Great library ! I learned a lot from reading how Sirian play's his games! He rock's
1) plan your war ahead
2) don't just mess arount, calculate your chances and movement points needed, etc.
3) build a good economy, war is a battle of economy's nothing else!
4) make sure you safe up a large pile of gold before going to war, you never know when you need to rush something
5) transport: road and railroad your empire, you will sometimes even have to bring workers to your enemy's territory to make those improvements on your way.
6) destroy your opponents economy, use explorers to pillage roads on resources, and that connect to their capital! They are cheap so it doesn't matter if you lose them! nothing wrong making 20 explorers before you start a war!
7) check the battlefield, investigate city's, steal plans, or just simply do a terrain info on a city to make sure it isn't build on a hill.
8) don't attack over a river, walk arount the city and attack from the other way!
9) movement again, quickly move your units on the defensive ground to prevent having to kill units that the AI moves on those tiles!
10) nothing wrong with some distractions to devide enemy forces!
11) planning ahead again, make sure your enemy doesn't trade with anyone and make sure he doesn't make a big pact against you with the other AI.
12) Most importandly, read how other ppl play the game in the succesion games forum. Or read Sirians Great library ! I learned a lot from reading how Sirian play's his games! He rock's
Mephisto
perma-banned
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2002
- Messages
- 635
hades, actually i was replying to scooblerboy. 
i am not a big fan of catapult, & never built them. but i love stacks of artillery, and catapult is upgradable. so i don't mind it either.
the fact that artillery move slowly is usually mitigated by railroad in later stage...., no such solution for catapult.
i am not a big fan of catapult, & never built them. but i love stacks of artillery, and catapult is upgradable. so i don't mind it either.
the fact that artillery move slowly is usually mitigated by railroad in later stage...., no such solution for catapult.
scooblerboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 51
i use lots of catapults too, and i allways make tons of spearman since there upgadeable
scooblerboy,
Hades makes a fine rough outline for you to get started with. However, that's far from being the final truth, and once your at a certain skill level you also need to stop thinking in formulas; personally I don't amass such huge forces in the early game (3 x 15 attackers?!?) to fight my wars, as the right combat tactics let you win with much less.
I suggest you take a close look at this strategy lesson from the War Academy, it's a detailed description of an early campaign against a very strong civ, designed for the less experienced to learn from:
http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/japan_campaign/
Plus many other articles in the War Academy, they will be of immense help to you if you have the patience to go through them.
Hades makes a fine rough outline for you to get started with. However, that's far from being the final truth, and once your at a certain skill level you also need to stop thinking in formulas; personally I don't amass such huge forces in the early game (3 x 15 attackers?!?) to fight my wars, as the right combat tactics let you win with much less.
I suggest you take a close look at this strategy lesson from the War Academy, it's a detailed description of an early campaign against a very strong civ, designed for the less experienced to learn from:
http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/cracker/japan_campaign/
Plus many other articles in the War Academy, they will be of immense help to you if you have the patience to go through them.
That strategy works very well especially in early game, here are the benefits:
1. Reduce the chance of having other civ's declare war on you throughout the game (3*15 will get you to the of the power chart)
2. If you think you have too many, you can stop producing anytime during the war. Having an adequate number of units will shorten the duration on the war considerably, hence get the goody peace deal quickly.
3. When the war is finished you can immediately go to your next victim with little planing.
As for how I pay for this.... I don't do research until industrial age.
1. Reduce the chance of having other civ's declare war on you throughout the game (3*15 will get you to the of the power chart)
2. If you think you have too many, you can stop producing anytime during the war. Having an adequate number of units will shorten the duration on the war considerably, hence get the goody peace deal quickly.
3. When the war is finished you can immediately go to your next victim with little planing.
As for how I pay for this.... I don't do research until industrial age.
scooblerboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 51
ive just started playing at monarch what are the changes when you go up to that level?
I picked up those tactics when I started playing monarch. You can do some research if you want, try build a great library but max out your research toward literarcy from the start. Do not neglect your military production.
scooblerboy
Chieftain
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2002
- Messages
- 51
hmm, i still cant seem to win at monarch level, i guess i just need more practice!
Chingis Khan
Scourge Of The World
If you are having trouble taking out an enemy AI civ then the best and easiest way is to recruit some help! Pay whatever you have to to get another civ to declare war on your enemy. When the AI gets attacked on two fronts, it gets hopelessly confused and you should have no problems taking city after city. Hope this helps!
MAS
Deity
scooblerboy, go to this site and read how Sirian play's his games!
http://sirian.warpcore.org/civ3/chronicles.html
He discribes his moves in great detail and also why he does what he does!
And don't get used to getting the GL in every game!
