DisruptiveIdiot
Prince
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2003
- Messages
- 319
I recently got out of a multiplayer game where I was fighting a two front war. Both civilizations had twice the amount of troops I had and had swordsmen while I had archers for most of the duration. I never captured any of their cities and I only lost one city (where I was backstabbed by one of them) the whole time.
One of the most neglected improvements is the wall. The wall is cruicial to fighting a defensive war under despotism. When you're whipping to get more spearmen to guard the city you won't get above size 6 to get the defensive bonus. Walls do just this and it can be the sole reason you can hold a city for a long time. One example is when I had an unconnected city with a wall get attacked by 4 archers and 6 swordsmen! It was only guarded by 2 regular spearmen and 2 veteran swordsmen. After the bloody battle I was left with a redlined elite spearman but I wouldn't have done it without some RNG luck and the wall. Second example : The second player attacked one of my biggest city which was the only one with iron. This was before the first example but the first looked more hopeless. 7 swordsman and 1 spearman reppelled by 1 regular spear and 3 veteran spears. How did I do it? The wall!
Second component of the defensive war : Catapults. You have a near 100% chance of successfully bombarding any offenders that are attacking from grassland. I had 2 catapults in one of my frontier cities that made the first player (japan) retreat! I didn't bother with putting them on my northern front to defend against player 2 because there were mountains and he'd get hit less often (plus he didn't attack much). Catapults can be used to push the front back too! I pushed back Japan 2 squares away from my city. It doesn't sound like much but when you're trying to halt an advance it can change the outcome of the war.
Third Component : Barracks; you need barracks or you'll be toast. This is common sense; veteran spears or regular spears? It's also needed for the healing effect. Prolonging the time your cities can hold their own without reinforcements is cruicial.
Fourth component : The guerilla archers/swordsmen. Archers are awesome! They have a good chance of defeating swordsmen and a better chance agaisnt horsemen! Are they finally getting strategic and are pillaging your roads? Have some archers around on the front line to pick off vulnerable units. It is rarely not useful to have 2 or 3 archers near your front lines. They can also be the spearheads of a counterattack! After all; the best defense is offense and actively attacking the units that are besieging your cities is offense isn't it?
However don't bother when you're in singleplayer only humans can be smart enough to pull off such offensives and dumb enough to only use brute force
Just remember what I just *****ed about and you can hold your own in many wars to come in your future.
Ideal Traits : My experience was with germany because I was intending to be peaceful (with barracks and walls in all my towns just in case) however, the best traits would be Militaristic and/or industrious. You don't need both of them but having both could be a major help.
One of the most neglected improvements is the wall. The wall is cruicial to fighting a defensive war under despotism. When you're whipping to get more spearmen to guard the city you won't get above size 6 to get the defensive bonus. Walls do just this and it can be the sole reason you can hold a city for a long time. One example is when I had an unconnected city with a wall get attacked by 4 archers and 6 swordsmen! It was only guarded by 2 regular spearmen and 2 veteran swordsmen. After the bloody battle I was left with a redlined elite spearman but I wouldn't have done it without some RNG luck and the wall. Second example : The second player attacked one of my biggest city which was the only one with iron. This was before the first example but the first looked more hopeless. 7 swordsman and 1 spearman reppelled by 1 regular spear and 3 veteran spears. How did I do it? The wall!
Second component of the defensive war : Catapults. You have a near 100% chance of successfully bombarding any offenders that are attacking from grassland. I had 2 catapults in one of my frontier cities that made the first player (japan) retreat! I didn't bother with putting them on my northern front to defend against player 2 because there were mountains and he'd get hit less often (plus he didn't attack much). Catapults can be used to push the front back too! I pushed back Japan 2 squares away from my city. It doesn't sound like much but when you're trying to halt an advance it can change the outcome of the war.
Third Component : Barracks; you need barracks or you'll be toast. This is common sense; veteran spears or regular spears? It's also needed for the healing effect. Prolonging the time your cities can hold their own without reinforcements is cruicial.
Fourth component : The guerilla archers/swordsmen. Archers are awesome! They have a good chance of defeating swordsmen and a better chance agaisnt horsemen! Are they finally getting strategic and are pillaging your roads? Have some archers around on the front line to pick off vulnerable units. It is rarely not useful to have 2 or 3 archers near your front lines. They can also be the spearheads of a counterattack! After all; the best defense is offense and actively attacking the units that are besieging your cities is offense isn't it?
However don't bother when you're in singleplayer only humans can be smart enough to pull off such offensives and dumb enough to only use brute force
Just remember what I just *****ed about and you can hold your own in many wars to come in your future.Ideal Traits : My experience was with germany because I was intending to be peaceful (with barracks and walls in all my towns just in case) however, the best traits would be Militaristic and/or industrious. You don't need both of them but having both could be a major help.
