The Art of War

[Cort Haus]

Sanguinarius,

They know about all your military, and unlike the human player they don't have to pay to spy on a city.

Leave a border city poorly defended to encourage attack.

 

[MirandaCore]

A different view on WAR:

1. Don't defend ur inner cities. Put in a few warriors as military police in the inner cities, but leave 2 or 3 spearman/pikeman/etc in ur boundaries.

2. Build lots of horseman/knights/calvary. Mobility is awesome in both offense and defense.

3. Never war until u've got a TON of mounted units ("TON" depends on the situation). Its possible to get that and cultural developments if u dense build and have a lot of productive cities and not build defenses in ur inner city.

4. If you declare war on the enemy, don't stop the war until u've pretty much finished off the enemy. If u have enough fast units, and u're not behind in military tech, its easy to wipe out the enemy civ in a couple of turns. Just make sure todeclare war when u are READY.

5. If the enemy declares war on u, sign a military alliance w/ one other civ. U only need one ally because that one ally will pull in other civs to declare war on ur enemy.

6. Never attack with anything except fast units. Masses of fast units don't die because they can retreat and heal if losing and allow their compatriots to pick up the slack. Bombard units like Artillery are absolutely useless and footsoldiers are only good for defense.

 

[blix]

Originally posted by George-W-Ceaser
It was only my first game and I was france playing a large world map, i had allied the Indians and Japanees. and when I was going to attack the Indians with my Marines i had persuaded the Japanees to help and While i caputerd 4 indian villages i was counter-attacked by a huge roup of Veteran Barbarians that belonged to the Indians after my defeat i was again attacked and the Japenees had no intent of helping. Then i remberd "The only allies are the Enemy." Now im prepard to nuke all my allies when i can!

Good then you've learned politics.An allie and a friend is nothing but a pawn to serve your purpose,once they have served what you've asked of them,then they are now usless to you,so kill them quickly or shatter their power forever by sacking there main cities.Then once that is done,all they have left are a bunch of small feeble colonies and cities,thus preventing them from becoming a threat forever.Now they are your permenant puppet.

 

[blix]

Originally posted by MirandaCore
A different view on WAR:

1. Don't defend ur inner cities. Put in a few warriors as military police in the inner cities, but leave 2 or 3 spearman/pikeman/etc in ur boundaries.

2. Build lots of horseman/knights/calvary. Mobility is awesome in both offense and defense.

3. Never war until u've got a TON of mounted units ("TON" depends on the situation). Its possible to get that and cultural developments if u dense build and have a lot of productive cities and not build defenses in ur inner city.

4. If you declare war on the enemy, don't stop the war until u've pretty much finished off the enemy. If u have enough fast units, and u're not behind in military tech, its easy to wipe out the enemy civ in a couple of turns. Just make sure todeclare war when u are READY.

5. If the enemy declares war on u, sign a military alliance w/ one other civ. U only need one ally because that one ally will pull in other civs to declare war on ur enemy.

6. Never attack with anything except fast units. Masses of fast units don't die because they can retreat and heal if losing and allow their compatriots to pick up the slack. Bombard units like Artillery are absolutely useless and footsoldiers are only good for defense.

I agree but you also need infantry for an attack.You see cavalry is only there to drive away the enemy and infantry is there to hold the ground.So you will need a mixture of both when driving into the heart of your enemies territory.

 

[blix]

Originally posted by Cerv
I have to agree with everything you have said however I have a bit of a problem. I am currently at war with the Japanese on a continent other than my own. My initial objectives to weaken the Japanese to prevent the overrun of China and to gain access to more oil was completed long ago. I REALLY want to make peace to impliment new tech units however the Japanese refuse to talk to me, how on earth am I supposed to keep to objectives if the enemy will refuse to lie down. Not to mention the fact they are fighting and suffering terrible losses as a consequence. Even so i'm having to go overboard on the luxuries to stop me civ being torn apart by rioting fools.

Is there some other way to bring about peace other than trying to get these stupid other civs to talk to you? Is there some way to force peace on another civ? If so how, I would be really thankful if someone could tell me.

Well then make them listen by threatening one of their cities,sacking a city,or if as you say your taking lots of casualties,then hold them off long enough for a Political Victory.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by ironfang
Q. I have a military, how do I know if its good enough?

A.You have a few options here. You may contact your military advisor and he will tell you if you can support more units. You may also use embassies and spies to determine the strength of enemy cities.

