How to win a war

[Frozen3003]

I would love all kinds of tips to win a war. War is a big aspect of Civ 4 (Like it normally is in alot games :P) but I can't win one. I just played a game where they had 2 Longbowman and I think 1 other thing like Axeman in a city defending. I came with 6 Knights and 6 Catapults but I lost? It makes no sense. I know a city is hard to win over but not that hard. Anything I can do expect needing to swarm them with 25 Catapults and 35 Horse Archer or something crazy?

Note: I even had 2 promotions for both the Knights and Catapults. Maybe only 1 for Catapult. Can't really remember

[Hauptman]

First off, you would need to bombard the defenses down. Thats what cats do, however with 6 it might take 3 or 4 turns to knock it down to zero. So if your going to stay there laying siege, You would need a mixed unit stack to defend vs counter attack.

I'm assuming you just charged up and attacked. Longbows have a mirriade of defensive bonuses, on top of defensive promotion choices. It's very possible a single longbow could kill all 12 of your units without proper tactics. Macemen are the city busters with the correct promotions, not Knights.

[Frozen3003]

But Maceman got 8 Str and +50% against Melee Units? How does that help me against rangeds such as the Longbowman?

[Hauptman]

They can get city raider promotions.

But you really need trebuches to take out longbows.

[rah]

Yeah, once longbows are in place trebs are the key, but if you have the city defenses down to 0 and can nick the longbows with your cats (assume all will perish in the attack) Knights, (immunity to first strike) can take down longbowmen.

[Frozen3003]

Yeah, once longbows are in place trebs are the key, but if you have the city defenses down to 0 and can nick the longbows with your cats (assume all will perish in the attack) Knights, (immunity to first strike) can take down longbowmen.

I'm not the smartest person ever so I'm getting a little confused. When their city defenses are down I kill the Longbow people with somekind of Siege weapon like Catapult or better or Knights?
How big effects does Espionage and Spy have against the enemy?
I would also like any other major tips if you got some.

[Dinner]

Espionage isn't that big a deal and instead the most important items are the mix of units, what promotions those units have, and if you've bombarded their defenses down to zero before the attack.

[wertyu70]

Espionage can be really useful, if you use it to cause a city revolt with a spy: city defense is set to zero instantly for a turn.
If you have a 2-moves army, speed is the key and in this way you don't need to wait some turns to remove city defense with siege weapons.
A good use of this strategy is a direct Keshick (or Horse Archer in general) attack to enemy capital or to the heart of enemy empire.
Later it works very well with Cavalry.

[rah]

Yes, the keshick rush was always my favorite in MP games. People have a tendency to forget about there movement and don't respond fast enough. A stack of 10 can strike deep into a civ's territory.

[Pinchak]

How to win a war? Let others fight it for you.

[rah]

From the person that likes to war early and often.

[Dinner]

I like early war especially on small maps. You can usually catch at least one guy trying to build a worker or two before he builds a warrior so you can take a stack of 3-4 warriors, kill him, take his city, and the one completed worker. Not a bad use of 30 hammers especially if you built on a grassland covered hill which gives you +2 hammers per turn.

[rah]

That's a PLAINS hill that gives you +2 hammers. And if you catch the person early enough, all it takes is your initial warrior searcher.

[Dinner]

I stand corrected. Plains hill.

[Pinchak]

From the person that likes to war early and often.

Indeed, perhaps I should follow my own advice and I won't lose so many!