War Troubles

[KevinRuddPM]

I've just started a game with the Zulus. I'm against the Koreans, the Ottomans and the Iroqouis. With my Archers rush, I conquer the Ottomans, and take their capital. Then I move to the Koreans territory and conquer them as well. Now I head to the Iroqouis territory. I come with about 4 archers and 2 impi. I took on one fortified spearman with all my soldiers and they all died. How is this possible? I had the idea that the city was based on a mountain/hill but that wasn't true.

What is the solution here? Do I simply upgrade to better soldiers? Or is there some strategy?

 

[da3dalus]

Well the random number generator can be a pain sometimes...You could load up an autosave and try again.

What happened to you is uncommon but it does happen. We all get this, and the opposite also, like when you spawn 3 military leaders over the course of one war (I read an AAR where someone got 7 in one war!).

What I would do, I think, is reload to just before you attacked the Iroquois and instead of attacking their city head-on I would pillage their improvements to sap their productivity and build a few more impis. After maybe another 10 turns you should have no problems, and their military buildup should be minimal because you killed their productivity.

 

[KevinRuddPM]

They're training these annoying rider things too, I think it is their unique unit.

 

[Aabraxan]

The first thing I would suggest is a trip to the War Academy. In particular, there' an article entitled Warmongering 101 - A Tactical Primer that you should read.

There are lots of factors that go into figuring out who wins and who loses. Terrain, whether the attacker has to cross a river to get to the defender, walls, the size of the town/city/metro, and, of course, the RNG. Archers are OK vs. spearmen, but only OK. They're not great.

Some suggestions:
1) As soon as you can get horses or swords, switch to those. They should fare much better against spears.
2) Bombardment units. These will give you the opportunity to damage units without risking your own. A fortified, healthy vet spear is much harder to kill than a fortified vet spear with 1 health left.
3) Sufficient force. If it's worth killing, it's worth overkilling. Take enough units to the fight that you can take the target. It will take some trial and error to figure out how much force that is, but that's OK.
4) Move units in stacks & try not to leave stragglers around. If your stack is attacked, the AI attacks the best defender in the stack. That will often protect wounded units. OTOH, wounded stragglers left in the open will be killed, which contributes to War Weariness.

Oh, and the Mounted Warrior that they're building. . . Yes, it's the Iros unique unit & it's a 3.1.2 pain in the butt which will kick off their Golden Age when one kills one of your units.

 

[Whythat]

I've lost tanks to spearmen. The RNG has no principles.

 

[Padma]

Of course not - it's totally random.

And you normally *shouldn't* lose tanks to spearmen. If you do, it's most likely (but not necessarily always) due to a miscalculation on your part. It will happen to the best of us, on occasion, though.

 

[timerover51]

Of course not - it's totally random.

And you normally *shouldn't* lose tanks to spearmen. If you do, it's most likely (but not necessarily always) due to a miscalculation on your part. It will happen to the best of us, on occasion, though.

I know that this has been argued about numerous times, but I still think that the RNG has some built in biases towards the AI, and is not totally random. Personal view.

As for Kevin's problem, my view is that you are trying to rush things a bit too fast. You have already taken over 2 of your opponents. At that point, I would back off a bit, assimilate my new territories, get them producing reasonably well, and avoid going to war when the Iroquois have their Unique Unit just starting production. Kicking them into a Golden Age when you are a bit over extended is not a good idea. It would also help if you could post a screen shot of where everyone actually is.

 

[Whythat]

Of course not - it's totally random.

And you normally *shouldn't* lose tanks to spearmen. If you do, it's most likely (but not necessarily always) due to a miscalculation on your part. It will happen to the best of us, on occasion, though.

I have to admit when I have a tank and he has a spearman I don't take time to calculate. The attack may be accross a river onto against a spearman on a mountain top. (Really the only time I see spearman are on the 9th attack on an old city where I've got a massive tech advantage and cut off their supply of gunpowder to make muskets)

I think timerover may have a point on the built in AI bias.

 

[vmxa]

Actually he does not have a point, other than perception is not reliable. Look at some of the massive SG's, where the turn player turns in a log with 183-1 or some such number. I have had many rounds of more than 200 battles with no loss.

I have had a tank killed by a spear, but only a few times. I once nearly lost a tank army to a spear, so things can go very wrong. The real problem is that the rng has to wide of a range. They once agreed to correct that, but gave up as they were trying to finalize 1.22 patch.