The Great Wall as an offensive weapon

[Wodan]

Anyone else tried this? Build Great Wall, don't fight barbs (who cares about the XP), and pop settlers to rush in and settle using their 2 move (or prebuilt roads). Do it well, and you can "throw" 15-20 barbs (or more!) on an AI all at once.

Wodan

 

[KMadCandy]

i love this tactic. when i play on a low enough difficulty (for now) it's quite doable to build GW before the bad guys do.

i do farm the barbs for exp some tho, mostly to get medic 2 chariots. 10 exp is enough for that, 8 if you're charismatic, so barbs make juicy easy targets. i name them Doctor and i never do upgrade them to later (stronger) mounted units, so that they're never strong enough to be picked to defend if the stack they're healing up gets attacked. i read about that "mobile hospital" idea on these forums and it has worked out great for me.

but yeah i am all about checking 'raging barbarians' and planning on building GW so that the AIs suffer and i don't. muhahaha.

 

[weimingshi]

one advice to you, don't waste precious promotions on medics on too many units. You only need 1 medic for a whole stack and medic 2 is useless most of times, hell in the early ages even medic is pretty useless, you get much better milage choose some other combat promotion. After all medic only benefits if the unit survives the battle first.

 

[KMadCandy]

well i like my medic 2 chariots because #1 they survive the battles late game since they stay chariots (so they never fight things offensively, and are never the strongest unit in the stack to be on defense), #2 they can heal both units in a captured city and the units that were fighting outside (if the enemy isn't nearby, so that they can sit and heal), and #2 they can move two tiles. i don't make a ton of them, but i do make a few, estimating the numbers so that i can get one with each SOD later on.

if i fight barbs with melee units, those of course i don't get medic, i get more useful things. i particularly favor City Raider since gunpoweder units can't get that. and of course if the game lasts long enough i can build those units in my Red Cross city and get free medic 1 anyway so that's a total waste.

 

[frob2900]

hell in the early ages even medic is pretty useless, you get much better milage choose some other combat promotion. After all medic only benefits if the unit survives the battle first.

Surely, you must be joking? At least one medic per stack, preferably two medics in case you need to split stacks or lost one of the medics are essential as soon as you start fighting big wars.

On any kind of realistic difficulty level (Monarch and up) you need to steamroll at least one or two entire civs in the early years. Speed is of the essence in these wars and faster healing times can save hundreds of years on a conquest. If youre smart you will have catapults soon and suddenly almost all swords/axes start surviving combats, not to mention the catapults that withdraw from attacks..

You mean to say that e.g. one swordsman with CR II instead of CR I is better than an entire stack of 5+ units healing up faster? Crazy...

 

[futurehermit]

Medics rock. 1 per stack starting from barb-killing chariots is my rule of thumb.

 

[Crighton]

Medic MGs are great for sticking in your Buffer Vassals territory, much fun.

Otherwise I do a Medic 1 mounted unit of some sort, maybe have two in larger maps or two front wars.

 

[KMadCandy]

i got my last great general today in a game where the last remaining civ had only 3 cities left. i wasn't going to build any more units, he was going down and fast, so there wasn't anything really obvious to do with the GG, my units were strong enough.

so i turned George Patton into the ultimate hospital. i attached him to one of my medic 2 immortals that had been around *forever* and gave him medic 3 just to have had one once. he rocked. plus naming a unit Dr. George Patton made me giggle. that immortal had in fact first earned medic 2 fighting barbs.

 

[Sisiutil]

The Medic III promotion now available via a Warlord is great--it really keeps a stack on the move.

I still find I need a couple of addition medical units, though, like KMadCandy uses. (Though I usually use Spearmen and Pikemen--not sure how I got into that habit; I really should change to mounted medics.) I never bother with Medic II, though, except for the Medic III unit; don't units heal faster on the same tile as the Medic I/III unit? So why leave them bleeding next door?

My Medic III Warlord unit always accompanies the stack. The safest place for the precious Medic III unit is with the big stack, and that way he can quickly heal damage if they get attacked by a siege unit en route to the next target (which is pretty common).

Some badly-damaged units, however, may need to be left behind to heal in the last city conquered. This is where the additional Medic I units are useful. They're also great for healing damage after a counter-attack on a recently-captured city--again, a pretty common event.

But this is WAY off-topic. I haven't tried using the GW to throw barbs at the AI--I'll have to give it a shot. Frankly, I only bother with the GW if I have stone and a start where I know barbs will be frequent, unwelcome guests.

 

[KMadCandy]

The Medic III promotion now available via a Warlord is great--it really keeps a stack on the move.

I still find I need a couple of addition medical units, though, like KMadCandy uses. (Though I usually use Spearmen and Pikemen--not sure how I got into that habit; I really should change to mounted medics.) I never bother with Medic II, though, except for the Medic III unit; don't units heal faster on the same tile as the Medic I/III unit? So why leave them bleeding next door?

no, units heal at the same rate (25% above what they would otherwise) on the same tile as the medic 1/2/3 or on any tile adjacent to the one he's on. medic 1/2 without 3 is the same theory, but it's only 10% not 25%. i often end up with stacks split up by one square--the final attacker in the razed city, some that could still move are on that square to protect him, and then others are left up on the hill i was attacking from with no movement left, etc. in very early wars it's quite common that the bad guys can't hit me on either tile next turn, so the beauty of it is that none are bleeding next door. the opportunity (when it's safe) for both parts of the stack to not have to move to catch up with each other, just concentrate on healing up, with a medic 1/2 along for the ride can help. with only medic 1, he'd not heal the adjacent tiles, so i'd have to move some on a turn to make sure all injured soldiers are on the tile he's on (or just have more medics i suppose).

for me it's on-topic just because in my case it's how i use the GW as offense. not only to harass the other civs while in my own safety, but to benefit myself later in the game by farming exp off the barbs for weak and never-to-be-upgraded medic 2 mounted units. but yup, wodan mentioned in the first post that he doesn't care about farming the exp so i really have dragged this off-topic. i do love watching the other civs get beat on by barbs (or pillaged to heck and back) if my religion has spread to their cities if that counts

 

[Neoclast]

My favorite unit for my medic are scouts. Requires the right civics/traits/buildings in a city to make them a medic but done easily enough. They have a good movement rate and should never be the main defender in a stack and if he is all is lost anywho.