InfantryCommand
Chieftain
Ok, well I have been playing today since I am home sick from school, blah. I found in Vanilla that I really need Conquest. I am trying to get it from my friend cause I cant afford it, I am using an 01 computer, if that.
Warmongering 101 - A Tactical Primer
- Thread starter scoutsout
- Start date
ZanzibarZim
Chieftain
Bombardment units are best when deployed in large stacks. Cats are not really worth the expense, so I rarely build them, but I do generally build a few cannons later in the game to defend strong points and frontier cities with an eye towards upgrading to Artillery. Artillery/Infantry stacks are a powerful offensive combo that can take out just about anything, so that's generally the point when I start building a lot of Arty. By that point in the game you should have a few Elite Cavalry or Swordsmen lying around to attack weakened units. I recently included an Elite Pikeman in a stack of Arty & Infantry and got an Army out of it. I was pretty funny. I named it Holy Sh*t!
Arty is also a wonderful defense against marauding naval units that are bombarding coastal squares. Just go up and blow all their hitpoints off and watch them scurry away. Even if there are no friendly ships around to finish them off, they still have to go back home to heal up.
ZZim
Arty is also a wonderful defense against marauding naval units that are bombarding coastal squares. Just go up and blow all their hitpoints off and watch them scurry away. Even if there are no friendly ships around to finish them off, they still have to go back home to heal up.
ZZim
Soaring Tiger
Chieftain
I decided to put my two cents in. I attempted an 'flash from the sea' operation on a rival civs lonely island. I landed 10 muskets, 15 knights, 10 cannons and a settler on a hill near Rome. I built a city within striking range of Rome and proceeded to blast the daylights out of attacking longbows (no iron) whose only contribution to history was to promote my men
Rome was captured a few turns later.
Rome was captured a few turns later.bustedsynapses
Chieftain
I discovered a great use for Barricades, while playing C3C Napoleonics scenario. Previously, I used them to narrow the front, so the AI would use just one approach route. But the better use is to take advantage of their ZOC effect. Set them one tile apart, preferably on good defensive terrain. Pack them with whatever passes for inf and arty: the inf to defend them (with arty help). As the attacker comes adjacent, welcome him with your arty. As he moves between them, some get nailed by the ZOC. Give him your arty's regards once again. Some of the stack can then be attacked by the inf in the Barricade, thereby gaining experience, and slowly healing afterwards. Mop up with Cav from the city, retreating afterwards back into yon city w/barracks. Sometimes, the attacker takes such a beating from the ZOC's, that after being shelled again, he heads home to get healed, and passes through the shelling again! If you're light on units, you can wait for this to happen to a select few units, let them escape, then shell and fight the remaining units. The strongest units will be the ones which got shelled first, so you'll be fighting his weaker units. Don't forget: Armies have Zoc's, too! The opportunities add up. Use an Army to clear out some of his tougher units, then make sure it's positioned along the retreat path, then shell the remainder. I was outnumbered 3-1 by Russian Guard units, but I wiped out about 30 or so over 5-6 turns, without a single loss. I repeated this as I advanced into Russia, taking towns, building a line of Barricades, and crushing the counter-attacks. It gave me just enough time to bring up garrisons for the towns I'd taken, and to suppress resistance.
This works nicely with a small force, too. Send a group with workers into enemy territory, and park them on a hill next to his approach-route road. As he sends his force down the road towards your territory, a few will get nailed as they pass, weakening them just enough to defeat their assault. It's a great way to develop elite units in your territory. Find a spot that AI will attack, and rotate defenders. The weakened attackers lose the fight, and you bring up fresh defenders. This is called rope-a-dope. You can do this all day. Here's the funny thing: You can set this up easily during a RoP agreement! When you're ready to fight, don't renew the RoP, and refuse to leave enemy territory. If you're worried about rep, just build the barricade, and move a stack into there later after DoW (a little tougher trick).
Regarding fast units: they don't withdraw from combat very well, if the tile behind them is enemy-occupied, so use your roads to attack from opposite directions, and you can wipe out that pesky cav. If they're in a line or in several adjacent tiles, attack the rearmost ones first, then the others will fight to the death.
