War tactics

[The Islander]

i've ever really been the warmongering type, i prefer science, religion, or diplomacy (when we had it). But i've never shyed away from one either, and now i feel that in 6, war is inevitable in every game, ever. While i'm alright with an army, just use the ranged units to whittle down the enemy / city and send in the cavalry. It's an area of my game that's lacking that i would like to improve. I've read quite a few posts where people mention traps they've set or something like that, but they haven't gone into detail, so i'd really like to hear about a few cool traps or tactics that other people use (i play king-emperor level).

 

[Arent11]

I've read quite a few posts where people mention traps they've set or something like that, but they haven't gone into detail, so i'd really like to hear about a few cool traps or tactics that other people use (i play king-emperor level).

In most games there is a certain kind of ai abuse possible. General strategies that do not only work in civ include:

(1) Setting up a defensive position, declaring war & slaughtering the enemy army. Afterwards attack the vulnerable cities. This works best on marathon, because the ai needs longer to build new units. The only problem is higher difficulties, where the ai can produce units so fast that it can quickly raise a new army.
(2) On choke points the ai tends to embark their units, which can then be shot.
(3) The ai is unable to work around blockades, for example you can block an allied city/city state so that the ai can't conquer it. Works very well in multiplayer if you want to help your brother when he is about to loose a city.
(4) In general, it is good to turn two strong ai's against each other.
(5) In general, ais tend to identify a single target & charge. It has problems to handle two front wars.

 

[SlySlySly]

(3) The ai is unable to work around blockades, for example you can block an allied city/city state so that the ai can't conquer it. Works very well in multiplayer if you want to help your brother when he is about to loose a city.

I couldn't do that, and france was a great ally, so poor Germany got war declared on him by both Rome and I declared war. When France was barely clinging On, I gifted her a city behind Rome and I

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Do you understand how flanking bonuses work? You should think about this when moving your units before initiating combat so that you get the bonus as often as possible.

 

[SlySlySly]

Do you understand how flanking bonuses work? You should think about this when moving your units before initiating combat so that you get the bonus as often as possible.

This was helpful against Germany, my warrior swarm made him fall quickly

 

[The Islander]

Do you understand how flanking bonuses work? You should think about this when moving your units before initiating combat so that you get the bonus as often as possible.

I think i do, you just need two units next to eachother, right? Good point though, i never really take that into account.

 

[Callduron]

Knight Plains Plains X (bad guy)
Knight Plains Campus

When you select the first knight the game will show you a big red crosshair and the instinctive thing to do is charge in.

Here's how you get more damage.

Move the bottom knight to the campus.
Charge the top knight in for a flanked hit.
Hit with the bottom knight also for a flanked hit.

 

[MIS]

I think the best was to learn is watch videos. I think TeamUTeam has the best I've seen so far. His Alex one is domination. James Nicholls Australia is also good - that's more Naval domination.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

I think i do, you just need two units next to eachother, right? Good point though, i never really take that into account.

The units don't have to be next to each other, they just have to be next to the target.

 

[The Islander]

Thanks for the answers folks, they're all really yseful!

 

[Callduron]

The way to check is to look at the numbers in the combat predictor. It tells you what flanking bonus your attack gets and what support bonus the defender gets.

A similar effect comes with Varu, the Indian elephant unit. Each adjacent Varu applies a -5 penalty. For some reason I find using them amazingly fun. I have been know to put 6 round a crossbowman to set up an instakill.

 

[Victoria]

Do you understand how flanking bonuses work? You should think about this when moving your units before initiating combat so that you get the bonus as often as possible.

The flanking bonus is simple but not intuitive.

So let's say I have 3 caravels attacking 1 caravel.

If I attack with the first, then move my second caravel adjacent and attack, the second gets a +2 flanking bonus, I then move my 3rd caravel adjacent I get +4 flanking bonus......

