Combat and taking over a city question

[jonp]

All,

I am currently at war with the Romans and there is a city with 1 longbowmen in it that I want to take over.

Everytime I bring a stack of units against him, my odds are always against me (he is around 12 to anywhere from 6 to 9)

1) My question is which unit should I use against longbowmen?

2) When you attack with multiple units, I assume it takes your strongest unit against his strongest unit, right?

3) Assuning 2) is truc, If I have a bunch of units in my stack that give me odds like 9 to his 12, could I just keep attacking and eventually I will (even though I might lose multiple units)?

Thx
jonp

[Footie Mad]

If he only has one defender then you can overrun him easily even if the odds are slightly against you in each separate battle. If he has a city with numerous defenders bring some catapults and attack with them first, they will cause collateral damage to all the units within the city and soften them up for your other troops.

[jonp]

So I assume if I attack with a stack of 5 units against his one unit, each time I take the group against his city, the computer will pick (randomly???) a unit to go against his?

I guess I should overrun his unit with men, right?

What is the best unit against Longbowmen?

[MortVader]

As I understand it, it is always strongest attacker vs strongest defender first.

Don't know if you have it, but I'm also understanding that you would be wise to bring catapults, and bombard the city first, in order to bring down the city defences, which provide a strength bonus to the defending longbowman.

[Sparo]

I believe it's the best attacker for that situation versus the strongest defender. Ex. A knight (str 10) would be a small favourite against a city with an unfortified pikeman, but if you had a swordsman you'd be getting slightly better odds, so the computer will choose it for you (if you have a stack selected)

Originally posted by Footie Mad
If he only has one defender then you can overrun him easily even if the odds are slightly against you in each separate battle. If he has a city with numerous defenders bring some catapults and attack with them first, they will cause collateral damage to all the units within the city and soften them up for your other troops.

Make sure your catapults are created at a city with a barracks, then take the extra collateral damage promotion. It's essential for taking cities.

[jonp]

The reason I wrote this is because there is this one Roman city that has one Longbowman in it and I am having very bad odds whenever I look at the battle odds.

I originally did have a catapult but now he is down to one guy so collateral damage wouldnt matter much.

What is the best unit to use against the Longbowman?

[TheDarkside]

It will take your best available unit from the stack when you target the city. It will factor in any promotions your units might have, so 9 to 12 is the best possible odds you have in that stack against his longbowman.

What you can do is build a catapult or two and bombard his city defenses- that oughta bring down his defense bonus a little.

You can also look for units that have a bonus to archery units, such as the Persian unique unit Immortals. There is also a promotion you can give to your melee units that give a +25% to archery units- Cover I believe it's called.

Also keep in mind when you attack with your best unit which has 9 to 12 odds, chances are you're going to lose but you're going to injur that longbowman in the process. This means that the longbowman's strength will decrease so the next unit in your stack that you attack with will have better odds. (it won't be 9 to 12 again if that longbowman was injured)

[jonp]

I guess the biggest thing I was missing was thinking I was attacking with the stack so I kept bringing more units up there thinking the odds would get better.

I guess I need to just overrun the city and slowly take down his strength. A unit heals the best while inside the city walls, right?

[TheDarkside]

Right, if you are using default game options you will be attack unit by unit, even if you have the units grouped together. So that 9 to 12 odds would be for just one of your units. Attack with that unit, then continue attacking with your other units until that longbowman is dead. Unless you have substantially weaker units in the rest of your stack than that unit getting 9 to 12 you should get that city no problem.

Unit heals best when within your borders, city walls do not provide a health boost. A Hospital would...

[jonp]

You mentioned something about using default game options.

Is there an option where you can have the whole stack attack or something?

[TheDarkside]

Yeah I remember seeing somewhere an option to use stack combat .. I haven't turned it on ever but I imagine it has somethign to do with attacking with whole stacks.

I think you have to hit Esc and it's under one of those advanced options menus (next to one of the tabs where you can set your graphics settings like resolution)