How big is your army?

[Arrian]

Originally posted by padillah
Thanks guys, but I was looking for real numbers. I know I'm supposedf to have a "large" army, but what the heck does that mean? 1 unit per city? 5 units per city? 15 units?

"A small army until later, then grow" is fine advice but apparently I'm not getting that right, I keep getting spanked.

Thanks.

Tom P.

I'm talking about where I'd fall on the power graph. Early on, I'm often last or nearly last... but I try not to let that continue. If you stay last, the AI will get its act together and hit you. You want to be average or better.

I don't go based on # units per city. My cities typically have at least one unit in them (to prevent "we're defenseless!" unhappiness), and then any border cities have more. Once I really get my act together, I'll often post units along the coast inbetween cities, such that they can go to the aid of 2 or more cities if needed. But that comes later.

I try to make sure I have a good mix. I don't just build one type of unit. You want good melee units (axes/maces), good anti-horse units (spears/pikes), splash-damage units (catapults, etc), and strong city defenders (archers/longbows). I tend to use a lot less archers/longbows than the AI does... the AI overuses that unit type.

The best thing you can do in the early going is concentrate on getting a unit up to 10XP so you can build the Heroic Epic. That is a big boost to your military production... one city often provides the majority of my military in the mid-game (obviously, such a military would be merely average... if I plan to attack, I will devote more resources to the endeavor).

-Arrian

[gdijedi7]

It depends on the "Game Era."

I grow peacefully until I have war declared on me. I keep about six good units here.

During my first war, I BUILD units. Once I get modern techs, I like to have two or three (preferably four) fleets with at least four carriers. I have about seven Battleships, and several destroyers. I keep about four full transports with each fleet for a "Rapid Response Team." In my homeland, I keep about ten bombers, a few fighters, and one or two forts with about twenty to thirty infantry and artillery units. Tanks are spread out around my land. Each city has two good units defending it, and I ALWAYS have a sizable nuclear arsenal. If you nuke me, I nuke you several times.

I am a warmonger at heart, but I don't have quite the heart to actually start a war. I turn off the time limit and work on my econ.

[padillah]

OK, I think I see where this is going. I don't build units most of the time. I think I've built probably no more than 20 units in an average game.

I'm also flashing back to Civ3 when you got a penalty for moving your unit out of it's supporting city, so I leave most of my units in cities.

I'm gonna try and let myself concentrate on more units (and pay a lot more attention to the power graph, I usually don't look at it until I'm loosing badly) and see if I can't get back on top.

Thanks for the help guys.
Tom P.

[Arrian]

That's CivII, not CivIII (moving unit out caused unhappiness).

Playing with raging barbs on did wonders for focusing my early-game military buildup. Raging barbs can be handled - they're really not THAT scary - but the key is that knowing they are coming will force you to prepare, and furthermore your units will fight more battles & therefore gain more XP (getting the Heroic Epic is pretty easy in raging barbs games).

-Arrian

[Addled Platypus]

mixed arms is best it any size army

always incluce vs

mele
gunpowder
calvary
+ some fodder

I useually leave catapult/canon 1 tile out to bombard/collateral damage

[smak]

I keep one glowing blue praetorian defending each city, has just the barracks promotion available to heal after he attacks first invader if any.

My initial army is a stack of 6-8 praetorians and one warrior that i scouted with early on to get the medic promotion. I use this stack to wipe out the closest civ first. I attack with my fresh city attack 1 troops first, then mop up weakened defenders with experienced units. If any of my new troops die its ok i got a steady stream of them in production. Always save promotions before you commit the troop to a fight, give them additional city attack then. Or if they are weakened from taking a city ill use the second promotion to heal before i march to next city.

After i research construction my army size grows 50% more to 6-8 praetorians, 1 medic, and 4-5 catapults. I use the catapults to destroy city defenses then before i send my green praetorians in i will send in one or two catapults with the barrage promotion (improved collatorall damage). 75% of the time these will die. But it weakens the entore defending stack and saves your praetorians lives to gain promotions to city attack 3 and later generic combat bonuses. If the catapult lives then ill give him improved city bombard and only use him for city defense destruction, or moping up very very weak defenders if my vet praetorians are out of movement. Its easy to build lots of replacement catapults, they are cheap.

SO initially army is 7-9, then grows to 14-15. It may grow larger from time to time if catapults or green troops survive longer. And be a little inflated with fresh praetorians that follow my army to garrison captured cities.

In the end game my army was like 25.
3 battleships
2 destroyers
4 transports
1 cavalry with medic (my general)
1-2 modern armor
5-6 tanks
1-2 mechanized infantry (with city attack 3, combat 5, commando...)
2 artillary (for landlocked targets)
2 attack choppers to chase down stragglers and suppliment the artillary.

