I organise my offensive armies by being careful about my initial city placement and expansion. I work hard to minimise the exposed area, so there are only one or two frontier cities that I need to seriously worry about defending or attacking from. Normally I leave 1-2 offensive stacks in my frontier cities. My city garrisons start off as one archer and then I add irregulars or defensive units (e.g. the free pikemen from that random event) as my empire grows, especially if I'm running Slavery or Serfdom. If I'm running one of those then I sometimes pull the cavalry out of my offensive stacks and put them somewhere central, to rush towards revolters.
Realism Invictus
- Thread starter Walter Hawkwood
- Start date
I organise my offensive armies by being careful about my initial city placement and expansion. I work hard to minimise the exposed area, so there are only one or two frontier cities that I need to seriously worry about defending or attacking from. Normally I leave 1-2 offensive stacks in my frontier cities. My city garrisons start off as one archer and then I add irregulars or defensive units (e.g. the free pikemen from that random event) as my empire grows, especially if I'm running Slavery or Serfdom. If I'm running one of those then I sometimes pull the cavalry out of my offensive stacks and put them somewhere central, to rush towards revolters.
Zap0
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2020
- Messages
- 65
Early city placement for me is dictated by the achieving the best possible spots in the short and medium term. The goal is getting the most productive spots and snagging strategic resources. Copper and Iron are offensive resources, Horses are defensive - after all, you won't be cracking cities with horses in early warfare where defensive bonuses rule. They matter for fighting in the field, which is what you do on the defense. After one or two founded cities expansion is best done through war I find. It is hard to actually protect or isolate cities so that they are not on a border (and late game every coast is a possible invasion spot, too), so it's not something I usually try for. I greatly value placing cities on hills for the defensive advantage and am not shy to raze and resettle conquered territory differently.
Unless it's a freshly-founded unimportant city in the late-game or there is really absolutely no danger to a city (inland, far from border and coast, no slaves/serfs), each city gets at least two defending units at all times - too often have I lost important cities that had just one defender in them. Usually that's a bowman and an irregular or a spear - spears particularly if not on a hill. For actual I-am-at-war-and-there's-a-stack-sieging-my-city defense, sure, stack as many archers and anti-melee and other "hard" units as your logistics will allow before giving you the really bad modifiers. Keeping "soft" units (skirmishers and horses with negative city strength modifiers) in these cities, or behind them if they clog up logistics, is also valuable - they can attack out of the city onto the sieging stack while benefitting from a lot of aid and make use of their collateral and withdrawal effects.
Offensively, the army gets split into however many stacks is needed by my logistics level and the number of troops (-10% strength is fine). I give them all equal and balanced compositions, a few units of each type in each stack, partially to cover each unit against their counters, partially to make better use of aid bonuses. Nothing sucks more than getting a bunch of city raider IV axes wiped by a chariot and two shortswords because there was nothing else covering them and they aren't good at anything but attacking cities.
In peace time I try to beef up all border cities relatively equally, drawing together the units wherever needed when an attack comes. Paved roads help a lot with that. Offensive stacks usually stick around in the cities or forts nearest the enemy they expect to need to invade next, but only in addition to the regular defensive forces. It's usually a good idea to wait until the enemy has sent a stack towards you and you've dealt with it before sending in your own, regardless of whether you or the other guy declared. Offensive stacks that are two-thirds siege units, city raiders and cannon fodder infantry are pretty fragile in the field.
To give an example of what I'd expect an offensive army to look like: Two stacks, each with 2 siege units, 1-2 cavalry/skirm, 2-3 city attackers, 1-2 irregulars/anti-melee, 0-1 spear and 0-1 archer. Spears give you some resilience against the cavalry the AI likes to regularly suicide into you and archers help against ranged mounted (check if your enemy uses those) and make your stacks a lot more sturdy on hills. They're also the ones who get to garrison conquered cities and they can attack and defend against skirmishers, too. Having archers in your offense stacks is pretty neat.
Cities in which I'm expecting an attack get a dedicated siege unit too as soon as bombards come around since they allow you to remotely bombard stacks. Attacking stacks have a hard time healing bombardment/collateral damage. For that reason my offensive armies normally carry a great general around, purely for the heal promotion - it's a long way until renaissance medicine and being able to give out that promotion yourself. If the army gets split, one great general will do as it also has an effect on neighboring tiles and shuffling it around to whichever stack is needed works fine.
