I can't capture a city

[stiphout]

I am trying to capture a city of the Greek but it is hopeless. I already used 40 cannon (the best technology available at the moment) but 38 of them lost the fight when attacking the city. I have looked into the city using a diplomat but nothing special there: only 3 rifflemen and some buildings (including city wall). What can I do to capture it. All other cities don't seem to be a problem, but that one has cost me already half my army...

Bas

 

[GenghisK]

This is a well-known fact that some Civ1 combat features are unrealistic (e.g. sometimes a phalanx can beat a bomber!). Back to your problem: as you know it, a city wall *3 the defence of a unit, excepted against flying and artillery armies. Riflemen = 5def.
City wall = 5 * 3 = 15 def for the defending riflemen. If they're veteran, this score can be up to 20. Your cannon is only 8 if I remember well. And if the city is on a mountain, this score can be even higher. In this case, you only have 2 choices left. Instead of wasting resources to build cannons, research artillery, or, buy the city with a diplomat ( I always do that) or nuke. But as TTG said once in a thread, even nukes lose sometimes against a Mch inf! Because in some cases (mountain+fortress+veteran+bonuses), the defence is superior to 100, and the nuke is "only" 99...

 

[stiphout]

Do you mean I can buy a city using a diplomat? I only tried people in the city to revolt but that didn't do much. Well I have speed up research to get the artillery. Hopefully that will work. Thanks for your comment

Bas

 

[stormerne]

Don't forget about barracks! The defending city could be producing new defenders as automatic veterans if it has a barracks in the city. Make sure that all your attacking units are produced by a city which has a barracks in it otherwise you'll be operating at a big disadvantage.

 

[GenghisK]

Yeah, barracks are a good idea. But I never build one, actually, I prefer investing resources for other things, such as wonders.

Stiphout, when I said "buy", actually I meant incite revolt. If you have enough gold, you can subvert it to your cause and the city will become yours. No need to fight for it. It's yours, that's all. And of course, all the defending units "are belong to you" too
On the other hand, you might lose some improvements when you take the city. Never lose wonders, but just improvements.

 

[neons]

I suggest you to use Diplomats.

First, make 10 diplomats. Go to this city and select "Industrial Sabotage". With last diplomat select "Incite a Revolt" and buy this city.

 

[TTG]

You can easily capture the city using a seige. All you need are some cheap, plentiful units and a little patience. Surround the city and fortify your units, one on each square within the city radius until you have covered all squares controlled by that city. The city will now only get production from its home square. That is, only enough shields to support a single defense unit and not nearly enough food. The food reserves will eventually run out and the city size will plummet. Good luck.