War Strategies

[Kc7mxo]

I'm really having some frustrations here. In my current game I've got a significant tech lead, tanks and infantry vs an english army of primarily grenaiders, rifleman, knights and catapults.

my problem is that despite my unit's strength, i'm getting overun by the shear gobs and gobs and gobs of crummy units. catapult after catapult after catauplt, knights and knights and knights. and eventually they just wear my troops down and run them over. i can't understand how the AI even HAS so many troops.

Anyone have any advice? I'm forced to build my advanced and expensive units, while the AI just throws hordes of trash units in my face, there's no modern "cheap" units, so what should I do? I just can't understand how the AI can manage an empire with such an insane stockpile of soldiers using up its resources.

And is there ANY way to figure out how many soldiers an AI has sending a spy to scout all their cities? I recall the civ2 military advisor had a sort of comparison option or something. I'm really getting curious at how many soldiers the AI will maintain and whether its paying any support cost for them.

[evizaer]

I successfully beat back my enemies attack by having artillery inside my cities that would attack stacks outside the cities. I would also put units on any hills nearby and have my workers clear out any forests within one tile of my city. That way, the enemy gets no terrain bonuses for defense. If you have a few artillery in each city wearing attackers down until your regular units can kill them off, you should stand a chance.

I've found that using artillery effectively in this game is crucial for success in war.

[cal_01]

Start building workshops and rushing your units. You'll need a significant production advantage to overcome the AI.

It also helps to get military friendly civics, like Nationalism or Vassalage.

By the way, if you're up against riflemen, try and get Marines. They're fairly cheap and efficient against gunpowder units.

[Cort Haus]

Which level is this at, Kc7mxo?

AIUI, the AI gets support bonuses all the way down to Noble, so they can run more troops than the human.

Assuming you are building troops from Barracks cities, or with a Civics exp-boost, don't promote them until they are in the field and see what they're up against. Then add promotions to give the best odds against the unit type of the enemy. Try to have a unit with a healing promotion around too, and don't use beat-up units unless against even-more-beat-up-units if possible.

[Azuarc]

AIUI? I've seen a lot of internet slang, but that's a new one.

[Cort Haus]

As I Understand It

[The keeper]

Are you using bombers to bomb the cities before you get there. You can use the bombers to:
a) Remove the defensive bonus the cities have and
b) Take the units that are there down to 50% str.

[Artuero]

Look on the bright side. Eventually they will run out of units and your units will be highly promoted, advanced ones. Go on the offensive and use seige weapons against them.

[MattPilot]

IF your units are technological (and strengthwise) superior to their foes, i'd go with promotions that allows fewer units do more damage.

For this, i'd recommend the DRILL promotions (first strikes). Give all your tanks First strike promotions and he can likely take down 2 riflemen in one turn without suffering much damage at all.

I'm in the same situation as you (game wise, me tanks, inf, vs his riflemen/grenadiers). My Tanks with Drill III sure are a kicker!

** edit, i also second the use of artillery. There ain't no better way to kick some riflemen arse. Your artillery should even survive most attacks. Just give them appropriate upgrades.

[BigBadButch]

Originally posted by The keeper
Are you using bombers to bomb the cities before you get there. You can use the bombers to:
a) Remove the defensive bonus the cities have and
b) Take the units that are there down to 50% str.

Yup, air power can be very handy.

As far as how the AI gets so many units, I've noticed that they tend to make liberal use of the civic that lets you 'draft' troops (can't remember the name just now).

In a recent game where I found myself in a similar situation to the one you describe (playing as English, war with the French), the AI depleted a City from 16 to 4 population by drafting turn after turn. That's a lot of troops very quickly...

[Fried-Psitalon]

If you can lure the AI to a bottleneck, build a fort there or set yourself up on friendly terrain. I once slaughtered 10 units of an opponent's by fortifying a Drill III Cho-Ko-Nu on a forested hilltop. He was aghast... and I had a very experienced unit.

[Celerity]

Yeah, Drill promotions are awesome. I was playing Fredrick (prince) last night against Infantry-defended cities - the extra first strike on my Panzers made them unstoppable. I went from losing 1 in 2 (no first strike) to around 1 in 5. That was offensive, but it works just as well when defending.

[padillah]

Collateral damage is the BEST! I put the first upgrade to that and the second to Combat I. Then back to as much collateral damage as I can get.

That way every attack hurts every unit in the stack. It's great.

Tom P.

[Quillan]

On tanks, I've become a huge fan of Barrage I with all the Drill I can put on it. Collateral damage + first strike makes for some serious stackbusting power.

[Ironwolf]

It all comes down to combined arms. Artillery, Armor, Infantry, Airpower. Got to have them all to be effective even against older units both on defense and offense. But beware, the AI will send hords to overwhelm you. Napoleon razed three of my boder cities before I could get the situation stabilized.