I am playing my second Civ4 game (Vanilla, Warlord difficulty, FDR/Americans). I appear to be way ahead in tech (most significantly, gunpowder, nationhood, military tradition, astronomy, about to get rifling); I easily took out Vicky with knights and then cavalry. I'm over halfway to the domination land %; thought I was ready to gobble up Kublai Khan's land (I call him Kibbles), however ran into a potential snag. My invasion force just located a nearby city of his--size 14. It has a whopping +85% on defense vs. my cavalry (+125% as I recall vs. non-gunpowder units). That can be bombarded of course, but after facing fairly small stacks in Vicky's cities, I was struck by his large stack in the city, especially the siege. I didn't write down the exact count of units, but here's my estimate: 
Me--7-8 cavalry, 7-8 catapults, 1 pike, 2 xbow, 1 longbow, 1 musketman (I have another musket holding a forest, roaded tile in Kibbles' land to deter possible counterattack; just realized I could pillage the road as an alternative), 1 horse archer (medic 1, that's what he's there for, suppose I could upgrade him). I can shortly bring up a mace and another xbow or two who are healing nearby, and could bring in a knight who's ready to promote to level 5 (whom I was hoping to keep alive in case I want to take the time to build West Point). I have a bunch of cities behind the battleground but it'll take time for more units to arrive; I could shorten it by going thru anarchy to Slavery and whipping, but I've really been liking CS. My cavalry (and most other units) mostly have Combat 1 and 2, a couple cavalry have C1 and Shock. My cats have CR1 & 2, as does the mace, who may be eligible for CR3 (or other promo).
Kibbles (in city)--7 catapults (I did take note of that exact number), 2 maces, 2 xbows, 1 injured (for now) pike, 1-2 longbows. Some of the cats definitely have Barrage I, I think some of the others have Accuracy. He's been favoring Combat for maces and some Shock and Cover (useless vs. cavalry of course). I think he may have a CG1 promotion on the longbows.
So when I looked at Kibbles' stack, I thought, if he attacks with his siege, maybe losing a few of them, then with his other units, he could possibly wipe out my whole stack!
That prospect brought me up short after the "target practice" that was the war with Vicky. I searched this site but couldn't find info on whether to expect the AI to attack with siege from inside a city. I have hardly seen it do so--mostly they've waited there to die--but just a couple turns ago Kibbles did suicide a cat from inside the city vs. a lone cavalry unit (who was only hit by it once as I recall from the combat log, yet apparently came out of that battle at about 1/2 strength--I did not understand that, does an AI cat somehow do "collateral" damage to its main/sole opponent?) and then took out the cavalry (barely) with his pike.
Well I know I can just save the game and see what happens but thought I'd ask here if anyone can shed light on 1) whether to expect the AI to attack with its siege (and then other units for maximum effectiveness), 2) if so, what to do about it--I could wait to get several galleons built and attack amphibiously, and/or switch from Bureaucracy to Nationhood and draft as many rifles as possible, or even tech to my Navy SEAL UU, though I certainly didn't think that would be necessary with the lead I have in this game...or do something else you might suggest?
And by the by, what happened to that poor cavalry hit by the AI cat?
Me--7-8 cavalry, 7-8 catapults, 1 pike, 2 xbow, 1 longbow, 1 musketman (I have another musket holding a forest, roaded tile in Kibbles' land to deter possible counterattack; just realized I could pillage the road as an alternative), 1 horse archer (medic 1, that's what he's there for, suppose I could upgrade him). I can shortly bring up a mace and another xbow or two who are healing nearby, and could bring in a knight who's ready to promote to level 5 (whom I was hoping to keep alive in case I want to take the time to build West Point). I have a bunch of cities behind the battleground but it'll take time for more units to arrive; I could shorten it by going thru anarchy to Slavery and whipping, but I've really been liking CS. My cavalry (and most other units) mostly have Combat 1 and 2, a couple cavalry have C1 and Shock. My cats have CR1 & 2, as does the mace, who may be eligible for CR3 (or other promo).
Kibbles (in city)--7 catapults (I did take note of that exact number), 2 maces, 2 xbows, 1 injured (for now) pike, 1-2 longbows. Some of the cats definitely have Barrage I, I think some of the others have Accuracy. He's been favoring Combat for maces and some Shock and Cover (useless vs. cavalry of course). I think he may have a CG1 promotion on the longbows.
So when I looked at Kibbles' stack, I thought, if he attacks with his siege, maybe losing a few of them, then with his other units, he could possibly wipe out my whole stack!
That prospect brought me up short after the "target practice" that was the war with Vicky. I searched this site but couldn't find info on whether to expect the AI to attack with siege from inside a city. I have hardly seen it do so--mostly they've waited there to die--but just a couple turns ago Kibbles did suicide a cat from inside the city vs. a lone cavalry unit (who was only hit by it once as I recall from the combat log, yet apparently came out of that battle at about 1/2 strength--I did not understand that, does an AI cat somehow do "collateral" damage to its main/sole opponent?) and then took out the cavalry (barely) with his pike.Well I know I can just save the game and see what happens but thought I'd ask here if anyone can shed light on 1) whether to expect the AI to attack with its siege (and then other units for maximum effectiveness), 2) if so, what to do about it--I could wait to get several galleons built and attack amphibiously, and/or switch from Bureaucracy to Nationhood and draft as many rifles as possible, or even tech to my Navy SEAL UU, though I certainly didn't think that would be necessary with the lead I have in this game...or do something else you might suggest?
And by the by, what happened to that poor cavalry hit by the AI cat?
