Strategies for armies welcome here

[SSG Paul]

I finally got my first GL, and created an army with 1-rifleman, and 2 cavalry. India attacked me, so now I'm planning Ghandi's destruction. How do I properly use the Army to take cities. I also have about 15 cavalry near by. Should I use the army or just the cav. I'm not sure I properly understand how armies work, though I've read it in the manual.

Thanks

 

[Arrian]

Armies aren't really all that useful. They are like a unit with a ton of hitpoints. The problem with the army you created is that the 1-move riflemen will slow the army to 1-move. Second, armies can only attack once per turn (which sucks if you put Modern Armor in an army... they can hit 3 times normally). In general, three units operating independently are better than an army. However, I have found a use for armies:

The AI will rarely attack an army, because it knows that it will probably lose several units doing it. Therefore, if I invade, the army is used to protect my invading troops, whether it be a large stack of Cavalry, or the slower and even more vulnerable artillery.

Using an army on the attack is... well... no better than using the units in the army independently. Basically, if there is one unit you want dead, the army will make it dead. Armies are NOT invincible juggernaughts. I had an army of 3 veteran knights once that I used to attack a city with a musketman defender (Cavalry was a couple of turns away, and I wanted it NOW!). I killed that musketman, but my army had 1 hp left.

-Arrian

 

[eyrei]

Yeah. Your army is not going to do you much good. You might be able to get some use out of it if you build a bunch of cannons. As Arrian said, the AI will almost never attack an army, so just use the army to protect the artillery as it slowly reduces a city to rubble. Then your cavlary should not have any problem taking it over. Generally, you should make an army of units that have the same speed, otherwise it will move at the speed of the slowest one.

 

[Allemand]

I think armies are useful, but very expensive and they have some drawbacks. They heal slowly, you can't upgrade the units, and you can't reconfigure them. To make them really effective, you need about 10-12 armies. A dozen panzer armies will cut thru the AI like a hot knife thru butter.

Armies with obsolete units should be disbanded. That seems like a waste, so I don't build many until I have modern armor.

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

Originally posted by Allemand
I think armies are useful, but very expensive and they have some drawbacks. They heal slowly, you can't upgrade the units, and you can't reconfigure them.

I agree that there are drawbacks, but it hasn't been my experience that they heal any more slowly than other units.

Also, they are excellent for defense at any point in the game--though I'm thoroughly unconvinced of their offensive uses (except, as you mention, if you have a dozen of them).

 

[eyrei]

Many times in the industrial age, I have found the AI has an Infantry defending a large (13+ pop) city. Throwing cavalry at it might eventually kill it, but you will have half of your strike force sitting around healing for a few turns. You can also bombard if you have time to wait for the artillery to get there. Or you can use an army of cavalry to destroy that one infantry, and guess what, a pikeman lies beneath, and beneath that a spearmen. two or three cavalry can take these out, and the rest of your offensive force can move on, leaving your army to defend the city, and eventually heal. The AI does upgrade its units, but not very quickly, and rarely more than one per city.