Arty at Deity

[Drakan]

Hiya fellow civers. I have a query. I find I can win (SS, diplo) on huge archipiélago Deity maps without using much artys. But I'm afraid I just don't make it on time in huge pangaea maps.

My question is: are you guys able to win conquering on Deity huge pangaea maps without resolving to use huge SoD artys (100 plus) to run around à la Moonsinger ?

[Dominae]

I never play Huge maps.

Have you tried Nukes?

[Drakan]

No, I haven't tried them.

I was only wondering If there was some other way to beat Deity through military Conquest other than making intensive use of huge stacks of artillery every time.

[vmxa1]

I never played deity on a huge map of any flavor, only std size. I do not think it should be needed, but you will probably end up with a large number of arties.

I tend to use them as defense against attacks and ship bombardment. I use armies to hammer them after I get calv. I use bombarment units before then to soften them up.

Grab a city and raze it, bring up my artie types and a settler with defenders to found a new city. The AI will leave the armies alone in the open field, if they are still green, sometimes even yellow.

If I have some defender armies, they go into the new city as well to deal with the counter attack (if this is the inital assault). So my SoD is a stack of defense. I want to have the AI kill as many of its units as I can handle in a counter attack. It is easier than killing them all in a city fortified.

Let them drain out much of their troops from those cities so I can have an easier time. The AI loves to send out units to attack, from a city that is already under attack. I have seen so many AI vs AI fights where one could have held a given city, but it sent out most of its defenders to attack.

[Drakan]

Hmm, yes thanks for the replies. It seems cavalry (and Armies of them) with huge stacks of artillery and maybe some infantry for defense purposes is the only way round it.

I was just curious If there might be someone out there who had managed to develop some way to beat the AI at Deity without the arty business.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Drakan
I was only wondering If there was some other way to beat Deity through military Conquest other than making intensive use of huge stacks of artillery every time.

...which is why I mentioned Nukes (as an alternative to artillery).

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Drakan
I was just curious If there might be someone out there who had managed to develop some way to beat the AI at Deity without the arty business.

"Some way" like...Nukes?

[Drakan]

Yeah, I catch your drift but I meant other than artillery (and nukes).

[Dominae]

You've got something against Nukes!??

[Drakan]

Yeop

[JimiD]

And artillery?

[Drakan]

No, nothing against arty really. It's just that, oh well I couldn't be bothered to move huge stacks of them all over the place. Arty is ok, I guess.

[Arrian]

This is well out of my range of experience, but I'd guess you would need a bundle of arty and armies.

-Arrian

[vmxa1]

Well two things about nukes:

1- you need uranium
2- you need to be late in the game to have the tech

This means you probably can only use it on the last couple of civs. Me I would not launch a nuke unless I have gotten SDI up or it was the only way to stop an immediate loss (SS).

The reason is that I would expect to have fewer nukes than they do and it will trigger everone to declare on me. It could well be that the last item is of no concern as they may all be at war with me anyway at that point.

If you do launch, move all your troops away from your cities.

[Shaka II]

I think you need units with withdraw capability, such as knights, cavalry, tanks, modern armor, and some barracks near the front line to keep refreshing two or preferably three army stacks. Of course it helps to have captured Sun Tzu for instant barracks.

But it is very difficult with city sizes over 12 for the added defense. Tanks vs. fortified infantry in a 12 size city is tough going and I hate it when I end up creating a bunch of enemy infantry elites.

I like artillery to take the city size down below 12 and soften those infantry up to let my tanks finish the job. Then starve them down to 3 to 5 size or raze as required.

I forget the key shortcut for selecting an entire stack of the same units. Does anyone remember? That makes dealing with moving 30 artillery or 20 tanks much less monotonous.

Since I prefer to fight on land, I often use the artillery to defend my coastline. Does a great job.

I play standard size, large land mass pangea, partly for game time length and partly because it isn't as hard to bring the war to my neighbors. Strangley, sometimes when I select pangea, I get continents. Not sure if it is a bug or user error.

When this happens and I haven't met 3 or 4 civs by the middle ages, I send my explorer boats out to find them. A few sink, but when one makes it, the pay off is huge. Well worth the cost of losing several boats. Plus it's fun to guess where the shortest route is.

So, I guess my answer would be that it is possible to not use artillery and win, but I would still use them on any city 12 or over, if they have enemy infantry to my tanks. With a lopsided match up, of course it can be done, such as rifleman vs. tanks. Or rifleman vs. cavalry with city size under 12 or better under 6.

But I don't think I've ever won at deity without using a REX or ICS strategy of some sort.