How to hold off a Superior Enemy

[brownbomber]

Part 1- Holding off a superior enemy is a tough thing to do.
But it is possible. The first thing is to not appear weak and reject their demands. Second, you should build only infantry and artillery. An occasional cavalry or air force can be helpful.
:ak47: :rocket3: :tank: :tank:
Finish on Sept. 10, 2002. Sorry for the inconvience

 

[Richard III]

Originally posted by brownbomber
Part 1- Holding off a superior enemy is a tough thing to do.
But it is possible. The first thing is to not appear weak and reject their demands. Second, you should build only infantry and artillery. An occasional cavalry or air force can be helpful.
:ak47: :rocket3: :tank: :tank:
Finish on Sept. 10, 2002. Sorry for the inconvience

My Iroquious (first time as them) have been holding off a combined attack by the Greeks, Indians, Persians and Romans for several turns now. All of the latter three are equal to me in points size. While I do have French and American allies, the enemy has tanks, and oil, and I do not.

Sure, I have won and epic victory or two, thanks to the wonders of rail travel; in one case, I managed to fight a combined Indo-Greek force of over 30 tanks to a standstill as they surrounded my westernmost city, and then destroy them in detail. But I am writing with my back against the wall and my once-vaunted reserves thinning rapidly, to suggest that I would build more than an "occasional cavalry" under these circumstances.

Marines and several cavalry have been essential to my survival. Without them, you can't really kill the tanks, despite the heavy bombardment from the guns. Trust me. I have about 100 dead infantry (against about 60 dead tanks) to prove it.

R.III

 

[Sanaz]

Speed and logistics. It's not the size of the military that matters, but the better use of informaiton and the ability to get your troops where they're needed quickly. And of course, the ability to sell your soul to have strong allies when necessary.

 

[Sullla]

Originally posted by brownbomber
Part 1- Holding off a superior enemy is a tough thing to do.
But it is possible. The first thing is to not appear weak and reject their demands. Second, you should build only infantry and artillery.

You obviously haven't been playing many Deity games...

The most important thing that a player needs to realize there (probably the only place you will encounter truly superior enemies) is that you MUST give in to AI demands. If you try to salvage your pride and refuse their demands, they will declare war and you are going to die shortly. It is possible to fight early wars on Deity, but they have to be at situations of your choosing, not the AI civs'. This first point is horrible advice, and it will get you killed faster than you can imagine in a Deity game.

The second point is not so bad, but still misses the mark somewhat. Obviously the best unit to build to hold off a foreign assault is a bombardment one like catapults/cannons/artillery. Enough of these can defend you against anything. And you will need your share of defenders (infantry) as well. But you always need your fare share of offensive units as well just to defend yourself, so that you can kill enemy units weakened by bombardment. Don't forget as well that many units are weaker defenders than attackers (cavalry, tanks) and it would be a better idea to attack these units than wait for them to attack you. With enough bombardment units and a few attackers/defenders to shift around to troubled areas, it is entirely possible to hold out against a massive enemy force for a very long time.

 

[brownbomber]

I disagree. the AI will think you are weak if you give in to demands even on deity level

 

[brownbomber]

Part 2 of holding off a Superior enemy
A few offensive units should be built for counterattacks, but use most of your force for infantry to delay an invasion.

 

[brownbomber]

I was playing as the Indians and held off the Germans, Japenese and Americans with just infantry, artillery and occasional cavalry and no air force.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by brownbomber
The first thing is to not appear weak and reject their demands.

May be against another human player in the multi-player version, but that definitely doesn't work against the AIs. AIs do seem to know everything about us. It's best to just give them what they want.

Second, you should build only infantry and artillery. An occasional cavalry or air force can be helpful.

Yup! However, I do recommend building more cavalry than infantry.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

brownbomber, in the future, you may want to use the edit post feature instead of making a new posts. 3 posts in a row is often considered spam