Unit Defence

[lucashp]

Im trying to learn how to play Warlord better, but I always get creamed, and I always seem to use 2 units per city. I guess this is a question of goverment and support costs, But what do you use on your lvl? And what should I use for warlord?

Although I do stuff like, Keep all damaged units in cities after wars, Or if its a closest city near the enemy territory I will defend it better.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Im trying to learn how to play Warlord better, but I always get creamed, and I always seem to use 2 units per city. I guess this is a question of goverment and support costs, But what do you use on your lvl? And what should I use for warlord?

Although I do stuff like, Keep all damaged units in cities after wars, Or if its a closest city near the enemy territory I will defend it better.

Do not defend your cities, defend your empire. I generally use about 0.0001 garrison per city, and an army of fast movers to actively defend my empire.

 

[civverguy]

Im trying to learn how to play Warlord better, but I always get creamed, and I always seem to use 2 units per city. I guess this is a question of goverment and support costs, But what do you use on your lvl? And what should I use for warlord?

Although I do stuff like, Keep all damaged units in cities after wars, Or if its a closest city near the enemy territory I will defend it better.

Since you play on warlord. Try to build as many offensive units as possible and rush the enemy.

 

[Siaphi94]

that should work because you get a good productive advantage on warlord. but build enough cities so you can support them.

 

[Delphi456]

A better way to phrase the question would be "What habits can I learn at Warlord level that will be useful all the way up to Diety"?

1. CxxC city placement
2. Limit the number of wonders you build
3. Republic slingshot
4. No temples or spearmen
5. 1.5 - 2 workers per city
6. Avoid wars until after you get Republic, and avg city size is ~8-10, then kick off Golden Age. (this is just my personal preference)

Just implementing the first 5 will make you better than half the players on this forum.

 

[Snarkhunter]

1. CxxC city placement
2. Limit the number of wonders you build
3. Republic slingshot
4. No temples or spearmen
5. 1.5 - 2 workers per city

Just implementing the first 5 will make you better than half the players on this forum.

Wow. I'm well on my way, then

kk

 

[Aabraxan]

One of the pieces of advice that I got when I was first learning the game was: Try a game in which you build no wonders (or maybe it was no AA wonders; I can't quite recall). Through the AA, build only settlers, workers and military units. Under those circumstances, I was astonished at how fast conquest went.

As to Delphi456, I agree with most of what he says, but would comment on number 6. I almost never make it to Republic with size 8-10 cities before war. I almost always need to go to war before then.

 

[JDAllison]

6. Avoid wars until after you get Republic, and avg city size is ~8-10, then kick off Golden Age. (this is just my personal preference)

I have a question about that: shouldn't I still be in my REX phase then, and therefore have <6 pop in all my settlements (except the ones on rivers that require no aquaduct)? I have always tried to remain in REX until I either run out of room to expand, or hit 1000AD, whichever comes first. The only settlements that will switch off of building settlers are the ones that are so far away from the new city placements that it would take more than 15 turns or so to get there; I usually change production in those distant cities to workers.

 

[Delphi456]

As to Delphi456, I agree with most of what he says, but would comment on number 6. I almost never make it to Republic with size 8-10 cities before war. I almost always need to go to war before then.

I should rephrase #6 to: After getting Republic let cities grow to size 8-10 before kicking off GA because the larger city size will reap more benefit from a GA than smaller towns would.

I'm not a fan of early wars because my army is pitifully small because I usually only crank out settlers and workers, with the occasional warrior thrown in for MP, until swords are available - and then I still survive on 1 barracks, while the rest produce cats. It's risky, but it's working well in my first Diety game.

 

[Delphi456]

I have a question about that: shouldn't I still be in my REX phase then, and therefore have <6 pop in all my settlements (except the ones on rivers that require no aquaduct)? I have always tried to remain in REX until I either run out of room to expand, or hit 1000AD, whichever comes first. The only settlements that will switch off of building settlers are the ones that are so far away from the new city placements that it would take more than 15 turns or so to get there; I usually change production in those distant cities to workers.

