What's your strategy when it comes to military might?

[Daien]

Hey Civers!
I may not like the modern era in the game but I have to admit that when it comes to military might it's good to be in that era.
What I do is that, I build a huge Air Force and station them-ith the aid of at least 6 or 7 carriers with a dozen of Battleships, Aegis Crusers, Nuclear submarines in different corners of the world. And with that you always have the upper hand, it's guaranteed!

Anyone has a better strategy?

 

[vikingruler]

i do most of my wars in the ancient and middle ages. my stratgey differs between age. in the ancient i wait till i get swordsman and that does the trick with some horseman and archers for backup. in the middle ages i build up forces of medieval infantry, knights, and some trebuchets, also crusaders if i get knight's templar which by the way is great. i then sometimes build fortresses on the enemy border for fun or wait for a ROP to end and attack with my units already surronding the enemy cities. with the border i can just flood units into the enemy's territory.

 

[Tomoyo]

Artillery.

 

[Bluemofia]

Artillery, not those cheap catapult things, SODs of 50ish units each, and a massive worker force to rail/road everything. I prefer to eliminate them early on, so they won't be a potential threat, as well as the potential resources in their land. So, I mostly get knight/medieval infantry swarms as well as muskets to hold ground.

 

[Kozmos]

Mass Bombersa and artys,few tanks to protect and paratroops to take the city.

 

[Beorn-eL-Feared]

I like to make a lot of fast attackers to conquer in the ancient/medieval age, and do every war waging I need to do in those eras. After that, I change to demo or commy (depending on what fits better and the likeliness of further wars) and end tyhe game in whatever fashion I picked.
I'm not as experienced though, cuz I rarely ever play with the mindset of conquest or domination, I just do it when the door is opened and I have a fast UU (sipahi, cossack, mounted warrs, gallic swordsmen, panzers...).

 

[The Omega]

If I've got them, I nuke everything in site (Once I nuked every computer city in the game ) Then move in with the modern armor. If It's pre-nukes, I'll use bombers and artillery plus whichever unit is the strongest at the moment.

 

[Total War]

Most of my wars are fought early in the game. I always get angry when an AI civ builds a city in a place that I really want, whether it is on a river or near a resource.

My ideal time for a massive war is right when I research Military Tradition, usually a few turns before any other civ. I start pumping Cavalry and invading my most hated enemies before they have time to react

 

[shortguy]

I'm an artillery junkie. In fact, I'm a bit too much so. I'm stingy about losing troops, so I hesitate (too much, really) to fight when I don't have an attacker stronger than their best defender. From replacable parts on, I also require huge artillery stacks. I probably don't need to use them so much (especially when I have the tech lead, which is most of the time on Monarch); in fact, it's probably hindering my playing.

 

[dexters]

Late game modern era wars are the kind of wars you will most likely be fighting when you play on the higher scale difficulty, mostly because the AI advantages are so pronounced in the early game that engaging in any meaningful war, outside of short opportunistic wars is usually not in the cards.

In the modern era, my advice is nothing radical and part of it has already been mentioned. Artillery, lots and lots of them as their accuracy aren't the best in the world. I would also add several things.

- Bombers. These function like artillery but also has a bonus of its range and its ability to kill units (post C3C). You can pretty much cover your entire empire if you concentrate your bombers on a few key cities. The use of airpower in the modern era is often understated, but the advantages are obvious. In addition to range, you can augment your artillery with these suckers. If your arty stack just couldn't redline the AI's SoD, having extra bombers is great. Even better is if your bomber coverage overlap, and you can use bombers from not one, but two or three cities to bomb the attackers.

Another bonus with bombers is if you're trying to save your precious attacking units (tanks, cavalry, modern armor) and don't want to risk attacking that mech inf. on the mountain with a 100% defense bonus. In C3C, bombers can kill off these units, and they can get promoted too, making them harder for the AI fighters to shoot down when you send them on bomber runs into enemy territory.

Another point to learn post Railroads is to keep a stategic reserve.

I usually stack all my surplus units outside cities, so I'd have a stack fo Defenders, Attacks and Bombard units somewhere safe. And I pull units from these stacks where needed. The strategic reserve is key, because the AI can send SoD from multiple fronts and if they have an RoP with one of your neighbours, those can show up anywhere. The last thing you want is to be caught unprepared with all your troops in the front.

