Tips for taking cities

[camel archer2012]

Hello again Warmongers! It's so refreshing to be able to damage cities with melee units again, just like really old times. Let's put some tips and observations here and start dominating!

Almost done with my first game. I've had a decent to huge tech lead most of the game so these may not work on all difficulties, but the principles should remain the same. Please add what you have learned!

1. Siege towers are very helpful. Allows melee units to bring down city health much quicker. I try to escort two of them adjacent to the city, then let my melee units start attacking.

2. Bring in range units behind melee to bombard city, beginning with archers. Archers upgrade to crossbows, then to a kind of pre-cannon unit. All are very effective at bringing down city defenses/health.

3. For melee and range units, save a promotion before attacking a city. City defenses don't seem to be as powerful as in Civ V (where units would get one shotted). In VI, they seem to be able to withstand much more punishment. When they DO get low on health, promote, and they heal by 50 points, and can keep on attacking, I believe. The only downside to this is you can't attack and promote in the same turn.

4. Don't forget to pillage. And there's a military policy that increases pillaging yields.

5. Knights don't seem to be as weak against cities as they were in Civ V. Don't be afraid to attack cities with knights, the more the merrier!

A few observations: What a relief that as a war monger, we no longer have to worry about whether to raze, puppet or annex the city, keep them all! there's no penalty that I can see.

If for whatever reason you DO raze (maybe you're afraid the city will immediately be retaken?) they seem to disappear on ONE TURN, not the painfully slow, happiness killing death as in Civ V.

There's something in the game, I think it's Terra-cotta army, that gives ALL units a promotion. Look back at tip number 3. all your units will now be able to with stand at least 3-5 city attacks, 2-3 before you promote, and 1-2 afterward.

 

[JustMormegil]

Hi, some notes:

4. Don't forget to pillage. And there's a military policy that increases pillaging yields.

farms are especially useful, as its the only improvement that hills unit when pillaged.

5. Knights don't seem to be as weak against cities as they were in Civ V. Don't be afraid to attack cities with knights, the more the merrier!

Don't forget that siege towers affect mili units only, cavalry will bump into walls

Also, range units like archers can be useful, but catapults/bombards are much more effective and can take down walls and city health really fast. Don't hesitate to take 1 or 2 for siege.

If for whatever reason you DO raze (maybe you're afraid the city will immediately be retaken?) they seem to disappear on ONE TURN, not the painfully slow, happiness killing death as in Civ V.

Personally I would never raise a city as there is no penalties from number of cities. Just take it, finish war - and you get additional production/commerce/what else for free.

 

[mice]

In the peace agreement, remember to get the city ceded to you.

Observation balloon effect stacks so use as many as you can to get silly range for your bombards/artillery

Encampments die pretty easily. its worth clearing them before taking the city proper

 

[JustMormegil]

In the peace agreement, remember to get the city ceded to you.

btw, what does this option give? Does it only decrease warmongering penalty?

 

[camel archer2012]

"Also, range units like archers can be useful, but catapults/bombards are much more effective and can take down walls and city health really fast. Don't hesitate to take 1 or 2 for siege."
Thanks for the tip. Cats were so weak in V that I formed a habit of never building them and the habit carried into VI. I DID build bombards and yeah they work very well. Even though the siege bonus doesn't apply to cavalry, I've still found them much more effective wearing down cities than in V. I just throw the whole kitchen sink at the cities, melee one tile away, ranged two tiles away, and knights 3 away.

 

[polinices]

The key to conquering and sieging cities in Civ 6 is understanding how walls work. Walls add a separate blue health bar to each city, and here’s the key: Regular units can’t do much damage to cities that have walls. Normal units only do 15% of their normal damage to city walls and don’t make a dent in the city itself; ranged units only do half damage. You need siege units to damage city walls—catapults, the industrial-era bombards, artillery and rocket artillery all do full damage to walls. But, as the walls wear down, your artillery will start doing damage to the city’s health as well, and your units will have more of an opening.

Three other big things you need to know about walls: First and probably most importantly, walls don’t regenerate health on their own. All damage to walls is semi-permanent, and lasts until the city manually repairs them using production. Cities can only repair walls if the walls haven’t taken damage in at least three turns, so it’s okay if it takes a while to wear them down. The damage sticks. City health, on the other hand, regenerates a little bit every turn unless the city is under siege—which occurs when every tile directly adjacent to the city is under the attacker’s direct control or zone-of-control (not counting impassable tiles). And, of course, encampment districts have their own sets of walls and health, so if you want to shut down the enemy’s constant barrage of assaults against you, you’ll need to take them out as well.

