Possible strategy after watching game play video

[migkillertwo]

Hi there,

As a long time lurker on these boards I thought I should join up now that the Civ 5 release is just a few days away.

After watching Greg's game play video I've put together a little strategy that I'm calling the Napoleon Gambit.

The basic idea is this. You build your cities close enough so that their bombardment capabilities can cover the other cities - so no more than 3 tiles away.

Besides providing the obvious defense benefits, you also cut down on road costs because your cities are so close. Greg's cities were pretty spread out in the video and it took him a long time to move his troops to the front. There was also that moment of shock when he found him self under attack from 2 cities at once.

Do you think it's a viable strategy?

I'm with Jedi on this one. I think you can easily achieve this by placing siege units around chokepoints.

Does anyone know if the bombardment abilities of cities are comparable to siege units?

 

[12agnar0k]

You can do this if you want to, but with less tiles to work, less food can be gathered, and city size will be afflicted.
It would be a more sensible idea to base placement mainly on "what resources will I get" rather than "how marginal I will be" (i.e encouraging cities to be close, or making sure they all have maximum tile's.)
Their are also other factors, such as diplomacy, i.e don't settle to near the enemy, as well as some defensive decsions (other than protecting one city with anothers bombardment), placing your city on a hill or with flanks covered by mountains could be more important strategically.

Plenty of things to consider, I suggest finding a balance that works for you.

 

[iop]

The basic idea is this. You build your cities close enough so that their bombardment capabilities can cover the other cities - so no more than 3 tiles away.

Besides providing the obvious defense benefits, you also cut down on road costs because your cities are so close. Greg's cities were pretty spread out in the video and it took him a long time to move his troops to the front. There was also that moment of shock when he found him self under attack from 2 cities at once.

Do you think it's a viable strategy?

For defense, probably yes. For everything else, probably not. You want to have your cities cover a decent amount of ground, since you're likely not to build too many, and since you want to have good chances of finding strategic and luxury resources in your empire.

 

[Numi]

The thing I worry about with the whole city attack thing, is it makes a HUGE difference early game im sure, but once you unlock 3 tile attacking artillery you can just line em up and knock em down.

 

[bjbrains]

The thing I worry about with the whole city attack thing, is it makes a HUGE difference early game im sure, but once you unlock 3 tile attacking artillery you can just line em up and knock em down.

Cities can get ranges of 3 late game I believe. At least, I remember seeing it in some screenshots/videos. Probably requires a building: The Castle or Military Base could be it (Since we don't know what they do).

 

[ShaqFu]

I like large empires though . Makes me wonder what my strategy will be for my very first game. I have no idea how many cities to build. Neither did I know in civ4 either. I remember getting in serious money trouble in civ4 due to over expansion.

The number of cities to build is easy - build until you can't, recover, and there you go.

While you can't whip your way back to solvency anymore, you can suffer through a short period of unhappiness, get Circuses/Coliseums/Theatres going, and take it from there. You can certainly expand, just not ISC-caliber aggressively; you'll have to grow, build, and then grow again.

 

[_hero_]

This *could* be viable depending on geographic situations. A combination of being near either the north or south pole and a land bridge, and you could theoretically "funnel" the enemy between your cities, so long as you have a strong navy to keep them from coming at you from the side. Conversely, if you are in a wide open area, or the middle of the map, they could just work their way around the outside of your empire .

 

[Tennyson]

It sounds like a good idea so long as you are not sacrificing potential population. A lot of things seem to key off the number of citizens (science research, military size).