I need some war stragey help

[elastikone]

Hi All,
I was wondering if yall can give me some advice regarding warring with neighbors -- in my current scenario i have the french really close by my territory -- I am playing as Romans (i am a newb, been playing for only a few days now) -- should i attack one city at a time? or go for couple -- seems like the french take one city of mine - i fight to get it, win it back-- and then they take another close by -- i fight to get etc.. seem to be stuck in the same ole loop -- also any advice on how i should organize my military units, i have like 6 swordsman, a few pikemen and a few warriors...
any advice would be appreciated,
cheers,

 

[Grey Knight]

The time you've spent phaffing around with the Frencies will hurt you deeply as the game progresses, but I digress.

Mobilize for war. Produce nothing but swordsmen! If you don't have iron hooked up to all your cities, get on that ASAP. Since you are already at war, it's too late to build barracks, so you'll have to just hope to do this by numbers.

Send a warrior or three into his territory, and pillage his roads and cut off his strategic resources (aka iron).

You can make the AI dance his units -- he will always head for the city with the fewest defenders in the city. If they are 1 square away, it doesn't matter. So when your main forces are all sitting in the city you just retook, the AI heads for your weakest city. Your better bet is to leave the city "ungarrisoned" (assuming you can get there before him) to draw him into your forces.

Change your science rate to 0%. Hopefully you win this war, and when you do, sue for peace somewhere along the way (a couple of times, even) and demand techs in return for peace.

Good luck,
Shawn

 

[Bamspeedy]

First, I like to make sure I have 2 spearman/pikeman in each city (more in border cities), this usually prevents the AI from taking over your city with just 1 or 2 units. Then when your properly defended start building offensive units to fight back. Swordsman are great for the situation it sounds like your in. If you get Chivalry (that is if you have horses available), then knights are awesome. Send a couple defensive units along with the offensive units. This way, when your opponent counter attacks you, your defensive units will absorb the attack so your attack units stay healthy/alive for your offensive. Many players like to bring a catapult or two along with the stack to help soften up the defenders.

Starting the war depends on how many cities you border with them. If they have 3 cities on my border I like to attack all 3, so they can't flank me from the side, or sneak a large stack of units past my army to get a city of mine. The largest offensive attack group should be at the largest/most developed city. The bigger, more productive cities usually have more of an army in and around them.

Billchin wrote a good article in the strategy articles forum that you might find useful. He plays Emperor level, standard size map, but the techniques should be just as useful on lower levels, for waging an early war.

 

[mortichro]

here's a way to over run those french bastards.. USE the blitzkrieg method. if u have a catapult build more, build more knights and legionary (since u r the romans) and average number of pikemens to defend ur conquered city.
Here's how its done, use ur catapult to weaken the cities defence, use two or 3 catapults becoz some will miss the target,
once their defence has loosen down to lets say 1/4 or 2/4 attack the city with ur knights first becoz of their strong attack as well as ur legionary for back up. one conquered place 2 or 3 pikemen in ur city to secure it from any french attacks. if their borders has 3 to 4 cities do it at one go. Use ur legionary and knight to attack the next city so this wont waste ur units, do the same thing again untill u over run the bloody french. sometimes if the french's territory is too big and ur legionary and knights might have worn out, send in more of the knights and legionaryto secure the victory. the numbers of knight best use is 3 and legionary 2 or knights 2 or legionary 2. once u have conquered the whole of french station ur attack units on each city so when needed u can wake them for future offensive. One more thing i forget. the french might counter attack u. ur catapult may have lost, besure to place ur pikemen with ur catapult becoz of their strong defence. at least one pike men is enough to defend the artillary. U can over run the french in about 15 - 20 turns depending on their size.

the key is BUILT MORE ARMY.

 

[Mr Adeoye]

Don't be so ready to listen to these guys from what i am hearing you are not ready for a war.Judging by the units you said you have you don't have enough mobile ones eg horsemen and they are essential for offensive wars ,so just work on your defence and getting the right stratigic recources and advances.The main question you need to ask yourself is "are the french aggressive enough to attak you"if the answer to that is no then theres no need to hit the panic button and start an unesscacary war which will destroy you both and leave yo weak for the rest of the game.

 

[Jason Fox]

Build more units, definitely. Build defensive units (spearman, pikeman) first, so the French stop taking your cities, then swordsmen and horsemen. Once a force of theirs is stopped you can counter-attack and deplete some of their army before you invade their land.

Keep in mind that in this game size does matter. A large army will usually deter other civs from being aggressive with you and allows you to effectively deal with those who are perisistant trouble makers.

 

[Sentinali]

Originally posted by Mr Adeoye
Don't be so ready to listen to these guys from what i am hearing you are not ready for a war.Judging by the units you said you have you don't have enough mobile ones eg horsemen and they are essential for offensive wars ,so just work on your defence and getting the right stratigic recources and advances.The main question you need to ask yourself is "are the french aggressive enough to attak you"if the answer to that is no then theres no need to hit the panic button and start an unesscacary war which will destroy you both and leave yo weak for the rest of the game.

I totally agree with the about, concentrate on D first, but get Iron Working and Legionairre up and running ASAP. They are great on both D and O. A great two way unit.

BTW - Quick Tip, control the hill and Mountains during a war, The D bonus is huge.

 

[elastikone]

thanks All,
the advice has helped..i upped on my D and built many more offensive units and whooped on the silly french losers