Civ Army: How Big is Big Enough?

[Shrapnel12]

We've all heard how much better the AI does militarily in BtS but what does that mean for how the SP raises his own army? For those who have been fortunate enough to get a few games of BtS under their belt, just what king of army does it take to defeat and/or defend against the AI. Not just size of the army should be discussed either, but unit type and diversity (in each era), production needed to build the army, reinforcing defeated units, siege tactics, and anything else you can think of.

[Wiglaf]

you need a good navy to prevent naval invasions, as well as to blockade...

get knights with flanking ability because the AI usually has a lot of artillery in its stacks.

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
you need a good navy to prevent naval invasions, as well as to blockade...

i quoted that so you see it twice. if you think you have enough ships, build some more. in my last game (standard size, epic, monarch), one AI (who i had a defensive pack with) declared war on me and sent no less than 15 full transports. he cruised in first and shattered my navy, to boot.

[Shrapnel12]

Originally posted by jbp26


i quoted that so you see it twice. if you think you have enough ships, build some more. in my last game (standard size, epic, monarch), one AI (who i had a defensive pack with) declared war on me and sent no less than 15 full transports. he cruised in first and shattered my navy, to boot.

Do you remember how many escort ships he had?

[Wiglaf]

usually they bring quite a few escorts.

[Blaupanzer]

The AI player had enough escorts if he "shattered" his navy.

I haven't seen stacks of 50 as some have indicated, but I have seen 3 stacks of 12 - 15 each invade my 10 city nation only to have a fourth stack of 8 arrive two turns later to reinforce one of the prongs. All but the latter were circa half catapults. The last stack was half trebs and half knights. I went down in flames, losing 4 cities before he accepted peace for two techs. He waited the requisite 10 turns, then came again. Retired. Play fractal, large maps on Noble (a level at which I could win most of the time on Warlords). Not seen much navy, but haven't made it much past Gunpowder in 6 games so far. Great fun relearning the game.

[nuther]

I was playing as William VO and got attacked by Charles the Man who was low on the power graph late in my game. His SOD had about 15-20 cav with 15-20 rifles. He also had a few infantry and a few arty. This is the biggest stack I have seen, but beware Nappy. I know he will build even more. He was in my game too and came at me across the water. He destroyed my navy, but never landed any ground troops that I couldnt handle. His troops were always one class behind mine, but had more experience. This was a standard monarch hemisphere.

[CreepyD]

I have yet to see such huge stacks in a few prince/monarch games I've played. I do usually play small maps on normal speed at the moment, maybe this is why.
Generally there will be lots of seige units backed up by 2-3 horse units and 2-3 other units, generally something to battle each type of unit you can throw at it.
This causes you to lose at least some units in taking it down.
Most I've seen is about 10 seige units, backed up by about 10 others. This died very fast due to my airships and general tech lead.
Keep plenty of horse units and seige units handy for taking down the stacks, then use others to mop up the rest.

[LzPrst]

playing prince and i dont see many huge stacks. until late game.

mostly I suggest keeping a varied defence force. also, another great trick is of course to have "static" defenders. (designated city defender who almost never leave or attack) and a mobile defence moving to where it is needed at any given time. that should help you against collateral damage and let you react more flexibly. but yeah. make sure you have enough.

[Bombardment]

It happens to me now in the next war scenario as monarch. Dozens tanks, artillery and mech inf and i mean dozens of every class Also Airdefense, choppers, clones and 2 Mechs and everything is sharing one tile. Unbelievably, what you do against a uber stack?. First all jetfighter attack to get rid of the other jets, still lots of bomber going down because the airdefense is protected pretty well in such a huge stack. Sacrified many artillery units, engaged with 3 Mechs, plenty of tanks and infantry, choppers and so on. I just scratched the top of the stack. roll back and tried pure city defense, the artillery will sacrifice until the mechs are down and the city defense is history because of the collateral damage. Disgusting, there is a stack limit for planes but not for ground units.

[One_more_turn]

Out-build the AI, go after them first.

[Civilized 67]

Just to echo what others have said, you will see some mighty stacks in this game. I've seen around 30+ units in one invading stack!

The AI does seem to like siege units far better than before, and it will change it's approach from one war to the next. When you throw the AP in as well, it's a whole new ball game and I'm still learning how best to handle the AI myself...

Good Luck!

[One_more_turn]

Siege units have been weakened enormously in BTS:

1. Cannot kill units;

2. Can be destroyed by flank attacks.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Bombardment
It happens to me now in the next war scenario as monarch. Dozens tanks, artillery and mech inf and i mean dozens of every class Also Airdefense, choppers, clones and 2 Mechs and everything is sharing one tile. Unbelievably, what you do against a uber stack?. First all jetfighter attack to get rid of the other jets, still lots of bomber going down because the airdefense is protected pretty well in such a huge stack. Sacrified many artillery units, engaged with 3 Mechs, plenty of tanks and infantry, choppers and so on. I just scratched the top of the stack. roll back and tried pure city defense, the artillery will sacrifice until the mechs are down and the city defense is history because of the collateral damage. Disgusting, there is a stack limit for planes but not for ground units.

[dannubis]