WAR ROOM -- "GENERALS ONLY"

[coup d'etat]

Well the reason I ask is because I often bombard cities down to 1 or 2 pop before i take them, right now in one of my games I have 2 1 pop cities with wonders in them, both are within 8 squares of the capital... I almost NEVER take a city with more than 6 pop once infantry/artillery enters the game... so you see, these 'bogus little cities' im defending were large cities 2 or 3 turns before ;P
From what I've read about culture flips if you have 12 foreign nationals in a city you've taken its much more likely they will flip as opposed to if you have just 1 (it seems that it isnt based on a percentage, but just the actually number of foreign nationals in the city?)

 

[cracker]

Coup d'etat,

The fact that you bombed the cities down to 1 pop only effects the concept a little. I used to do this as well, but I think there may be some more aggressive approaches that will do you well.

I blast 'em if they are pop 13 or pop 7 because there is a reasonable chance to knock them down a defense factor.

When I am killing a civ or trying to extort techs and I plan on keeping the towns I capture, my number one priority is to drive the enemy palace location into the most bogus and untenable position possible and to try an make sure it is far enough away from the captured cities to increase the distance factor ratio.

I have not had a lot of culture flips, but I tend to make all the citizens that remain in the captured cities just blissfully ecstatic even it kills them. This usually buys me enough time to drive the capital city away with a stronger military thrust.

If you are past replaceable parts, you need a crew of 4 to 6 workers for each square of terrain that you need to throw down rails over so you can strike deeper into enemy territory with more of a rolling attack. The priority cities to take are those cities that put you within directstriking distance of the next objective. Sometimes this will require that you throw down an extra settler to get just 1 square of territory extension, but continuing the penetration is the priority. Sometime you have to follow a path that is slightly indirect to sustain the offensive, but it will pay off if you can wipe away the heart of the culture threat.

Another effective trick is to have a ROP with a lesser civ and to give that lesser civ some of the risky culture flip towns as you pass. You still get the movement benefits if the road network is continuous around the town but you no longer have to hold the town. Never trust your allies in this game just use them.

 

[coup d'etat]

Palace position doesn't seem to make a huge difference sometimes, in the current game I'm playing I was having culture flips from indian cities in the center of my continent when the indian palace was on another continent... these cities had about 8 indian nationals in them...

My biggest concern with these culture flips is that it is very hard to state your presence on the opposite continent when you cannot keep any of the cities you capture, I find that rails are usually already built in these situations so building rails is not a problem (niether has workers been a problem in the past, I usually maintain a worker force of 1.5-2/city, usually I have claimed my continent prior to steam engine or just after) I also often find that in capturing these cities this late in the game, opponent borders are 4 squares out from each city, so it takes me at least 2-3 turns to get within striking distance (either cavs or artillery)

My biggest problem with warfare in games is indeed crossing continents prior to flight (at which point there are better bombard options available than stationing artillery in enemy territory)... I've just recently started playing games where I am constantly at war, and I find that (during my games anyway ) its time to cross continents about the end of the midevil or beginning of the industrial era.

 

[wargasm23]

cracekr is right

if you pillage all capitol roads mines, and resources in additon capture all weaker cities around capitol, the capitol's defense will lower signifcantly and sometimes even riots happen. But ritots under this particular circumstance has not happpened for me.

looking forward to your response.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

I had to vote for terrain from the choices available. My real ace in the hole is mobility, the reason I love the new Ansar. It is major to be able to take a city and clear all the archers away from the perimeter in the same turn.

Terrain from those choices is one that I think about alot, especially in early wars where the units are slooooowww, I look for the mountain approach or out of the woods on offense, try and stay across the river on defense. These factors don't seem to make as much difference in late game.

So I'd vote for mobility if it was there, meanwhile terrain. Of course veterans elites are huge too, I always build barracks these days...

 

[Zcylen]

what about rivers?
sometimes I attack with my fast units and if they survive move them to the other side of the river (if there's one nearby)
that way, my knight in red HP can defeat even 2 pikeman.
Also, when a settle a city near to anyother civ border I choose the "inner" side of the river, so they have to cross it if they want to attack.