You could swap out a battleship and add a carrier, but i never needed air cover since my enemy was using grenadiers still...

[Eomer]

Usually I am the weakest civ unless I'm at war. I tend to build things that improve the economy, the culture, health and remove unhappiness. However, I always strive to be the first to discover liberalism. That way my free technology is gunpowder, and in almost every case that makes me the first one to have it.
Though many times I have been declared war on, where then I turn all production to military. And most times, I can defend against the attackers, and even get one city from my enemy. this is a sure way to get a peace treaty where they also give you all their money and a map. Then, I go back to how I was and use their surrender money to upgrade units.
I find many times, unless I plan to take out an enemy, I don't really have an army until I get like Industrialism. I just love Marines and Tanks, so I get plenty of them, but I generally don't spend much time on Riflemen or Infantry. I only get those from upgrading spearmen or musketmen. Machine Guns also are a wonder to have, until your enemy gets Tanks. But for all attackers prior to that, one Machine Gun can defend against so much.
As far as numbers, unless I'm at war or have a enemy right at my borders, at only one time I can have no more than 10 units in a city. My capital even. And cities far away, and not to prone to war, may still ony have a Longbowman, until I upgrade it to Infantry or something. However, by the end of the game, nearing 2050, my capital alone can have at least 30 units. Cause once I've built all the building I want, there's nothing else to do but military.
Hope that gives an idea, cuz it is hard to always have so many troops at any one city. Especially when you have to build things to manage sick or unhappy citizens.

[PaganPaulwhisky]

My military strength usually oscillates in various stages of the game:

stage 1 - pre-copper

Terrible army of only warriors (or some archers if heavy barbs). In this stage I am usually concentrating on getting stonehenge and oracle, or pyramids. If I am really concentrating on wonders I may skip the axeman buildup, but usually not.

stage 2 - copper secured

I really try to get the heroic epic built at this stage as quickly as possible if I have 4 or 5 cities. Usually I will have 2 -3 cities when I start churning axemen. I try to have a granary and barracks built in these cities before pumping units. Once this is accomplished I will pump axemen using pop rush and chop until I am at least middle of the pack in strength. Then I will go to war and take cities until my expenses are strained.

stage 3 - cool down and GL

After the war rush, I stop building units and focus on getting GL and artist and start heading for CS and macemen. Depending on the civ this can be a very long period of military stagnance in which I concentrate on spreading religion and getting great people. If I am a militaristic civ on a pangea, the period will be short as I usually beeline to construction and then CS/machinery. During this period my army usually declines to the bottom ranks.

stage 4 - macemen/pults

If you have a decent tech lead and the heroic epic built at this point then you can really do some serious damage (especially on marathon). Usually I will have vassalage and theocracy running at this point to get at least raider2 macemen. Again I try to build a sizable army and capture lots of cities. I will mix in some elephants and horsemen if I am able to. Basically from this point on I ignore wonders and extend my empire to maximum capacity.

stage 5 - Liberalism and economy / beeline to chemistry or military tradition

Another long military down phase. Here I usually detour to currency and banking to boost my finances. By this point I have some cities dedicated exclusively to producing units so my military will stay fairly strong. After banking, liberalism becomes the priority. Depending on the tech lead this can be timed to take chemistry or steel for free. All GP in this period are used to lightbulb techs to speed up the acquisition of the key military techs.

stage 6 - domination run / cavalry or grenadiers & cannon

If you are playing on a pangea map (marathon or epic) victory is often in sight at this stage. Many of my games end are basically over in this stage. My military will become very strong at this point. Almost all my cities will be shifted to unit production until I get a domination victory or secure my continent. In monarch games the AI will also have a pretty strong military, but should have inferior units. If I have any kind of tech lead here I will try to get as much mileage as possible out of it. I usually decrease science output drastically here and (all the way to 10% if I know I can reach domination). If not I will decrease to 50 or 60% and take out everyone on my continent.

stage 7 - spaceship or infantry/marine.

On continent maps I will often lose the tech lead here. The next step depends on whether I decide to build the spaceship or finish the domination. If domination then I beeline to inustrialism for infantry and marines and factories. I will amphibious attack the strongest opponent like crazy with marines and tanks, usually razing coastal cities, and then move in with mass tanks. In tougher games I may have to go to bombers or modern armor.

If space then I usually have a sizable military for the rest of the game and an entire continent to myself. usually the game gets pretty boring at this point. Basically its biology w/ representation to churn out GP and lightbulb techs. I use the factory cities to constantly churn units in case I need them. Production is maximized in these cities to build spaceship parts.

