What's good against Musketmen when your in the Middle Ages?

[silver 2039]

I'm playing the 1000 CE Middle Age game as France on I belive Regent and I rarely play Civ 4 (once every 2 weeks) so if I'm not very good.

I just conquered North Africa from the Arabs, took Ribe from the Vikings, fought a war against Spain and took Barcelona, Cordoba, and burnt one of their coloniesi in Africa and destroyed all the improvements in Iberia.

And then I fought a war against Germany after pro-German riots broke out in Ribe and took their capital Bremen and burnt most of their countryside with my knights and musketeers and made a naval landing and took Syracuse.

Now my problem is that i was unable to advance on Rome or Salzburg. I have a great combined arms force of pikes, musketeers, knights, catapults and even one war elephant. But Fredricks cities are defended by muskets and I haven't the probality I get when I want to attack them with any is extremely low, so I don't want to risk the massive army I built to take on musket troops. So I made peace and I decided to finish off the remanets of Spain, all they had left was Santiago.

Same problem. While I was punishing Fredrick they had rebuilt and now had muskets also, in addition to 8 or so Longbows in their capital and some pikes. So I can't do anything against them either until I get greandirs. So now I have to attack Mali or the Vikings to get to Mali I have to cross the Sahara and fight in the jungle. For the Vikings I need a fleet in the north and they have mountinous territory. Is there nothing that can kill muskets until grenadirs?

 

[r_rolo1]

Muskets IMHO aren't so hard to beat. There are atleast 2 ways:
CR3 macemen ( you can still build them, can't you?)
Cats (loads of them). Collateral damage will soften things enough to your other units to clean up

 

[frob2900]

If you are playing with the Warlords expansion, research engineering and build trebuchets. They are the cats pyjamas for medieval warfare (and even somewhat beyond).

If not then build a bunch of catapults. Collateral damage is what will help you win in any case.

 

[r_rolo1]

i think that he's playing vanilla ( that's why I didn't mention Trebs)...

 

[Phrederick]

As said above, cats and macemen. It doesn't matter if the odds are extremely low at first, because collateral damage will quickly bring their health down enough that macemen can easily defeat them. When you're fighting someone with a technological edge, you need to be prepared to sacrifice a few units.

 

[futurehermit]

Knights ftw

 

[Elrohir]

Catapults. Catapults. Catapults.

Did I mention catapults? With enough catapults, almost any unit will go down. And on Regent, the AI won't have the stupid bonuses that will allow it to outnumber you so heavily.

 

[Heeringas]

Knight with pinch is mean to muskets, but only when you attack...
But I wouldn´t be that consernd about musketmens...

 

[cabert]

3 catapults to soften up the stack, then use your own units.
You should not be afraid to lose a few units, just build more.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

If you're facing musketmen, you're no longer in the medieval times. If you're still using medieval units, congratulations, your kingdom is technologically behind the rest of the world . But seriously though, yes, I understand how a stack of attacking musketman cannot be countered by any defensive units, which gets worse after your ENEMY softens your defensive stack up with catapults.

I don't know, maceman should be an acceptable all-round unit. 8 vs. 9 strength is not too bad, and even if your enemy has knights, 8 vs. 10 is still (marginally) acceptable. Of course, better tech up!!!

 

[manwiththehands]

Cats and macemen. I do it all the time. And the full-strength maceman vs. the weakened musketman battle clips are the BEST! More than once I've seen my maceman run up to the city defended with one last musketman. Point blank range. Pow! Pow! Pow! Maceman's head flinches with each Pow! then "ugg" BFFF!!!

 

[AThousandYoung]

If you're facing musketmen, you're no longer in the medieval times. If you're still using medieval units, congratulations, your kingdom is technologically behind the rest of the world . But seriously though, yes, I understand how a stack of attacking musketman cannot be countered by any defensive units, which gets worse after your ENEMY softens your defensive stack up with catapults.

I don't know, maceman should be an acceptable all-round unit. 8 vs. 9 strength is not too bad, and even if your enemy has knights, 8 vs. 10 is still (marginally) acceptable. Of course, better tech up!!!

IMO Muskets are medieval units. Technically Gunpowder might make put one in the Renaissance (does it? I forget) but Muskets are typically used with Maces, Knights, Pikes, etc; not alongside Rifles, Cavalry and Grenadiers.

In that time period Cats and Maces are your city assault units, Longbows are city defense, Knights are all around mobile combat...Muskets don't really defend cities better than Longbows IMO. They really aren't very important if you have the other units.

 

[svv]

Knights or elephants won't work for him because his enemy will have pikes mixed in there with the muskets.

It's suicide catapults until you can research grenediers and cannon (steel).

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

Cities aren't just defended by longbows. The minimum defense for a border city is:

- 1 longbowman
- 1 pikeman
- 1 crossbowman
- 1 knight

What better counters to this stack except musketman? Trebs initially, but after they're softened, muskets have 9 strength while trebs have 4+4.