LowtherCastle said:
f we capture Emerald City that would be three 2cpt TR sources.
I see what you're saying about getting better Trade Routes and if we are at a point where almost all of our warring against the AI Teams is over, it may make sense to capture Emerald City.
On the other hand, we'll probably need closer to my estimate of 30 land units just to be safe in our ability to capture said City by killing all of the Barb units defending the City, particularly if they are Longbowmen.
I would still aim to definitively destroy the Wizard and only go after the capture if we are at a point where we really don't have a use for our other units elsewhere.
If we wait until we have overwhelming odds at Emerald City, then won't we likely spend more turns gathering our stack than we would save in Commerce by owning Emerald City for a few turns?
babybluepants said:
I'm ok with a few, but elephants have a healthy bonus against mounted units, too. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, they're equivalent to pikes against all but other elephants. We also have lots of promotions in them already.
Some major differences are:
- A Pikeman gets to take advantage of any Hills or Forest defence that a square may have--this situation may happen rarely enough not to have an impact.
- A Pikeman can get a Fortification bonus--an extra 5% while we Bombard a City is relatively trivial since we'd probably have our stack attacked before said Fortification bonus accumulated (i.e we'd likely be attacked on the first turn after landing our units).
- A Pikeman can get a Fortification bonus as a City defender but is incredibly vulnerable to Macemen, so he's often more a liability than a help unless he's paired-up with a second defender like a Longbowman. Given that fact, you're better off just building a Longbowman if you really need to hold a City against enemy attackers.
- A Pikeman will fare better against enemy Pikemen. If they AIs aren't yet at Engineering, then this issue is moot. Since a Pikeman will fare worse against any other unit except for Spearmen, while War Elephants can often hold their own against non-entrenched Spearmen, again, you're better off with a War Elephant in enough cases to just want to have the War Elephant more often than not.
- Note that the cost is identical (both are cheaper than Macemen and more expensive than Longbowmen).
- Pikemen don't get +2 XP from a City (like Ivory City) that has a Stable.
- Pikemen CAN promote to the Cover (Anti-Archery) promotion AND can get City Raider promotions but the base strength of a War Elephant still makes the War Elephant a better choice in many cases.
