How do you win a war in Civ 4?

[One_more_turn]

Originally posted by Dis
so what's the best unit to use against cities with riflemen? I still struggle against these guys. At least until I get tanks.

City Raider Cannons. Your Riflemen/Cavalry are to escort Cannons and to hold conquered cities.

[One_more_turn]

Stacks of Doom is absolutely necessary in Civ IV, AIs have a tendency to pick off lonely units.

My ancient era SoD:
Swordsmen, Axemen, Spearmen, Catapults or Praetorians alone

My middle age SoD:
Macemen, Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Trebuchets

My renaissance age SoD:
Riflemen, Cavalry, Cannons

My industrial age SoD:
Tanks, Infantries, Artilleries

My modern age SoD:
Modern Armors, Mechanized Infantries, Gunships, (Stealth Bombers)

[Arrian]

Originally posted by One_more_turn

City Raider Cannons. Your Riflemen/Cavalry are to escort Cannons and to hold conquered cities.

I'd like to second this. Cannons are great. City Raider III cannons are awesome. So are upgraded (from macemen) city raider III riflemen

Incidently, speaking of bombard/siege weapons, don't forget ships when you're going after coastal cities, even if you're not going for an amphibious assault. Frigates do a decent job of taking down the city defenses whilst your attack stack marches in. In the 2-3 turns it will probably take your ground troops to reach the enemy city from the border, a stack of ~4 frigates can probably get the city defense bonus down to 0. Destroyers and battleships are of course even better.

-Arrian

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Arrian
Incidently, speaking of bombard/siege weapons, don't forget ships when you're going after coastal cities, even if you're not going for an amphibious assault. Frigates do a decent job of taking down the city defenses whilst your attack stack marches in. In the 2-3 turns it will probably take your ground troops to reach the enemy city from the border, a stack of ~4 frigates can probably get the city defense bonus down to 0. Destroyers and battleships are of course even better.
-Arrian

i must respectfully disagree with the master here. i think ships are useless. a frigate's bombard takes down i nthe low single digit percentiles for each shot, so even with 4 it can take a while to knock a ity down. id rather spend the hammers on extra cannons and just land next to the city and blow away the defense in one turn. the only exception, obviosuly, is amphibious assaults. also, i usually find once i bombard a few cities, my boats just kind of sit there with no purpose, eating up maintenance.

[Velociryx]

While I absolutely agree that ships have limited utility (I'd not go quite so far as to call them useless, as there are two keen uses I can think of off the top of my head, the first being protecting your oceanic terraforming, and the second being power projection--transports are necessary to get to another continent, and because transports are needed, ships to protect them are also needed).

I think the point Arrian was driving at is since you NEED the ships anyways--gotta build them to escort the transports that get you overseas--don't forget to use them as bombards as well as escorts for the trannys.

-=Vel=-

[jbp26]

strictly speaking about SP games- i almost never even bother to escort transports, and i can't remember a single instance of losing a shipful of soldiers. parking a transports on the border of an enemy and then declaring war means you can drop off your drops next to any city in the same turn. its easy enough to wreak havoc on the land, then make peace- until you have another transport waiting at the border. even if you unload right in front of the AIs navy, and they sink all of your empty transports (which is also pretty rare), its cheaper to just build new transports than to build and maintain the fleet required to escort them.

[Velociryx]

See...that's one of those things that, while technically correct, IMO teaches a bad habit...first time you forget where you are and do that in MP, you'll probably not recover. Also true with scenarios that will no doubt be made in the future (I remember making the Civ III "Alamo" scenario, for example, where such a strategy would be fatal, and it was not unique).

Definitely worth noting, there is no doubt, but persoanlly to "gamey" for my tastes...if that makes sense?

Still...if it works man, go for it!

-=Vel=-

[jbp26]

id never play with such flagrant disregard for security in a MP game, but against the AI, my arrogance is limitless. its the price they pay for having 'Friendly' relationships with every single other AI.

that particular move isnt that big a deal, you should see how 'gamey' i can really be.

[Velociryx]

Sounds like that could be a whole section of the upcoming strat guide in and of itself. I may have to interview you...

-=Vel=-

[Dominae]

Gamey like...defending your cities with Warriors?

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Dominae
Gamey like...defending your cities with Warriors?

Naw, I defend my inner cities with archers -- aka City police with a little paramilitary training and a few armored cars.

[allybhoy]

just a wee obvious thing thats not really been said, always guard your resources, Iron, Copper, horses etc with at least one spearman, the AI likes to sneak through neutral territory with horse units and plunder...fighting a war is harder when your only source of iron is sabotaged

[Addled Platypus]

I always pilage to zap them of their gold and to cut off areas I want to take over soon, so those cities can not build the best off/def unit

gota bombard without fail

get use to what the AI will defend with first, before decideing what to attack with first

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Velociryx
While I absolutely agree that ships have limited utility (I'd not go quite so far as to call them useless, as there are two keen uses I can think of off the top of my head, the first being protecting your oceanic terraforming, and the second being power projection--transports are necessary to get to another continent, and because transports are needed, ships to protect them are also needed).

I think the point Arrian was driving at is since you NEED the ships anyways--gotta build them to escort the transports that get you overseas--don't forget to use them as bombards as well as escorts for the trannys.

-=Vel=-

Sorta. That's part of it. The other part is their mobility. Ships can sail up to a target city waaaay in advance of your ground forces. So while their bombard power isn't all that hot, they can often do the job in plenty of time, while your army slogs its way though to the target.

Think of a city that isn't a border town, but is instead 2-3 cities deep in the enemy empire. Your troops are going to march in, capture the first ring, heal up, march again, attack again... this takes time, even if you have a LOT of troops such that you don't actually have to stop & heal.

A few frigates means that by the time your troops reach coastal cities behind the lines, they're at 0% defense. If you're invading an enemy that has no coastal cities, or very few, sure, the ships aren't all that useful. But playing on continents maps, I typically find there are plenty of coastal cities to capture. Indeed, they are often the best cities!

-Arrian

[couerdelion]

Until you get Frigates, any coastal units are going to be vulnerable. I find that the AI tend to invest quite heavily in a navy and if you are invading via seas then naval supremacy is vital to maintain momentum. The only way to assure supremacy is having boats that are more advanced (or numerous) that your enemy.

As for bombarding, I often find that I can pretty much reduce all of a rival civs coastal cities to zero even if I never get the land forces there to take them. Ships can move and bombard so you can start wearing down the defences the first turn you are at war – while cannon and catapults have to be rolled up to the city before they can start their work. Your first city will therefore get two turns worth of coastal bombardment compared to just one supplied by land-based bombards.