The 'Bait and switch' plan...tried it?

[Nobikaigan]

When assaulting an enemy land to capture/raze a specific city, anyone ever try the 'Bait and switch' tactic, or have any ideas that might make it work even better?
To outline the bait and switch: (usually works at or before gunpowder era, never tried it in more modern wars)
(I play at Prince/noble)
Move up to the city that I really don't want to take/raze and begin to catapult or simply gather troops outside it for a couple turns. The AI will whip/draft/upgrade units in that city, and possibly rush reinforcements from other cities (as long as you leave a path for them)
At this point, move (switch) your stack to the city you really wanted from the beginning and begin the seige, or if enough of the defenders were diverted, simply take it outright ignoring the culture defense if possible. The ai will try to reinforce this city or retake it with a stack from the original city you seiged, but if done correctly you will have enough units to decimate the reinforcement stack. I found this really useful in dislodging stacks of archers/longbowmen and killing them in the open vice behind the city defenses. The purpose of this is to take the city with minimal casualties. It is always good to have scouted your potential targets and have a stack sufficient to get the job done regardless of sneaky tactics, but this trick working could mean the difference between continued expansion with a relatively intact stack and barely meeting the minimum objectives...
On to my question/reason for posting. Does anyone use this or a similar tactic with any success on higher levels? I am getting ready to try the move to monarch, so I was curious if the ai still reacts like this?

 

[johncross21]

Excellent idea but

I like taking the big cities stacked full of defenders because if there are more defenders each catapult does lots of damage whereas if there are fewer defenders the cats don't do as much damage. seems to me any city can be taken with 3 or 4 suicide cats provided that you have as many combat units as there are defenders

however if you can't match the enemy 1 for 1 this would provide another option.

 

[varus]

I find myself doing that by accident sometimes.

I'll march up to a city that I THINK is undefended and start blasting it with cats, then the AI moves a million men into it.

I say, meh screw it and move to another city, and I get there first. I've seen some enemy capitals with nothing more than 3 longbows while a huge stack of units sits in an iceberg city somewhere defending some deer.

If it's really that bad, I do what you said and just hit it outright, and in that case I will often raze the city too (depending on cultural stress and whether or not it is in proximity to my own land).

 

[cabert]

I find myself doing that by accident sometimes.

I'll march up to a city that I THINK is undefended and start blasting it with cats, then the AI moves a million men into it.

I say, meh screw it and move to another city, and I get there first. I've seen some enemy capitals with nothing more than 3 longbows while a huge stack of units sits in an iceberg city somewhere defending some deer.

If it's really that bad, I do what you said and just hit it outright, and in that case I will often raze the city too (depending on cultural stress and whether or not it is in proximity to my own land).

same for me.
I usually go straight for the capital, but if it seems impossible to take I'll do the "switch trick".
Variant : I pillage the "bait" (=capital for me) city to death, including the roads to avoid reinforcements to move away. At least, i try to make the road to the new target city take more than 1 turn, so I can take reinforcements out in the open (mounted units do great for this).

 

[Solo4114]

I prefer a different bait and switch tactic.

Basically, I know the AI tends to be dumb. So I may build up a good strong defensive unit, declare on the AI, and then stick the units on a forrested hill in the AI's territory (IE: right outside their city) or keep them in my own borders in a fort (or on a forrested hill or whatever) that is on the logical pathway for the AI to take in getting to my nearest cities.

Basically, I let the AI exhaust its main stack on my defending stack, then push forward. Call it the "Wellington Maneuver". Fight a defensive war initially, then push into the enemy territory, take what you want, and force a settlement.

 

[Rusty Edge]

I've been known to siege with ships with maybe a grenadier or machine-gun
on the outskirts. I can threaten three or four cities at once, that allows my main force to attack cities whose defenses have already been zeroed.

 

[Brave Jay]

I have done this before. Take a big stack to the ai's door, but have another stack in a friendly ai's territory just out of sight of the ai which i am at war with. wait about 5-10 turns (to give the ai more time to weaken cities by pulling defenses to the city that I'm threatening). then I will attack the weakened flank with full force. Seems to work pretty good.