I don't know when I should start. Should I settle a certain amount of cities before I begin building military? Should I only use one city solely for military production? What buildings should I build for it? Should I use the capital for military production and emphasize growth for new cities? I have no idea. Does anyone have a strategy that's worked well for you so far?
How should you build your military?
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richypc
Chieftain
One thing Ive noticed is just securing some iron resource fast as you can with like 3-4 cities up and getting swordman, then teching to steel and upgrading to longswordman. Most civs on even price can not stop 3-4 longswordmen with a couple of other support units. Or even better if playing the Songhai, secure horse resource and tech horseman have 4-6 horse on the field nothing else and then teching to their unique calvary and upgrading all in one turn then attack you should take out 1-2 civs with this start. All this tech and upgrading requires that you have a good 700-1000 in gold reserve.
Most civs will have mass archers and spearman when you are ready to attack and will fall easily. You need to attack and press your advantage and not just sit around.
Which cities should constantly be building military units? When should you stop emphasizing growth? Etc. I always get lost in these decisions. Should I try building all military buildings in one city, ignore any growth, spam mines, spam pro-production buildings in that city, and then just keep mass producing military from that one city?
HeavyTwenty
Chieftain
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- Sep 25, 2010
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3 swordsman + 2 catapults are capable of conquering the world.
jjkrause84
King
I like firepower and often have maybe a 3:2 ratio of melee to ranged units (almost all of which are artillery).
WuphonsReach
Prince
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3:2:1 (melee:ranged:siege) sounds about right. Mounted units can sometimes substitute for 1 of the 3 melee units.
An army of 6 is almost "big" in Civ5. But you'll want at least 2-3 spare units trailing behind to fill in gaps. One of my bigger attacks on a large/fractal map, I had a total of 9 units (4 melee, 2 ranged, 1 horse, 2 siege) plus a pair of great generals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBFMgifBYM
I'd say if you're going past 10-12 units in an army, you're going to find it unwieldy. Leave the scrubs at home, pack your front lines with your most powerful melee, stick your 2 best ranged on the ends, and keep your siege engines screened. There's no room in a modern Civ5 game for weak units.
One tactic to also keep in mind is that sometimes, it's better to refrain from attacking if it will leave your unit isolated and subject to counter-attack. Soften everything up with ranged and let units enter your field of fire instead.
An army of 6 is almost "big" in Civ5. But you'll want at least 2-3 spare units trailing behind to fill in gaps. One of my bigger attacks on a large/fractal map, I had a total of 9 units (4 melee, 2 ranged, 1 horse, 2 siege) plus a pair of great generals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsBFMgifBYM
I'd say if you're going past 10-12 units in an army, you're going to find it unwieldy. Leave the scrubs at home, pack your front lines with your most powerful melee, stick your 2 best ranged on the ends, and keep your siege engines screened. There's no room in a modern Civ5 game for weak units.
One tactic to also keep in mind is that sometimes, it's better to refrain from attacking if it will leave your unit isolated and subject to counter-attack. Soften everything up with ranged and let units enter your field of fire instead.