I forgot to mention that I still have my 1 settler pump and 1 worker pump cranking. But Republic needs high pop cities to get max benefit, especially for unit support.

 

[pol1]

at the beginning i concentrate on REX building lots of workers and some warriors for happiness and scouting. switching to military in despo, i'd hardly reached republic without any war.

ah and read Ision's article in War Academy about wonder addiction.
the cost of early wonder is usually to big comparing with benefits - units instead to go and capture it?

 

[Mao Zendog]

1. CxxC city placement
2. Limit the number of wonders you build
3. Republic slingshot
4. No temples or spearmen
5. 1.5 - 2 workers per city
6. Avoid wars until after you get Republic, and avg city size is ~8-10, then kick off Golden Age. (this is just my personal preference)

Just implementing the first 5 will make you better than half the players on this forum.

Now hold on just 1 second!
You made some fine recommendations, but there is more than 1 way to win the game here!

the first 2 recomendations you make i agrea with. As for the rest, not so much.

If you plan on going into alot of wars, then it may be a better idea to go for monarchy. Monarchy is the warlords goverment, it just is. Why elss would they put war weriness and less unit support in republic? Republic is for peace!

As far as spears and temples go, these can be some of your more important units/buildings. Temples = Higher score = more happy people. And who needs archers for attacking when you got catapults? Build nothing but alot of catapults and a couple spears to protect the catapults. Then go through enemy territory city by city with taking few, or no casualties. People who are obsessed with offencive units tend to spent the entire game building hundreds of offencive units. That is a waste! Your citys can be making usefull things. Just build a couple cats, and spears and be done with it.

Workers: You can never have enough workers, as long as they are slaves! Why build your own workers when the ones that your enemys make are pleny? Domestic workers are a waste of unit support cost. Yes, you will need a couple in the early game, but i always build them into my citys after i acumilate enough slaves.

Avoiding War: As long as you are shure that you are growing/producing at a faster rate than your opponent, war can wait as long as you want. Waiting to fight a war agenst a civ that is creating more units than you is a bad idea.

This is just another way to beat people at civ. I am not trying to put down Delphi's methoud, which is much more common than mine, in any way.

 

[Mursi lives]

Some simple rules:

1. Specialize your cities: some will build settlers and workers, the other ones will build military. Dont wait to be at war to build military.

2. Never build troops in cities without barracks. The only exception should be the couple of warriors you will build at the very begining to explore the map. The diff between regular troops and veterans is huge.

3. When you begin to lack space for new cities, it's time to fight. Sometimes it means very early war.

4. Why build any great wonder? Your kind neighbors are building them for you.

5. Bash them, but with a clean reputation. They will give you nice techs and cities to survive 20 extra turns.

If you plan on going into alot of wars, then it may be a better idea to go for monarchy. Monarchy is the warlords goverment, it just is. Why elss would they put war weriness and less unit support in republic? Republic is for peace!

That's certainly what the conceptors of the game wanted. Unfortunately, it is not what they got. The truth is that republic is so overpowered that it is almost always the right choice, especially in C3C. War weariness? a non factor as long as you are not losing the war. Support? Yes, it counts but only at the beging of the game. When you got some cities, the commerce bonus and the reduced corruption are by far more important.
The last game I played was a big war from the initial archer rush to the domination victory, with almost no peace turns, and still republic was the way to go. The only difference is that a warmonger may want to stay in despotism a bit longer, for support issues and because some techs (IW, the wheel, HBR, sometimes maths) are more urgent than republic.

Workers: You can never have enough workers, as long as they are slaves! Why build your own workers when the ones that your enemys make are pleny? Domestic workers are a waste of unit support cost. Yes, you will need a couple in the early game, but i always build them into my citys after i acumilate enough slaves.

I am myself fond of this strat, I even remember a game where I built my first worker at 10 BC. However I am not sure it can work at low levels. Will AI civs make enough workers?

 

[MAS]

And who needs archers for attacking when you got catapults?

Last time I checked, catapults can't kill enemy units or take cities.

