Garrisons

[borgbart]

Throughout my long civ experience spanning civ, civ2 and civ3 (and also colonisation) I have always stuck to the boring two-per-city garrison formula. While this works well, i've decided to explore some new strategies that might proove interesting.

The first idea I had was to save on military spending by reducing the garrisons on central towns. I also considered moving the garrisons around to have 1 in inner cities and three in outer ones. Losing out on the military police was not an issue at the time as i had a lot of luxuries.

I also considered having some towns act as defensive centres with 3 units garrison and siege weapon (+fighteres and AA in modern era), and reducing the garrisons in surrounding cities.

Before exploring all the possibilities i thought I'd ask around to see if anyone had any experience or any interesting alternatives to the tried-and-tested two per city garrison.

[kobo1d]

In single player two per city works just fine. It's also preferable to have a counter-strike force of fast units (like horsemen in the ancient age) centrally located.

In multiplayer things change a bit...

[Tassadar500]

It all depends on the level you play at as well if your point is about happiness

[Vince278]

Originally posted by kobo1d
In single player two per city works just fine. It's also preferable to have a counter-strike force of fast units (like horsemen in the ancient age) centrally located.

I also prefer lightly defended cities with highly mobile reserves (especially with Railroads).

[borgbart]

Originally posted by Nuclear Master
It all depends on the level you play at as well if your point is about happiness

Well nowadays i mostly play LAN tourneys (4-6 ppl) which usually centers the games on war. While war should equal larger garrisons, having a lighter garrison, especially in a big civ, can mean more men in the field.

[Last Conformist]

I rarely have much in the way of garrisons in inner cities, in particular after RRs.

[Donegeal]

In SP, if you are a republic or Demo, what would be the point of having units in your core? Maybe a token amount on the off chance of an AI amphibious invasion (Ah.. I guess I leave one unit in costal cities). If the AI were to try this, they normally drop off one or two units. If you have a small Rapid response force (say about 4-5 fast movers) with a couple of well placed navel scouts, you could conceviably defend 50% of your empire with just these units.

[gunkulator]

In SP, I typically leave one unit per city once RR is discovered - unless the AI can reach and attack the city in one turn. I also typically leave one city completely undefended. The AI will usually beeline for it so you'll always know the attack route they will take. Along the way I build barricades for free ZOC. Stack your excess defensive units and artillery in the barricades and the AI will leave them alone. Use the artillery to get more free hits on the stack. Finish them off with whatever attack units you have. Once you survive the initial SOD onslaught, the AI from then on will only send units out piecemeal - easy pickings.

[TheArsenal]

Depending on terrain, my city spacing is generally fairly tight, so there is not a great deal of space to move into my core without passing close to a city. So I keep token garrison (one, sometimes none) in the core with the best defensive units pushed out to the border towns. I also place fast movers in these towns to attack anything that tries to move between cities, or to weaken stacks before they attack a border city. If the Vikings are in the game, I use two defenders for sea side cities (I’ve been burned). If not, I keep fast movers in range of the coast.

The only time I will keep more than one garrison per city is if I am forced into an ROP after RR. If I have no ROP after RR, I have quite a few empty cities on the inner ring.

Edit: Where I will most often get caught with my pants down, so to speak, is not placing proper garrison (in number or latest upgrade) in far flung small island cities. Once in a blue moon the AI will land a surprisingly large number of units and burn me.

[Jon Shafer]

I hate any government besides Republic up until the Industrial Age... particularly because I hate having to waste units garrisoning inner cities.

[lmtoops]

In SP games, there is no need to defend your inner core cities.

With MP games, you need to be very careful once your RR system is completed. Sneeky human player can use marines, multiple combat settlers, and worker gangs. It is surprisingly easy to break most well defended boarders.

[Dominae]

What's a "garrison"?!

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Dominae
What's a "garrison"?!

Units which you put inside cities.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Trip
Units which you put inside cities.

Hm, it's been a while since I've done that...

[Harovan]

No garrisons, unless I need happiness guards or it are extremely endangered border cities.