Managing large militaries

[PlutonianEmpire]

Ever since i started playing civ2, my forces were always a bit.... small, partly because of my short attention span (ADD?). To make things worse, I can hardly fight a war at all, meaning I'm not sure what to do next and end up making major blunders leading to my empires' demise, thus I'm rather... dependant... on my plutonian super-units. Sure, i come up with a great idea or two, but once I actually get working on it, my mind comes up absolutely blank on how or what to do.

Any advice?

 

[Panzerking]

I know exactly what you mean here as I find it quite difficult myself. No doubt there will be many people more qualified than me to comment on this, but I'll give it a whirl.
I try to always have a plan for every single military unit I make. For instance unless I am building a unit to stay in a city as protection then I will have a plan with what I am going to do with the unit. I pick the areas of rival civs which I will target and build big armies to go and plunder. By doing this I rarely have military units hanging around, and if they are it is only while they wait for the rest of the invading army to be built. If I am stuck for what units to build I will build spies/diplomats to go and recon the cities I am interested in annexing.
I try not to get bogged down in war, I'll make some big attacks (as I have said) and take cities in bursts but straight after the operation is done I will happily sign cease-fires or go defensive, moving units to dig-in and sending others home ready for the next attack on whoever I choose.
I find this tactic to work, it certianly doesn't make you many AI friends but gradually my empire becomes more and more powerful and my planned attacks become more and more elaborate!!

 

[Specialist290]

I typically make a general plan of strategy before I even start actually fighting the war.

One piece of advice: If you have a word processor that will open in aseparate window, keep it open as you play the game and write down any strategies/ideas you may have. That way, if you forget what you're doing, you can always check "the Plan."

And another: Always prepare for more than you expect to deal with. That way, if something unexpected comes up, you'll have a reserve handy.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I normally build very little military until I reach the modern era. Then when a city is not producing anything more usefull it can start on military units. In a war, always have enough units to survive for a while if attacking another continent. That is the hardest part for me, normally. One needs lots of transports and a good railway system to reduce these problems. Normally when I go to war I will be far enough ahead in techs to not have to worry too much, so my advice is more for the person who can not get a large tech lead.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

usually, i play on deity, because i'm so damn proud about my ubertechs.

of course, that usually leads to my demise when i play without them