War Help.

[Karlisna]

I suck at war, frankly, in my recent game, I was Babylon and I sent at least 10-15 bowmen against the French, who were somewhat ahead of me in technology, they had swordsman, also, another fact is that I had no iron. None, even though my entire civ was basically on hills. Anyway, I only managed to get 1 city, and lost about 10 of those bowmen, then the French counter-attacked and took about 3 cities. Their military was twice the size of mine, even though I had several units defending each city! Please don't say he war academy, I've tried reading it,but it does't provide any general tips, could I get some help?


I'm playing on Warlord.

 

[kirbtron]

The easiest way to win a war is to have more units . . . to do that, you can expand aggressively and improve the terrain to allow for more gold and production.

There are also a couple strategies for minimizing losses in an invasion. One way is to use a horde of horsemen. Their extra speed is nice, and they have the ability to retreat against most defenders (not impi though). Another way is to use a stack of bombarding units and some accompanying swordsmen. Use the catapults to knock down the defenders to one HP and then use the swordsmen for the kill.

Oh, and make sure that you always build a barracks before building anything other than a warrior; the extra HP makes a big difference and also allows for making more great leaders.

Hope this helps!

best,
Peter Kirby

 

[wilbill]

When you send high offense/low defense units such as bowmen on the offensive, you need to do a couple of things to protect them. First, put a high defense unit (in your case a spearman) or two in the stack with them. When the enemy counterattacks, the spearman will take the brunt. Second, try always to approach the enemy city in such a way that your bowmen will attack from a strong defensive postiion - forest, hills, etc. Then the enemy's counterattack won't hurt so much.

 

[Shillen]

Bowmen have 2 attack and 2 defense. No need for spearmen. Your biggest problem is the iron. How many sources of iron did France have? And how deep in their territory was it. If possible try to pillage their iron sources first. This will put you two on even ground, instead of you fighting with less effective units than theirs. Even better if they have iron in a border city you could take that city first and claim the iron for yourself.

Also another thing is most times it's better to attack an offensive unit rather than let them attack you. Particularly against archers, longbowmen, cavalry, etc. You have to pay close attention to the terrain modifiers though. For example, if they have a swordsman on a grassland square next to your unwalled grassland city defended by a bowmen, you're better off attacking their swordsman with your bowmen than letting them attack you. It will be 2 offense against 2.2 defense (10% bonus for grassland). If you had let their swordsman attack you it would have been 3 offense against 2.2 defense. Not a really big descrepancy in this case but still worth it. Especially if you have a second unit in that city to back up the first one.

There's a program called CivLackey's Civ Assistant that will calculate probability of winning a combat, but I can't find where I got it from. So if someone else knows feel free to post where.

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by Shillen
Bowmen have 2 attack and 2 defense. No need for spearmen.

Okay, I was thinking about archers, but why not include a spearman or two in a stack of bowmen to take the hits when the stack is counterattacked?

 

[Trev]

Increase your production of armies is the best bet. On warlord you should be always able to produce more armies from your cities than he can.

In general do not irrigate grassland squares, but mine them instead particularly in the early game. This will give you the extra production to outproduce the other civs in armies

 

[Bloog]

On warlord and early in regent games, most civs are still in Despotism. They tend to sack their cities just to keep producing more stupid archers. So you'll end up raizing cities of size 1 and even get farther behind the leading civs.

You best wait till they've switched to Republic. Then you actually can conquer cities.
Maybe you got too little resources to win by military at all. Can even happen on Regent . Maybe some different strategy or just start over.

 

[rilnator]

Bide your time until you're sure you can take them. Of course have a good plan (which takes experience) and plenty of units. But don't rush into it unless they look like they are gunna start something.
At the start of each game I always pick out my smallest neighbour and attack him when I'm ready. Of course, having swordsmen and barracks helps. I don't bother with archers.

 

[peace_frog]

Karlisna, What was the goal of the war? Was it to get iron? Did the city you attacked have iron? Were you out of territory to expand? Were you trying to rob the French of some other luxury or resource?

My point is, don't war for the hell of it. Create a goal and then figure out what you have to do to achieve that goal. Once you have your objective, it is just a game of understanding and maximizing probabilities. I also think bloog makes a great point in that war during despotism sucks. I would wait for monarchy or republic before declaring war if you are after territory expansion.

