what do you consider a big army?

[CaptainCivFreak]

when/if your turns take 3 hours + for just the IBT.

 

[tigerden27]

One or two defensive units in each city plus one more unit than it takes to finish the war I'm in.

The second part of the equation is the toughest to figure out, but this seems to work:

10 * Age / Map

Where Age is 1 for Ancient, 2 for Medievel, 3 for Industrial, 4 for Modern.

Where Map is 1 for Standard, 2 for Small, 3 for Tiny, .5 for Large, and .25 for Huge.

 

[Hornhelm]

A large army for me is about 2 defensive units and 3 offensive units for every enemy city, given the same tech level. Might want to increase the defensive unit count if the opponent has railroads, and especially if the opponent is on another continent. I once had what I thought was an 'invincible' landing force of about 60 marines, infantry and tanks taken out in the space of two turns by an über-Aztec nation who threw everything they had at me. Only a few battered Marines in transports made it back to tell the tale of a D-Day gone horribly wrong.

 

[Bluemofia]

150 modern armors and 150 mech infantry for a huge map and there is only one ai left

 

[magicianeer]

I play on standard, small, or tiny maps at Regent. I do most of my fighting in the first three eras, particulary the mideval era. My largest military force does not exceed 200 units. I'm sure the AI builds much bigger armies.

I fight in a structured style-- one large artillary stack with slow offensive and defensive units plus a screen/raiding force of fast offensive units. The stack size is calculated to crush and garrison one city with minimal cost and minimal loss of my units. If the artillary is not redlining city garrisons fast enough, I add more arty. The number of offensive units should be triple the typical enemy city garrisons. I can never get enough defensive units in the stack. I restrict myself to 20 cities since I dislike large empires-- all other cities are razed or disbanded.

At the end of the ancient era I have about 45 units: the stack has 6 to 10 catapults + 4 to 8 miscellaneous offensive units + 3 to 5 misc defensive units. Each city is defended by one spearmen (call it 15 city defenders)-- I rely on a good offense. The screen may be 0-4 horsemen.

At the end of the mideval era, I have about 100 units: ~16 cannon + 1 loaded army + ~20 of a widely varying mix of offensive and defensive units + 3 or more workers maintaining roads. The screen is 4 to 12 knights, cavalry, and musketmen. There is now a steady supply train which will have 2 to 4 fresh units in transit at any time. Each city is defended by 2 musketmen. Captured cities may have lots more to suppress culture flips.

In the industrial age, the military stagnates at 100 units as I focus on building city improvements and workers. The stack is parked somewhere and the screen is increased to about 15 cavalry for border guard/punishment work.

The stack is slow, but the AI cannot do much about it until railroads become common, and then there is the screen to chase down... The AI does terrible things to my supply train though.

 

[Sarevok]

over 1,000 units.

 

[Bluemofia]

Originally posted by Sarevok
over 1,000 units.

that is one huge army. how long did you support the army?

 

[Strider]

Getting several hundren units is hard.

Exceptionally
100+ Offense
75+ Defense
50+ Artillary
50+ Naval Power
20+ Nuclear Power.

 

[Warman17]

When there's too many to count

 

[Illusion13]

Originally posted by thetyper
Well on my current game as the Romans - Huge Map with 16 Civs - it's Modern Ages. Only 7 of the Civs are left. I control 80% of my continent which is the largest.

My ground defensive forces consist of 510 Mech. Inf. backed up by 30 Mobile SAMs which I can move into place.

Air defenses consist of 30 Jet Fighters which can be stationed anywhere in 2 turns (Conquests limits re-base range).

Ground offense is comprised of 80 single forward deployed (on the other continent) Modern Armor divided into 4 batallions. I also have 10 Armies of 4 Modern Armor forward deploed. Lastly a small Homeland Defense group of 16 MA.

Auxilary ground forces consist of 60 Radar Artillery.

Naval forces are based around my 10 Carrier groups. Each group contains 2 Carriers with 4 Stealth Fighters each. The Carriers are defended by 2 Battleships, 2 AEGIS Cruisers, and 2 Nuclear submarines as well.
40 Nuclear Submarines conduct enemy shore surveilance missions and home shore patrols. About 20 of these are armed with Tactical Nukes.
40 AEGIS Cruisers are forward deployed in the relevant seas.
30 Battleships are designated for home waters defense.

Air offense consists of 50 Stealth Bombers. And to ensure MAD - I have an arsenal of 40 ICBMs.

There's some units I'm missing and I'm sure I've had larger armies than this. This was a custom map with only 40% land. I've played Huge maps with 70% land where just keeping 3 Mech Inf in every city put me at 600.

Holy Jesus on a pogo stick! That is a HUGE army!