Overpowered Spearmen

[GrandSultan]

During one of my recent games (as Carthagians) I was sending an assault force of 5 swordsman to attack a Sumerian city that was restricting one of my citys development/growth. On the way to the city I encounter a lone, conscript spearman, it wasn't fortified, it was in my way so I attacked it with my first swordsman, it was killed by the spearman and dealt not a single point of damage, the next swordsman dies doing a single point of damge. I decide that it was probably just really bad luck and I attack with another, it is killed and deals no damage. How is this possible? I fear to attack citys defended by spearmen because it almost a guaranteed loss for me, it isn't just swordsman that lose, musketman, knights, medivel infantry, even sipahi and cavalry hav lost to a single fortified spearman, most of the time these spearman are not fortified, have no other units with them, they usually arnt fortified on a mountain or are being attacked across a river. I dont what to do. My spearman fall like flies before a single swordsman, it is very confusing and frustrating, and help would be appreciated.

 

[Chaos_BF1942]

It the Mighty Spearman.

It just bad luck, I lost a tank to a spearman before. But never had anything like that happen to me (I did lost a spearman to a AI warrior when he attacked)

 

[Tomoyo]

Conscript? That was in like C3C 1.00. The spearman is very famous for upset defeats. I too have lost a tank to a spearman, and I have also had a fortified veteran Hoplite on a hill in city walls across a river lose to a regular archer.

 

[GrandSultan]

Wow, a tank? Well, that is kind of dissheartening, but at least I am not alone... Thanks for your replies.

 

[DS_Legionary]

I've lost a few few MA to Spearmen, so it's nothing to be owrried about. Sometimes it's just a really bad run of luck. Although I can think of many a time that I have had Cavalry kill fully healty Infantry with no loss to hitpoints.

 

[Turner]

Moderator Action: Thread moved to General Discussions.

 

[narmox]

hm you think that's bad luck? ok ok, this was in Civ I, but still... I had a city defended by some Mech Inf, and one spearmen. The russians nuke my city..... Only the spearmen survived! (or were they called Phalanx in civ1?)

 

[dmanakho]

It the Mighty Spearman.

It just bad luck, I lost a tank to a spearman before. But never had anything like that happen to me (I did lost a spearman to a AI warrior when he attacked)

Did you really????
There is an urban legend about tank loosing to a spearman, but i have yet to see a person who experienced this

 

[Dell19]

It does actually happen... Not that I have actually seen it happen...

 

[dmanakho]

It does actually happen... Not that I have actually seen it happen...

Yep, That is what i said and that is what constitute an urban legend
Everybody know's it happened but nobody saw it happen

 

[Dell19]

Enough people have said they have seen it to make it actually real. There is even a smilie for it...

 

[dmanakho]

Enough people have said they have seen it to make it actually real. There is even a smilie for it...

It is possible, it's just me who never met those people.

 

[alexman]

How do you get a conscript Spearman? It's not possible. You should have suspected he was the uber-Spearman just from that.

 

[Offa]

I don't see how you encountered a conscript spearmen either. But if you did attack one with 5 reg swordsmen your chances of taking the position were 99.9793% according to Sirps utility. I assume you didn't attack over a river.

 

[Dell19]

I assume by conscript he meant a regular spearman...

 

[Ranos]

You get a conscript anything by drafting a citizen so a conscript spearman is possible. I have encountered the super spearman before and decided to try to do something about it.

I changed all unit stats to give them more versatility and to elminate the super spearman problem. I tripled the stats of all Ancient and Medieval units except warrior and cavalry. For all Industrial and Modern units and cavalry, I increased the stats by 2/3 and then tripled them. I made a few changes after that, raising or lowering the stats by one or two. So now, Spearmen are 2/5 and Tanks are 75/45. When I lost my first tank to a spearman, I decided to make these changes. I have never lost another one.

 

[Halcyon]

There's no way you can get a conscript spearman in an unmodified game, as you need Nationalism to draft, and Nationalism lets you build riflemen, which need no resources. One assumes that he either meant regular, or was exaggerating somewhat.

It's quite common to lose tanks to spearmen when you foolishly think that one or two hitpoints is enough to ensure victory. The odds of a spearman doing that much damage to a tank aren't that low, especially if said spearman has a few defensive bonuses. Given that his swordsmen were probably only regular, and that he only attacked with two, and didn't say whether or not the spearman was on a hill, then nothing unusual seems to have happened.

I do sympathise, though. Odd things happen with chance. I lost a Conquests knight army (attack 6, HP 12) to a defending swordsman in the open a while ago, and stared in disbelief as an attacking Chasquis scout took out a defending elite musketman in a hill town behind double-strength walls in the Age of Discovery conquest. Equally, though, I once had a suicidial longbowmen which I had left out in the open defeat two attacking war elephants, so all's fair.

 

[GrandSultan]

I did mean regular, I just conquest recently so I am not as used to it as you all are. I have made some incredible attacks before, the red-lined musketman taking out one completly healthy cavalry and red-lining another before dieing, but the spearman reallly annoy me, it seems I need to have three times as many swordsman as they have spearmen to capture a city. I wasn't attacking across a river nor was it on a hill/mountain, and my swordsman were actually veterans.... But none the less, thanks for your input, I really appreciate it.

 

[akillias]

Save and REROLL THE DICE until you get the better of it

 

[binyo66]

Once, a reg cav attacked my army constst of 4 full healthy MAs on the city size 9. When I saw it, I said to myself, if I lost the army with a reg cav, I promised not to play civIII again. Luckily, the CivIII still loves me, and let the suicide cavs dead happily