This works on a larger scale, too. I was the French fighting the Spanish at the border. The Spanish had some 25+ Cav filtering through the hills, the way the AI is wont to do, if you block the roaded passes. With inf to reject them in the Pyrenees, I was able to get behind them, and take the town. Using the roads, I formed a classic pocket. It was aesthetically very pleasing. First, the AI didn't know which way to go, so the few attacks on my inf weren't followed through on, as some cav headed back towards the town (and towards some bait weak units that they couldn't reach in one move). When I attacked the mass in the hills, there were no retreats from my inf. I hit the full-strength units with my cav, and hit the rest with inf. They died where they stood. I did something similar against the French as the Austrians, on a smaller scale.
Aiming Arty: you can hit every time you fire with these things, regardless of type (even catapults). When you aim, the left edge has to be exactly between the two borders of the targeted tile. The right edge has to be just intersecting the right inner border. It helps to have the map centered on the firing unit. The trick is not to move the cursor when clicking, or while waiting for the animation to finish. Artillery is the god of war. I'm a big arty fan. I have tested this again and again. I have literally fired tens of thousands of shots in Civ games. Take your time aiming, and it works.
Ships as Arty: if the enemy nation is like North Africa, and reinforcing units march along a coastal road, then park ships that bombard along that coast. Dromonds are the best for this. You can weaken units as they move up to the front. You can slow the reinforcement rate, if they stop at a town to heal, but more likely, they continue on into combat in a weakened state. It's very rewarding, as you send your ships along the coast seeking victims. For added fun, in a time-critical situation, you can follow them along the coast, blasting them all the while. Very satisfying....
This works nicely with a small force, too. Send a group with workers into enemy territory, and park them on a hill next to his approach-route road. As he sends his force down the road towards your territory, a few will get nailed as they pass, weakening them just enough to defeat their assault. It's a great way to develop elite units in your territory. Find a spot that AI will attack, and rotate defenders. The weakened attackers lose the fight, and you bring up fresh defenders. This is called rope-a-dope. You can do this all day. Here's the funny thing: You can set this up easily during a RoP agreement! When you're ready to fight, don't renew the RoP, and refuse to leave enemy territory. If you're worried about rep, just build the barricade, and move a stack into there later after DoW (a little tougher trick).
Regarding fast units: they don't withdraw from combat very well, if the tile behind them is enemy-occupied, so use your roads to attack from opposite directions, and you can wipe out that pesky cav. If they're in a line or in several adjacent tiles, attack the rearmost ones first, then the others will fight to the death.
This works on a larger scale, too. I was the French fighting the Spanish at the border. The Spanish had some 25+ Cav filtering through the hills, the way the AI is wont to do, if you block the roaded passes. With inf to reject them in the Pyrenees, I was able to get behind them, and take the town. Using the roads, I formed a classic pocket. It was aesthetically very pleasing. First, the AI didn't know which way to go, so the few attacks on my inf weren't followed through on, as some cav headed back towards the town (and towards some bait weak units that they couldn't reach in one move). When I attacked the mass in the hills, there were no retreats from my inf. I hit the full-strength units with my cav, and hit the rest with inf. They died where they stood. I did something similar against the French as the Austrians, on a smaller scale.
Aiming Arty: you can hit every time you fire with these things, regardless of type (even catapults). When you aim, the left edge has to be exactly between the two borders of the targeted tile. The right edge has to be just intersecting the right inner border. It helps to have the map centered on the firing unit. The trick is not to move the cursor when clicking, or while waiting for the animation to finish. Artillery is the god of war. I'm a big arty fan. I have tested this again and again. I have literally fired tens of thousands of shots in Civ games. Take your time aiming, and it works.
