Tearing down The Great Wall

[Syntax Error]

Is it even possible to (land) invade a nation with The Great Wall? My army of pikes and crossbows get ravaged by Composite Bows.

I can see a possibility with a GA'd Persia (negates the movement penalty somewhat), but I think the only way to get it is to tech Dynamite, which is quite a few years away!

Now my plans to invade Russia to get payback for her early war is put to a grinding halt, because of that.

 

[ixias]

Once someone builds the GW, they pretty much get taken off my "attack" list. It's almost impossible to invade someone with large culture borders with the GW (Russia with the Krepost for example), so I don't try until I have artillery or even bombers. It's very annoying that the GW is only obsolete when the builder techs dynamite, not the attacker.

 

[DevilHell]

Have you NOT READ NAPOLEON??!?
DON'T INVADE RUSSIA FOR GOD SAKE!!

Alright
No, it depends on what difficulty you play on
I play on King, and I don't care about the GW, I see it more as a challenge
What I do is trying to build it if it's available by turn 80 or so
If not, turn 80 is early enough to let me settle a city really near the other city so that I have a strategic spot to plunk a citadel
Then I beeline military techs, range and siege specially, and I then carefully attack
it is not impossible

 

[smallfish]

Make them eat a lot of citadels all the way to cap

Chus and Keshiks are best for this

 

[Syntax Error]

I get the Citadels, but I'm Egypt, going for culture, and the only reason I have an army in the first place is because I ran out of stuff to build. That and freaking Pacal is prophetbombing my cities. Urgh....

 

[Crafty Bison]

GW highlights the benefit of movement and range. Keshiks and Camel archers can still do a short (1 move) kite. Longbow can still hit cities with immunity. Mand Cav (and conquistadors) still work like normal melee would. Persians still roll. Danes to a lesser extent too. Any sea attack of course. Without that, do citadels (see china). It's as good a use as any.

Problem I find is that th GW civ also gets the himeji catle on most games, and usually the kremlin too. Then it really is tough going, only if you really need to.

 

[azzaman333]

Do not screw around in their land. Get in, bombard the city, take it. If you can't easily take your targets, keep the war defensive until Artillery.

 

[The Pilgrim]

I get the Citadels, but I'm Egypt, going for culture, and the only reason I have an army in the first place is because I ran out of stuff to build. That and freaking Pacal is prophetbombing my cities. Urgh....

I'm not sure why one would want to fight GW owner as Egypt going for culture in the first place? Is he threatening your win?

 

[Syntax Error]

Not really, I just wanted to see if I could do it. I decided not to attack and instead just focus on building. It's not worth it and it is better to just go ahead and keep building. We have rubbing borders, so if worse comes to worst, at least I have an army to defend myself with. I'm just having an itch to get puppets, since this is the first time I managed to be able to get a sizable army while playing culturally.

 

[The Pilgrim]

Pick your opponents, you know.
I do get it though. For me it's always hard to stay peaceful when I have an army. Feels like a waste.

 

[Browd]

If you really are hungry for some puppets, I would bet other AIs have cities too ....

 

[YetiHunter84]

In my current game (emperor, standard), I was DOW'd by Hiawatha to my west, who had GW. After defending from his attack, I decided to counterattack despite his empire being located in thick jungle, and being slightly out teched (muskets vs swords). Basically did it by building three-tile-wide roads as deep into the jungle as I could, and bringing my army in from both sides in two turns. I brought bowmen, knights, swords and cats - strangely the AI seems to calculate the cat as the greatest threat, since it would often concentrate on taking out the cats only - the melee units and bowmen were undamaged and therefore had another turn to get into position. Once the first big city was taken, the massive roads made army movements much easier. Onondaga finally fell with the help of 2 citadels and freshly upgraded musketmen.

I lost a few well promoted units in the effort, but gained some epic puppets and wonders, so am now swimming in and gunning for growth. The great wall is definitely beatable.

 

[akashsara]

Strangely the AI seems to calculate the cat as the greatest threat, since it would often concentrate on taking out the cats only

I find this to be true. The AI almost always attacks my siege units first. So they're really useful as decoys.

 

[Browd]

Do you find this true even if there is a moderately injured melee unit in range?

 

[ense7en]

Citadels are extremely useful!

Without Artillery, it is just painful attacking someone with the Great Wall though.

 

[Buccaneer]

I find this to be true. The AI almost always attacks my siege units first. So they're really useful as decoys.

Which was unlike the earlier versions where they would attack the weaker units and leave the seige units alone. Glad they changed that.

To answer the OP question: early Artillery + Citadels.

 

[Light Cleric]

The question is whether or not it's really a good use of time and resource to go after them. I only do it if I have a strong mid-game UU to abuse like the Chu-Ko-Nu or Carolean. In most cases it's just better to pick another target to blow up. Don't underestimate the value of taking one of their satellite cities next to their capital and citadel bombing off of it. It's also helpful if you can pick up a CS near them because they will tend to send some units that way to attack the CS instead of bombarding your advancing units.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Take to the sea! GW does not affect ships or embarked units at all. I once took out GWed Honolulu without a single loss with an army of samurai and trebuchets landing around the city with trireme support. This was in vanilla when the trireme was a ranged unit, but same idea.

 

[The Pilgrim]

This was in vanilla when the trireme was a ranged unit, but same idea.

Not at all. Taking cities was much easier in vanilla, compared to the last patch especially.

 

[smallfish]

Not at all. Taking cities was much easier in vanilla, compared to the last patch especially.

Anyone remembered how Maltz conquered 4 Deity AIs with some samurais and few support units?

Yeah...