Stack of Death

[Drakonik]

It seems like I'm not the only person to encounter this problem. I'll be waging war on a civ, and all of a sudden, a stack of twenty to thirty units will show up, and even though my units are much more advanced, (I typically wait until I have gunpowder units, the other guys are typically still dicking around with axemen and swordsmen) the opponent beats me down by sheer numbers.

The best strategy I can come up with is to get a LOT of collateral-damage units into the stack with my army, and basically have them all commit suicide, while bringing the health of the units in that stack down. After that, I have to throw my soldiers at the opposing stack, and hope that some survive (to take the city, or defend mine), and that all the enemy's stack is dead.

I'm a very very casual player, and I don't have a very clear and defined strategy. How do hardcore experts battle the stacks of death?

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

*shrugs* if you're building artillery and you're still having trouble, the only thing I can say is that you need a bigger stack of death yourself. How many of your hammers, percentage wise, do you spend on troops? Maybe you need to cut back a wonder or two and spam out more men.

 

[Drakonik]

I couldn't say how much I'm putting into my army. Like I said, I'm a casual player. I let my cities automate what tiles they work, I don't micromanage anything. I was just hoping that there was a more...graceful strategy than "throw a lot of stuff at it".

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

but you're still selecting what you build right? How many of the times when something is finished building in your city, do you select to build more troops as opposed to a building or a wonder?

 

[theKurgen]

If your stack is full of city raider promoted units sometimes it can help to withdraw from a crappy city and let the enemy take it. Then you can use your city attack bonus to smite his ruin upon the mountainside.

 

[Drakonik]

When I'm at peace, I build one or two of the most modern war units to put in my cities, and at war, I'll either be producing units to build up my invasion force, or doing my peace-time thing and building buildings to upgrade my cities.

Edit: That is to say, I build one or two for each of my cities, so that when Mechanized Infantry are running around, I don't need to worry about Archers defending my capital.

 

[theKurgen]

You should always have a heroic epic city that is maximised for production and basically does nothing except pump units for the entire game. Only stop to build the HE, forge etc or any buildings absolutely needed to help it grow.

 

[Drakonik]

Well, I'm going to make sure I have a city built purely for pumping out military, but that doesn't really help my original problem. Is there a more elegant solution to the AI's "Stack of Death" than just throwing a lot of units at it?

 

[arstal]

flanking II cavalry units to take out their siege after the siege suicide.

 

[Bob-san]

Depending on the AI's units, you could do a number of blitz-promoted Gunships (helicopters). Having 5 attacks a turn and decent strength (24) allows you to hunt down pre-Rifle units at will. That, and finishing off stacks is best done by those relatively weak units. Just be careful if you try to capture workers--a Gunship will destroy the worker instead of capture it. Other than that, yeah some form of collateral-damage weapon is really needed. Using flanking cavalry is very effective--you need 6 or so to survive to kill most/all siege weapons. Basically just build a bigger pile, or make peace when you stack is soon to die. The AI rarely considers what your stack can do to them or what theirs can do to you--if you've done enough damage, they'll make peace. Also, if they want back a city, pay them gold. I've gotten away with anywhere from 100G to 1000G instead of a city.

 

[Yzman]

I usually find that their stacks of death are very old units so I just strong more modern defenders and they usually lose quite a few of them.

Unfortunately this is realistic to a degree. You could have the best army in the world, but overwhelmed by sheer numbers, you will probably lose. Just means you need a lot more quantity, or more quality to take care of their stacks.

 

[Gwynnja]

If you have rifling and the enemy is sending axemen and you're still losing cities then something is wrong. 3 or 4 riflemen with a CG II promotion should be enough to hold off classical era units without any problem. can you post a save?