Ships as Arty: if the enemy nation is like North Africa, and reinforcing units march along a coastal road, then park ships that bombard along that coast. Dromonds are the best for this. You can weaken units as they move up to the front. You can slow the reinforcement rate, if they stop at a town to heal, but more likely, they continue on into combat in a weakened state. It's very rewarding, as you send your ships along the coast seeking victims. For added fun, in a time-critical situation, you can follow them along the coast, blasting them all the while. Very satisfying....
Looks like I have been missing out on some opportunities with barricades. I could have used them against the Persians when they sent some monster stacks of immortals against me. The problem with any Maginot Line is that you need to make sure the enemy has to attack against it and that there is not a weak link. In WWII the French thought they were impervious to attack only to find the Germans moved through Belgium to get to them. Of course an AI is not going to be smart enough to get around a well place trap. Do battlements allow defenders to heal?
This might sound basic to some but a good way to get units up to vet and elite status is to attack defenders first with cav or arty to wear down a unit and then attack with the basic attack unit to assure success. Early on a good tactic against barbarians is to fortify against them and wait for them to attack, because they will attack unless they are guarding their home. Once a unit has reached vet status, its pretty safe from barbarians.
This might sound basic to some but a good way to get units up to vet and elite status is to attack defenders first with cav or arty to wear down a unit and then attack with the basic attack unit to assure success. Early on a good tactic against barbarians is to fortify against them and wait for them to attack, because they will attack unless they are guarding their home. Once a unit has reached vet status, its pretty safe from barbarians.
bustedsynapses
Chieftain
Battlements and Barricades don't have any special healing properties. Usual conditions apply. The thing is that they can channel the attacker. The AI has perfect military intelligence. It will go after the weakest area, so yes it will bypass a Maginot line, if it can. Leaving gaps channels the attack, as it goes after weaker defenders behind the line, taking some punishment from the ZOC's and Arty. An old tactic is to empty a settlement of defenders. The AI will reroute its forces to go after it. Many people regard this as a gamey tactic. I have no problem with it, as it balances the AI's perfect intel.
A note on Arty: When I posted the comments about Arty's accuracy, I had been playing a lot of Conquests. There is an aiming point in that mod. I'd forgotten that it doesn't apply to vanilla Civ3. It had been a while since I'd played vanilla, and I don't have complete or play the world.
A note on Arty: When I posted the comments about Arty's accuracy, I had been playing a lot of Conquests. There is an aiming point in that mod. I'd forgotten that it doesn't apply to vanilla Civ3. It had been a while since I'd played vanilla, and I don't have complete or play the world.
splunge the 2nd
King
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2007
- Messages
- 741
Thanks for a great article! The uses for the various units in a mixed unit stack was especially enlightening.
I'm still a noob and recently had my first regent game and did make use of artillary. My trouble was advancing my offensive units to take a city after an artillary pounding often left my artillary under prote4cted and I often lost them to enemy cavalry. At the best, I'd manage to take a city, then take at least a full turn to get everyone back in a useful stack, leaving behind my wounded to put down resiters and hold my city. My pushes rapidly ran out of steam with losses and folks left behind. Any thoughts?
I'm still a noob and recently had my first regent game and did make use of artillary. My trouble was advancing my offensive units to take a city after an artillary pounding often left my artillary under prote4cted and I often lost them to enemy cavalry. At the best, I'd manage to take a city, then take at least a full turn to get everyone back in a useful stack, leaving behind my wounded to put down resiters and hold my city. My pushes rapidly ran out of steam with losses and folks left behind. Any thoughts?
denyd
Emperor
Use the artilery in the initial attack to red-line the front-line defenders then kill them with bombers. That'll allow you to move the balance of the stack (leaving a couple of infantry to guard the artillery stack and the new town) forward to target # 2. Use your cavalry to pick off targets of opportunity (LB, Horses, exposed muskets, etc) and then have them rejoin the stack. Having 4-6 infantry always with the stack should provide enough defense to prevent any losses. Once you can add tanks to the stack, you'll be able to move even faster. Use the turn you relocate your bombers as the heal & regroup turn.
Also use naval bombardment for coastal cities before any other bombing. The kill any wounded targets with bombers. Save the artillery for the inland cities.
