Serasker Archers Can Take Down Walls

[MarigoldRan]

Takes a while, but they do it.

(Ottoman governor ability, which provides +10 attack to anything attacking a district).

I didn't intend to do an archer rush, but I had to build them to stay alive, at which point, why not use them?

 

[Sostratus]

Well, I think a lot of people called that during the ottoman video. Archers going from -17 to -7 vs walls means 3 archers hit about as hard as 2 spears - but importantly, unlike melee, ranged units don't take damage when they attack. If you got incendiaries it would really get fun.

Archers are just so much more convenient than catapults (they cost almost half and come early) that there's no reason not to bring them along. They don't cost resources either, so we expect players to shift to building more ranged units than before. Might as well make use.
Also serasker is just absurdly strong promo.
You think archers are good? Try swords+ram!

 

[MarigoldRan]

Yes, but you need iron for swords AND THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH IRON. (Or niter).

 

[Disgustipated]

(Or niter).

I'm playing Ottomans right now actually. I was actually short on iron for a while (and had to spend a lot of my scarce gold to buy tiles out to it after I conquered Russia), but I have tons of niter. I don't have any units that use it yet, but I know it's there when I need it.

I'm trying to play Ottomans traditionally, meaning the way the civ was designed. Though I only built 2 catapults, they are pretty strong. They seem to be getting a movement boost from my great generals and can move and and shoot in some cases which is pretty nice. They hit cities pretty hard. Though I have horses too, and my horsemen and rams are doing the brunt of the work.

As for archers, they do decent damage on city walls, but the comment above they don't take damage is silly. The city counter attack always attacks your archers. You would probably need like 10 archers to take walls down in 1 turn. I find archers useful for chipping away at walls, but I still prefer the ram and my catapults. And I'm having to divert some of my archers for barbarian control.

Now if I can just get my economy going. I just don't have city states to trade with.

 

[MarigoldRan]

I got the Maoi statue city state and Goddess of Harvest and I want to see how high of a culture I can get. Gonna spam that.

[But those Janissaries. They take up soooo much Niter since they're so cheap to build or upgrade].