Ive often wondered what a good strategy was for waging war while you are behind in tech... and by behind i mean, behind an important tech such as you using Pikeman while the AI has Musketman, or you have musketman and knights while the AI has rifleman and cavalry, or wqhile the AI has combustion, and you do not, and you are seperated by islands, etc. Does anyone have any good advice for these types of things??
How to wage war, while behind in tech thread?
- Thread starter werdhertz
- Start date
looper
Chieftain
Man, this is tough, actually that is the exact reason I try my best to build Great library first in Deity games. I am not good at waging wars while tech is behind so much.
Maybe "reload" is the key
I dont even want to use reload here, coz that is lots of BORING reloads.
Maybe "reload" is the key
I dont even want to use reload here, coz that is lots of BORING reloads.zagnut
Monarch
One possibility is to defend yourself by attacking. For instance, Knights have an attack of 4. Cavalry has a defend of 3. If you just sit there and wait for their Cavalry to attack then you don't stand much of a chance. But if you can move out of your cities to attack their Cavalry you can destroy their Cavalry before it can attack you. You have the ability to move over your roads 6 squares at a time, while they can only move 3 squares at a time in your territory. I realize that if they send a stack of 30 Cavalry and you only have 10 Knights, you will be history. But many times the AI only attacks with several units.
You can also use other obsolete units to lure them into a killing zone. The AI is easily distracted, as ObiWan said.
You can also use other obsolete units to lure them into a killing zone. The AI is easily distracted, as ObiWan said.
Bismarck
The Iron Chancellor
Indeed - unit strength seems not to help in defending vs. bombardment. Thus it doesn't matter how far ahead technologically your enemy is. Can anyone confirm/refute this? Is MA more likely to resist bombardment than a musketman?
Use all defensive benefits possible , preferably in combinations. Forts behind rivers, use hills & mountains.
Make traps, leaving a city lightly defended while the surrounding squares are well occupied by a combination of defensive and offensive units. The AI prefers easy targets but doesn't take surrounding units in account. Like Zagnut said, the Cavalry would go for the city, but your knights can take them out befor they even get there.
Make traps, leaving a city lightly defended while the surrounding squares are well occupied by a combination of defensive and offensive units. The AI prefers easy targets but doesn't take surrounding units in account. Like Zagnut said, the Cavalry would go for the city, but your knights can take them out befor they even get there.
Zachriel
Kaiser
Ultimately, Civ3 can be played as Grand Strategy.
All that really matters is the balance of power.
(Of course, it's good to have Artillery,
just in case diplomacy fails.
)
All that really matters is the balance of power.
(Of course, it's good to have Artillery,
just in case diplomacy fails.
)Angmar
Warlord
Units that bombard do have an attack strength and they are compared against the defence strength of the current target. However they do have [edit] a Rate of Fire[/edit] factor also which I believe means that they get X shots at the defender.
I am not sure how bombardment decides if it is attacking the defending unit, the population or improvements.
Bombardment is a key to smashing defences in the industrial and modern eras for sure. Rarely do I use catapults or canons, so my experience with the effectiveness of these units is nil.
I am not sure how bombardment decides if it is attacking the defending unit, the population or improvements.
Bombardment is a key to smashing defences in the industrial and modern eras for sure. Rarely do I use catapults or canons, so my experience with the effectiveness of these units is nil.
Nightfang
'Pointy Stick' Scientist
Artillery. No doubt about it.
My last game was me (japan) on regent. I was at tech parity with several civs, but the blasted babs were at least five steps ahead of me. My goal was a diplo victory, but I knew at the current rate the babs would hit Fission LONG before I got to it, and they would start the UN before I could. The key to a diplo victory, afterall, is controlling the UN vote...
Anyway, the babs had some tough units (paratroops and marines), and some well defended cities. I took my cavalry and infantry and started a world war (advantage of a strong diplomatic network) against the babs. I made sure that my main attack stack had 20 artillery in it (along with 40 cavalry and 20 infantry). When the stack got to a city (parked on a mountain or hill outside of the city), I would spend time blasting the snot out of the town, using the infantry to defend the stack if it was attacked and the cavalry to take the offensive. By the time I knocked the city down to size 6 (about three turns later) I had decimated their main army due to the AIs methoeds of counterattacking. Units would approach the stack, get hit with an artillery blast, and then get mopped by the infantry. Losing that one hit point sometimes meant the difference between winning and losing.
(The babs were eliminated by the persians in this war, I sued for peace after 20 turns, keeping four cities and gaining most of their tech lead for myself as spoils. This left the Persians as the only civ ahead of me in tech. Hmmmmm...)
If you are striking out against their units, carry artillery with you. Those marines entrenched on the hill may look threatening, but take them down to one hit point with your artillery and your inferior units will have a better chance to take them out. I gain many leaders using this tactic.
Wear down the enemy, then toss your elites at them.
My last game was me (japan) on regent. I was at tech parity with several civs, but the blasted babs were at least five steps ahead of me. My goal was a diplo victory, but I knew at the current rate the babs would hit Fission LONG before I got to it, and they would start the UN before I could. The key to a diplo victory, afterall, is controlling the UN vote...
Anyway, the babs had some tough units (paratroops and marines), and some well defended cities. I took my cavalry and infantry and started a world war (advantage of a strong diplomatic network
) against the babs. I made sure that my main attack stack had 20 artillery in it (along with 40 cavalry and 20 infantry). When the stack got to a city (parked on a mountain or hill outside of the city), I would spend time blasting the snot out of the town, using the infantry to defend the stack if it was attacked and the cavalry to take the offensive. By the time I knocked the city down to size 6 (about three turns later) I had decimated their main army due to the AIs methoeds of counterattacking. Units would approach the stack, get hit with an artillery blast, and then get mopped by the infantry. Losing that one hit point sometimes meant the difference between winning and losing.(The babs were eliminated by the persians in this war, I sued for peace after 20 turns, keeping four cities and gaining most of their tech lead for myself as spoils. This left the Persians as the only civ ahead of me in tech. Hmmmmm...)
If you are striking out against their units, carry artillery with you. Those marines entrenched on the hill may look threatening, but take them down to one hit point with your artillery and your inferior units will have a better chance to take them out. I gain many leaders using this tactic.
Wear down the enemy, then toss your elites at them.The best way to wage a war if your technically behind is to call in allies that are techincally on par with your enemy. Then focus on building mobile units and replace the defensive units lost.(build horsemen and spearmen.) Then sit there for 20 turns and replace lost units while building your cities. On the 20th turn, when the allince will expire, send your horde of horse in to his land and see if he will talk peace. If he does want peace then cancel your allince and accept the peace(even if you have to give him some money for peace.). This will leave the two *big boys* hacking at eachother for many turns.
Txurce
Deity
In the long period before artillery becomes a leveling factor, the simple answer for me is to use mounted offensive units. It's not hard to build enough to win two victories, however bloody, at which point you only need hang on for a few turns, and the AI will offer generous peace turns.
