Favorite Era of Warfare

[Jon Shafer]

What is everyone's favorite time to duke it out with other civs?

For me it's the Medieval Era. To me it seems to be the most balanced and offers the most opportunities for mixed arms warfare.

Your offensive units are Medieval Infantry, Knights and Longbowman. They all come shortly after each other giving a short window where each has preeminance on the battlefield. You have Pikemen for defense, and new bombard units (Trebuchets) for bombardment purposes.

The best aspect is that there is a real decision to be made between your types of offensive units. MIs are 40 shields whereas Knights are 70. There is a balance and not always a clear-cut decision on what units are best to use. Later on, you only have 1 main offensive unit and the high SPT counts means that the difference between one unit and a more expensive one is a turn at most. For MIs and Knights a 10 SPT city has an extra 3 turns to produce. There's a real trade-off.

Well, I guess this would suck if you didn't have iron.

[vmxa1]

I have started to like ancient times for most of my wars. Using swords and horses is a cheap way to go and a few early MGL's can do you a lot of good.

[Arrian]

Ancient and Medieval. Both are solid. In the ancient you've got warriors, archers, spears, horsies, swords and cats (not counting the UUs, of course). In the medieval you've got LBs, Med Inf, Pikes, Trebs, Knights... and eventually Muskets and Cav. Plus, it's got a slew of cool UUs.

Some of it depends on my civ choice, because of the UU. If I'm playing as the Iroquois, for instance, how can I not love using the Mounted Warrior?

...

I have been going to war later in Conquests as opposed to PTW. A lot of that is the change to MGLs. I no longer pick fights with archers and try for MGLs to snatch Great Wonders. Some of it is the lessened power of the Forbidden Palace. Sure, rushing it early with a MGL is still useful, but it's not quite what it once was, when it essentially doubled your empire (the optimal situation).

Now I often go hardcore builder early, often running almost zero military, and concentrating on setting up pumps for growth, building my basic economy (markets, libraries), trying for a few key wonders, and gunning for a tech lead (and chances for SGLs, of course). I fight later. Several times this has meant a warrior -> med inf upgrade, followed by a horse -> knight upgrade. Another time it meant a horse -> Cav upgrade.

My style is still in flux, especially since I've finally moved up to Emperor and am still adjusting to that.

-Arrian

[UnOrthOdOx]

Wow, I've been going almost near opposite, pinning my ears back and heading full bore warmongering, only to sit back and really go hardcore builder when I'm sure I have Salt Peter.

Usually I'm sticking with the archers and horse, only opting for swords and Med Inf under certain circumstances.

The Knight/Med Inf/Longbow timing of things has to be my favorite right now with Cavs basically ending the game and everything in the Ancient just setting up the knight level units for me.

Then, that all may be somewhat slanted to my recent favoring of Japan and Feudalism specific strategies.

[Fried-Psitalon]

I'm sure this is no surprise to Trip, but I vastly prefer the modern era - at least for MP. The changes to bombing and the addition of the TOW and SAMs make all the difference, turning it into a very viable field for a three-theater war, none of which you can neglect without seriously harming one (or both) of the other two.

[Jon Shafer]

If there were two changes to the Industrial/Modern era it would be my favorite:

No more RR infinite movement.
Greater variety in attackers.

RRs basically take most of the strategy out of warfare. For PBEM games and MPDGs it's basically a race to see who can take what land before the Industrial Era, because once you got the place RRed defense becomes much much easier than attack. No, it's not impossible, but a duel between two competant players (or teams) will usually be won by the defender with RRs.

On the other topic, the offensive unit upgrade path means that there's really not a variety of attackers... you attack with Tanks or MAs, defend with Infantry or MIs, bombard with Artillery or RAs. With Medieval combat, you have the greater choice and greater balance of attackers with MIs and Knights. Even if there were a slow attacker in the late game, the difference in shield costs and effects of RRs would make the slower attacker obsolete. Along the same vein, the world usually isn't fully developed in the Medieval Era, allowing for attacks to go over rough or unroaded land where the defender will have a tougher time counter-attacking.

All in all, I think the war aspect of the game is much more balanced and fun in the middle part.

[Fatwreck]

I couldn´t agree more, the infinite RR movement really spoil wars in the last eras

[CrONoS]

Can you change the infinite RR movement in the Civ3Conquest editor???

Thanks!

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by cronos_qc
Can you change the infinite RR movement in the Civ3Conquest editor???

Thanks!

Unfortunately you cannot.

[asleepathewheel]

I like the changes to naval warfare myself. I love a fleet of Men o' war rampaging on the high seas. I just wish the ai would do more than 3frigates 1galleon. well, and I wish they would bombard more than units and cities.

[asleepathewheel]

and the infinite rails is ridiculous.

[Purple]

My natural tendency is to postpone war as long as possible, emphasizing expansion and development.

But lately, particularly since Conquests came out, I've tried being more agressive in the early game, when I'm more on a parity with the other civs. I always try to wipe out the first one or two civs that I encounter, and that gives me more room to expand.

Later on, my gradually developing tech lag makes me more cautious and selective about my targets.

[MartynC]

One Word "NUCLEAR" Nothing like nuking my opposition when they don't yet have ICBM's. But on equestion, in CivII you could say your words are backed by Nuclear weapons - so give me what i want or your next but in C3C they don't care that i have nukes & they don't fear me which is stupid as i have NUKES!!!!

[Jaguar]

Industrial if my sister and I are playing an SP game together (Monarch or Emperor level)

Ancient if on my own (Demigod, Deity, or Sid)

Favorite in MP is no warfare at all.

[Paddy]

Late Ancients