I found this combination of units pretty reliable when taking cities in war.

[Galileo44]

Why not just a modern armor and mech infantry stack with air support? You'll tear through the enemies land like lightning. Just bring up bombers to keep the cultural defense down and the defenders wounded, and garrison troops to keep the cities after you take them. Blitzkrieg is the way to go in the modern era.

Yeah, that is exactly right. Who needs the 1 move artillary. Just grab 2 gunships, a few MechInfs and a lot of MAs. Use stealth bombers to kill the defense then weaken the defenders. Take the city with ease. Move on. This is 2X as fast as with Artillary, and in a game that late, speed is imperative or else Mansa will be at Alpha Centauri by the time you trigger dominantion/conquest.

 

[anglosaxon]

My main stack compostion is as follows, it is based on medieval techs as I normally have won a domination victory when playing my favourite warmonger, Cyrus the Great.

8 Knights (1 led by GG)
4 War Elephants
8 Trebuchets
4 Crossbowmen
A few macemen

I always tilt towards Knights for my campaigns, mainly for the speed, and mainly because I like to upgrade my experienced Immortals. Cyrus is pretty much the best for warring.

 

[axident]

Mech infantry don't require oil? hm, I thought they did. I guess those are solar powered humvees.

None of the defensive units require advanced resources. I think it's for game balance, so that one side doesn't basically capitulate the moment its oil is pillaged.

 

[Harbourboy]

That oil free story is quite interesting. You can learn a lot about alternative strategies like that from being forced into using them.

 

[Melon Head]

My main stack compostion is as follows, it is based on medieval techs as I normally have won a domination victory when playing my favourite warmonger, Cyrus the Great.

8 Knights (1 led by GG)
4 War Elephants
8 Trebuchets
4 Crossbowmen
A few macemen

I always tilt towards Knights for my campaigns, mainly for the speed, and mainly because I like to upgrade my experienced Immortals. Cyrus is pretty much the best for warring.

I'm not sure that knights are the best units for this, actually. Knights seem to me to be best suited towards pillaging, particularly if escorted by a mace to counter spears/pikes. That way you can move and pillage in the same turn.

For most other things, I'd think that there are cheaper, more effective units. This is primarily because city-raiding stacks move as quickly as the slowest unit. Typically this is also the most important unit, the trebuchet or catapult.

Knights kill longbowmen and crossbowmen, when in the field. That's a good use for the. BUT, to defend your stack, spears/pikes/elephants > knights (as they're cheaper/stronger) vs cavalry, crossbows > knights vs melee (maces/pikes), and maces > knights vs cities. (cheaper and get CR) Of course, trebs and cats are the best vs cities, backed up by maces with CR.

Sure, your knights can get to a city before an army composed primarily of foot-slogging maces and catapults, but knights are going to have real issues taking a longbow defended city without cat. support. Longbow defensive bonuses are just too good, even without the first strikes. If you're fighting archers with knights, then you're so far ahead stack composition isn't really a big issue.

 

[gettingfat]

In a late game like this, I won't even bother including any 1-movement units like artillery and marine. They make the war last too long. Bombers are handy to take out the city defense and do the collaterals. I usually build some Barrage promoted armors along in case the defenders have tons of SAM and I'll use these units to do collateral, then follow with about CR2 armors, and clean up the injured and the weak with the Drill 2 armors. Bring along some CG and combat MI to take the fallen cities and handle the bombers, a few gunships for pillage and as counter against the defender's armour units, and a couple of these gunships with medic promotion as the field doctors. 20-25 units per stack (with bomber support) are usually more than enough IMO.