Spread out cavalry...

[TastelessRamen]

I played a game on noble today, best I've ever done. I managed to completely outtech everyone else, I had tanks... they had the second gunnery unit, that kind of thing.

Got to the final stretch, and I was really winning, until I got into a conflict with both of the two remaining civilizations.

They got cavalry and put them into stacks of one, and sent them all into by land.

So all of these one stack cavalry are ripping the crap out of my improvements, and to my dismay they seem to hold up quite well against my tanks.

So my question, what am I supposed to do about this!? It seems basically impossible to counter since there's no way I can stop all of the cavalry, and they never stop coming...

 

[Zanmato]

Bombard them, ie. damage the entire stack instead of taking one out at a time with Tanks. Use Artillery and Bombers to weaken the stack first, then use your Tanks to finish them off and mop up. This way will be far easier and can take them out in the as little time as possible and suffer less pillaging.

 

[MyOtherName]

Bombard them, ie. damage the entire stack instead of taking one out at a time with Tanks.

Collateral damage doesn't do much to "stacks of one".

So my question, what am I supposed to do about this!?

The short answer: don't let them outproduce you. And if that fails, learn to become much better friends!

 

[Grimz101]

blitz + combat II + the one vrs mounted should own them, if you got railroads on too means lots of movement ..

 

[Roland Johansen]

A full strength tank will almost always win against a full strength cavalry. Don't attack with your wounded tanks. A tank that survives another day to kill another cavalry later is worth much more than the tile improvement that is going to be pillaged.

If you have bomber or fighters, then you could use those to weaken the enemy before attacking him. But your main production should be tanks now to deal with the pillagers.

Don't worry too much about losing a few tile improvements, you can rebuild them later. Altough, you might learn that those towns near the enemy border are quite hard to replace. Your first order of business is to win all of the battles without too much losses. If you can rush buy a few units, then maybe you can build those extra tanks that you need fast. So if you use the universal suffrage civic, then move your tax rate up to rush buy a few tanks. Infantry also performs very well against cavalry, so if you are a few tanks short then you can use infantry to remove the cavalry from your lands. Tanks work better though.

Good luck with your war.

 

[T'Jourd]

Cavalry = Horses = killed by Pikemen(cheap to create at this point in your game)

Tanks don't fair well when attacked always, ALWAYS use them to do the attacking!

Get the picture?

 

[Grimz101]

pikemen get owned by cavalary waste of shields better to make riflemen, but i think you can only make infantry riflemen are to old if tanks are around ?

 

[Vonreuter]

Well done, computer!

I wouldn't produce Pikemen, as they only have a strength of 6, which, even with the 100% vs Cavalry only amounts to 12 (vs 15 for Cavalry and 18 for Cossacks). Your Pikemen will get pummeled, unless you can create scores of them in one turn.

How about creating Cavalry units? You get fast troops with similar strength scores. If you're Russian, create Cossacks and hunt them down.

Oh, make sure you protect your Oil resources. If you lose those, you can't make any more tanks.

 

[Aldor]

Hm, I would give my tanks the promotion to do collateral damage. That should rip up those stacks...quickly

 

[Dr Elmer Jiggle]

I wouldn't produce Pikemen, as they only have a strength of 6, which, even with the 100% vs Cavalry only amounts to 12 (vs 15 for Cavalry and 18 for Cossacks).

As Grimz101 pointed out, riflemen should be fairly effective. With a base strength of 14 (unpromoted) and a natural 25% vs. mounted, they'd be fighting 17.7 vs. 15. That's not a huge arms gap, but it's enough to give them at least about a 70% chance of winning (a complete guess -- not based on actual calculations).

If you can use tools like vassalage, theocracy, West Point, etc. to get them enough promotions for Formation, you'd be looking at 14 * (1 + .1 (Combat I) + .1 (Combat II) + .25 (Formation) + .25 (natural)) = 23.8 vs. 15. A massacre.

 

[Loyran]

Don't worry too much about your improvements when at war. Keep a small stack in your border town and jump on enemy units whenever you have high odds of winning. Meanwhile keep attacking enemy cities, the less they have, the less they will produce.

 

[King Jason]

If you have a severe infestation, I'd simply use your aircraft to bomb as many as you can. Don't bring each one to 50% though, just wound as many as you can. So say you have... 20 planes and they're in your land with 25 cavalry, wound 20 of them a turn.

