War Strategies

[The keeper]

About what promotions to use?

chariots, horse archers, knights, calvery: Flanking is very nice here. With these promotions, it is harder to kill them as long as you are on the attack. If you are attacking with flanking 2, you have a 40% chance (check me on that) of retreating. THIS IS HUGE. It is also good to give one or two of them a medic promotion so they can run 2 squares to a hurt unit to help heal.

Cats, Cannons, and Artillery: Drill, Drill, Drill. The Drill promotions give first strikes. I have seen catapults take down knights with Drill 3. If you are using them as expendable units anyway, make them deal as much damage as possible before they die. Mine get as many drill promotions out of the gates that I can give them.

Infantry: Depends on what you are fighting. In the age of gunpowder give them combat 1 + pinch. Fighting lots of archers: cover. Look at what you are fighting and promote to suit.


This is a rule of thumb I use. Fit to your needs accordingly.

[mgdpublic]

keeper,

Since 1.52 it appears first strike has been greatly reduced in efficacy since there is no longer an attack penalty for loss of strength.

I'm not a big fan of flanking except to get the +1 visiblity at the second tier, and only then on a unit or two at different fronts. That +1 visibility is killer! Otherwise flanking has too many qualifiers, ie, attack, a place to withdraw and movement points left with which to withdraw.

[Yosho]

I think flanking is one of the more effective improvements for naval units, especally destroyers and battleships. Pretty much everything a battleship is likely to attack has first strike, and the increased chance to retreat really helps as well (especally for battleships, with the collateral damage).

[The keeper]

I stand by flanking for horse units. I usually try to have at least half my horsemen with flanking while on the offensive.


If you are on the attack, you always have a place to withdraw. I have never seen a unit withdraw on the defensive. That is a drawback - only good on the attack.

Flanking gives a better chance to not die. This saves hammers in the end. After taking a city, those that are hurt can garrison the city and heal while waiting for reinforcements. The others move on and lay seige to the next city.



I am curious what promotion you would recommend for cats and cannons.

[Hauptman]

I am curious what promotion you would recommend for cats and cannons.

well thats easy, collateral damage or city attack, depending on what its used for.... =)

[mgdpublic]

Recently, if I find myself short of catapults and looking to make a quick capture before reinforcements arrive, I'll go increased bombard damage. Halving the siege time is really helpful in some situations.

[Hauptman]

I'll often give the bombard promo to a cat that gets mauled but lives taking the first of many cities, since its now mauled, and i aint stopping to heal, that makes it a good candidate for bombard.

[gdgrimm]

keeper,

How much do you rely on Flanking?

And for the rest of this message, let's ignore the suicide collateral damage attacks that Cats and Cannons are so useful for.

My tactics are to attack when I have a > 70% chance of winning. On some very rare occassions, I'll go for it with > 60% chance of winning.

My philosophy is build it once, and never lose it. Most of my wars are fought with ratios around 10:1 (enemy losses:my losses). So I've tended to avoid Flanking, since it's value is minimal if you're likely to win the battle.

Do you often attack with even (or perhaps less than even odds)? Are your loss rations more like 1:1? If so, I guess that Flanking becomes more useful. Since you're expecting to lose about 50% of the time, being able to survive those 'losses' is a much bigger help.

[snafuc4]

Originally posted by The keeper
I am curious what promotion you would recommend for cats and cannons.

Medic 1 if working in stacks, the reason being that the arty (of whatever era) is usually the last to be attacked by a well-defended stack

[Blake]

Catapult upgrades depends. If they are being escorted by strong city attackers (ie Praets, Cossacks (no Iron)) then they get Collatoral1+The Bombard Upgrade. This gives them 25% bombard a turn, so 4 pults will bombard the defenses down in one turn.

If the pults are actually the city attackers (ie escorted by axemen/longbowmen) then they get straight City raider upgrades. Actually what I'd usually do is bring like 11 catapults, with no promos assigned. Once I've bombarded down a city I'd select 2-3 pults and give them collatoral, then suicide them. Once I'm happy with the enemy hitpoints I give the remaining pults City Raider and send them in. Altough truth be known, plain city raider works well, because the higher strength gives a better chance of an "upset victory", like catapult beating full health longbow.

For cannons I nearly always go with straight City Raider, topping it off with a Collatoral when they hit 17exp. Raider cannons are evil.

[guermantes]

Blake: "Once I've bombarded down a city I'd select 2-3 pults and give them collatoral, then suicide them."

Should you not rather give them City Raider before a suicide mission?

I mean, collateral is secondary damage while bombarding and if you already have bombarded the defenses down to zero no more collateral damage can be had since you can't bombard any longer. I think you only get get collateral payoff when bombarding and not when (suicide) attacking.

Or am I wrong?

/p

[couerdelion]

Originally posted by Feyd
An 8 strength Swordsman vs a fortified, "city garrison" archer (3+25%+25%+25%+city bonus) is hit and miss.

I presume one of those 25% is a wall but I still don't see how it is "hit and miss". "hit and miss" would be axemen with +20% on city v fortified archer

Your Swordsman could be on City Strike. (8+20% = 9.6)

Archer might have city defender but even fortified with walls and a 30% city bonus this will just be 3+125%=6.75.


Having said that, I may be missing something on the "city bonus". I seem to recall this as being something other than walls but don't know what it is.

[El Conquistador]

Originally posted by guermantes
. I think you only get get collateral payoff when bombarding and not when (suicide) attacking.

Or am I wrong?

/p

Collateral damages come when attacking like most units do, not when pressing the bombard button.

[The keeper]

Flanking can be situational. There are a few situations that I will not. But for the most part, I think it is the best promotion for horses. A few examples.

Early game: Chariots. Chariots are str 4. They will not stand up to fortified archers, axemen, or swordsmen. You are not always gifted with copper for axes. And the barbs approach. You have the wheel and animal husbandry, so you make chariots to fight off the barbs. This might be your only way of survial.
(This is the way I learned of flanking's power)


Later as you come upon knights, they rule the world. Except that pikemen can bring them down easily. Again, flanking gives you the ability to attack them, and withdraw when you dont win. The next one can come in and clean up.

With calvery, riflemen are the biggest problem. After cannons have brought down city defenses, and have weakened the riflemen inside, they can still give calvery problems. The flanking lets the calvery stay alive.


I usually dont have a win/loss ratio of 10:1. But I also push it sometimes to get that extra piece of land or big city. Go ahead and put the nail in the coffin of Montazuma when he decides to declare war on you. I will often fight if the odds are just slightly in my favor - or if necessary, Ill go against the odds.

I know that I have seen this:
As long as I am attacking , I rarely lose horsemen with flanking 2. When not attacking, flanking does no good at all.