Military Strategies

[Silverman6083]

First off this is a thread discussing military strategy, so moderators if there is some sub-forum for this pls move because the only one I found was "War Academy" which was of no use.

Ok, now for...THE CONTENT. So, military strategy wise, I am not particularly good. At first I was god-awful, but slowly I realized some strategies. For instance, with my front line troops I like tanks, with Medic 2 and Cover 2, behind that I like it a mix of ranged medics, and "Shotgun" Troopers, who have Shock/Drill 3, and wither Ambush or Formation, so their anti-cavalry/armor but still uber strong. Also, I always put march ahead of blitz, blitz is awful, you die twice as fast, the only good thing is that you can attack, and then fortify-heal.

Now, with Infantry I like to have them in row/regiments. But with Calvary and Armor, I like Movement, Shock/Drill, and use them as extremely fast, hard-hitting units, with maximum flanking bonus, who then run away.

Frankly, the strategy for Air and Navy is self-explanatory.

Do you guys have any big strategies. Please do not say obvious stuff like "Pillage" or "Bombing" or "Shoot, then melee attack".

 

[reddishrecue]

Depending on the era;

Ancient
A few archers and spearman can quickly capture a small non-capital city or CS.
Classical
Swordsmen, composite bowmen, pikemen, a catapult or horsemen can do some damage whether it is small plunder or other deal.
Medieval
Longswordsmen, crossbowmen, trebuchet or knights.
Renaissance
Musketmen, frigates, privateers and maybe caravels can take cities.
INdustrial
Riflemen, cavalry, ironclads and canons
Modern
Great war infantry, great war bombers/fighters and artillery.
Atomic
Infantry, bombers, fighters, atomic bombs, battleships and maybe destroyers
Information
Great Death Robot, XCOM squad, mechanized infantry, nuclear bombs, stealth and rocket artillery.

All these units are good at taking cities sometimes.

 

[Cedbird]

I think the best military tactic of all times will always be surprise.Just as good and sometimes better is distraction.They all go hand in hand and I use and love both.I hate losing even one unit.That is a negative sometimes in my planning but hey that 's me.So I like to wait until my enemy either positions some units in in importuned areas to easily pick off half of their force.
Or I like it when my prey is going to war against another Civ .Thank you very much! Easy win.Overwhelming force.

 

[redwings1340]

Sometimes building a big army, messing up the other guys army, and then getting a nice peace treaty (a nice city or some lux resources and money) can be as or more effective than taking cities yourself. Having a big army and crushing another army can pay for itself even if you don't take cities. This has an added bonus of getting you in good diplo circles instead of bad ones.

Ranged units are awesome in wars, especially against computers. Just bombard their units and don't lose any in the process. I think it's usually best to advance relatively slowly, focusing on their troops first unless you can take a city pretty quickly. Use Zone of Control to your advantage too if you can.

 

[Helmling]

I hardly ever play aggressively and I usually am all tied up by the late game winning peacefully, so I hadn't used X-Com in combat until just a few moments ago (posting between turns, which explains my excessive presence on the forums the last two days).

OH MY GOD!

I love these little guys. It took most of my invasion force ten turns to get from my private southern continent to Germany/Poland where my freedom loving ally had already lost Warsaw and had another city being burned to the ground. But my two brand new upgraded paratroopers joined the fight in one quick motion. Again, LOVE THESE!

I really wish they could attack the same turn, though. I get the balance issue, but come on, that's the point of a surprise attack, right?

 

[Byzantine Bomb]

Imagine the AI being able to drop them in your territory and seize your cities in the same turn.
Now it doesn't sound as fun does it?

 

[Helmling]

Imagine the AI being able to drop them in your territory and seize your cities in the same turn.
Now it doesn't sound as fun does it?

Well, that would be my own fault for letting any other civ get that advanced.

Interceptors counter paradrops, no? Oh, and speaking of countering. There needs to be some way of at least having a chance of stopping a nuke--and way harsher diplomatic penalties, too.

 

[Kizo]

Defense > offense, so even when you are the aggressor, make the enemy attack your fortified position, then counter. Creep forward, don't rush.

My trademark trick against the AI is to keep a worker or two with my army. The AI cannot stop itself from capturing a worker, even when doing so puts the capturing unit in a position that guarantees death on the next turn. Bait, kill, recapture worker, repeat. This is particularly effective at drawing garrisoned units out of cities. If you're able to capture 1-2 more enemy workers while raiding, even better; your new meat shield wall has all the benefits of the aforementioned countering strategy, without the drawbacks of your units suffering damage.

 

[james987123]

edit: nevermind, I'm confused.

 

[Illinus]

Defense > offense, so even when you are the aggressor, make the enemy attack your fortified position, then counter. Creep forward, don't rush.

