The true skill in wars!

[SirJava]

The true skill involved in a war is not the initial offence - any idiot can send scores of tanks blitzing throught the enemy lines - the skill involved is knowing where the AI will counter-attack and when to engage the AI attack.

The computer is not going to take on your 4 infantry in the army as much as you would like it to, it is going to pick at your weak units left in the open, it is going to take workers close to your borders.

If you are inferior in numbers "our military is weak compared to theirs" dont be worried and quit. I have defended armies of 50 cavalry at a moments notice with only 15 of my own (without the loss of a single city and I was behind on everything).

Let the computers attacking collumn charge at your city (it will probably get stuck in your borders). Bombard it if it is in the hills and fortify nearby cities heavily - also guard surrounding hills. attack the collum with full force when it is on flat ground. -

Use the surrounding terrain to attack from it is useful. - most important if you are weak do not leave damaged units undefended - they will be toast. Above all frustrate the AI attack by making it fight through defended terrain at every point!

 

[JollyRoger]

One thing that has worked for me when I am weak is the "pillage stack." One two movement unit, a couple of bombarding units and as many of my best defensive units as I can afford. In open terrain, the fast unit does the pillaging. When in slow-moving terrain, the artillary pillages surrounding terrain during the extra turn needed. If I have an explorer, I will use that in place of the fast unit and artillary. Just take the path that will create the most havoc for the AI, whether it is cutting off resources, the capital or the roads up to your border. Getting as many nations on your side also helps as it can potentially cut off resources and luxuries to your enemy and open possible trades with your new allies that did not exist before. For example, in my current game, I had no available trading opportunities with India. But when I got them to ally with me, their trades with Persia came to an end. I was then able to trade iron to India for furs, tech and gold. We are in the middle ages and the unhappiness I am inflicting on Persia will soon start causing major problems. Militarily, their focus on my cities has waned as they waste units at my pillaging stack. By the time it is killed off, I will have another stack on the way and one in production. The other countries are on another continent, but hopefully, they will land some boats to further distract that back-stabbing Xerxes. By th way, Pesrsia attacked me right after selling me Chemistry on a mainly gold-per-turn deal. Guess they didn't want all that gold after all.

 

[Zeromus]

Originally posted by JolleyRoger
By th way, Pesrsia attacked me right after selling me Chemistry on a mainly gold-per-turn deal. Guess they didn't want all that gold after all.

You have to be careful when stuff like that happens. Those 20 turn deals, if cut early, will cause you to not be able to make them anymore(or at least it will be hard). In the case you mentioned, even though Persia is to blame, it will be hard to put a gold per-turn deal on the table with anyone. It looks like to the others that you cut the deal after you got what you wanted. Again, I know Persia is to blame, but you still suffer a rep hit.

 

[JollyRoger]

Are you sure I take a rep hit? I made the deal with Persia on my turn (they were polite). On their next turn, Persia declares war and attacks. I had absolutely no control over the situation. I have brought in allies as I can afford them, mainly on gold-per-turn deals and have been able to give gold per turn for tech and luxuries.

 

[God]

I use this strategy too, especially in the Industrial and Modern Eras.

I put all my units for the war, whether on offense or defense into my border cities. I leave one small city unguared in the middle. Its usually 4+ squares from the border line. The AI sends massive stacks of mech infantry. Sometimes they send almost all of theirs. I usually nuke this stack. Thats like 3/4ths of its army destroyed by one nuke. Sometimes my cities take some damage but its worth it. Then I send over my Modern Armor and kill of the stragglers. After that I move in with my armies.

Same strategy applied for infantry/cavalry era. I use artillery instead and have them knock the infantry down and then send in the cavalry.

 

[Koronin]

I've noticed that at the first sign of war, the AI likes to send everything they have at you within the first two turns.

What I like to do, is if they're bordered by another civ, is get that other civ to declare war them and attack from another front, the defending civ is usually beaten easily.

 

[zeeter]

I did this in the game I just finished. I was Roman, going against the Zulus (1st biggest) Persians (2nd), Babylonians (4th). Although behind in terms of territory and poppulation, I was way ahead in production and technology. I had a large army built to kill off the Greeks and Romans.

Since I hadn't seen a single ship in the game since the Egyptians went by the wayside, I was confident that I could send almost my whole army at the Zulus. This took eight transports and included thirty Cavalry, twenty artillery, and about twenty or so infantry.

After capturing one coastal city and the capital a few squares away I saw the Zulu army. There were so many units in the stack that they didn't fit on the screen. Just behind it was another stack with similar numbers. When I saw this, I withdrew to the cities and fortified. I also coaxed the Persians into the war on my side. After two turns of my artillery blasts, battleship blasts, and some cavalry attacks, the two stacks were reduced to rubble. They never again started any sort of offensive against me.

I with I didn't know this, however, because now I know exactly what the AI will do in late battles. It would be nice if the AI was capable of using units to support other units. Artillery to support cavalry, Infantry to support the Artillery, etc.. Instead they simply charge ahead and their offensive only lasts a few turns.

 

[fephisto]

Here's a no-no in fighting, if you're transporting units onto the shore, make sure they have more the a defense of 1 or later on, 5

Another one, NEVER leave any unit to attack alone, NEVER NEVER NEVER.

Got a pesky offensive unit on a mountain keeping you from attacking a nearby city? go beside another nearby city, that unit will be so worried you will attack it instead it'll leave of its rounds.

You CAN fall back and fortify

Don't undersetmate artillery units in bombqardment, or any unit for that matter, I once had a warrior destroy my musketeer (note, I have incredibly bad luck)

If your guy is wounded, let him go back an heal

pillage, using attrition is always good in a war, I suggest using explorers to do this.