 

[hbdragon88]

I chose veteran/elite units

The veteran/elite can make a difference in winning a battle. I've had lots of close encounters with Modern Armor against Mechanized Infantry where because I had a 4-hp MA I've won. Barely, with 1-hp left. Or maybe because it's plain dumb luck.

Terrain doesn't help when waging an offensive war, that choice IMO isn't the best.

 

[corgiman]

I generally find attacking with vetern/elite units preferable. After all, upgrading units is more expensive and using up vetern units in an attack seems an appropriate use of that resource.

V/E units offer at least three tactical advantages:

V/E units survive attacks more often due to increased hit points
They offer (elite) the possibility of generating a leader
They seem to withstand counterattacks more effectively.

A useful early game tactic
Three or four archer protected by a elite spearmen will generally take out any city (except those with city walls) and withstand a concerted counterattack, especially if you attack the city from hill, mountain or forest terrain. Once you've taken the city, fortify all units in the city while they repair their damage. The AI will counterattack, weakeing an already weak civilization. If you have strategic reserve of two more archers and another spearman, you will be able to counter his counter attack as soon as he peters out trying to retake your city. Just don't try this tactic after the opponent has reached five or more cities, they'll be able to counterattack too heavily for your units to survive. But in the early, early game this is a good way to maximize your V/E units and get ahead.

Putting the elite spearmen into the field with supporting terrain has generated a number of early game leaders for me, which I find essential on the higher difficulty levels.

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

UNITS COMBOS

Early Rapid Agressive Incursion: 1 Archer 1 Chariot en masse
(Chariot takes hits and has chance of retreat and allows for seroius pillaging damage)

Early Aggressive Defense: 2 warriors 1 Spearman 1 Catapult per city
(strangely good at generating leaders)

 

[DaveMcW]

"Early Aggressive Defense"

I can think of 2 problems with this. Waiting for mathematics/catapults is NOT early. And waiting for the enemy to invade your land is NOT aggressive. Ditch the warriors and cataput and you'll have 1 Spearman = good Defense.

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

Originally posted by DaveMcW
"Early Aggressive Defense"

I can think of 2 problems with this. Waiting for mathematics/catapults is NOT early. And waiting for the enemy to invade your land is NOT aggressive. Ditch the warriors and cataput and you'll have 1 Spearman = good Defense.

Well for most civs it is relatively early, particularily the French who start with alphabet and masonry, and can go for catapults as their first new tech. Bronzeworking can be traded for. Trading mathematics for yet another tech is then a good idea since the AI rarely builds catapults early in the game.

The reason for the two warriors is that it allows 1) flexibility in garrisoning cities, 2) sooner upgrading than archers.

Now it gets a bit complicated. The attack order against, say an enemy archer or chariot, is then A) bombardment, B) if succesful then attack with warrior. C) this either results in a win or a loss in which case there are three outcomes, one where the opposing unit is promoted and looses no hitpoints, one where the unit is not promoted and do not loose hitpoints, one where the unit loose hitpoints and is not promoted. In all cases but the first then use the spearman to attack.

Why not simply use archers? Simple, the archer, paradoxically, has too great a chance of winning luring possible promotions away from the spearman.

But why is it so important to let the spearman get the promotion? Simple, with catapults an elite spearman is capable of generating leaders on the offense. More importantly it also ensures a reasonable (and better than archers) chance of generating leaders on defence. This is even though defense only has a 1 in 32 (1 in 24 in some cases) of generating leaders.

It is also important to note that the "(relatively) Early Agressive Defense" takes place within your own borders, so make sure the road net is well developed. The higher the concentration of roads the higer the level of flexibility in shifting forces around and concentrate catapult bombardment on the enemy. Here the much lamented French show their usefulness once more, since they are industrial. The Greeks have the hoplite so this strategy is also viable for them too.

 

[PreTzeL_22]

I usually wage wars by getting the entire world to declare war on the enemy, which is quite easy to get with lots of gold.