Lastly, assess the situation early and compensate early. My last game had me short on rubber, which meant I can't build tanks or infantry. I immediately traded my neighbour for 20 turns of rubber and made as many of those two as I could and that saved my behind and bought me just enough time. In the modern era, Modern Armor is going to eat through your stacks on Mech. Infs in your towns, so look to build walls on your towns and build civil defense (ptw and c3c) in your cities and metropolis. I've lost stacks of 4 mech inf. in cities I thought were safe, and lost a town because of it. If possible, plan early and build some of your cities on hills to get the defense bonus.

 

[Kozmos]

Great point,like he said redline the bastards with artillery and finish them off with bombers.

 

[morchuflex]

LOts of good advice, Dexters.
But I think the most important still remains, as many posters have noted: build tons of artillery. With a huge artillery stack, you can repell any attack without taking casualties at all.
Bombers can help, but I have modded my game to remove their lethal bomb ability, which is both overpowering and unrealistic (for land units).

 

[Own]

Artillery.

i wanted to just say "ditto" but i needed 10 characters

 

[citizen001]

On lower levels never fight wars beyond the Industrial age as you should have already won by then. (unless you're going for UN or Cultural Vic)

 

[planetfall]

Hey Civers!
I may not like the modern era in the game but I have to admit that when it comes to military might it's good to be in that era.
What I do is that, I build a huge Air Force and station them-ith the aid of at least 6 or 7 carriers with a dozen of Battleships, Aegis Crusers, Nuclear submarines in different corners of the world. And with that you always have the upper hand, it's guaranteed!

Anyone has a better strategy?

Set a goal of winning earlier and earlier in game and when you start winning by end of Middle Ages, it is time to jump a difficulty level.

Problems I see with your strategy:
1. way too many BS, they are not cost effective and would be better building different units
2. carriers are better in groups of 3+. Use one carrier of just fighters and AI will not be very successful in counter attacks.
3. building a huge air force may not be as effective as building a land force.
4. AI may jump to nukes and SDI so your air force may not be as potent

The problem with artillery is it takes forever to build a potent force. I have never enjoyed playing with more than 30. At 30 I stop and build other units.

Search and destroy AI offensive forces. Put single mechs, fortified on mt tops and marchs, especially if you can find a good spot across river from AI. MA will often be suckered into attacking.

Test your tactics. Use utility CRpStat to load 15 turns of warfare and see how well you actually preserved your offense. If you dropped a couple hundred points, you are not playing as well as you could. Replay last 15 rounds and see if you can do better.

PF

 

[Eyeoftiger]

My strat

Age 1: I typically do not attack an equal or better opponent in this age because the offensive units aren't that great yet. Getting Zeus helps. If a neighbor has no iron, I will destroy them. I tend to stay away from early wars with the Greeks and Carthage, as their UU is very good in the first age and first part of the second. In other words, unless I have a leg up, I will just expand in this age.

Age 2: This is when I start most of my wars. With the wonderful resource distribution, you can usually catch a few civs without saltpeter and thus can catch them with their pants down with your cavs, longbowmen, and MI. I build stacks of trebs protected by at least 5 units, and this is helpful since they turn into Artillery later. I'll upgrade them to cannons if I need to, but for some reason, I've always had better success with trebs than cannons...anyone else seen this?

Age 3: The ulimate "defensive war" age until the end of it. With almost everyone with Infantry and at least riflemen and guerillas, attacking is a slow process that is impossible without artillery. Don't ever attack in this age without it; you'll lose unless you're fighting spears. I don't build a lot of tanks when they come online, though I build a few to push back the enemy if need be. When bombers are available, I build a lot of these to press my military advantage. Unless I need to blockade something, which I usually don't, I build only a few naval units (maybe 6 destroyers and 3 Battleships).

Age 4: Usually, most wars have subsided for the moment, and during this time, I build up cruise missiles for the inevitible next world war. I use them as my first launch. If I can get to ICBM's before war is declared, I will stockpile them to use against SOD's. MA's and MI's in bunches, along with radar artillery. Stealth is helpful, but I usually get it after I start the next world war, and since bombers can't be upgraded in an unmodded game, I typically stay away.