Then, with your army that you 'should' have bring a tank/rifleman to the nearest unit of cavalry and attack, the unit will already be a bit wounded due to the airstrikes, if you fail, grab another guy until he's dead or wait until the next turn to hit him with a plane again and then try. Railroads should make this VERY easy.

and of course, lastly... with only 2 civs left and you being in such a high lead... I wouldn't really be that concerned anyways =P

 

[bkwrm79]

Park infantry on your really important resources (like oil) while your tanks kill the cavalry. Also, if you can deny hill/forest squares to the cavalry, and get them to pillage plains/grassland, it will make it easier on your tanks, I think.

 

[Grimz101]

Park infantry on your really important resources (like oil) while your tanks kill the cavalry. Also, if you can deny hill/forest squares to the cavalry, and get them to pillage plains/grassland, it will make it easier on your tanks, I think.

cavalry dont recieve defence bonus on any terrain i thought?

 

[Disconnected]

If u have aircraft, use them. if u dont, research tech to get them. take time to build a good air force and keep it fresh, itll be ur best friend. place spies or scouts near ur borders, so u can detect incoming. then use ur air force to weaken them. when they get to you theyll be peanuts. if ure defending a newly conquered city, bomb nearby enemy cities while u heal and prepare for taking out the next one.. dont take out city def, bomb units. other way, also take out their production. so i do understand your dilemma about the improvements. pisses me off when mines are being wiped out
on the other hand, cavalry is a bitx. i use tons of it to early city takeout, and i know that they can do serious damage. but against tanks? bomb the stacks hehe. . just weaken them them take them one by one. but make sure u have enough units. sometimes, in the rush, this might be forgotten...

 

[Selous]

well how serious is this invaion? worth a change of governemnt?

As Grimz101 pointed out, riflemen should be fairly effective. With a base strength of 14 (unpromoted) and a natural 25% vs. mounted, they'd be fighting 17.7 vs. 15. That's not a huge arms gap, but it's enough to give them at least about a 70% chance of winning (a complete guess -- not based on actual calculations).

If you can use tools like vassalage, theocracy, West Point, etc. to get them enough promotions for Formation, you'd be looking at 14 * (1 + .1 (Combat I) + .1 (Combat II) + .25 (Formation) + .25 (natural)) = 23.8 vs. 15. A massacre.

a simple change of government can make your new units so much tougher, you only need a couple of points above the enemy for good results ......
and mebey if their are that many of them riflemen might be a better choise. riflemen cost 110 and tanks cost 180 and i think riflemen are good enough to kill cav, why waste tanks

 

[xonixs]

TastelessRamen, so how is it going?

 

[Thalassicus]

Gunships. With West Point and all wartime civics, units pop out at 14 XP, just 3 shy of the fourth promotion. Give your gunships Combat I, II, III and Blitz, and you can take out four units per turn! Use a handful of fighters (I keep five-ten available) to air strike each cavalry, and then your gunships can go to town.

Another effective killer of outdated units is Drill-promoted tanks. Since your tanks already have good odds against weaker units (in the field, don't use this for attacking cities), First Strikes allow the tanks to kill them and take little to no damage, making full use of Blitz and reducing healing time.

 

[Fragment]

Had the same problem with Monty last time who would send scores and scores of cavalry against my infantry and later tanks. I made a rather large front across the whole island, with a few "defenders" (attacking infantry), up to 6, in every of the 5 border-towns, moving along railroads. Monty send cavalry in, cavalry dies, sends cavalry in, cavalry dies, ..., dies, dies, dies. I couldn't believe it. I got some 26 XP infantry units. He obviously had a production advantage, but never managed to come more than 3 squares into my border. I also lost quite a few infantry. I resolved to beelining for tanks, and slowly, very slowly, chewed into his territory, going for his resources first, then razing 3 of his main cities. Without horses, and no happiness resources, Monty had no decent units left to produce which could stand up against my tanks. With his 3 main cities lost, he's got only his capital left for production. That turned the tide. In his country-side, I could do what I pleased.

Hitting his resources (try a 4 stack of tanks, with drill, diverted for that purpose) would probably do that for you, too. Do not underestimate the value of happiness ressources. Imagine the hit if there is one more unhappy person in all of your large, productive, cities. Then one more, and another one. Add war weariness to that. Also, try to get other civs to stop trading with him.

Regards.