In the modern ages war can only be waged by attrition on a huge scale. Therefore: Huge concentrations of artillery and large numbers of bombers to cut off resources. You MUST desroy the enemy's rubber supplies! It is essential because of the Inf's /Mech Inf's huge defensive advantages in metropolises.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by corgiman

A useful early game tactic
Three or four archer protected by a elite spearmen will generally take out any city (except those with city walls) and withstand a concerted counterattack, especially if you attack the city from hill, mountain or forest terrain. Once you've taken the city, fortify all units in the city while they repair their damage. The AI will counterattack, weakeing an already weak civilization. If you have strategic reserve of two more archers and another spearman, you will be able to counter his counter attack as soon as he peters out trying to retake your city. Just don't try this tactic after the opponent has reached five or more cities, they'll be able to counterattack too heavily for your units to survive. But in the early, early game this is a good way to maximize your V/E units and get ahead.

I agree that it is a useful tactic to put out archers on the field against spearman. But attacking the city fro the hill, mountain, or forest seems to me fail more often than attacking from grassland. Several incidents have occured where I have lost units attacking from different terrain.

I would have to be very careful about this tactic especially because usually all units incur damage before I take over the city. And the AI does counterattack heavily, it's good to have some healthy units left.

 

[planetfall]

I have seen anyone mention the key factors for my games:

1. military production capability
2. diplomacy during warfare
3. defensive core


Military production capability-- the ability to either end a war quickly or continue on and on and on. To do this you need to be able to replace lost defending units and be able to produce more effective military units than the other civ. Advantage may be in tech level of military or gross numbers.

Diplomacy-- Unless you are playing settler level, you can't take on the whole world at one time. The most effective general is one who lets someone take the losses and then just comes over and cleans up the messes.

Defensive core-- Your main production cities must be protected. This is usually the first 10-15 cities. Radar towers are nice but they add a cost of more defending units.

== PF

 

[Berija]

Terrain is always crucial to me in my attacks, if possible I always try to attack using mountains and hills. I also mostly rely on sheer weight of numbers, and two front war, for example once when fighting France as Russia, I was badly behind tech, them having mechs and Tanks, I having Cossacks and Infantry and Artillery. They had bombers. France was i.e one ofter superpowers. I got MPP with Germany, and they started to roll in from the south with their Modern Armor, and Mechs. I managed to whip theri asses with my valiant force of 145 infantry, 67 Cossacks, 35 artillery and 15 destroyers. I took 6 cities, Germany took 10. I lost 87 inf, 44 cossacks, and 2 arty and 1 destoyer. By the time the Paris was I had replenished the losses so I had 203 inf, 34 Tanks, 55 arty and 20 dest plus 4 battleships.

Though I was behind in tech, I got victory through overwhelming odds. French had abt 4-5 mechs, couple of riflemen and spearman leftovers in each of their cities, so my losses were high, but bearable.

So as to poll, I always appreciate the strength in numbers used with combined arms (naval and arty, my airforce didn't achieve a thing with over 20 flown missions, I had 35 fighters).

 

[EdwardTking]

I play huge worlds against all the Civs; no SpaceShip.

The Factors I use are in decreasing order of importance:

Allies = most important - get AI allies to distract weaken enemy
Defensive City Bonus = let opponent use up offensive units first
Veterans/Elites = essential for attacking cities
Mobile Attackers = wear enemy units down
Terrain Bonuses = tactically useful
Bombardment = Artillery most useful against (mech) infantry
Spies = determine strength enemy and of city defences
Bombers = particularly against ships
Pillaging = occasionally of AI resources e.g. horsemen, iron,
Fortresses = only to defend own resources
Unique Units = little used - I play English

 

[puglover]

Because Elites usually kill regulars and vets.

 

[hbdragon88]

AI allies, if they're not aggressive, they don't help much. It took almost 20 turns for AI civs, after signing alliances, for them to snap up and help me beat the Egyptians. When they are very into helping you...ah, they help greatly.