How to deal with AI unit-spam at immortal+

futurehermit

Deity
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Apr 3, 2006
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I'm curious how others deal with AI unit-spam at immortal+

Tried a few starts last night to practice warrior rushing. Had some good games and made note of some situations where warrior rushing is not as ideal (terrain, AI units, etc.).

However, a few times I ran into AI unit-spam. More than once, after eliminating a couple of civs I ran into Germany and them spamming their UU. Once it was Iroquois who had become a run-away and started spamming units. Once very early in the game it was Persia who was spamming their UU with some other units mixed in.

With the difficulty in mustering production, how do you manage vs. unit-spam? In most cases, I build 0-2 cities myself and might annex 1-2 cities (depending on :) ). After wiping out a civ or two should I take a break from conquering and build some more cities to get more production before continuing on?
 
Apart from boosting production or gold by getting more cities, what you have to do is look for strong defensive positions. If you have mounted units, found a city one tile behind a river on flat terrain. When your enemy crosses that river, they have to stop and you can mop them up with mounted units or siege units.

Otherwise, try to get strong units with rough terrain promotions and create strongpoints. The AI just loves to suicide their units in an attempt to break that position and if you supply it with a medic and it's in friendly territory you heal 3 hp per turn.

Lastly, make sure you have technological superiority whenever possible. This may require going for an artillery beeline even in a peaceful game. If the AI beats you to artillery, they are a hell to handle on deity (more manageable on Immortal).
 
Combined arms. Add a couple of horsemen to your longswords / rifles.

The most effective strat is as aplaca rightly states, 3 artillery in a reasonable defence format behind mopp up rifles, rotate them and you don't need a medic. let the AI sucide on your postion then once the flow of units reduces, feel free to take the now undefended cities
 
The only way I've found to deal with the AI when they have the numbers edge is to play defensively. These defensive wars can drag out for a long time. But over that time, you don't lose units and keep producing new ones, while the AI is losing units (faster than they produce them in most cases). Eventually, you get the numbers edge and it's game over for them.

If you don't go to war with a civ that is numerically superior, they tend to just get further ahead.
 
Personally I think warrior rush is a very dubious starting strategy for immortal. The odds are that you won't find and encircle your nearest victim before he's launched a settler or already settled his second city; if you have nearby barbs to deal with it's impossible; and even if you are successful I think your production is much better spent cranking out settlers of your own.

I build scout settler worker settler settler library and as soon as the other cities are founded go for libraries and monuments and more settlers and another two workers until I've settled 6 cities. I try to grab all the luxury resources I can and with the monuments and libraries I can keep pace with the AI on tech gold and SPs. Forget about getting a military advantage in the first 60+ turns; it ain't gonna happen, but unless you're a real jerk, you won't get a DoW either. That usually comes with the rush for iron, a scarce resource. It will definitely come when you settle city #7, no matter what. That seventh city is a trigger and I've seen it happen over and over, so stay with six to start and plant # 7 when you're ready to go to war--because it will shortly come to you.

Find and make an early ally of a maritime CS, and keep it the entire game; as soon as you've converted your luxuries, start spamming trading posts pretty much eveywhere. Tech first for horses, then for longswordsmen; if you're lucky the AI will hold off attacking you until you've finished with your monuments and libraries, which is just about the time when these powerful early units will be available to build.

Now just start building them nonstop in every city you can. If you run out of iron or horses, build spearmen. Just build units, because by turn 80 or so you will be at war one way or another with your nearest, biggest neighbor, often your nearest two neighbors. At this stage wait for a DoW and if one isn't forthcoming, go provoke one. You have to.

Now, let the AI attack you, and with powerful LS, fast horsemen and some crossbows if you've got 'em you can grind him down, then turn the tide and conquer him.
Pull back, regroup, beeline for rifling, and on to the next biggest civ...

Also, sell your excess resources asap and keep at it--even ones you have only as singles if they don't incur a happiness hit--to the AI. Sell everything extra you've got to the AI, in fact. This gives you disposable income to rush buy stuff and just as importantly it thwarts the AI from out-teching you through buying RAs, because he can't resist buying your shiny gems, etc., instead.

For SP, I usually go with liberty 1st for the settler rush, since the strategy is basically settler rush, not warrior or horseman rush, then the next three opening honor, the GG as a means to get to the doubling of heal times that follows--a huge benefit that you're gonna need in your first war. You can let your GG hang around waiting for war, but usually I use him for a GA since you're going to get another anyway when your war is declared.

Settler rush in a nutshell. It works for me.

BTW The civ you choose can make a huge difference at this level, as their traits are quite exaggerated. I struggled as Napoleon and kept getting early pile-on DoWs leading to endless wars of attrition for 7-8 games, then did a random civ and got the Mongols and it was like a King-level game--could even build some wonders while I swept across the continent.
 
a bit off topic but the irouquis always turn into massive runaway civ in all of my games its weird
 
I had Lizzy spamming longbows, to protect her one and only city, which was on a hill between 2 rivers, couldn't take it, not even with rifles! .. :(
 
Just had alex as a runaway with an army that apparently could wipe me off the face of the earth, so he declares but there is a 2 tile chokepoint and he declered before he had moved his army through there, so I manage to take the city that is just on my side of the chokepoint and sat there and slaughtered his army as they approached. seems that if they are more powerful than you they will throw units at you until they run out, but if they are less powerful they will wait for you to come at them. that made ghandi such a pain, he had an awesome defensive position, only 1 way in and he had castles in both his big cities and himeji castle too. couldn't get him till I got artillery with range promotion.
 
I had Lizzy spamming longbows, to protect her one and only city, which was on a hill between 2 rivers, couldn't take it, not even with rifles! .. :(

Would love to see a screen of this. If it's so good defensively, you just need to approach it from another angle. The best defense is still a good offense - sitting there will not win wars. Oh wait, unless you are playing against the AI - they just give free XP to yout troops.
 
Immortal is very different from deity. I routinely kill civs on immortal with just a handful of horsemen + good bonuses (4-6 horsemen). On deity mopping up an inbound carpet first is more advisable and possibly better pulled-off with ranged support.
 
I find it depends on the situation. Sometimes, I can clear my continent with a handful of horsemen. Sometimes, I run up against Germany, Persia, or Siam spamming their UU with good defensive terrain and then it's not as possible.
 
1. Out-tech: have longswordsmen when AI have swordsmen etc.
2. Out-maneuver: use terrain, use mobile troops aka horsemen etc.
3. Out-range: range 3 beats 2, and 4 wins hands down.

Either of that works.

If all else fails, you can (still) always count on the AI sending their troops to the meat-grinder. I mean trap.
 
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