N00b question: How do you do well in a war?

[Thisnameislame]

I'm new to civ and been playing a few weeks. so far I have only time, diplomatic and space race victories on cheiftain or warlord, but I haven't managed to eliminate a single civ, let alone win by conquest. I can not figure out how to get enough units to put up an offensive fight. The ai seems to have an impossible amount of units, and yet they still manage to out tech me if I build any more units than needed for defense.Last game I had 5 musketman, 2 granadiers, 2 catapults against atleast twice as many artillery, sam infantry, and infantry. How do you guys get so many units without falling behind on other aspects?

 

[MyOtherName]

If you check the demographics page, you can get an idea of exactly how you're falling behind. If you're, say, last place in land area, that suggests you need to focus on claiming more land in order to be successful!

 

[Xerhid]

I would say that you are probably not playing "well" in other aspects of your game. For instance, maybe you're not building enough cottages and thus cannot financially support a large army; let alone falling behind in tech.

I wouldn't worry so much about military per se, but rather focus on improving your game overall. The strong military will follow if you become skilled at building a good empire.

While I am only a Prince level player, perhaps you could post a save game so I (and others) could comment.

 

[SuperOrion]

Watch what the AI does. It may not do it whatever it is doing very efficiently, but if it's beating you, then you should copy it until you find something that beats that.

 

[Nawz]

I had the same problem, and still do to an extent ( new myself, bout 3 weeks of play )

You have to focus on building your cities up. Better cities mean faster tech, more money etc etc. One thing that will help a lot is understanding placement and the effects that tiles are having on your city. This can only come from practice and reading the manual, and surfing the forums.

 

[Drakonik]

The key to armies is balance. If you send a SoD of 30 Horse Archers, then they're gonna be decimated by the first Barbarian Spearman you find. You need to have several horses, some axemen, a swordsman or three, and a couple catapults. That way, when the stack is attacked, the best defender will be picked.

Oh, and give at least one of the units Medic. That'll help a lot.

 

[alco75]

If you send a SoD of 30 Horse Archers, then they're gonna be decimated by the first Barbarian Spearman you find.

Against the AI though, it's usually enough to put just one counter-counter in each stack. So, in your example, I'd add an Axe/Mace to take out, or defend against, any Spear/Pike, to my stack of pure Horse.

 

[frankcor]

Against the AI though, it's usually enough to put just one counter-counter in each stack. So, in your example, I'd add an Axe/Mace to take out, or defend against, any Spear/Pike, to my stack of pure Horse.

Excellent point! And it's true in any era. Add a gunship to a stack of tanks and mech-infantry and the AI stops pummeling your invasion force.

Combined-arms rules!

 

[Gyspsysmoke]

Combined arms rule...this is true...but there is something to be said for stacks of Swordsmen overrunning the AI before they get to Ironworking (possible on prince at least)

The key is to getting your cities up and running as quickly as possible. This means tile improvements as well as buidlings (granary, barracks, courthouse, market, grocer, bank, etc)

My advice is to go straight for Bronze Working, and chop rush a couple of settlers (you can get your 2nd and 3rd cities out before the AI if you do). At this point I usually take Mysticism and chop rush Stonehenge but that's a style choice. If you are serious about warmongering get the techs you need for tile improvement (Ag, Animal Husbandary) and then focus on military (Archery, Ironworking/Horseback) and then go for Alphabet. The first unit I have my new cities make is a Worker, if you start taking cities they will have plenty of work to do.

Once you have Ironworking or Horseback riding (hopefully you will have 3-4 cities at this point, sometime 1000BC-0BC) start producing either swordsman or horse archers (stacks of them). Yes you should throw in some axeman for protection, for early conquests (assuming a tech edge), seige weapons are just icing, numbers will get the win...

 

[Dueck]

http://www.1bcciv.com/Topic2214355-82-1.aspx