Build nothing but alot of catapults and a couple spears to protect the catapults. Then go through enemy territory city by city with taking few, or no casualties.

Using catapults slows your conquest down, but will also, as you say, reduce your casualties.
But you casualties will be even less if you used archers+catapults. Its simple math. Archers are twice as likely to kill that red-lined unit than a spear.

People who are obsessed with offencive units tend to spent the entire game building hundreds of offencive units.

Better than spending the entire game building defensive units

That is a waste!

Only if you don't use them. And in my experience, defensive units are often used far less.

Your citys can be making usefull things.

Such as? Offensive units!

Just build a couple cats, and spears and be done with it.

For peace-mongers spears are even less useful. As most of the time they just stand around and look pretty.

 

[Aabraxan]

I'm not a fan of early wars because my army is pitifully small because I usually only crank out settlers and workers, with the occasional warrior thrown in for MP, until swords are available - and then I still survive on 1 barracks, while the rest produce cats. It's risky, but it's working well in my first Diety game.

I don't doubt that it works for you, Delphi456, and congratulations on taking on Deity! That said, I had to laugh when I read that. "I'm not a big fan of early wars . . . I like to wait until swords are available."

As long as I can get out of Despo before I have a GA, I'm pretty happy. Obviously, you want to get as much out of the GA as possible, but getting out from under the despo penalty as soon as my economy will support it is pretty high on my priority list. If I can get a decent sword stack for the first war, that's great. I never seem to make it that far, though. My first stack always seems to be 5 or 6 archers.

If you plan on going into alot of wars, then it may be a better idea to go for monarchy. Monarchy is the warlords goverment, it just is. Why elss would they put war weriness and less unit support in republic? Republic is for peace!

I wouldn't go so far as to say "Republic is for peace." Granted, Monarchy is better suited for AW or other particularly vicious games, Republic is pretty durable.

As far as spears and temples go, these can be some of your more important units/buildings. Temples = Higher score = more happy people.

Before we get sidetracked improving his score, let's bear in mind that the OP was asking for tips on helping win the game.

Im trying to learn how to play Warlord better, but I always get creamed, and I always seem to use 2 units per city.

And who needs archers for attacking when you got catapults? Build nothing but alot of catapults and a couple spears to protect the catapults. Then go through enemy territory city by city with taking few, or no casualties. People who are obsessed with offencive units tend to spent the entire game building hundreds of offencive units. That is a waste! Your citys can be making usefull things. Just build a couple cats, and spears and be done with it.

As much as I like cats, you need some offensive units, too. As MAS pointed out, archers are twice as likely to kill an enemy unit as a spear.

As far as "building hundreds of offensive units" being "a waste," I have to disagree. Offensive units are useful things.

Workers: You can never have enough workers, as long as they are slaves! Why build your own workers when the ones that your enemys make are pleny? Domestic workers are a waste of unit support cost. Yes, you will need a couple in the early game, but i always build them into my citys after i acumilate enough slaves.

Most of this, I agree with. I tend to gather as many slaves as I can during the course of a game. If you can get enough slaves, it no longer matters that they work half as fast as domestic workers and they're free!

Avoiding War: As long as you are shure that you are growing/producing at a faster rate than your opponent, war can wait as long as you want. Waiting to fight a war agenst a civ that is creating more units than you is a bad idea.

The question to ask is whether avoiding war is advisable. This may change at higher levels, but I find that at Monarch/Emperor, taking a couple of AI towns early in the game cripples it so badly that it likely will never recover.

Will AI civs make enough workers?

Yes. It hides them in towns and calls them "citizens." You just have to burn their towns down to get to them.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Yes. It hides them in towns and calls them "citizens." You just have to burn their towns down to get to them.

You could also build them from captured cities.

 

[Mursi lives]

Yes. It hides them in towns and calls them "citizens." You just have to burn their towns down to get to them.

That's the way to get an army of slaves in middle and end game, to replace your own workers and irrigate your science farms. But here we were talking about improving tiles during REX phase.