Killing lots of units, losing very few

[nato]

I'd like to describe how I am fighting, since it is really working well.

I keep all my units on as few "safe squares" as possible. I have found lone units get picked off. By keeping everyone together, the strongest defender fights, protecting damaged units.

In this stack I keep a lot of artillery, right now I have 20 Cannons ... that may be too much. My units attack enemies only after they have been bombarded into the red.

If there is an enemy stack, first I send in units with one movement point. They kill the near dead enemy, then bounce back to my safe stack since there are still enemy units in the square. When there is only one enemy left, or to pick off loners, I send Calvary. They kill the enemy, then use their extra movement to move back to the safe square.

The key is keeping everyone on a few safe squares. It works great to have safe squares 3 moves away from each other as you conquer enemy territory. This way reinforcements coming in stay safe. Before rails, you can leapfrog guys in in one single turn. Conquering cities has a downside in that it adds to the number of safe squares you must maintain.

All my battles are thus either me attacking near dead enemies, or enemies attacking my heavily defended safe squares. I have killed tons of enemy units and hardly taken any losses this way.

 

[ironfang]

Good strategy. Another one that I have learned is to take advantage of skirmishing units to pick off those annoying units that try and kill your bowmen. I keep at least 3 knights/cavalry with every army I bring. These units can reach out and attack menacing units.

ironfang

 

[knowltok]

Cheese Tactic:

Found this last night. The Babylonians were coming to destroy me with a horde but I had a scout (could be any unit) on the other side of their empire. I could keep popping in and out of view of one fo their cities, and every unit they had would come after me. Using a mountain to see from and to hide behind meant that as soon as I hid, they reversed course back towards my cities. It requires special circumstances, but it is a hole in the AI. The same programming that lets the AI mass attack you with devastating effect, also means they focus too heavily on diversions. Even if it wasn't a scout, it was just one unit. This is also important to keep in mind if you are trying to get the enemy to chase you. It may seem elementary, but you have to remain in sight. the AI will truely do an out of sight, out of mind.