Noob warmongering guide (chieftan)

[emububbles]

I was once a noob like you. In fact, I'm still pretty much a noob. But I'm a successful noob. Here's a few tips for people that are looking to conquer but don't have the planning capacity to do it effectively

Step one: ALWAYS have backup troops
It is never a good idea to just empty your reserve troops and throw them at your enemy. Make a fallback team and keep it somewhere nearby, just in case your original units don't make it. Above all, the idea is to keep the enemy pinned so they can't launch a counteroffensive. If your attack fails and they attack back, you're screwed.

Step two: keep a garrison in your cities
This one would seem obvious to the more experienced players. Keep a garrison in your cities, at the very least your most important ones. This follows the same logic as the first step: never let them crush you back.

Step three: send more than a ship full
If you send just 3 units, they will be crushed by wave after wave of enemy units. At the very least send 6. If you plan on capturing more than three cities, send 9 or 12.

Step four: send the right units.
Never, ever send a defensive unit to attack. They will be killed with ease. Examples of defense units: spearman, pikemen, musketeers. After you get rifleman it shouldn't matter that much. The best units to send for attack are: warrior, horseman, chariot, swordsman, knight, cavalry. Once again, after you get to rifleman it shouldn't matter that much. Also, make sure you read the description for our civ-specific unit, to see if it's any good.

step five: pick your wars wisely
There are two things to remember about this one. Never attack someone with more than half of your power (this is assuming you're a noob), and never attack someone who has better technology than you. You can estimate how much power they have in comparison to you by clicking on the histograph function, and you can estimate what technology they have by opening up diplomacy.

Hopefully, this guide will put you on the path of being good at civilizations 3. If it doesn't, please notify me.

 

[Spoonwood]

Step Two can use modification. You only want to backup troops in border cities. You don't need backup elsewhere.

You generally want something like a 7:1, 8:1, or even 9:1 ratio of offensive units to defensive units.

Step Six: First soften targets with artillery before attacking.

Step Seven: Use armies and fish for MGLs as much as you can.

 

[RickFGS]

Never, ever send a defensive unit to attack

Wrong, a good defensive unit can and many times should always be present in an attacking stack, because when you invade, you probably need to lose one turn or deal with counterttacking forces, thus you need good defensive units to withstand a counter, that said, you could always use defensive bombard units like archers and siege engines, like catapults.

Also, a simple pack of a spearmen with an archer can rape a road/mine infrastructure of an enemy very efectively, cripling them badly.

Last, a good offense can be done with defensive units by standing on roads, hills, resources and on locations that the enemy needs to attack you. You can probably get lots of kills by defending inside enemy territory.

Agree with all others, but like Spoonwood said, they can be adapted depending on circumstances..

 

[Raliuven]

Step Eight: Understand the value of defensive terrain, both for your defenders and when attacking. Although the RNGod can be fickle, most of the time a string of what may seem to be 'bad luck' is actually a matter of poor execution of an attack. Common mistakes are not taking hills, walls and rivers into consideration when attacking.

A simple spear forted in a city on a hill with an attacker fighting across a river is a staggering 4.5 defense. That spear will chew up archers, horse and swords on a regular basis. A pike in the same position has a 6.75 defense; enough to match a cavalry at less than half the cost in shields.

How do you kill that spear? #1 Eliminate fighting across the river. #2: Like Spoonwood said in step six, bombardment. Knock the spear down to 1 hit point and you are more likely to kill it on a single good RNG roll, particulary if your attacking unit has 4-5 hit points.

 

[del62]

Step 9, understand the importance of fast moving units, and how you can use these effectively.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Step 10. Keep your units together, so they can protect each other. One tactic the AI is good at -- finding one of your troops that was left alone, with yellow or red HP after winning a battle. Keep your stack together as you march up to that city, watching the terrain (like Raliuven said).

 

[CommandoBob]

Step two: keep a garrison in your cities

This will depend upon your government. In Republic this is not a good idea, since military units in cities do not affect happiness. In Despotism and Monarchy and some others, military units in cities (commonly referred to as MPs (Military Police)) do affect city happiness and are needed to keep the cities productive. The strength of the unit is not important, but it must have at least one attack point. Artillery units (catapults, trebuchets, cannons, artillery and radar artillery) do not have attack points. Nor do settlers, workers or slaves.

I am not sure if naval vessels or aircraft work as MPs or not.

Step eleven: understand the relationship of government to war

In other words, beware of War Weariness. Despotism and Monarchy are not affected by this. Republic and Democracy are. In the first two, a war can go on a long, long time and the people don't care. With the others, well, the citizens can get tired of the war and will need a higher luxury rate in order to keep the cities functional.

Things that contribute to war wearniess are losing cities, losing units and having units inside enemy territory during the IBT.

 

[tR1cKy]

short version:
1) build a core
2) build barracks
3) build units
4) go berserk

 

[Richie0]

even shorter version

- build swordsmen/horsemen

- insurmountale position established in ancient era

- game over

 

[Raliuven]

AW Version
1) Go beserk
2) build units
3) build barracks
4) build core (on a foundation made of the skulls of your enemies)

 

[timerover51]

I am not sure if naval vessels or aircraft work as MPs or not.

Naval vessels and aircraft do not count as MPs. MPs have to be land units.

If you are going to invade someone, which you might do even if playing on a Pangaea map to hit a weak spot, it is best to use 6 or more units, and also have a settler along with a couple of additional units to immediately establish a city in the newly captured area to assist with your beachhead.

 

[Hellfiredoom]

What are these "defensive units" mentioned above???

 

[maurcus]

Step twelve take educated gambles.

 

[CivRulesAll]

I realize this is a semi revival but Step 13: Play as Persia and spam immortals.

 

[TLF]

I realize this is a semi revival but Step 13: Play as Persia and spam immortals.

That quote isn't some guy on the net, it's either Mac Arthur or Patton, but I'd go with Mac Arthur.

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his. -Some guy on the internet"

That quote.

 

[vorlon_mi]

That quote isn't some guy on the net, it's either Mac Arthur or Patton, but I'd go with Mac Arthur.

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other guy die for his. -Some guy on the internet"

That quote.

There's a quote from Patton here that contains the essence of that quote. Although the general was a but more blunt about it ...

 

[CivRulesAll]

There's a quote from Patton here that contains the essence of that quote. Although the general was a but more blunt about it ...

I know that.

 

[bluebox]

Currently, I have a hard time getting over with my uncanny habit to keep backup troops and garrison my cities.

I replayed COTM86 Germans a few times in the deliberate - and eventually successful - intent to move my troops to the front line immediately. This works because once you have a core with 3-4 cities running (on regent) you produce about an archer per turn in your core (talking about early AA here).

Even if barbs or enemy units are nearing your borders you will always have a unit at hand to direct it against the threat - not taking into account the fact that the units you have built in the turns before are also on their way. The moving units are spread out a bit on their way to enemy territory to hunt barbs and get put in a stack again before attack.

Letting the core grow in population, you can keep up that rate with horsemen or swords, if you do not want to mass-upgrade them from Warriors. An exeption is made when I need a unit or two in a city for happiness. I used 2hp warriors from goody huts for that task.

But maybe this tactic is a step ahead of the intermediate noob level you advice is aiming at. It is good to learn not to let the opponents get you on the wrong foot. There is nothing wrong in securing your cities with garrisons - but there must be another way how to score a conquest victory in 500BC.