Sword/Catapult attack tips?

[Paeanblack]

@futurehermit

Ditch the cats...they are just slowing down the attack. Swap them out for more swords and add a few archers.

 

[qrterlber]

I am going to say that if a city has walls, use a cat, otherwise it isnt needed. I just whacked Ghenghis Khan on emperor using 3 horse, 1 spear, one scout to start. I killed 3 cities and he has one new founded city left, defense 9.

The city defense is the key. I bounced horse off of everything and use the full heal instead of rough/open which is useless aganst a city. I imagine a sword would have worked similar to the horse. But you will always want horse before iron because that is the natural progression.

Sure drill and shock wont help you get a city but Marsh and Blitz will!!!!!

 

[HermannLombard]

Actually, rough/open promotions do work against cities.

I assume each of those works in its appropriate terrain? Yeah, it may be an ignorant question, but you know what happens when you assume!

 

[Gus_Smedstad]

Whatever the terrain of the city is. Usually it's open since settling removes any woods or jungle, but hills count as rough and thus get a bonus from Drill instead.

 

[Izmir Stinger]

Actually, rough/open promotions do work against cities. The game just doesn't show them as bonuses for some reason, but your strength and expected damage will atttack nonetheless.

What about flanking?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Mobility is the winning edge in this game, and swords/cats have less than horsemen. That said, swords should work just fine if you take advantage of terrain and ranged. Because they get defensive bonuses, the swords ----> rifle path can do SOME things horse units can't do, they are just less effective on average.

Your key priorities are scouting and positioning. Even swords can set up flank beatdowns on flatlands if the AI has no follow-up. Archers can chew the AI units up from behind cover of the swords - a nice feature for something that is comparatively inexpensive and does not eat up resources. Just be careful, and use great generals, good promos, and possibly discipline adjacent unit bonuses to push up your strength multipliers.

 

[pi-r8]

What about flanking?

As far as I can tell, flanking does not work against cities.

Speaking of hidden bonuses, being wounded DOES decrease your strength, it's a -5% penalty/HP lost, but again the game never shows this except as a decrease to your expected damage. This is part of the reason defending on flat land is such a death sentence- stacked penalties are really painful! If your unit is at 7HP, it will defend at -(33 + 15) = -48% strength! That's the equivalent of giving the attacking unit a 100% bonus!

 

[Izmir Stinger]

As far as I can tell, flanking does not work against cities

Figures they wouldn't. It says they do in the civlopedia so obviously they wouldn't.

 

[alpaca]

Mobility is the winning edge in this game, and swords/cats have less than horsemen. That said, swords should work just fine if you take advantage of terrain and ranged. Because they get defensive bonuses, the swords ----> rifle path can do SOME things horse units can't do, they are just less effective on average.

Your key priorities are scouting and positioning. Even swords can set up flank beatdowns on flatlands if the AI has no follow-up. Archers can chew the AI units up from behind cover of the swords - a nice feature for something that is comparatively inexpensive and does not eat up resources. Just be careful, and use great generals, good promos, and possibly discipline adjacent unit bonuses to push up your strength multipliers.

The biggest advantage for the sword path is the warrior into swordsmen upgrade: This means you can start killing AIs with very little hammer cost. Furthermore, Longswords are available earlier than Knights, which is another advantage. Horses, on the other hand, are more mobile and can move after attacking which is quite nice.

If I don't have a unique unit either way, I tend to let my resources decide for me: If I have Gems, Silver or Gold I go for Iron and if I have elephants or a lot of cows and sheep nearby I go for Horsemen. I also tend to factor in terrain because you rarely get good iron sources on grassland - for some reason, iron really likes deserts in this game.

 

[Dunkah]

Workers are usually too precious for me to sacrifice them for a single enemy unit

Unless I have the pyramids and captured lots.

The AI usually does this as well. They will send out a unit just begging to be attacked. Sometimes its a worker other times its a unit. Once you attack it you get smashed from 3 directions, so I don't think this is an exploit per se'. Although I guess the AI should be smarter about it.

@alpaca: Once your worker has been captured you smash the enemy troop then capture your worker back.

 

[Dünamünde]

Pillage their Iron and horse resources. Their units will take a hit in effectiveness. And will not build new... I do that A LOT, even pillage big food supplies and gold. Wait few turns, then make a big attack.

 

[alpaca]

The AI usually does this as well. They will send out a unit just begging to be attacked. Sometimes its a worker other times its a unit. Once you attack it you get smashed from 3 directions, so I don't think this is an exploit per se'. Although I guess the AI should be smarter about it.

@alpaca: Once your worker has been captured you smash the enemy troop then capture your worker back.

They will usually kill the worker after capturing it, I've seen that happen far too often to rely on being able to re-capture it.

 

[HermannLombard]

They will usually kill the worker after capturing it, I've seen that happen far too often to rely on being able to re-capture it.

Me too. "Darned tiger ate the goat again!"