InvisibleStalke
Emperor
I've fought a couple of modern/renaissance wars recently that were extremely quick and successful. My previous experience of modern war was one of marching troops into a never ending storm of artillery and cavalry until you finally got the upper hand.
Recently they have seemed extremely easy. It goes something like this:
1. I scout out the AI in advance and find their big stack of troops. Usually one city has a monster stack. Count the size of that monster stack.
2. Go full out on military production. I mean really full out - drafting + building troops in every city. Its not unusual to triple the size of my military in 15 turns or so.
3. Attack when my attack stack - which is about 70% of my total troops - is bigger (in numbers and quality) than the army I saw in step 1. I've launched armies of around 80 units in the modern era - mainly infantry. The turn before the attack my spies will perform any switches I want to. For example switch them from US to police state to reduce their production (I've already built my army so I can afford the production loss more easily and I will need to be in police state anyway). Or switch their religion to remove allies.
4. Keep my attack stack mobile and on defensible terrain - eg railroaded hills. Often wars at this stage in the game are long distance - meaning that my troops pass through other countries and use their railroads. My attack stack stays at the fringes of their terrain, but doesn't actually enter unless the only path to my terrain will require their army to come within striking distance (not so likely in railroads era). My attack stack is in range of counter attack though.
5. Have a number of scouting units - old chariots for example. These move ahead of my army and are used to locate the enemy army. This is important as the army can pass you on railroads and move out of sight.
6. Each time I've tried this the AI has never attacked my main army with theirs - their army has gone AROUND it towards my cities.
7. I then unleash some suicide cannons and all of my troops and destroy their entire attack army in one turn. By getting to deal collateral damage first, I score far more wins than they do and am left with more survivors.
8. From then on they mainly cower in their cities and just snipe with the occasional artillery or cavalry, which a big stack just shrugs off.
So my question relates to whether this is typical behaviour for the AI. If my stack is bigger than theirs (not bigger than their total army - but bigger than the main attack stack), then they don't counter attack it. They seem to cower from it in fact and try and use their attack stack elsewhere, where I can carve it up and destroy it.
Often they will have enough artillery or cannon to do significant damage to my army if they attacked it. I am not sure whether what is happening is:
- The AI looks at the size of my stack and decides that attacking it will cause too many casualties and therefore prefers to play defender.
or
- The AI has designated its army as an attack army that must be sent against my cities - and this army ignores any troops it meets along the way, even though those troops are enough to defeat the rest of the cities unless they are dealt with.
Does this match the experience of others?
Recently they have seemed extremely easy. It goes something like this:
1. I scout out the AI in advance and find their big stack of troops. Usually one city has a monster stack. Count the size of that monster stack.
2. Go full out on military production. I mean really full out - drafting + building troops in every city. Its not unusual to triple the size of my military in 15 turns or so.
3. Attack when my attack stack - which is about 70% of my total troops - is bigger (in numbers and quality) than the army I saw in step 1. I've launched armies of around 80 units in the modern era - mainly infantry. The turn before the attack my spies will perform any switches I want to. For example switch them from US to police state to reduce their production (I've already built my army so I can afford the production loss more easily and I will need to be in police state anyway). Or switch their religion to remove allies.
4. Keep my attack stack mobile and on defensible terrain - eg railroaded hills. Often wars at this stage in the game are long distance - meaning that my troops pass through other countries and use their railroads. My attack stack stays at the fringes of their terrain, but doesn't actually enter unless the only path to my terrain will require their army to come within striking distance (not so likely in railroads era). My attack stack is in range of counter attack though.
5. Have a number of scouting units - old chariots for example. These move ahead of my army and are used to locate the enemy army. This is important as the army can pass you on railroads and move out of sight.
6. Each time I've tried this the AI has never attacked my main army with theirs - their army has gone AROUND it towards my cities.
7. I then unleash some suicide cannons and all of my troops and destroy their entire attack army in one turn. By getting to deal collateral damage first, I score far more wins than they do and am left with more survivors.
8. From then on they mainly cower in their cities and just snipe with the occasional artillery or cavalry, which a big stack just shrugs off.
So my question relates to whether this is typical behaviour for the AI. If my stack is bigger than theirs (not bigger than their total army - but bigger than the main attack stack), then they don't counter attack it. They seem to cower from it in fact and try and use their attack stack elsewhere, where I can carve it up and destroy it.
Often they will have enough artillery or cannon to do significant damage to my army if they attacked it. I am not sure whether what is happening is:
- The AI looks at the size of my stack and decides that attacking it will cause too many casualties and therefore prefers to play defender.
or
- The AI has designated its army as an attack army that must be sent against my cities - and this army ignores any troops it meets along the way, even though those troops are enough to defeat the rest of the cities unless they are dealt with.
Does this match the experience of others?
