How do you overcome the Great Wall?

[CivAddict2013]

Hello. I'm wondering, how do you overcome the great wall? I would like to know.

No matter what I do, I can't seem to ever capture Civs with the Great Wall.

For instance, in my last name, Napoleon had the Great Wall around France, with a big army guarding it.

I too had a big army of the same units surrounding him.

I attacked it him; but because he has the Great Wall + the Great General in the capital, his units get a defensive bonus.

But eventually, despite the defense bonus, I got around his army.

Now, there are 5 Riflemen left surrounding the city. But since he has the Great Wall, they barely do any damage.

How can you combat the great wall? It seems I can throw a massive army of the most advanced units at the city and it won't do anything to it.

Should I just rush the Great Wall or something?

 

[scheva007]

the great wall doesnt give a defensive bonus, it slows down troops.

 

[lymond]

Citadels can really help on the tougher cities like the capital with lots of culture.

However, I won't slam my units at a city if it is surrounded by units. I'll pick them off first. Let them come to you and whittle down his army to nothing. You'll get more GGs anyway for citadels.

If France doesn't border you then take a weak city first so that you have your culture adjacent to his to throw down citadels.

 

[joshua43214]

The great wall does not give any defensive of combat bonus, it only slows down troop movement, which is a nightmare on its own.

If your not doing any damage, its because he has upgraded units and probably fortification bonus.

To make matters worse, if he put up castles and has a high pop (Paris always will be really high), his city alone will pancake cannons in a single shot unless they are also upgraded, your rifles will also be so much fodder.

Best thing is to get some great war infantry out there (or actual infantry is even better). Get 5 or 6 of them in there and rotate the injured ones in an out while you peck away with cannon/xbows.

If you have tech parity, you might have to make peace until you can send in a bomber fleet, or just back off and let him send his stuff at you while you get exp on your units

EDIT: just saw this was for vanilla.
Artillery is your best friend in vanilla. Get some arty on there to go with your rifles and kill his units, then take the city

 

[Soronery]

use artillery or go to war in order to train up archers to have multiple promotions.

 

[Goldstar]

As others have said, The Great Wall only slows your units down. It does not provide a defensive bonus. So if your riffles aren't cutting it, you'll need to bring in siege units (canons/artillery) to take down the city and/or wait to upgrade to infantry.

 

[evilcat]

What worked for me is a artilery barrage, if you can catch one of his unit snip it and repeat.

 

[njmfff]

Unfortunately, you'll either have to wait for the Civ with GW to research Artillery (unlikely until very late game tho) or get Artillery yourself. Or get GWB.

Note that horse units can still move two titles in territory that has GW.... also not sure, but I think naval units can movie normally even if civ has GW. (!?)

Still I'll advise not to attack civ with GW until you got Artillery, it's just a suicide mission.

 

[Browd]

GW has no effect on naval units, so if the GW civ built the GW in a coastal city, spam ranged ships and take it from the sea. You will still need a melee unit to take the city and, since this is vanilla, that will have to be an embarked melee unit or a horse unit attacking by land.

Or just wait for artillery. Plan on a few more meat shields than a usual city asssault, but artillery can take down GW cities with relative ease.

 

[Roxlimn]

Get tech parity. Get Medic. Get Cover. Tank with Melee. Siege with Trebs or Cannon - beeline the siege stuff. Get in, set up, take the city with horsemen. This works surprisingly well so long as you can massacre the enemy army outside his territory.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Mass siege is really the best way to deal with the Great Wall before Artillery. Surround the city and move all of the siege in at the same time. It really helps to have ranged units cutting off the lines of support between cities if the cities are well spaced out. Good siege units too-don't bring your catapults against def 35 cities with castles. You will also need melee with cover promotions to cap and soak damage.

It's a huge PITA and an AI "troll wonder" since players would never throw hammers at it.

 

[njmfff]

Get tech parity. Get Medic. Get Cover. Tank with Melee. Siege with Trebs or Cannon - beeline the siege stuff. Get in, set up, take the city with horsemen. This works surprisingly well so long as you can massacre the enemy army outside his territory.

or he can pay up other AI to take care of the units or at least cause trouble\distraction.

 

[Catan_Settler]

Kill his army on or outside his borders. Don't get stuck in an attrition fight in range of his cities. That's just basic tactics, but it goes triply for civs with the great wall. How you gonna grind out an entire army with no movement points? You're not. That's why the great wall's awesome against dummies. They just keep charging into the middle of it. Stop. Wait. Be patient. Kill the army first. Then go for the cities.

 

[scheva007]

It isnt a vanilla questio, but that doesnt matter too much. I recently finished a game as assyria, and i was attacking persia who had the great wall. I was long past dynamite, yet i still received the penalty. Or does the penalty end when they have dynamite?

 

[Browd]

Ends when the builder of the GW researches Dynamite.

 

[scheva007]

Ends when the builder of the GW researches Dynamite.

Dont really see the logic of it. Are they gonna blow up their own wall?

 

[kwidem]

.

 

[Browd]

Dont really see the logic of it. Are they gonna blow up their own wall?

We have this debate every month or two. Plenty of threads discussing pros and cons.