Two support units, both available in the early game, make sieging cities substantially easier. Battering rams allow units to attack city walls directly, doing their normal damage to the walls and making it easier to attack the city’s health directly down the road. Siege Towers, on the other hand, let melee units attack the city’s health even while the city’s walls are in place. Both continue to be useful for several eras; battering rams help wear down a city’s walls so you can make a big assault with all your units. Siege towers are more helpful if you have a large land army without many siege units.

So, here’s the shortcut to properly sieging a well-defended city: Use siege units to hammer the walls as much as you can, at least until they start damaging the city’s health directly. Use land units with battering rams at the same time to further wear down the walls. Then, throw the rest of your land units—attached to siege towers, if possible—against the city. And that’s it! You’ve got yourself a city. Heal up, rinse repeat!

Source: http://www.idigitaltimes.com/civ-6-guide-how-siege-cities-and-conquer-your-enemies-564550

 

[lamaros]

Attacking cities is easy, provided you have the right tech and unit mix.

Ranged units will only be useful if you have them in decent numbers, and the city strength is low enough relative to their strength, otherwise they will do piddly damage.

Melee will take down a city faster, but only until they get walls. Then you're left plinking at them with ranged again, which can be slow.

So get the Battering Ram, which will let your melee start smashing the walls at full damage again.

The Siege Engine is even better, and will let you cut right through to the city health.

Catapults do very good damage to the walls in particular, as do the things they upgrade to. This is only really needed if you're at a similar tech/strength to the city/walls, otherwise ranged is more flexible and will cut through quick enough.

These combinations (ranged, melee, support, 'bombard' units) will help you take out a city very quickly, when you get the mix right.

Other, non damage related things:

Pillaging stuff is really very useful, you can get lots of good things. Typically people only pillage farms for the healing, but everything else will get you good stuff too. If you have the pillage civic the more the merrier.

If you are going to raze the city anyway (because you want to replace your own somewhere, because you have enough cities already, because you can't take the amenity hit) the make sure to pillage everything first, otherwise you wont get the benefit.

If you're going to keep the city, still make sure to pillage every unique tile improvement anyhow - they will disappear when you take over.

Also - things under construction when you take over are simply removed, so maybe wait a few turns and let them finish the wonder before you take it off them if you're keen on it.

Finally, and important if you're not going in with a 1-2 turn smash of a city - you need to have a zone of control over every hex around a city to siege it. The can be done at least with 3 units for an openly placed city with no rivers. A siege will mean the city doesn't heal.

 

[mice]

btw, what does this option give? Does it only decrease warmongering penalty?

Without being ceded the city remains unable to grow ... I think . Growth stopped permanently as I remember, and always unhappy. Also Leaders wont go back and consider ceding it later. You have to get it in the peace deal.

Also BTW the field cannon doesn't hurt walls. It's not siege. I made that mistake. I guess that's why it's called a field cannon ,

 

[GroverCleveland]

"JustMormegil,
Don't forget that siege towers affect mili units only, cavalry will bump into walls

Exactly so escort those battering rams with Cavalry and Siege towers with swords!

 

[johnny_rico]

Without being ceded the city remains unable to grow ... I think . Growth stopped permanently as I remember, and always unhappy. Also Leaders wont go back and consider ceding it later. You have to get it in the peace deal.

Also BTW the field cannon doesn't hurt walls. It's not siege. I made that mistake. I guess that's why it's called a field cannon ,

growth is stopped permanently unless you eliminate the leader. Once they have nothing left, the city can grow again.

I don't see the point in pillaging in this game due to the fact there is not penalty for unlimited cities. I suppose the only time it is worth pillaging is if you're not looking to conquer the city in the first place or simply aren't in a position to take a city (i.e. no siege to deal with walls).

 

[SlightlyMad]

Pillage rewards are incredible and it's free to repair, so there's really no downside.

 

[johnny_rico]

Pillage rewards are incredible and it's free to repair, so there's really no downside.

then it's something i'll have to try...

 

[lamaros]

Pillage rewards are incredible and it's free to repair, so there's really no downside.

Yeah pillage is really underrated. I'm going to have to try Norway again with a very pillage focused rush.

 

[KmDubya]

growth is stopped permanently unless you eliminate the leader. Once they have nothing left, the city can grow again.

I don't see the point in pillaging in this game due to the fact there is not penalty for unlimited cities. I suppose the only time it is worth pillaging is if you're not looking to conquer the city in the first place or simply aren't in a position to take a city (i.e. no siege to deal with walls).

Your amenities will be spread to cover the new city so there is a cost, a pretty big one. I'd rather have whatever amenities I have spread across my better cities rather than keep some random captured city. Now if it has unique luxuries, strategic resources or something else of value then keep it.

 

[Japper007]

Be extremely carefull when trying to attack AI that is ahead in tech civics, while their units will die pretty easily, the city bombardment can be brutal, especially once they get Civil Engineering which give all their cities free walls. Had an AI that upgraded mid-war, it didn't go well for me.