My trademark trick against the AI is to keep a worker or two with my army. The AI cannot stop itself from capturing a worker, even when doing so puts the capturing unit in a position that guarantees death on the next turn. Bait, kill, recapture worker, repeat. This is particularly effective at drawing garrisoned units out of cities. If you're able to capture 1-2 more enemy workers while raiding, even better; your new meat shield wall has all the benefits of the aforementioned countering strategy, without the drawbacks of your units suffering damage.

I must say, this is brilliant. Will implement.

 

[civ54lyfe]

early era Siege units like the trebuchets and cannons... Cover/Cover2 is pretty tempting to take early... but you want to not do this and go for straight Accuracy/Barrage to open up Logistics and Range. because generally this unit will one day become an Artillery. and God know that an Artillery with Logistics is the bottom line of winning a game. and if you go on to get Range on this same Artillery, i mean you pretty much are unstoppable until the AI builds aircraft.

Horse units: they also want March very badly, like your Infantry type units do. eventually you want a Horse type unit to get Movement too. this is because the most proper use (afaik) of a Horse type is to mop up stray AI units, pillage a tile to recover, and move away from city retaliation. all in a single turn. Lancers are incredible harrass-units. does that mean that it's actually worth it to build a Lancer? no. but the thing is that you're going to get stuck with a Lancer either way by the fortunes of the game. and he has his uses, and will become a super-awesome Helicopter one day with Sentry, Movement, Logistics and stuff and be the ultimate harrass-unit of the game. and also a supreme barbarian camp-hunter to easily keep land trade routes safe. oh yeah, horse units also like Sentry. because they are mobile anyway, and often times you want to use horses for surveying purposes, and as super valuable artillery spotters.
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all that said, i'm pretty sure that expert Domination players will have better advice on promotions, but in my own non-Domination tinkering i've found the general advice to be effective.

once aircraft come into play a lot of military tactics need to change, and fast.

 

[danaphanous]

Strategy changes drastically with eras of course. I tend to go a bit lighter on numbers and focus on quality units and combinations. If I get attacked or looks like there's a reasonable risk I'll set ambushes around my border where incoming units including horse will get just far enough in that they can't get out before they see my forces. I'll have pockets of embedded distance units guarded by some resilient infantry and horse as the third layer. His first wave then gets eaten by the combination. Horse can clean up if you can't quite finish some of them.

For offense, after you've blunted and weakened his attack:
My favorite in the ancient/classical/medieval eras:

Have minimum: light bombarding units like archers/crossbow/ranged chariot; a couple of backup melee, fast exploratory units like horse/knight/lancer/cavalry; and 3+ siege units.

Move a couple horse in first taking the path of least resistance. End on hills or other defensive areas and stay 2 out from the cities and roads to scout and see what you are against. End fortified. This causes the AI to break formation and send units off-road and in different directions. Strike where you can and take some damage, then withdraw these units to heal. The main damage comes from the second wave of horse which then clean up these units that have moved out from the protection of the city and are weakened. I usually have the light bombardment units in this phase as a trap, and will lure specific forces into ambushes. Mountains are good for this but be aware of the sight range from his border (usually 2) As a rule of thumb have at least 2 prongs to your attack to diversify and split up the enemy force. If you want to have time to securely take a city you will need to block reinforcements. This is again, best done with distracting mounted units that gallop behind lines and block the roads. If you lose a few that's fine, but I've taken many city's and even entire campaigns casualty-less this way. And note: this was on emporer/immortal, these AI logic faults seem consistent on the high levels you just gotta contend with more units and better strategy on his part.

note: humans fall for this too, just not repetitively so if you play MP you will need to switch up your tactics and will need to be willing to directly sacrifice units for these traps. Most people risk a trap if they can get a kill.

Once his mobile defense is severely weakened or diverted have the siege waves move up with some melee in front to distract. It helps if some of the melee are slightly damaged as the AI seems to prefer firing at these from the city, keeping the siege safe.

Bait and switch is a must-have tactic if you're fighting a large city with good backup and don't have a large-enough force to take the losses of a straight-up assault. I also use the worker trick in these situations. This changes with the advent of aircraft and long-distance strike units like tanks and helicopters. Basically, move a damaged but resilient unit like a cavalry/lancer into range and let it take the heat. I've found they can usually survive the city bombard + 2 other attacks if they have cover. Then withdraw and replace them with another and have a healing line on the back. Always provide a target so they aren't blowing up your valuable siege weapons or archers.

As soon as artillery or +range becomes a factor some of this is unnecessary. You won't need to protect your range as much because with ruse because they can be out of range. I actually prefer to emphasize naval combat support in many ways because of the increased mobility. A well-balanced navy can ravage a coastline with impunity--and frigates get +range quicker than anything but the longbowman specialty making them untouchable for a period.

 

[northernscribe]

I used to go for logistics but now when I get cannons (I dont waste time with cats or trebs), I use the bombard cities for the second promotion. I get to logistics one promotion later than before, but give me four arties with city bonus, and that city's going down pretty quick, until they get over 100-120 strength. Then rocket artillery with the same promotion...nothing stops them.