But

If I move all 3 adjacent before I attack then all 3 get a +4 flanking bonus. That's a big difference, especially if I can get Horatian Nelson to double my flanking bonus.... this way I can get my sea dogs to capture a battleship much easier. I will have some ships not as armadas to up the flanking bonus and an armada of sea dogs to increase my capture chance

A trick I suspect few have considered... a +20 flanking bonus

Building you ships in a RNDY and having the great lighthouse increases the chance of getting awesome flanking bonuses with +2 movement

 

[Callduron]

As a proud Englishman I love it that Victoria is so expert in using Sea Dogs commanded by Nelson to rule the waves!

 

[Victoria]

Sadly it's not hard to do.

I am more interested in people's preference between battering ram, catapult and siege towers

 

[zxcvbob]

I don't use siege towers at all, because the city defenses will be pounding you the whole time you're attacking. Battering rams and/or catapults are awesome. Tear down the walls, and the city is defenseless. (I just recently learned that) You can take your time capturing it once the walls are down. I'll be interested to see if anyone uses siege towers; they are probably really good in the right circumstances, but battering rams are always good.

Submarines are a lot better than they should be at destroying coastal cities. The city very rarely defends against a privateer or submarine; I think it can't see them, although every once in a while they will hit back. In my last game, a CS (with lots of units!) declared war on me, and I captured it with just a sub and a Rough Rider (but a horseman or chariot would have been sufficient) It was a pretty long war; the sub and RR killed all the units, then the sub attacked the city until it was totally destroyed and the RR could ride in and capture it. The city never defended itself. I would have left the CS alone after they DoW'd, but they actually sent their units in to attack me.

I did almost the same thing to an AI city with a privateer earlier in the game, but that one had an assist from a frigate.

I love observation balloons, once I figured out how they work. If I'm planning to get my warmonger on, I beeline Flight so my bombards can attack from 3 tiles away.

 

[king of nowhere]

i always used catapults, but the conquest of alexander scenario forced me to try a battering ram (catas are just too slow for the time limit) and it worked amazingly well. A single hetairoi with great general bonus could knock down city walls. In a regular game it's a bit tougher to set up against a hard level AI, though. If you have few units, the best way to use them is to have a couple of good defenders to put in good defensive positions, and have ranged units behind them. The AI will move in the troops and concentrate on your defensive units, and your archers can kill them easily. or they will try to move around to get the archers, in which case they will not have the time to do so before they are reduced to pin cushions. the only problem, when fighting a larger army, is to avoid getting flanked and surrounded. but if you spread your units right, you can surround a bigger force, at least an AI-led one.
For this I prefer catapults, for a couple reasons: 1) they can attack units too, and with a few promotions (which arrive quickly) they can get some decent damage (I always get anti-unit promotions on siege units, because once I besiege a city killing is only a matter of time, when I face units I must kill them before they kill me). 2) They get promotions, and they can be upgraded to more useful units. In the information era, archers will become machineguns, with a range of 1 they must go in melee to attack, and even if with promotions they can deal huge damage, they cannot survive a retaliation. catapults will become rocket artillery, with a range of 3, +1 for observation balloons, at range 4 you can bomb an enemy army with impunity, and with the shrapnel and grape shot you deal serious damage. If you started to train your catapults from early ages, they will also have the capacity to move and attack, and another +1 range, and they will be a bit like bombers. In the information age I phase out ranged in favor of siege, so I like to have some good units to upgrade.

 

[Mr. Shadows]

Sadly it's not hard to do.

I am more interested in people's preference between battering ram, catapult and siege towers

Personally I sometimes use a battering ram to keep an early push going but siege towers are the real prize because they damage both walls and city health, and they stay good for the whole game. Sure, rams stay good too but towers are better. I don't usually bother with catapults at all because they're fragile and slow to set up. They seem to die far too easily. I've had decent results with bombards, though. This all comes with the caveat that I haven't worked my way back up to deity level since the Australian Summer patch; I'm still messing around on Emperor.

 

[Forster]

I like the towers. Put three towers with swordsmen and the city will fall before others can knock down the walls.

 

[zxcvbob]

Doesn't one tower work just as well as 3?

 

[Forster]

I don't think so, it seems to me that other attackers don't receive the benefit. I tried attacking with 1 tower and 1 ram, and it took a while. That may have been before the last patch and I have not tried it since.