Apolyton Civ4 PREVIEW (By Solver) - Part 1 online

[Solver]

If you attack with your siege weapons first, certainly you will soften up the stack, but the powerful defensive units will certainly kill off the siege weapons. It seems like a waste to throw them away so easily, considering that they too can level up.

Your siege weapon will be likely to lose anyway, even not vs. the best unit. So it might be wise to send the weapon in, soften up the whole stack to give your elite troops a chance of actually surviving.

Plus, attacking with siege isn't always suicide. Siege weapons have a withdrawal chance.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Lorizael
That's only on defense. Stacked combat does not exist. You choose which units you attack with.

That is incorrect. You can select, say, 5 units and attack with them all, and the game will automatically choose the order of attack based on chances of winning.

[Lorizael]

Is that the only way that you can attack? Is there no longer an option to attack with only one unit?

[Solver]

There is, of course. What I described above is an option.

[Freddz]

Originally posted by Solver
[q] Plus, attacking with siege isn't always suicide. Siege weapons have a withdrawal chance.

Sounds very nice.

[alva]

Is that the only way that you can attack? Is there no longer an option to attack with only one unit?

I'm sure you can still choose which unit you want to choose.

EDIT: quote added

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Solver
There is, of course. What I described above is an option.

*nod* okay. Well, that's the sort of thing I would want to micromanage myself. Then again, it might be good to let the computer automate it in the beginning, considering that I've displayed my obvious ignorance on combat here.

[alva]

I belief there is an indicator where you can see which of your units has the best odds.

[Lorizael]

Of course... but a human player won't always want to do what the computer thinks is best...

[Solver]

*nod* okay. Well, that's the sort of thing I would want to micromanage myself. Then again, it might be good to let the computer automate it in the beginning, considering that I've displayed my obvious ignorance on combat here.

Actually, the comp will show you the best defender. Suppose you're attacking a city with Archers, Spearmen and Axemen in it.

If you select a Horse Archer, you'll see a Spearman in the city - top defender. If you select a Swordsman, you will see an Axeman as a top defender. Then you can, of course, check the actual numerical odds.

[Lorizael]

mm options.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Lorizael


This strategy here could be totally wrong. But it seems reasonable. Also, I would think that this strategy would only be effective if indeed the AI is making use of combined arms stacks.

I'd say it's totally wrong. Artillery has always been used first in order to soften up the enemy. Why would do otherwise? Doing it your way, you take the risk of losing your Elite troops by attacking defending units that might be Elite as well. Losing a point or might make a big difference. Chances are that the bombard units are going to be really cheap, so it doesn't matter to much if they get killed.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Solver

*nod* okay. Well, that's the sort of thing I would want to micromanage myself. Then again, it might be good to let the computer automate it in the beginning, considering that I've displayed my obvious ignorance on combat here.

Actually, the comp will show you the best defender. Suppose you're attacking a city with Archers, Spearmen and Axemen in it.

If you select a Horse Archer, you'll see a Spearman in the city - top defender. If you select a Swordsman, you will see an Axeman as a top defender. Then you can, of course, check the actual numerical odds.

Interesting. That's a bit of an exploit, isn't it, since you can actually check (at least to some extent) what different units are in a stack, just by cycling through your offensive units? Though I guess it is just one more thing encouraging combined arms

[conmcb25]

Originally posted by snoopy369


Interesting. That's a bit of an exploit, isn't it, since you can actually check (at least to some extent) what different units are in a stack, just by cycling through your offensive units? Though I guess it is just one more thing encouraging combined arms

You need to think like CIV IV not CIV III

[snoopy369]

Hmm. I think I like the way Siege weapons work ... I'd like to see further distance firing, but I like the fact that siege weapons no longer can bombard a single unit. I think I'd like to see the bombard work against the entire stack, without actually engaging though; perhaps a 20-30% chance of hitting a single HP off of each unit in the stack, affected of course by the units (more armored or more agile units have lower chance, enemy artillery or nonagile units have higher) ...

But certainly the current model is superior to civ3 by leagues