 

[Sueff]

Try getting first strike promotions for your defending units. When your armies are relatively more advanced than your oppenents the chances are pretty good not to lose any health points when fighting the enemy. Also first strike promotions will cut down the amount of collateral damage these units take.
You could try a protective leader, they start with a first strike promotion and city garrison promotion.
Also, as others have pointed out, send some horse archers, knights or cavalry promoted with flanking on them.
And last but not least, don't ever try to defend a boarder city with only two defenders, no matter how advanced you are.

 

[Napalm102]

I think you just need more units. Also try to anticipate from which direction the enemy is likelly to come i.e. most often it is the border of the civ you are attacking. But yeh...more units. When I invade with rifles I usually have a minimum stack of at least 20 + siege equipment, numbers of 30 or 40 are not that uncommon (you have to garison your new cities), and quite a few defenders in the city that is likelly to get attacked. Also you said you are building units when you go to war. Thats bad, you have to build most of your army before you go to war, because when at war AI will build just units and that war will quickly become far longer then necessary.

 

[Airefuego]

As above: more units, more siege...

...and more regular scouting of your enemy, so you have advance warning of the stack!

 

[BSmith1068]

Another thing that has not really been mentioned yet - although hinted at - is to determine where you have some good defensive ground that is likely to be in the path of the invading SOD. If you are on a forested hill, and have been fortified for quite some time, with units that have good promotions for defense, there is a good chance that the SOD will attempt to attack these units first and really weaken itself. Your units may not survive - but it will make mopping up the remainders of his stack much easier for your other units. You can also pre-weaken with siege like you are doing...

 

[sabo]

You should always have a heroic epic city that is maximised for production and basically does nothing except pump units for the entire game. Only stop to build the HE, forge etc or any buildings absolutely needed to help it grow.

I HE, like Kurgen says you should have at least one high production city with this wonder (and Military Academy, and some warlord specialists) that only cranks out units the entire game. You don't want to just concentrate on buildings when an AI or two comes knocking at your door.

My strategy is to at least be able to scrap together a mini SOD but with alot of cats, cannons, or arty and catch it in my culture space.

 

[Kawalimus]

It's also possible that force right there is their main force, almost all their strength concentrated into one pile. You have a couple options. But first make sure like others said you have a city just pumps out units.

Sometimes when they have such a concentrated force, the rest of their cities are poorly defended. That could be a great opportunity to take a bunch of their cities in just a few turns. That's why it's good to have some spies available, to see where they have left themselves weak. Sometimes you don't even need to waste siege weapons taking a bunch of their poorly defended cities.

One time I was at war with Isabella on Monarch and while she managed to take one of my cities, I took three of hers in the same amount of time. Then in the peace deal we made, she chose to give me back the city she took from me . Bolstered my force a bit for the 10 turn treaty, declared war again, and finished the job until she capitulated, taking her capital Madrid and all the nice wonders that were in there.

Or you could focus on taking out that stack, which can also cripple them cause they won't have any offense left. But I prefer the option of taking a bunch of their cities that may be poorly defended.

It's just important to know how your opponent's defense and offense is set up. With prior knowledge of this you can be prepared for any attack they throw at you.

 

[geofelt]

If your attacking army included some units with flanking capability and flanking promotions, then you can damage several units with your one. Every time your flanking unit survives, either by eliminating the opponent, or by withdrawing, you cause damage to multiple units in the opponents stack. With several flanking attacks, you can reduce the stack power to negligible, and even eliminate most of them.
In addition, If you have multiple movement units in your attack force, they will have a movement left after attacking so they can move in and protect the newly captured city for one turn until the rest of the attacking force can move in and recuperate.

 

[Navarre]

I typically wait until I have gunpowder units, the other guys are typically still dicking around with axemen and swordsmen

Try the Ethiopian civ. Run Vassality or Theocracy and pump Drill IV Oromo Warriors, virtually immune to siege damage and negating every counter-unit bonus most ancient units could have. Chinese Cho-ko-nu work fine too, with the help of some pikemen.

A Great General bound to one of these units can take whole stacks on his own. Take out an entrenched Drill IV City Garnison III unit is quite a challenge.