WTF France? or cavelry descimate machine gun emplacements?

[AusSpyder]

Started a game on warlord difficulty as Ragnar on pangea map (cause im an idiot and thought that was the one like earth now)

Did ok at start, eliminated my only friend, pacal cause i wanted his great wall city, lost like 20 workers to shaka's impi's, then succeeded in wiping him out

My capital is next to Paris, which is a cultural powerhouse, so its got small borders, but my military city is pumping out units in 1-2 turns.

now, i was fighting with France for top of the scores list, but was unopposed in for the top spot in military. Uppsalla had been pumping out almost exclusive military since day one. when it needed more things i either chopped or whipped them down and got back to military

France and huayna capac were practically in love with me, everyone else i bullied. Was going fine.

Then all of a sudden France declares war out of the blue. goes from being madly in love with me to furious. I hadn't done anything to him, I have free religion and I was way way more powerful. I stopped him easy. The only gripe he had with me initially was that our close borders sparked tensions. hell, i even helped him in his stupid wars because i didnt want to risk him having any excuse to attack me while i was busy fighting

10 turns after we declare peace, he attacks again. and again, and again. every 10 turns after peace.

Anyways, its got to where I am now. Every square around my border was machine gunned and i had a nice assault for of cavalry. was about a tech and half from getting tanks, which was where i planned on making my move on him.

He declares, his cavalry and riflemen march through my machine gunners with barely any loss's just as if they were archers

My machine gunners are ALL level 4 (with Drill 1-4) all maximum fortified bonus, and most either on hills or in forts.

I killed about 3 of his units while losing about 20 of mine. My cavalry couldn't stand against his cavalry. my TANKS cant stand against his cavalry.

now, i suck at this game, but wtf?

from what i understand from civpedia cavalry doesn't get bonus's against machine guns, but machine guns DO get a bonus against riflemen (and cavalry too if there counted as gunpowder and not as mounted)

So yeah, what did i do wrong? I know putting machine gun emplacements everywhere isn't as good as a good mobile offense, but he had riflemen and i didn't, so i pumped out a butt load of 2 turn machine gunners and ended up with enough to fully cover my borders and start a second layer

Also, why can 1 longbow man on a hill city take out an entire battalion of knights but 2 machine gunners fortified on a hill in a fort cant take out 1 cavalry

[joncnunn]

First thing is losing 20 WORKERS; on a normal size round map that is generally more workers than I ever have and your saying you lost that many during a war to enemy actions.

The AI cares much more about underdefended cities along their borders in their war making decisions that the previous relations. Certain leaders have more "courage" than others; meaning what ratio of military. I'm going to guess you were either up against De Gaul or Napolean and not Louis.

As to them declaring war again 10 turn laters multiple times; fool me once, shame on you, fool me twince shame on me. I'd take the good Doctor's approach against a civ that declared war on me twince in the same game (Only one chance)

Spreading your forces like that along the border is one of the worst defensive tactics I've ever seen; being strong everywhere is being weak everywhere.

A units base strength is the average between it's max strength and it's actual one, so it falls off as your unit is weakened. Machine Guns are also poor choices against Calvary, they are primarily designed as a counter unit against Infs.

Against Rifles + Calvary, you want Infs. They have bonsues against Rifles and higher base values than Calvary.

Long Bows have major bonsues on hill cities even before unit support. Rifles on Hill Cities will also take out several Calvary.

[Jaybe]

Machine Gun vulnerability vs. Cavalry may be good game balancing, but it bleeps reality-wise. MGs should have +50% vs. Cavalry (and DO in the games I play).

[#07]

Did he have cannons too or just cav and riflemen? In any case, spreading out your defenders with one on each tile isn't an effective defense. It's all about stacks and I'm assuming the French would have had a big one. In this way he only needs to waste a few of his units at worst to break through your defense. Also, cavalry is mounted so I don't think the machine gun has a bonus against it.

Your best off having a stack or two on squares with a good defensive bonus (or forts), he's still likely to attack it and that's where you'll hurt his stack.

[Ming]

Yes... combat in Civ IV is all about stacks.
I love when somebody declares war on me (assuming I'm prepared). They move into my territory, and my colateral damage units can use my road system to inflict damage while my mobile army mauls the stack. After that, my offensive army moves into their territory knowing their big SOD is now gone. The whole trick to combat is being able to use your colateral damage units and not allowing him to use his.

There is no need to ever build a defensive line... since once they move into your territory, they are at an extreme disadvantage. My philosphy is simple... come and try to take me, and I'll wipe your army, and then your country

[#07]

Yep, I had a perfect example of that last night. I caught Gengis amassing a ridiculous stack just outside my borders. Something like 30 infantry, 15 artillary, countless cavalry etc. He moved in as expected but I was ready, it took me 20 artillery and a few very long turns but now the might of Mongolia and friends is no more. And my tanks are just about ready to move in.

[AusSpyder]

it was lois (however his name is spalled, the silly looking dude with the curls)

one second he's thrilled (you make me so happy) then he's nuts

reason i had all machine guns is cause i had gone to railroads and didnt have rifling so the MG's were best thing i could make, second best was curiasars, and then cavalry. I had litterally no way to attack him offensivly at that point in the game

reason they were spread out like that is cause first couple times he invaded he tended to bypass border cities and go for the ones behind them which had less defense and they had fun destroying my improvements on the way.

My cities did however also have stacks (4-5 in border cities) which fell. He didn't have cannons, he had trebs and air balloons. I had fighters which took care of the balloons and he didnt use his trebs, just run over my crap and dragged them along behind him.

Every time i get right into this game something like this happens right at around 8 hours game time mark, its frustrating as hell.

[Ming]

Always keep a stack of colaterial damage units handy near your border. Even if he has some superior units, a big stack of your units can still maul him. Nick him up with a big stack of colaterial damage units, and then it doesn't really matter what type of units you have to finish off the stack. Keeping this in mind, you always have some way to attack a SOD that moves into your territory. Again, the secret is for you to use yours before he can use his.

[AusSpyder]

im sorry but i cant think what a SOD is, though i'm guessing I probably should.

Also, reckon its more worthwhile to go for my closest rival, my most dangerous, or pick off the weak guys and get bigger rather than let my rivals pick them off and get bigger.

and lastly, is there any way i can prevent almost every single building +100% of the culture of a city getting destroyed on capture. I find that if the enemy manages to take one of my cities its barely worth taking back because you have to start from scratch with it, and if it was a border city in almost always loses all its workable tiles to my closest rival

[Ming]

SOD = Stack of Death = Stack including most of the attacking units in a single square.

[wodan11]

and lastly, is there any way i can prevent almost every single building +100% of the culture of a city getting destroyed on capture.

Yeah, don't let it get captured.

[rah]

That's usually my strat also.

And I hope he realizes that if you take the city back, previous culture of squares is remembered so you should get a lot of the land back unless it's been a while. But yes, you have to build back some culture buildings to keep it in the long run. A single theatre and a few assigned artists will do in a pinch.