Also use naval bombardment for coastal cities before any other bombing. The kill any wounded targets with bombers. Save the artillery for the inland cities.
bustedsynapses
Chieftain
As far as your offensive running out of steam, I recommend you don't try to advance so quickly. I don't generally renew my advance until I have my new conquest subdued and my redlined units healed. This gives time for the flow of reinforcements to catch up to my advance. You do have a flow of reinforcements, don't you? Your offensive force will lose power if you don't, because you need to leave large garrisons behind to guard against a flip.
Also,if most of your units are redlined, then don't be too eager to take the city, as that is indeed what makes your arty vulnerable. Don't try to take what you can't hold. If you can't both hold the town and defend your arty and redlined units, don't finish off the town, unless you plan to raze it. If the enemy still has counterattack strength, then don't be afraid to fall back to your territory to heal. The enemy will follow, and you falling back will rob him of his tempo, diluting his counterattack strength. The next time you advance, his strength will have been wasted, yours will have increased, and your victory is assured.
Also,if most of your units are redlined, then don't be too eager to take the city, as that is indeed what makes your arty vulnerable. Don't try to take what you can't hold. If you can't both hold the town and defend your arty and redlined units, don't finish off the town, unless you plan to raze it. If the enemy still has counterattack strength, then don't be afraid to fall back to your territory to heal. The enemy will follow, and you falling back will rob him of his tempo, diluting his counterattack strength. The next time you advance, his strength will have been wasted, yours will have increased, and your victory is assured.
scoutsout
Minstrel Boy
I'm glad to know that people are still getting something from this article...
@Denyd: Thanks for stopping by to add some advice.
@bustedsynapses: good pointers on avoiding over-extending your forces.
@Denyd: Thanks for stopping by to add some advice.
@bustedsynapses: good pointers on avoiding over-extending your forces.
Trying to garrison captured towns to defend against flips seems to me to require way too many troops. My approach is to use one or two wounded units max to quell resistance in a town I want to keep, and to keep a few fast units strategically placed within reach of a group of captured towns so that if one of them flips they can take it back immediately. You get the town back with one fewer foreign population, and you only lose a unit or two at most. Once the resistance is finished, of course, you can leave the town without a garrison as long as you are keeping the enemy's fast troops busy elsewhere.
scoutsout
Minstrel Boy
As far as keeping units in the town, AlanH is dispensing good advice. I'd like to offer a variation on the theme:
Right after taking an enemy city, you get one IBT free from culture flipping. Since resistors increase the chance of a flip, it makes sense to pile as many units as you can into the city when you take it, ideally quelling the resistance that very first turn (harder with larger cities). Once you get the resistance quelled you can put the city on a starvation diet and starve it down to one foreign citizen. If in despotism it makes sense to whip a few foreign citizens into a cultural improvement... in any case, once you get the town down to one foreign citizen, and get a cultural improvement built... the chances of a flip usually drop off dramatically.
denyd
Emperor
If I'm in Feudalims (rare) or Communism (sometimes in late game wars), I'll whip a settler then abandon and resettle town. Flip risk is usually a fraction of what it used to be. BTW: Not recommended if you plan on a diplomatic win.
D0NIMATRIX
Full of drivel
I value the first turn of a war (including the ibt after it) higher than any other one. Your goal is to take as many cities as fast as possible, and also to neutralize any units you can. Then your huge army stays in the conquered cities for the turn after that, and in that manner quells as many resistors as possible that turn w/o any chance of culture-flipping (apparently the turn after conquest is the safest for occupying units...). Then, next turn, you take any uninjured units and repeat, but focusing more on any 1MP invaders in your territory. You also have to use bombers as soon as you get them, and have 2/3 of your army be bombers, and 1/3 be tanks and cavs. That is a formula for victory.
I just recently got the urge to dust off my CIV III and play it again. After spending two+ years with IV, I've struggled mightely. Funny, I don't remember it being this hard.
Articles, like yours, are helping me alot. Also, as much as I hate SoD's, I want to try a killing zone now.
Thanks
Similar threads
- Locked
