Seige

[krw72588]

The AI will generaly move their units in stacks. Has anyone ever tried surrounding an enemy stack and forcing them to fight their way out? I use this tactic alot in the infantry era. You can use railroads to move your infantry in position and force them to attack you or use a few artillary pieces to soften them up in a multi-turn bombardment while the rest of your artillary is engaged else where. Has anyone else ever tried this?

 

[Pal {UI}]

I find that the AI tends to attack the weakest point first, then the next weakest and so on. If you surround them they will attack the unit on the worst terrain or the weakest unit, and keep attacking it until it is dead and them move on to the next weakest.

This means you are almost always better off putting all of your units on the best terrain (e.g. mountains) or keeping them all fotified on the AI's objective (usually either a city or a resource).

 

[Shabbaman]

Originally posted by krw72588
The AI will generaly move their units in stacks. Has anyone ever tried surrounding an enemy stack and forcing them to fight their way out? I use this tactic alot in the infantry era. You can use railroads to move your infantry in position and force them to attack you or use a few artillary pieces to soften them up in a multi-turn bombardment while the rest of your artillary is engaged else where. Has anyone else ever tried this?

Well, the good thing about stacks is that the attacking unit moves 'back' to the tile he came from (since the tile he'd go to is occupied by the stack). This allows for counterattacks. I'd rather take them down with artillery, and then finish them off then just let them attack me. What's the point of that? Then you could just as well let them get to your city, where your defending units heal faster as well (as long as you have a barracks there of course)

 

[Pal {UI}]

Originally posted by Shabbaman


Well, the good thing about stacks is that the attacking unit moves 'back' to the tile he came from (since the tile he'd go to is occupied by the stack). This allows for counterattacks. I'd rather take them down with artillery, and then finish them off then just let them attack me. What's the point of that? Then you could just as well let them get to your city, where your defending units heal faster as well (as long as you have a barracks there of course)

I think the point is that you would only do this if you do not have enough units or arty to wipe out the stack as your forces are busy elsewhere. Obviously if you can wipe them out then do so. However if you can't then either forify within the AI's objective as you say (usually a city or a resource) or alternatively fortify on a mountain next to the stack so that they attack you in the least advantageous way possible. Surrounding them just allows the AI to pick on the weakest point.

Has anyone else noticed a trend on these boards? Someone says "how do I deal with this situation?" and loads of people respond with "build lots of arty/bombers, MI and MA and kill them.".

 

[Tireur isole]

Yeah, I've done that before but only out of nessesity. In one game England landed three transports filled with everything from MA to Knights right next to my capital city which was my weakest point because I had been fighting elsewhere with nearly all of my army. Well, as Pal {UI} pointed out the always attack in the weakest piont first, lucky for me I had finished my RR tracks by then and was able to move defenders from other cities to destroy their entire force in one turn. I guess I realy wasn't thinking before I started the war.

 

[Renata]

Well if you were able to wipe out their entire invasion force in one turn, that's a good thing, right? Consider it as a brilliant trapping maneuver instead of a booboo.

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