Forts on a border can also be invaluable, especially if there is no hill next to them (chop forests adjacent to forts and cities). They count as city tiles for combat calculations and give significant advantages (like withdrawal chances) when attacking out of them as soon as the second fort aid tech has been researched in the midgame. And it's much better to have an attacking stack walk into your fort rather than walk up to a city and raze half your improvements every time! When you first unlock forts they have a bonus against barbarians (including slaves/serfs), so putting them in economically dead spots inside your territory makes them ideal garrison points for your revolt suppression skirms and horses.
Unless it's a freshly-founded unimportant city in the late-game or there is really absolutely no danger to a city (inland, far from border and coast, no slaves/serfs), each city gets at least two defending units at all times - too often have I lost important cities that had just one defender in them. Usually that's a bowman and an irregular or a spear - spears particularly if not on a hill. For actual I-am-at-war-and-there's-a-stack-sieging-my-city defense, sure, stack as many archers and anti-melee and other "hard" units as your logistics will allow before giving you the really bad modifiers. Keeping "soft" units (skirmishers and horses with negative city strength modifiers) in these cities, or behind them if they clog up logistics, is also valuable - they can attack out of the city onto the sieging stack while benefitting from a lot of aid and make use of their collateral and withdrawal effects.
Offensively, the army gets split into however many stacks is needed by my logistics level and the number of troops (-10% strength is fine). I give them all equal and balanced compositions, a few units of each type in each stack, partially to cover each unit against their counters, partially to make better use of aid bonuses. Nothing sucks more than getting a bunch of city raider IV axes wiped by a chariot and two shortswords because there was nothing else covering them and they aren't good at anything but attacking cities.
In peace time I try to beef up all border cities relatively equally, drawing together the units wherever needed when an attack comes. Paved roads help a lot with that. Offensive stacks usually stick around in the cities or forts nearest the enemy they expect to need to invade next, but only in addition to the regular defensive forces. It's usually a good idea to wait until the enemy has sent a stack towards you and you've dealt with it before sending in your own, regardless of whether you or the other guy declared. Offensive stacks that are two-thirds siege units, city raiders and cannon fodder infantry are pretty fragile in the field.
To give an example of what I'd expect an offensive army to look like: Two stacks, each with 2 siege units, 1-2 cavalry/skirm, 2-3 city attackers, 1-2 irregulars/anti-melee, 0-1 spear and 0-1 archer. Spears give you some resilience against the cavalry the AI likes to regularly suicide into you and archers help against ranged mounted (check if your enemy uses those) and make your stacks a lot more sturdy on hills. They're also the ones who get to garrison conquered cities and they can attack and defend against skirmishers, too. Having archers in your offense stacks is pretty neat.
Cities in which I'm expecting an attack get a dedicated siege unit too as soon as bombards come around since they allow you to remotely bombard stacks. Attacking stacks have a hard time healing bombardment/collateral damage. For that reason my offensive armies normally carry a great general around, purely for the heal promotion - it's a long way until renaissance medicine and being able to give out that promotion yourself. If the army gets split, one great general will do as it also has an effect on neighboring tiles and shuffling it around to whichever stack is needed works fine.
Forts on a border can also be invaluable, especially if there is no hill next to them (chop forests adjacent to forts and cities). They count as city tiles for combat calculations and give significant advantages (like withdrawal chances) when attacking out of them as soon as the second fort aid tech has been researched in the midgame. And it's much better to have an attacking stack walk into your fort rather than walk up to a city and raze half your improvements every time! When you first unlock forts they have a bonus against barbarians (including slaves/serfs), so putting them in economically dead spots inside your territory makes them ideal garrison points for your revolt suppression skirms and horses.
Snowygerry
Deity
I do that too yes, organise armies around generals and assign generals to specific fronts.
I try to keep the separate corps near the supply limit, one army can have up 3 to such corps, operating alone or combining as needed.
