Secured Road Network

[Angmar]

I havent seen anyone post about this here before. It is a tactic that I have been working a bit on in the last little while. In a massive war I just had with France it helped very very well.

At all times I ensured that my road networks near and to France were protected.

Originally this started out as just spearmen along the roads. However after capturing a few workers I quickly put them to use building fortresses along these roads. Then finally I started to use my own workers to ensure I had a decent defence along my road network.

This ensured two things, which I consider critical during a war and Im kicking myself for not doing it earlier.

1> My trade network was never disrupted by French spearman pillaging my roads. At all time all my cities had access to iron, horses and luxuries. Very imporant

2> Im not sure if this is even more important. At all times I had a road network from my cities to the French border that wasnt blocked by allies! I can not count how many times I tell my reinforcements to go to a front line city only to have to "leave" my road and hop off into a jungle to dodge a portion of the one of my allies armies that was using my road system. ( I usually sign RoPs with alliances ). What should of been a two turn reinforcement would end up being a 4! This made sure that my troops would always get the road bonus.

3> Ties to #2 .. makes RoP with my allies a little less effective. They would sometimes have to leave my road network and spend a few turns marching through jungle to get around my fortified road network.

4> When the counter attacks came I usually had "extra" defenders nearby all my cities that I could take off the road guarding and stick in the cities.

All of these some extra workers and some extra defenders which will upgrade all the way to the end of the game...

 

[cavemanf16]

But having all those Spearmen probably cost plenty of money, right? Besides, I'm kinda confused on how or why you would keep your civ small, in return for lots of military units. I mean, at some point you've gotta do SOMETHING with that military, which means capturing enemy towns, thereby increasing the amount of roads you need to protect.

 

[Angmar]

This is true, but if you conquer lands properly you can move the fortified line. Now that Ive conquered France, I am building a fortified road network near Germany. I have moved all my pikemen to this new road system. I still have all the fortresses there that if the war with Germany goes bad, I know I can fall back to.

To qualify my statement. I do not fortify every single road I have made in the game. Just key roads to key locations. The core of my civilization is 100% roaded, however the border towns usually only have a road going in and a road going out. These are the roads that are fortified. I am also playing on the largest land mass, so HUGE armies are common. 20 spearmen out of a 200+ unit army isnt much a sacrifice to ensure your road network is always there for you.

Cheers,