[Foxhawk]

I'm not a pro player, but I usually don't bear a very large army until a number of years before I want to go to war. At that time, I'll "flip the switch" so to speak and shift my entire civ into pushing out units as fast as possible. After a fairly long time in this mode, I'll move my units into position and declare war. By this point, my towns are usually pushing out units at a decent rate, and the new additions are simply snowballing onto main force.

[CerberusIV]

Two units per city plus a stack of 4 fast units is all I keep until banks allow me to support more. If I have a land border then border cities get a couple of extra units and I will keep a few spare catapults around.

I play fairly peacefully and really only expand when I hit tanks and aircraft when I usually end up with around 6-7 units per city (they are not all in cities, that's just the numbers).

[Vynd]

I'm pretty much a builder. I find that early in the game, if you aren't planning on starting a war yourself, you can often get away with having a very small army. Like say, 1 unit per city to avoid unhappiness, plus 1 or 2 extra units in or around border cities.

That's enough to take care of barbarians, and I find that only the most aggressive civs will attack you when there is still territory open for them to expand in and/or barbarians to fight. Of course if you have hostile, aggressive neighbors like Montezuma or Alexander then you need to build a lot more men. Ideally at least enough so that you're stronger than some of their other neighbors and are less likely to be targeted by them.

By the time you reach the middle stages of the game, and territory isn't available for free, I try to have considerably more troops. In an empire of 8 cities or so with half of them within easy reach of my enemies I'd probably be shooting for at least 40-50 units, including some mounted units and catapults.

[Spiderjeru]

In most early game situations, I go minimal. Enough to keep the barbs out of my rectal passage while I carve out a homeland.

I look at getting a real army going after my Oracle bid works or doesn't. Axemen, Swords, and Archers - I usually put an archer and an axe in every city. Fast-moving units to gaurd or slow advances on borders and resources are a must, I usually try to look at one per city. When guilds become available I'll switch out the Axe for paired Longbowmen. I usually use those former defenders as my main offensive army.

For a iron-era army, then, my numbers are usually

Defense: 1 axe/1 archer in all cities; fast-moving mounted units on borders and resources to repel plunderers
Offense: Two Armies consisting of 4 Swords/Macemen, 2 Axes/Macemen, and 5 cats.

With my average number of cities, I'm usually looking at 40 units, give or take ten.

I usually don't bother with a very strong Navy until Frigates. At that point I position a naval screen such that no unit can attack one of my ships without coming under attack the same turn. I do feel that a screen like this is a bit silly as the AI has launched a credible naval attack on me exactly one time in five months. The player owns the seas.

From Cannons, Rifles, and Cavalry until flight war becomes increasingly by machine, which is to say numbers are a signifigant part of the battle and to take an enemy city you'll need to drown it in blood and bullets. For a defensive army I strongly suggest at least four units, preferably of mixed types strong against likely attackers. You'll need a good number of internal protectors too, as by the midgame an enemy crippling your health resources can destroy you without every hitting a city.

From flight, there are only two important factors in any war. Air superiority and rapid movement are everything; you want to be able to knock every unit your opponent has down to the minimum 50% health and then attack it with your own fully rested units. As such big armies are less important than fast ones; I would prefer having the same number of attackers as there are defenders in the city I'm hitting by that point. Basically if you're bombing everything that moves, every resource, and every city you are going to cripple your opponent in a very serious way and a war of attrition is a good strat. Big air force, adequate army.

[Nugog]

I usually try and start with a reasonably strong army, and try and take out at least my nearest neighbour very early.

If I am playing Romans, then the Prats come along and I just can't resist

I then usually cool down for a while, build commerce, try and found a mid game religion (if I haven't captured one by then), spread that, and try and get at least one strong ally.

Usually by the time I get to cavalry, with cats or cannons, it is game on again!

Depending on the map I also like to build a reasonable navy, more to make the AI keep fighting at the main front than anything else.

[dolf]

I neglect the defence a bit till gunpowder.

my fav. force is a seal amb. attack.

16 seals
4 art.
6 battleships
1 destroyer
2 subs
1 carrier
3 planes
5 transports

[couerdelion]

It really depends on a lot of things. In my current game I’ve got limited happiness bonuses but quite decent production. In many cities I have nothing to build so the only thing I can do is build an army and go and take some cities. With a large empire, I then almost always have a stronger army than any rival until larger builds emerge and my cities then go on a building spree (Markets, Grocers, Theatres, University, Bank, Temples, Monasteries, Cathedrals, Wonders)