Who Should I Attack Next?

[PrinceOfLeigh]

I've come to something of a dilemma.

I am the French. I am quickly researching towards Chivalry and trying to catch up after using the GL strat. I have good defences of Musketeers and I have a horde of knights.

I want to attack someone to expand but can't decide who.

To the North are the Sumerians, they are strong in both landmass and defences, have good resources and are technologically advanced compared to me. However, they have very few attacking units.

To the South are the Romans who have LOTS of Legionnaries and Archers but despite having the largest land mass, their borders are protected by pikemen.

To the East are the Ottomans. They are similar to the Sumerians except they have less land and no good resources. It's also a logistical nightmare attacking them as I would have to go through both Roman and Sumerian territory.

Who should be ridden down by my noble knights?

 

[k-a-bob]

Sumerians. Extort techs when your invasion runs out of gas or they only have one city left.

(this advice may differ if I actually saw the game.)

 

[farting bob]

Well a screenshot of ther map would be nice, but from your descriptions i would go for the romans. Legionnaires and arches shouldnt prove too much of a problem, and knights stand a very good chance against pikeman if you use catapaults as well.

 

[biggamer132]

Well a screenshot of ther map would be nice, but from your descriptions i would go for the romans. Legionnaires and arches shouldnt prove too much of a problem, and knights stand a very good chance against pikeman if you use catapaults as well.

That's what I was going to say. Build a crapload of artillery units (not necessarily arties) and go after either Sumeria or Rome. Since Rome has so many offensive units, I would say them, as they will most likely invade you soon enough. once those wars are over, rebuild, consolidate your holdings, and go after Sumeria.

BTW, what difficulty level is this?

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

BTW, what difficulty level is this?

It's only a Monarch level. It's on a standard map with, I presume, 2 Islands.

I'll try to get a screenshot to help

 

[Keshik]

Take out whichever one is farther from the Ottomans. Then use the Ottomans later in an alliance against the other one, and the Sipahis can carve them up for you.

 

[MrRats]

You should attack the Romans for reasons I am too lazy to post.

 

[Tman65]

Mutual Alliance w/Rome against Sumeria. Also give them an ROP so all of those Legions can move up to hit Sumeria. When the deal's expire you should have the majority of there offence trapped a long way from home, all of those good resources Sumeria used to own...and a strange craving for Italian. Destroy their army and then go take their homeland. Of course this is a perfect world scenario...but if things go badly with Sumeria you can always forgoe the Roman invasion.

 

[Puppeteer]

I say attack the stronger neighbor unless all your knights are regular then you might want to train on the Romans for a few turns for promotions and then make peace and attack Sumer. When you attack you weaken yourself, too, even if you're winning, so I like to make sure I attack the bigger threat lest they run away in power while I'm messing with the also-rans.

 

[josephstalin]

You can try to attack Rome. Legionaries and pike are not so good if the atack is carefully planned (catapults, etc). More land is never bad to get, but sometimes (different maps) is difficult to defend.

 

[DariusI]

Sumerians. Extort techs when your invasion runs out of gas or they only have one city left.

(this advice may differ if I actually saw the game.)

I second that.
It'd be nice though to have some more details, like at what difficulty level ur playing, map,...
Except for the technology u can demand if u don't wipe 'em out at once, I don't think it matters. Just take a couple of cities by a surprise-attack, and ur safe, cause u'll be able to negociate peace anyways if things turn ugly. Croossing 2 other civs landmass is could also be done, but that'll take time, which is the only reason I wouldn't do it actually. But really it depends all on the circumstances and map.
Darius I, Ruler of Persia.
p.s. If ur opponents are really strong and u got the cash, or other trading material, nothing is as sweet as a military alliance!!

 

[DonStamos]

Attack Sumeria. Secure at very least a MA with Rome against them, and go for the ROP strategy Tman suggested, but keep units just outside any Sumerian city the Romans decide to go after, that way if the Romans cripple defenses, but can't take the city, you can vulture it

Build knights like CRAZY during the war, and as soon as you reach favorable positions against Sumeria (preferably 4-5 cities left for them, so you can keep extorting from them til you get sick of seeing them), turn all those knights south and invade Rome.

This strategy worked well for me in my current game with France. I invaded Sumeria, who were a tech or two ahead of me at the time. They got Hittites, Russia and Maya to come after me, so I got MAs with the Mongols and Egypt to counter this. I then proceeded to rip Sumeria a new one, while simultaneously trying to finish off Carthage and India (I'd crippled them earlier, both were virtually useless to me)

 

[Tesuji]

I suppose one important detail is: did you trigger GA with your musketeers yet?
If not I'd go for the weaker AI, trigger GA and build up for 20 turns to take on the strongest opponent left.

Being French, I think the general strategy should be to build some artillery. Combine them with some musketeers and an occasional knight, declare war and sit back and see your victim exhaust all its troops one some well placed stacks of units. Best case would be some choke-point, but generally it becomes pretty clear what your opponent is fixated upon as a target. If not, capturing an insignificant town of his will do it. In the meantime build up more knights. When the opposing forces have been reduced to an insignificant trickle, the cities are all there for the taking.

 

[Himalia]

From the description you have given the Ottamans seem a poor choice. I would go for the Sumerians as there seems to be more to get there than from the Romans.

 

[Vilati Timmadar]

Attack Sumeria together with Rome.

Fighting Rome might be successful, but you'd lose too many units. The legionary/archer-combination may be not very powerful, but quantity matters...

A screenshot would be nice indeed.

 

[Lmtoops]

As others have stated, Attack Sumeria
1. Link up with Rome in an Alliance against Sumeria. Try to avoid a MPP.
2. Give Rome a ROP so they can use up their legionaires.
3. Try to coordinate your attacks with Rome...sometimes hard to predict.
4. In the end, extort techs from Sumeria and leave Rome hanging. Don't really care about their attitude toward us, since they will be history in the next War.