Specialised corps might be hills or forest specialists - or in my current game a fast corps for suppressing slave revolts.
yurv3
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2019
- Messages
- 26
В начале игры я стараюсь строить первые города на холмах и у рек. В гарнизоне лучники прокаченные на защиту холмов. А если удалось получить доктрину то качаю по её линейке. Вдобавок к 2 или 3 лучникам , держу копейщика. Особое внимание застрельщикам, прокачиваю их в зависимости от местности- как егерей или мастера войны на холмах. Правильно прокаченные и под защитой крепостных стен они выносят всех агрессоров довольно длительное время. Так же большое внимание уделяю дорогам что бы быстро перебрасывать на опасные направления войска и строительству крепостей. Когда окрепну прокачиваю атакующих юнитов, мечников, топорщиков, конницу.
Mgundry
Chieftain
Translated to English:
"At the beginning of the game, I try to build the first cities on hills and near rivers. In the garrison, archers pumped to protect the hills. And if I managed to get the doctrine, then I swing along its ruler. In addition to 2 or 3 archers, I keep a spearman. Special attention is paid to the shooters, I pump them depending on the terrain - as gamekeepers or masters of war on the hills. Properly pumped and under the protection of the fortress walls, they endure all the aggressors for quite a long time. I also pay great attention to roads that would quickly transfer troops to dangerous areas and build fortresses. When I get stronger I pump attacking units, swordsmen, axemen, cavalry."
Mgundry
Chieftain
Great tactical strategies. Thanks for sharing. I wanted to go about getting recommendations for map setup. I prefer playing Earth maps, but not willing to play the large earth map due to turn times etc (lower end laptop). Any tips on obtaining the most earth like small map? Pretty flexible on number of players etc. Another question, does anyone typically play into later ages?
Snowygerry
Deity
I do yes, at first because I wanted to see the modern units and late gameplay, now for enjoyment - but it indeed takes some effort to set up a game that remains interesting that long.
Most games are decided long before that, indeed at higher difficulties you are almost 'forced' to play aggressively and win
I play random 'fractal' maps mostly as they seem they provide the best variety, there are several options and map scripts available for generating an 'earth-like' map, 'continents' iirc. probably others too.
Most games are decided long before that, indeed at higher difficulties you are almost 'forced' to play aggressively and win
I play random 'fractal' maps mostly as they seem they provide the best variety, there are several options and map scripts available for generating an 'earth-like' map, 'continents' iirc. probably others too.
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Zap0
Chieftain
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2020
- Messages
- 65
There's an Earth scenario that is large and one that is particularly huge. You can also generate Earth maps in any size in custom games by using the Earth2 map script - the special RI Earth map scripts don't respect the selected size and are always pretty big.
Most of the time i use the special RI map scripts. The Totestra script works fine for instance. It's nice to vary configurations like more water and islands + seafarer leader or have a cold map with few truly valuable spots.
I don't usually get into the later ages, most of my games end in the late Renaissance/early Industrial or before if I get conquered. Although I rarely ever play to a victory screen, when you have twice as many cities as the next biggest competitor and you're fine on tech it's just an exercise in micromanagement to click through to a victory screen. So the few times I got to 20th century tech and WW1/2 units I was already in the process of steamrolling the AIs. It's one of my wishes to have a game where you get to those later units and techs and still have them matter. With the unit diversity that starts appearing in the late Industrial age again it sounds like there can be some interesting tactical situations there again. The radical simplification that comes with Line Infantries in the early Renaissance makes actual combat dull compared to the rock-paper-scissors of the middle ages and emphasizes rushing Flintlocks and Military Industry. There isn't much of a gradual upwards power creep over time, just these big jumps.
I have been playing civ iv and many mods on 1920 x 1080, but RI changed the font to make it unreadable at that resolution. Playing at 2560 x 1440, while it makes the font readable, makes the UI too small. Can the normal civ font be used somehow? Can I scale the UI without making the text unreadable again?
Walter Hawkwood
RI Curator
While the general idea has merit, I feel it would represent a far shorter era of Russia's history, roughly 300 years. Moreover, Gulyay-Gorod kinda underscores the same aspect, as they were instrumental in Russian advance throughout the Steppes (though not so much later through Siberia). The main reservation I have is that such a flavour fortification has little gameplay merit, and it would be hard to adequately represent in-game. Ideally an Ostrog would tap resources and extend borders without actually needing to place a city - but that would be beyond my current coding abilities (and motivation). It would serve as a rather game-changing mechanic allowing Russia to capture large swaths of territory with relatively few cities, but, alas, as I said, I'm not prepared to implement that and tell AI how to make good use of it.
