Playing the Defense againts a much stronger Civ

[MdizzleLfizzle]

I've been reading the forums for a while, and I've been browsing the guides and I really like what you guys do here. I play on noble for BTS, and win about 50% of the time, getting better each day. One thing that gets me a lot on noble is the AI's aggressiveness, and the size of their armies. I prefer the peaceful victories, specifically the space race (though I'm not above a good axe rush or a war when it can be really benifical). In my last game, Russia (peter) was one of my closest allies. We had a defensive pact between us (peraclies), England (victoria), and the US (washington). Out of nowhere, (this seems to happen a lot with Russia) Russia attacks me and steamrolls over me in a few turns. Min you, I had about 6-8 defensive units (mech inf) in each city and an army split into two stacks of twenty and he simply drove over me with numbers.

What im asking is, how can i fight a better defensive war?

 

[Zanttu]

What im asking is, how can i fight a better defensive war?

Attack is the best defence. But if you don't want to attack, then you should at least have a good-sized army. Focus on defencing and fast moving units (well, mech infantry is one of the best because of its movement) and make sure you have good road/rail routes. Remember to build units what do collateral damage, this is a good way to weaken your enemys stack before it even gets to your city. Airships are a must in the late game, those can really save your ass. In the early game, build walls, castles, chicken pizza and some culture generating buildings to raise your defence bonus. And diplomacy. One way to prevent your enemies from attacking you is to make them attack someone else. You can bribe your rivals to fight with each other by giving them techs, money etc.

 

[r_rolo1]

There are some things that you need to fight a good defensive war: siege weapons or airpower ( in preference a lot of them ), forts in strategical positions with a handful of CG II/III units and maybe a medic, terrain preparation before the war ( includes strategical chopping to funnel enemy attacks to the killing point and a good roading/railroading ). Of course that implies having a decent idea of who will attack you, which implies a eye in the diplo ( my personal rule of thumb : never trust monty, boudica or any of the russians )

 

[Gliese 581]

Chop down forests right next to your cities if you can, that way an enemy siege stack wont get defensive bonuses and you can attack it from within the city with units that do collateral damage to weaken the stack and take it out with regular units if you manage to weaken it enough. Don't waste troops unless you think you can kill some enemies in the end though. Taking chances should be avoided if possible, make sure you have numerical superiority before attacking stacks if you can (or better quality troops), otherwise the enemy will use the best counter for every attack and then just heal up with more promotions than before. Make sure to have a unit with the medic promotion for your stacks, or a great general attached to a weak fast moving unit that you give combat1 and medic 1,2 & 3. You want it to be an old obsolete unit if possible like a chariot, that way you minimize the chance that it will be assigned to defend vs an enemy attack since that might get it killed.

 

[futurehermit]

1) Most newer players don't build enough military. Heck, I'm a seasoned vet and I still don't build enough military in my non-domination games. It is important to carry a big stick, even if you're walking softly.

2) Most newer players don't pay enough attention to diplomacy. Defensive pacts are good-that speaks of pretty good diplomacy. However, part of diplomacy is bribing the AIs to attack each other. If they are attacking each other, they aren't attacking you. If they aren't attacking anyone they will start thinking about who is the softest target...see point 1

 

[Gooblah]

A good defense focuses on many aspects. I'm more of an offensive player, but here's my ideas:

City Defense: Archery Units or Machine Guns or Mech. Infantry are the top defensive units. Promote Archery Units through City Garrison, and then Drill. Use Great Merchants in the late-game to get the gold needed to upgrade your Archers or Longbowmen into Machine Guns. Mech. Infantry get the same promotions as Archery Units. Keep a few Siege Units in each city, as they'll cause collateral damage against attacking stacks.

Border Defense: Here is where most of your strategy comes into play. I suggest the "Sonar Net" for naval defense; basically, use Stealth Destroyers and Submarines (see Plato90s' amazing Modern Naval unit guide for BTS) to surround your continent 10 tiles away from land (you can also use Caravels). Position them so that their Line of Sight does not overlap, but instead borders. Thus, you can see enemy fleets before they land. Build up a strong fleet on either "side" of your land to intercept the enemy. For land, I suggest keeping frontier cities stocked with Air Units, specifically Bombers. Gunships can be used for fast, hard strikes against enemy stacks. Forts are also helpful but can be a double-edged sword, since the enemy recieves the defensive bonus if the fort is captured.