There is an easier way which doesn't cost you anything. Just ask your military advisor and he will tell you the strength of any AI that you pick. For example...."Comparing to these guys, we are weak" which is the usual message I get most of the time.

 

[mihoshi]

It seems that AI don't care much to defend his attacking units while invading. You can use it in two ways
1. Have some attacking units in sieged city or fortified keypoint at the borders and attack invaders.
2. Easily retake cities captured from third civ. It's much easier to destroy some wounded cavalry than fortified musketeers.

 

[AlanH]

Originally posted by Moonsinger


There is an easier way which doesn't cost you anything. Just ask your military advisor and he will tell you the strength of any AI that you pick. For example...."Comparing to these guys, we are weak" which is the usual message I get most of the time.

That's because your military adviser doesn't think much of artillery, but what does he know

 

[James I]

A different view on WAR: (part of a larger quote)

6. Never attack with anything except fast units. Masses of fast units don't die because they can retreat and heal if losing and allow their compatriots to pick up the slack. Bombard units like Artillery are absolutely useless and footsoldiers are only good for defense.

That is what my egyptian friend thought, until a stack of 190 Sumerian Troops (mostly Riflemen) attacked his frontier.... At first they killed a lot of his fast attackers off...... The stack was big enough to hold them off (killing/routing), and then kill the injured ones next turn.
After that, the artillery i had convinced him to build (and some of mine in the interim- since he was blocking them from getting to me) hurt large numbers of troops each turn.....and the AI is reluctant to attack/counter attack with hurt units (even elites with only one bar off) so he slowly strangled them (picking off the smaller stacks retreating to heal), wiped them out and now has a large addition to his empire.....

 

[Sykron]

That is what my egyptian friend thought, until a stack of 190 Sumerian Troops (mostly Riflemen) attacked his frontier.... At first they killed a lot of his fast attackers off...... The stack was big enough to hold them off (killing/routing), and then kill the injured ones next turn.
After that, the artillery i had convinced him to build (and some of mine in the interim- since he was blocking them from getting to me) hurt large numbers of troops each turn.....and the AI is reluctant to attack/counter attack with hurt units (even elites with only one bar off) so he slowly strangled them (picking off the smaller stacks retreating to heal), wiped them out and now has a large addition to his empire.....

Don't forget bombers. The combination of artillery and bombers is deadly. When the AI sends a group of 5 or so units at me I first use artillery to weaken all the units then bomb them to death. If the stack has a LOT of units just use the artillery and bombers to weaken as many as possible on the first turn. Then pick off the damaged units with bombers as they retreat. Railroads are critical to this stragegy because it allows you to mass your artillery whereever it is needed. Don't forget to keep an infantry or two with the artillary to fight off random cavalry attacks.

Also, once you have railroads built you don't need garrisons (except for happiness). Just keep a reserve of six or more artillery. Wherever the AI appears move the artillery in to reduce the attackers to one or two bars and then eliminate them with whatever is available (bombers, cavalry, and infantry all work well).

 

[MAS]

@Sykron

Supreme bumpage!

This whole thread is obsolete, Sykron, much of the advice the OP gave is at odds with our current understanding of the game, 5 years later, and then even 3 years after the last post.

Also, we now have the expansions.

 

[Sykron]

Supreme bumpage!

This whole thread is obsolete, Sykron, much of the advice the OP gave is at odds with our current understanding of the game, 5 years later, and then even 3 years after the last post.

Also, we now have the expansions.

I was wondering if anybody was still caring for this thread. I am impressed with how quickly your response came.

I just wanted to underline the case for artillery after the earlier comment that it was useless. I didn't realize how much time had passed!

Is there a more up to date thread on tactics?

PS: What do you mean by bumpage?

 

[MAS]

"To Bump" is the act of posting in a thread to cause it jump back to the top of the forum.

Actually, I think I didn't use the correct word for it, "necro-posting" would be a better description of what you did.

I believe such very old threads shouldn't be revived back from their grave.
And I know I'm not the only one on this forum to hold that believe. It is, unfortunately, not against the rules to do so.

 

[Sykron]

"To Bump" is the act of posting in a thread to cause it jump back to the top of the forum.

Actually, I think I didn't use the correct word for it, "necro-posting" would be a better description of what you did.

I believe such very old threads shouldn't be revived back from their grave.
And I know I'm not the only one on this forum to hold that believe. It is, unfortunately, not against the rules to do so.

Thanks for the definition. I'll try to keep my necro-posting to a minimum.