how to successfully defend ur cities and counterattack

[mclericp]

i am babylon, 3rd largest army, richest gpt civ in the game. the top 2 army civ zulu and russia declared war on me at the same time, making 2 fronts.

The thing is, the zulus are constantly massacring my troops with rifleman and artillery while the russians had planes. Within 5 turns my gpt dropped so much due to pillaging trade routes but my army is still strong.

i have now come to a stalemate with zulu and russia as none of them or me took any cities and we are just killing each other like ww1 western front.

And it seems their troops just keep on pounding me more and more like the persians at themopylae.

I want to end this war quickly but im not a military strategist. Russias resources are huge with 31 oil 15 horses shown in the diplomacy screen. How does one launch a good defence and counterattack to force both sides to negotiate war ending? currently none of them accept any negotiation

 

[reddishrecue]

To defend yourself, taking the full honor social policy tree will get you paid for each unit killed. Infantries don't take much damage from artillery, so teching plastics can help you defend yourself with infantry and laboratories that give you more science. If you're in an island, you can tech refrigeration for submarines which help sink battleships in one or two shoots. If you have the tradition social policy, oligarchy gives free garrison and free maintenance per unit in a city plus added city range attack damage. If you combine military caste with oligarchy, you also get an additional 1 happiness and 2 culture per garrison.

 

[Brettapod]

I'm not sure how you are tech-wise, but if you get some fighters near Russia they'll go a long way with fighting against their planes. As for fighting the Zulu, ranged units are the most defensive units possible. Also, sometimes, fortifying units is better than attacking, if they'll be attacked 2-3'times on the next turn.

Edit: Building up a large military will encourage the other civs to sign for peace.

 

[forcedalt]

Hmm....If you aren't high enough tech to make anti-air , or any kind of plane , your pretty nigh up a creek against air attacks. Taking out the carrier or city they base at is the only defense. As for the artillery ,horse/armor/mech (depending on era) could break the stalemate. With the high land move points ,and ,ability to move after attack, you could time it so: you flank to the artillery , cause some damage , and then , move the unit out of range to heal. If the cav has the medic promotions ,and , the artillery doesn't , you could sap their force through attrition. They might pursue your cav , in which case , you can use cav's to lure units away from the main contingent.
This idea depends on their being a lot of flat land w/out units on it. If theirs not a lot of space to execute maneuvers , you would just have to produce whatever unit has highest strength and grind it out.

 

[Novalia]

You have to stop losing units. You can't afford to trade kills with the AI.

Hold your units closer to your city until you feel you've killed enough units to counterattack. You don't have to fight in front of your city. The biggest error the AI makes is slamming their melee units against your city's walls. Hold your ranged units behind the city and pick them off when they get closer. It's a lot less likely you're going to get killed with GW bombers behind your city. You'll lose less units.

You can also plug up a tile right in front of your city with a citadel. Stick your strongest unit in it and cycle it out when needed.

Build a horse unit with the sight promotion to get a good idea of what's behind the enemy offensive.

 

[reddishrecue]

You have to stop losing units. You can't afford to trade kills with the AI.

Hold your units closer to your city until you feel you've killed enough units to counterattack. You don't have to fight in front of your city. The biggest error the AI makes is slamming their melee units against your city's walls. Hold your ranged units behind the city and pick them off when they get closer. It's a lot less likely you're going to get killed with GW bombers behind your city. You'll lose less units.

You can also plug up a tile right in front of your city with a citadel. Stick your strongest unit in it and cycle it out when needed.

Build a horse unit with the sight promotion to get a good idea of what's behind the enemy offensive.

Heal your units so that they could last and have promotions.

 

[mclericp]

i managed to crush the zulus into submission but the russians had a lot, i mean A LOT of aircrafts. They are also a bit tech ahead and had anti aircraft stuff. No battleships though.

I guess the reason why the russians are killing me so hard is because of their oil fields. I mean, 30+ oils are available in their land and they also allied with some oil civs.

 

[danaphanous]

yeah, it's the oil. They're putting it all into aircraft. If you have any oil at all you might start with a small squadron of fighters this'll put the enemy planes down a lot faster. someone else said this, but the AI is ******ed about placement. Chances are there are 10 planes sitting in one city and they rarely rebase them upon a swift attack in time. Launch a counter-offensive targeting this border city and all 10 planes will be destroyed. the loss of a city and so many units will help your case in suing for peace.

 

[troublmaker]

The best defense is a good offense. If you fall far too behind in tech you're going to have a bad time. Stacking tonnes of artillery units with cavalry can be super effective at cutting down enemy numbers. But infantry are going to be the guys who pack the punch. If you're playing against someone with less army than you, infantry are the way to go. If you're playing against someone with a vast superior forces, try use cavalry and skirmish their forces down in non-mountainous terrain.

 

[phillipwyllie]

Beeline Plastics asap, and stick a citadel(or 2) on the fringes of your empire between you and Shaka/Cathy. Run a road up to the citadel(s) and stick an infantry in each and hit fortify. Once fully fortified watch as the AI wastes its GWB on trying to kill your infantry.
It's been mentioned that a good offense is the best defense, only when you have infantry as they'll be hardy enough to withstand GWB bombing and able to take out Shaka's Riflemen in 1 turn(fully healed and with the right terrain promotion). When most of Cathy's GWB have been eliminated go for the offensive, noting that artillery are very susceptible to bombing(so AA guns/mobile SAMS are needed). Once you march your army on the AI and start waging war in their lands they should sue for peace.