For example, your bowmen only had a 36% chance of beating a fortified spearmen in a town, not on a hill or a cross a river. But if you were attacking from the flatlands, then a swordsmen would be able to defeat your unfortified bowman 65% of the time on the counter attacks. It is clear to see these odds don't work for you.

If you made sure the bowman was a veteran then your odds already go up to 50/50 against regular troops. But I usually prefer to have odds in my favor. Unless I can take a city that deprives the AI of a key resource or luxury (or gains one for me) I may not even take a city immediately when I declare war. Once you declare war, the AI if it is a neighbor will send out its offensive units to either attack your invading force or to invade your territory. So, set up your troops with fortified defenders (preferably on a hill or mountain) and wait for the AI to put its offensive troops in reach. They usually don't defend them well enough. Your veteran bowmen will win 61% of the battles attacking an unfortified regular swordsmen on flat lands. Warriors, Archers or horsemen are even juicier with an 80% chance of winning. I prefer to fight these battles on the edge of my territory so I have the advantage of mobility. That way I can protect any wounded attack forces with fortified defense units. If you are in enemy territory one movement will leave your defenders unfortified. But at home you can move the spearman (or in your case another bowman even) on top of the wounded unit and still fortify it.

There is really too much to say. You really do have to read the war academy. The people who wrote those articles know a hell a lot more than I do and explain it better. It is time very well invested.

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Karlisna
I suck at war, frankly, in my recent game, I was Babylon and I sent at least 10-15 bowmen against the French, who were somewhat ahead of me in technology, they had swordsman, also, another fact is that I had no iron. None, even though my entire civ was basically on hills. Anyway, I only managed to get 1 city, and lost about 10 of those bowmen, then the French counter-attacked and took about 3 cities. Their military was twice the size of mine, even though I had several units defending each city! Please don't say he war academy, I've tried reading it,but it does't provide any general tips, could I get some help?


I'm playing on Warlord.

It really helps to use the combat calculator to get a better idea of when an attack will work.
http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3combatcalc.html

I used to think cavalry should do fine against musketmen, because cavalry is 6 attack and muskets are 4 defend, so they should usually win. However, if the muskets are fortified in a city, the calculator shows you will lose 2 out of 3 combats. Your 15 unit cavalry army will be reduced to 5 units if the enemy has 5 defenders. And even if you take the city, you have only 5 units left to defend.

It's even worse for bowmen attacking spearmen who are fortified in a walled town, attacking across a river. Only 15% of your bowmen will win.

You need to factor in all the variables before deciding to attack. How big is the city? How many and what type of defenders? Are your units and the AI units regulars or veterans?

15 bowmen seems like a good army, and it is, if it's early enough in the game where the towns are all below size 6 and only 1-2 defenders are in each city. If you attacked with veteran archers against regular spearmen in a regular town (not walled), 50% of your attackers will survive! If there are 2 defenders, that means you'll probably take the city, only losing 2 bowmen, and have 13 left to defend or continue your offensive.

You don't suck at war any more than the rest of us. You probably just overestimated the chances of your bowman army defeating the enemy with small losses. Check the calculator before making a big decision like going to war. You might find you are better off waiting!

 

[Zcylen]

Originally posted by Karlisna
I suck at war, frankly, in my recent game, I was Babylon and I sent at least 10-15 bowmen against the French, who were somewhat ahead of me in technology, they had swordsman, also, another fact is that I had no iron. None, even though my entire civ was basically on hills. Anyway, I only managed to get 1 city, and lost about 10 of those bowmen, then the French counter-attacked and took about 3 cities. Their military was twice the size of mine, even though I had several units defending each city! Please don't say he war academy, I've tried reading it,but it does't provide any general tips, could I get some help?


I'm playing on Warlord.

welcom to CFC Kalirsna!

ok, there are some tips you can use.
if you're the one who is going to attack worry about 3 things
1.- keep your cities defended before you leave
2.- build a strong economy, you'll need gold for alliances, improvements and bribes.
3.- build a strong army.

you can first investigate a city before you attack it, that way you know how many units are defending it.
once you are sure which city you are going to attack send all your troops there and be sure to send as many troop as you can.

no iron is a big problem, but not imposible for winning.if you cant get it by treading dont worry just build 20 or 30 archers, I have won battles that way.
never think of a weak enemy, never underestimate.

in your curent game I recommend to sign peace but from now on set all your production to military units, those 3 cities must be recaptured and then those nasty enemies will see who you are

hope this helps!