War Academy: French Front: Archers / Swordsmen / Horsemen

[Shiber]

We have to do something with those archers and we have to do it now.
If we just fortify them somewhere and keep them for a later attack they'll just consume maintenance money. If we discard them for shields it will substantially lower the size of our military and our neighbors will start demanding gold and techs from us more often or threat to declare war.
If we attack France (maybe add 2 additional archers to the army before we attack so we'll have a 6/2 army) we'll risk a failed assault but at least we'll be doing something with our archers rather than let them sit idly and consume maintenance money and we might win some cities and gold.
Therefore I suggest that we attack the Frenchies as soon as possible, but that's just my two cents.

[wervdon]

You left out the main benefit of horseman Uber

horseman->knight->calvary

swordsman->dead end
archer->longbowman (4/1)->dead end

Given that we'll need the knights to beat the greeks..... I had to vote the horseman as the best long term investment.

Edit: Oops forgot about longbowman, added those in, but I still think horseman in prep for knights is alot better long term choice.

[GePap]

IF (BIg IF) we go to war with France, we most likely should use horses, since our use of Swordmen is in the future. After Chatres, the French have about 2-3 size 2-3 cities before getting to Paris. They also have roads linking them all and may very soon have the ability to make swordmen themselves. Thus, we need a quick force, both to make inroads towards Paris, and to retreat in the face of stronger enemy forces, and since we are the human player, we could use our tactical superiority on the field to beat any swordmen or horsemen the French use.

[Harovan]

Most of the way horsemen go through jungle and are not faster than archers. And the ability to retreat and get 100% destroyed in a counterattack (we all know those pesky poprushed archers) isn't worth the 10 more shields they cost. After the archer army took the size-1 cities out of the way, the second wave of horsemen, as I described, can go to Paris.

This is about the war with France in particular and considering terrain. Overall I agree, the ability to move fast, to retreat and to get upgraded makes horsemen stronger than archers.

Btw: I use archer attacks in almost every game, but never upgrade them to longbowmen though. At some point I stop to produce them, and they die out in later wars, dominated by swordsmen.

[GePap]

SirRalph: There is only 1 size 1 city in the way of Paris, Chartres, Then there are two bigger cities, size 2-3, Orleans, and I believe Rouen. Might be as big as Washington by the time we can even contemplate getting to them. This is why I think we should go in with horsemen already as part of the army. As you yourself said in the turnchat, one more turn of war with the Americans and they might have retaken wahisngton. They gave up because they only had 1 city left worth a damn. Even if we take Paris (city #4), the french have at least 2 size 3 or above cities further away. They will have little incentive to negotiate and we will most likely face a counterattack.

[Harovan]

On my map, Chartres and Orleans (has culture and can be taken!) are size-1 cities on the way to Paris, and Rheims and Marseilles size-1 cities on the way to the wines we need. All must be taken or destroyed. There's only a small chance to catch AI cities not size-1 in the REX phase. If a war starts, they will poprush spearmen and archers, till size 1 is reached, just as did the Americans.

EDIT: I forgot about counterattacks. In the REX phase, the AIs dont want prolongued wars and quickly agree to talk and to make peace. Just as Abe did, in a very moronic way, because he was up to retake Washington (or at least had a chance to). Instead, he gladly made peace and gave 2 cities extra. And Joan is not a bit smarter.

[Robber Baron]

I concur with several others:
1) finish the archer stack and send it off;
2) build horsemen for the second wave.
(So I'm voting "horsemen" on the poll.)