War Academy: French Front: Archers / Swordsmen / Horsemen

[Inverse Icarus]

the main SMC report is over here (new widnow)

This poll is for the consideration of weaponry for the proposed war with france. Please read any discussion below before voting.

NOTE:
The SMC Dismisses War Chariots because jungle / mountains prohibit their use in France. Plus, we do not want a golden age right now.

starters:

Swordsmen
3/2 is a fairly strong unit
Slow on grasslands
Fairly Expensive
Iron is Far Away

Horsemen
2/1 is a decent unit
Fast on grasslands
Fairly Expensive
We have Horses already
Retreating

Archers
2/1 is a decent unit
Slow on grasslands
Fairly Cheap
No resource requirement
Need a spearman to guard them.

[jdd2007]

a combination, of course, but mainly those heavy hitting swordsmen.

[Harovan]

I'd say, fill up our archer army and rush the French with them. After the first 6/2 wave leaves, fill up with horsemen and later swordsmen. The spearmen we build, are not lost, we need them as defenders for the cities. We have to build them anyway, even if we attack with horsemen and swordsmen.

There's nothing more effective than an early archer rush. Cheap and deadly, as seen. And consider the fact, that our attacks went not even optimal.

[notyoueither]

Yes. Archers then Horse.

[OPD]

lol we could attack the french with archers within a few turns and probably take a few cities.

Personally I favour horses afterall were only going to be facing spearmen.

Would the SMC consider building catapults with swordsmen/archres as another alternative?

[trickey]

If we manage to make a good system of roads, i think horsemen would be the best choice. They are fast, they retreat, and they wont become obsolete until the beginning of the industrial age ( with all ther upgrades).

[Edrix]

This really depends on WHEN we start the next war. If we wait until the Middle Ages to pick another fight, we're probably best off using swordsmen (by that time we should have a road connecting Banana HQ with Ubergorsk). Of course, if we plan to attack early, it's best to rush more archers and overwhelm them rather than wait for swordsmen.

[Papa Chubby]

I seriously doubt that we will be able to take swordsmen ovber there. So maybe we should settle for another quick Archer attack, it seems that the AI simply doesn´t know what hits it. Then later we should start building up horsemen as an attack force, the widening frontiers will also demand more movement points to get to the frontier.

[Proserpine]

I say attack - soon - with archers & reinforce w. horse/swords

[UnOrthOdOx]

We have 4 Archers left, correct? I say build two more for another 6/2 attacking army, then start on the horses. This can easily leave enough production here or there to satisfy a few of the peacemongers by now. (how many cities are needed on a huge map for the FP? I normally play standard...)

[Shiber]

It would be a pity seeing those swordsmen become completely obsolete in the next era. IMHO we should choose horsemen instead since they have a long line of upgrades and would save us much trouble as well as shields in turns to come.

[Almightyjosh]

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[Epistax]

We don't want our archers to go to waste. Our options with them are attack France (duh), wait 20 turns and then attack America, or eventually pay for upgrades. While I am an infrastructure freak, I see our current point in time as good for carving out a small piece of France, but absolutely as quickly as possible. The six turn war with America was a great example; swift. I find uber's picture most... happy

What I'd do (although I suck at civ):
All cities that do not currently have temple and barracks, create them in that order. Cities which have both improvements make archers while the road is being made to iron, at which time switch to swordsmen. After the first batch comes out, we'd be more than ready to take on France. If this turns out to take too much time, a preemptive attack with archers against france. After a couple of cities are captured, peace. By that time it will be safe to sweep up the remaining American cities.

[BigRed515]

I agree with archers/horse. We already have a (nearly) complete archer/spearman stack that should be used before the archers become an outdated waste of resources. The horse are a present investment for a future knight attack against Greece, as well as a better bet for taking the French cities with minimal losses (retreat)

[Inverse Icarus]

I'm rooting for archers - horsemen myself, but i voted horsemen, so take it as you will.

as for catapults, they're wheeled units just like our chariots. they'd have an awfully hard time walking around those jungles / mountains surrounding our targets.