I second the Totestra script - it can be set to have a "New World" and generally fine-tuned to have rather Earth-like results if your goal is "somewhat similar". For "almost the same as Earth" Earth2 would indeed be the script of choice.
I play at 2560 x 1440 myself, so the UI in its current state is primarily a product of my preferences. I don't really understand the "unreadable" bit at 1920 x 1080 though, as when I switch to it it looks fine to me - maybe a couple of screenshots to illustrate the issue you're having. Anyway, if you just want to revert to stock fonts, replace the mod's Civ4Theme_Common.thm with the one attached. Note that there is also Civ4Theme_Common_Segoe.thm bundled with the mod, for an alternative font that might be more to your taste (also meant for replacing Civ4Theme_Common.thm; unfortunately no in-game switcher is available).
"Taoism has died out in Rome." While having just built a Taoist Monastery, and it is in the process of creating a Sage, to spread Taoism.
What is the logic behind this design decision? To weed out old religions? Taoism is my State Religion, and the only religion present in the city, by the way. I get that the game has a lot of religions, but come on. What can the player do to prevent the state religion from just disappearing?
What is the logic behind this design decision? To weed out old religions? Taoism is my State Religion, and the only religion present in the city, by the way. I get that the game has a lot of religions, but come on. What can the player do to prevent the state religion from just disappearing?
The only way to prevent it (other than disabling the option in the settings, obviously) is to convert your neighbours so that they don't want to found a new religion (and even then they'll still do it if they have a favourite religion they want to found). I believe you don't lose the construction progress, so if you spread Taoism back into the city you may be able to resume construction on the sage.
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Dairokutenmaou
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Messages
- 17
Does anyone have the procedure for packing the art assets in PakBuild? I updated my SVN version since I was itching to play civ4 again but I ran into the issue where I don't seem to get the correct procedure from memory and the RI website that had it is unreachable.
Walter Hawkwood
RI Curator
Why don't you just play 3.57? It comes already packed and it is exactly the same as the latest SVN, since I didn't commit anything new after the latest installer build (from 15/12/21).
Dairokutenmaou
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Messages
- 17
Oh my eyes completely flew by the "version 3.57a" and only saw the "Dec 6 2021" above it when I last looked. If possible I would still appreciate being reminded of how to do the packing anyway out of curiosity but thank you for pointing that the installer version is the same to me.
Walter Hawkwood
RI Curator
And again, the earlier Dec 6 installer was also essentially the same version, just worse packed. As for the actual packing, it just comes down to using this utility on the Assets/Art folder: https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/pakbuild.2384/ (no compression, store full paths; separate into files ~ 150-200Mb in size, store major asset types (terrain, structures, units etc) in separate fpk files).
Dairokutenmaou
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Messages
- 17
I assume you had changed how the pack files were read at some point? the way I had tried was how I had done in the past but it was all in a single "RealismArt.fpk" containing all of it which didn't work ingame.
Pardon me for asking questions of this type.
Walter Hawkwood
RI Curator
I changed it a bit, not the procedure itself, but rather the way they are organized - see the latest 3.57 installer for a hands-on example. The main thing that seemed to work was to keep different assets in different fpk's. It's a bit of a hassle to pack that way but seems to get rid of the "black terrain" effect. A single fpk is too big, and causes memory issues of its own.
TheBirdMan
King
Installed the mod with the new setup just before X-mas - keeping in mind NOT to fumble with the FPK-files.
Used quite some time to ajust what I want to ajust (XML-files only) - I'm now ready for my first "serious" game with ver. 3.57(a). All my starts and restarts during my prep for this game have loaded without any problems, so I look forward to some good play-time.
Used quite some time to ajust what I want to ajust (XML-files only) - I'm now ready for my first "serious" game with ver. 3.57(a). All my starts and restarts during my prep for this game have loaded without any problems, so I look forward to some good play-time.
