War: Tactics, Strategies, Tips & Tricks - discussion thread

[Vandlys]

I've never really been a warmonger in Civilization. I would normally call myself more of a peaceful turtle builder, with the occasional mongol horde excursion to conquer the world.

In Civilization VII, however, I'm surprised at how much fun combat can be. But I also found out that I suck at it. Just now I played the Age of Antiquity on the second difficulty level, playing Ashoka (World Conqueror) as Maurya. I didn't manage to get the militaristic legacy completed, where my other two games I had no issues finishing the cultural and economic legacies. For more context, I was on a continent with Augustus of Rome and Amina of Aksum. I conquered Rome (three settlements including capital) and 1 of Amina's cities, but then the age ended (with me losing one of my settlements to her in war).

What I found is that the first Commander comes easy, but I didn't manage to make another one because they are too expensive. I focused on researching war techs, but still Amina was way ahead of me. Destroying Independent States gives a nice XP boost for the commander, but it doesn't help with the legacy goal. I'm not sure if I'm finding the right balance between building cities and towns (I had 1 city the whole age), and where to spend my money.

What tips and tricks do you have?

 

[cairnsy44]

You definitely want more than one city. I try to have at least 3 in the Age of Antiquity. Capturing Roma, I would definitely have converted that to a city soon. Then you can build an Army Commander, which will be better than purchasing from a town. It's still expensive in terms of hammers, but it's a better path to increase the ACs.

 

[CoconutTank]

If you've got plenty of diplo influence to spare, you can give yourself war support to get some bonus combat strength.

The Gate of Nations wonder always gives you bonus war support when you get into a war, and it's available pretty early on too.

 

[vorlon_mi]

First, I would encourage you to grow towards your settlement limit. That can be conquering or settling. In Antiquity, that might mean founding 4 settlement to leave some room for conquering a couple more. More resources will mean more gold to buy troops in towns, if you need them.

Next, a balance of ranged and melee units is important. Unlike Civ5 and Civ6, cities don't get a free defensive shot. Bombard first, attack second, keep your army commander close. Keep the commander under one of your units, if you want, to soak up the XP.

Last, with more than one city and at least two towns to feed them, you should be aable to produce a second army commander, using production.

 

[Vandlys]

First, I would encourage you to grow towards your settlement limit. That can be conquering or settling. In Antiquity, that might mean founding 4 settlement to leave some room for conquering a couple more. More resources will mean more gold to buy troops in towns, if you need them.

Next, a balance of ranged and melee units is important. Unlike Civ5 and Civ6, cities don't get a free defensive shot. Bombard first, attack second, keep your army commander close. Keep the commander under one of your units, if you want, to soak up the XP.

Last, with more than one city and at least two towns to feed them, you should be aable to produce a second army commander, using production.

I will try this, but I still feel getting 12 points, 4 of which are your own settlements, means you still need to capture quite a bit. Come to think of it, I don't get how I conquered 4 settlements, built 6, and still didn't make it to 12 points...

 

[playshogi]

I built a town with my commander and I got a free legion in it!

 

[dawmz]

You definitely want more than one city. I try to have at least 3 in the Age of Antiquity. Capturing Roma, I would definitely have converted that to a city soon. Then you can build an Army Commander, which will be better than purchasing from a town. It's still expensive in terms of hammers, but it's a better path to increase the ACs.

I agree. When I was just starting, I used to settle new towns and then wait until they get to a good spot to be a city but more often than not, it just delays your progress. Now I just look for the enemy civ's capital and prepare to take it over myself, having a city that has stuff built into it at the get go is amazing.

 

[playshogi]

Don't play on a fractal map if you want to conquer. It's tough to navigate all the nooks and crannies and often your commander cannot deploy all the units (unless you want to attack from the water).

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Escort commanders with cavalry and a scout. That will give you protection if you are in striking distance and let you know when to unpack. You can load the scout back in after the unpack to keep the movement bonus for a packed commander.

I like to have two commanders per army group. One can focus on infantry/cavalry and the other on ranged/siege. You can make maximum use of focus fire and charge abilities.

Don't forget to load up units in your commanders at the end of an age. Units in commanders will carry over and ones outside are capped to a certain number (and will show up all over your empire)

 

[jammerculture]

Escort commanders with cavalry and a scout. That will give you protection if you are in striking distance and let you know when to unpack. You can load the scout back in after the unpack to keep the movement bonus for a packed commander.

