I cannot make war to save my life...

[.Shane.]

Ok, I typically play on Prince w/ most settings in terms of map, climate, etc... very vanilla. I do add a few civs to bring the total # up from 7 to 10.

Its almost inevitable that you need to go to war at some point. I am almost completely incapable of waging war effectively.

If I think I need 10 units, it turns out I needed 11. Lesson learned. Next time, I build 11, turns out I needed 12. If I built 50 units, it would turn out I needed 51.

I just can't juggle it. Gearing up and conducting war while not falling horribly behind in tech.

But, if I go one level down (monarch) I'm fine. Thus I stick w/ Prince level, in theory, to continue to learn and improve, but I'm pretty much in a rut at this point.

Thanks!

 

[Robcore]

numbers are not everything. Using your military effectively is the key. If the enemy has more troops then you, try getting them to fight where you want them too. If you play any of the Total War games you will know what i mean. I cant say i have ever looked at another civ and said 'i need 20 troops to win this war'

 

[Spearthrower]

Reinforcements are also crucial.... logistics is inarguably the most important part of warfare, and civ models this by making you need to reinforce. Your 10 troops you sent out would have been enough if you had carried on building troops and sending them, because the next turn it would have been 11 and the turn after 12... and so on. I think a fairly common mistake is to build a stack, send it out and then switch to building infrastructure.... you shouldn't stop building military units until you have achieved your objective.

Further to this, always make sure you have a decent amount of artillery.... anything post ancient age warring you should expect a significant part of your stack to be artillery both to bombard defenses and to soften up troops for easy kills.

 

[kokoras]

I agree with Spearthrower,also remember that every single unit in Civ4 is way too important because you promote and upgrade them constantly,so you must try not to sacrifise them,in course of time these units become more powerful.The quality of the units is more important than the quantity you build(at least until industrialism),because simply you just can't build only units all the time.

 

[vilemerchant]

because simply you just can't build only units all the time.

You can build the Heroic Epic and have 1 city that builds units all the time.

 

[kokoras]

You can build the Heroic Epic and have 1 city that builds units all the time.

Agreed,and you can also built only units when you need them,but that doesn't change the fact that units in this game grows in time by winning battles,having some units with 20-30 experience points is more important than having a stack of units whith only one promotion.
Great Generals help a lot in creating a realy powerful stack.

 

[Spearthrower]

I like both.... crack troops to win field battles.... and fodder to throw at the enemy positions to weaken his troops prior to killing them with my more experienced ones!

I'm all up for attrition if it's a war I am going to win!

 

[.Shane.]

numbers are not everything. Using your military effectively is the key. If the enemy has more troops then you, try getting them to fight where you want them too. If you play any of the Total War games you will know what i mean. I cant say i have ever looked at another civ and said 'i need 20 troops to win this war'

Sorry, I should've explained better. I understand and account for that. My point is that it seems no matter how well I plan, no matter how I may try and target what I perceive to be my enemies weak points, no matter how I might try and time an attack to a technological edge that allows me superior units...

I always end up fighting wars quick wars that I end when I see no benefit or I find wars that seemingly drag on for half the game and end up w/ a few cities, but by then, I'm hopelessly behind.

 

[.Shane.]

Maybe if I gave a scenario?

Its early in the game. I have 2 cities. My enemy has 2, maybe 3. If I start pumping out units, I find that all of a sudden, I'm stuck at 2 cities and everyone else now has 4, 5, etc...

So, I try to fit in a 3rd city while I'm stockpiling a diverse army. Then I attack just to find that the enemy now has a manpower/tech/you-name-it edge.

I just can't seem to get "over the hump" so to speak.

 

[nullspace]

If you're going to war, you should go all out. Don't build that settler, build units instead so that you can attack earlier or with more units. That settler isn't going to contribute to this war. Besides, you'll be caught up in number of cities once you conquer a few.

Also, a diverse army may not be the best army. An easy target is a civ that lacks one or more strategic resources. If he can't build certain types of units, you should build only units that counter what he does have. No matter what, you should make sure to have plenty of strong city killer units, with just a few other units to protect that stack from counterattacks.

 

[Stylesjl]

Go heavy with seige weapons. You can't go wrong when you have tons of catapults. Also aim for weak points, because even if you can't win the wider war, at least you can get a few consolation prizes

 

[MrTomothy]

Go heavy with seige weapons. You can't go wrong when you have tons of catapults.

Yes you can, when you don't have enough units that can actually kill things.


It really helps if you know what your enemy is building, and making more units to counter it. If you have a type advantage, you may not need hordes of units, unless the AI builds a varied stack, which may or may not happen.

 

[.Shane.]

So, sounds like spying can be very helpful here?

 

[MrTomothy]

Yeah, being able to see into enemy cities is a huuuuge help. It can tell you how heavily a city is fortified, and how fast reinforcements may come. Plus you can use tricks such as Incite Revolt to bring down all city defenses for a turn.

PS: The Dead Milkmen rule.

 

[Defiance]

I can't make peace to save my life rofl

 

[L4zXX0r]

step 1: Get enough espionage to throw your intended city target into a revolt.

Step 2: Build your stack of doom. Enough attacking units for a 1 on 1 encounter against the enemy units, in a given city. Lots of siege units. And 3+ defensive units per city you want to control.

step 3: Build a spy

Step 4: invade. Instead of using your siege units for destroying defenses, use your spy.

Step 5: Send in enough siege units to weaken the city defenders

step 6: Cakewalk with your attackers, right into the city.


This works for me. Switching to espionage to deplete city walls has made my military excursions much faster. Just make sure you've got the espionage.

 

[TreeFoot]

Personally I find that in early game, an archer, a spearman, a chariot, an axeman, and a catapult in the same stack is unstoppable.

 

[peter450]

I tend to use a warlord unit or two to lead my stack, they form the core, there mainly there to heal up the stack and to defend it vs attack, i only use them on the attack when the odd's are 99.9 which they are quite often due to the city raider 3 promo, the rest of the stack is made up of prospects an throwaways, the prospects are units who have some nice promo's an who may become the foundation of a future warlord, the throwaways (usually siege) are there to soften up the defenders, so that the main strike force can easily batter them up, it's the throwaway stuff that needs frequent replacement, in my current game i'm considering trying out a warlord siege unit as my next upgrade, if this leads as hoped to needing to replace less lost arty then i think it will be a good investment

 

[Defiance]

Wait I misread..

Try this, count up all the unit str in a city then double it, then bring more then that in power. (assuming you can bring defenses to zero)