 

[xanadux]

Sitting in your cities with defensive units will get you crushed by a well built army of the same size. The reason for this is that the attacker has the advantage because of collateral damage. The best defenses are attacking defenses. A few mech infantry is fine, but your main defense should be tanks and artillery, plus bombers or fighters if you can build them. You want to be the one to do collateral damage with your artillery. Since you should have an extensive rail network at this point of the game, a single large force of artillery and tanks can defend wherever the AI comes at you. If all you have are defensive units, the AI will weaken them so much with their artillery that they can roll you over.

 

[duende29]

1. You don't need a bunch of defenders in each city. What you need is a good road system and mobile troops. 1 defender on all your non frontier cities, 2-3 on your frontier ones, usually with CG and other defensive promotions. Then you have your army in a city or road a short distance from your frontier cities. The AI usually sends one stack to a specific city, so have fast roads to all of them. I've never seen the AI attack multiple cities at a time. Concentrate your defenses on the spot and if possible, counter attack before they pummel you with siege. Bring yours.

2. Limit the amount of defensive terrain around the key cities. That means chop any Forest/Jungle next to the city.

3. Try not to slack off and building too much instead of preparing/updating your armies.

 

[semirami]

1. Attack early in the game. Claim more land/cities/resources. You will have a huge tech advantage and will never have late military problems at Noble. If the AIs are stupid enough to attack your Mech Infantry with Rifles, well it's bad for them.

2. As mentioned, you must have enough siege/air/naval units, depends on the situation.

3. Distribute your units properly. Keep more at your risky cities.

4. Check the diplomacy screen often. If you see "We have enough on our hands right now", that is a sign, that the AI plans to attack someone. Maybe you are the target.

5. If nothing else helps, you can still whip/draft/chop units.

 

[allunderheaven]

I survive with little military most of the time, the trick is diplomacy, making sure the AI are busy killing each other instead of picking on you

 

[Snovvdog]

All important things have been said pretty much here.
But also:
Always pick off weakened or single units when you have a 75%> win chance, in any era, in the early times keep cavalary to either kill off damaged enemy soldiers or single soldiers.

Also, try to get them to attack you on a terrain where you have a defensive bonus, ie move lets say a musketeer into enemy territory and keep moving him on hills & forests, the ai will either attack him and lose at least 1 unit or will ignore him giving u the chance sometimes to raid his territory for gold or disconnect important resources. The ai also seems to send more units to the non frontline cities when you are deeper in his territory, so would automaticly mean he'd keep more units in his territory doing nothing instead of attacking you.

These strategy's however I've only tested in pre modern times, by the modern times I'm usually:
Alot stronger than the enemy.
I've lost.
Or I've won.
Never had a modern era game yet where the outcome of the game wasn't really decided yet.

 

[troytheface]

suggestions above do not include using The Holy Roman Empire which will give
you very strong archers and pikeman. 3 or 4 triple mountain defense archer/longbowmen can be tough.

i read a thread somewhere on this site where someone gave great stack breaking advice playing on the defensive think it was a thread on the protective trait.

But as is stated above, good defensive chess players/generals ect are waiting for the counter attack.

 

[futurehermit]

Flanking two horse-based units can do a lot of damage to an advancing stack now that they do collateral dmg to siege when they win (i.e., withdraw). If you have enough to wipe out their siege (collateral dmg can kill them!) and weaken the stack then any other units you have can finish off the stack.

 

[MdizzleLfizzle]

Thanks for the advice all. Modern warfare is a killer for me. I guess a valid point was made when it was noted that if I made it to the modern age without a clear victory, the the game was a draw at best. In the example I listed above I simply let Russia get too powerful, and the war above is unavoidable.

 

[suspendinlight]

Like the above post said, if they AIs are attacking each other they aren't attacking you. Do everything possible to create AI wars. This way they are spending valuable hammers building armies to fight each other instead of buildings that could enhance their economy. Just be careful of the "You brought a war ally in against us" negative. Only bribe against people who you can afford the negative diplomacy with.