I like to have two commanders per army group. One can focus on infantry/cavalry and the other on ranged/siege. You can make maximum use of focus fire and charge abilities.

Don't forget to load up units in your commanders at the end of an age. Units in commanders will carry over and ones outside are capped to a certain number (and will show up all over your empire)

Do you need to have the units loaded to carry over? Someone else said you just get your commanders full of troops. It seemed to me in last game that the units I had after the age transition were not the ones I had before the transition.

 

[BlobRoss]

Do you need to have the units loaded to carry over? Someone else said you just get your commanders full of troops. It seemed to me in last game that the units I had after the age transition were not the ones I had before the transition.

I am quite certain they do need to be packed to carry over, despite some people saying they don't. Apparently the mechanic is that in exploration, you keep 6 units + however many your number of commanders can hold. I posted this elsewhere but would love if we could get clarity on this:

I just finished the antiquity age and I had 18 military units (1 was a siege unit so I guess this one goes away no matter what). I also had 3 commanders so I was expecting to be able to keep 6 + (3*4) = 18

Note that I didn't pack all of my units into commanders, as I had read elsewhere they didn't actually needed to be packed. Just that you need the correct number of commanders that could pack those units.

But here is what I ended up with on transition:

• 2 commanders
• 14 military units

 

[jammerculture]

I am quite certain they do need to be packed to carry over, despite some people saying they don't. Apparently the mechanic is that in exploration, you keep 6 units + however many your number of commanders can hold. I posted this elsewhere but would love if we could get clarity on this:

I just did an age transition and I agree. One commander only had 2 troops before and after the age change. I gibbled my game by not having my units packed and now I’m paying for it.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

You will lose any siege so perhaps that is what people are thinking about transitions. I just did an age transition without loading my units and my commanders were empty. Worse still, my units were all over the empire and not near my commanders at all even tho I had units around my commanders

 

[BlobRoss]

I only had 1 siege unit which I was expecting to lose so I should have ended up with 17 units and 3 commanders. But I ended up with 14 units and 2 commanders.

Next game I will definitely pack them and compare.

 

[wesplaysciv]

Don’t think they need to be packed to carry over units. They start the next age packed, though.

 

[jammerculture]

Don’t think they need to be packed to carry over units. They start the next age packed, though.

So I loaded an earlier save and made sure that all my units weee packed and then one of my commanders was empty and the other only had two units.

 

[BlobRoss]

I'm starting to think there is a bit more randomness applied to the unit carryover than people think. About to hit another age transition so I'll see what happens this time.

 

[wesplaysciv]

So I loaded an earlier save and made sure that all my units weee packed and then one of my commanders was empty and the other only had two units.

Did you have a lot of units? I think they stick one in each city… then load the commanders? Only on my 3rd play through so may be wrong.

 

[Atchulhu]

I don't understand how you're supposed to play a military campaign when you can barely conquer anything due to the settlement limit. Feels like there should have been something like "enemy capitals don't count towards the limit." You're not gonna start a game and just jump immediately into conquest out of just your capital, you'll probably need at least three or four settlements just so you have a source of reinforcements that isn't 30 tiles away. Then you can sort of conquer one civ and then... do you just stop? Was that it? That was all the warring you were allowed to do in the entire antiquity era? Because you certainly can't just keep going. It doesn't make any sense to continue warring just to raze cities because you don't benefit from that at all and will cripple yourself with stacking permanent penalties to your unit strength (which is an absurd concept, by the way--give me diplomatic consequences, don't make my soldiers lose muscle mass because they successfully annihilated their enemies.)

And all the while, I keep asking myself: "Why am I taking these cities anyway? I could settle much better ones myself. There's more than enough land, half the continent will still be unsettled by the end of antiquity. Why am I saddling myself with penalties in order to take cities that are worse than what I could have built myself, closer to home?" I'm not actually gaining anything from conquest, I'm just doing it for the sake of the gameplay. It's like I'm paying for the right to enjoy combat, not using combat to further my interests.

There are so many features and mechanics that revolve around war, and yet the game's fundamental design makes it feel kind of pointless.

 

[BlobRoss]

Welp, I am beyond confused now. Just transitioned from the exploration age where I had 3 fleet commanders and 11 naval units all packed and I ended up in the modern age with 3 fleet commanders and 0 naval units.