New PC.IGN preview

[Lawrence of Arabia]

If you look at the different screenshots, you can see that the 'unit selected' symbol appears to be different sometimes. I wonder why...

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Heres somethng I deduced

If you have a cavalry unit which is defending with its back to the river, attacked by a cavalry unit, the defender cannot retreat.

if You have a cavalry unit which is attacked by a cavalry unit whos back is to the river, the attacker can't retreat

Units being attacked from acoss the river will probably get a defensive bonus

This hasn't been mentioned, but since the preview said that rivers act as barriers, this would make a barrier

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Heres somethng I deduced

If you have a cavalry unit which is defending with its back to the river, attacked by a cavalry unit, the defender cannot retreat.

if You have a cavalry unit which is attacked by a cavalry unit whos back is to the river, the attacker can't retreat

You have overlooked a tiny, yet important detail in your deduction, Watson. (Sorry, I just couldn´t resist. )

Cavalry can never retreat before cavalry. Only the faster unit can retreat, not an equally fast one.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

So then make the attacker on 1 a warrior
on 2 the defender to warrior

[Comrade Tribune]

I agree about the def bonus, and I also believe that crossing rivers will cost an additional MP (like entering woods).
I don´t think rivers will prevent retreat.

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by Comrade Tribune
I agree about the def bonus, and I also believe that crossing rivers will cost an additional MP (like entering woods).
I don´t think rivers will prevent retreat.

IIRC, only fast (2+ MP) attacking units can retreat, and I remember in SMAC Rover always retreat to the original (before the attack) square.
If Passing Rivers is an obstacle (i.e. it cost 1MP) you probably can't pass it + attack + retreat in a single game turn.

Just guessing.

[Admiral PJ]

Sea Blockades - Great,
BUT why not Land blockades too, in other words sieges.
If you surround a city all its trade with other cities stops and it can't make money/research etc.. maybe food starvation should be easier too.
Sieges have always been a major tactic in warfare - I don't feel civ has simulated them properly.. perhaps civ3 will help.
Some cities have even surrendered rather than starve to death - after having to eat the 100th rat you begin you want a more varied diet.

Anyone seen my new thread I made about IGN? probably got knocked into the unknown

[Lawrence of Arabia]

BUT why not Land blockades too, in other words sieges.
If you surround a city all its trade with other cities stops and it can't make money/research etc.. maybe food starvation should be easier too.
Sieges have always been a major tactic in warfare - I don't feel civ has simulated them properly.. perhaps civ3 will help.

This has always been a viable strat in Civ2 and Civ1. If your troops occupy a city square, the workers cannot work there, thus, they make les food, production, etc

in Civ3, if you surround the city, and cut the roads, the city will lose all its luxeries, and go into city disorder. Then its easy to take.

[Acemo]

viable sea route?

I think that the overall world shows the viable water trade routes. I think I saw one of the screenshots that the world map has white lines drawn between cities. I assume that these are the viable water routes. It might also show routes that are greyed (or blacked) out, perhaps these are the routes that are currently blockaded?

[JohnDavid]

In the screen shot of the 3 unit army, I noticed that the hitpoint bar appears to show the combined hit points (about 12) of all the units in the army. Considering how armies do pool their hit points, one would expect the hit point bar to reflect the combined total.

[UKScud]

Sieges have always been a major tactic in warfare - I don't feel civ has simulated them properly.. perhaps civ3 will help.

Given the abstract scale of each tile in Civ, I don't think realism is likely.

However, the effects of seige warfare can be simulated.

Bombardment - especially important now as you can also hit city impovements. How many people would rather go after a city improvement than a military unit?

Starvation - has always been a viable tactic, occupying surrounding tiles and destroying agricultural improvements.

Pinning military units - which could be doing the same thing to you elsewhere.

Economic Denial - gold, luxuries, and resources, resources, resources! If the saltpeter can't get in, they can't build cannons and musketmen. How many times in Civ2 did you sit outside a city whilst it churned out unit turn after turn?

Incidentally, I know you can't rush build wonders...but what about military units...other than drafting.

Drafting - now that's gonna make seige interesting....would YOU risk it, if you were being seiged?

[Adm.Naismith]

Originally posted by UKScud
Incidentally, I know you can't rush build wonders...but what about military units...other than drafting.

Drafting - now that's gonna make seige interesting....would YOU risk it, if you were being seiged?

As you pointed out, rushed buildings are possible (and probably military units too) via Forced Labour or Payed Labour. While the latter is like the old know Civ II method of rushing paying with gold, the former make your people unhappy and sometimes they died because of the extra work. See a Dan Magaha post some days old, around here for details.

[UKScud]

rushed buildings are possible (and probably military units too) via Forced Labour or Payed Labour.

Yup, I recall this now. I always thought it sucked that in Civ2 the other Civs always seemed to have bundles more money than me throughout most of the game. This always meant that they could rush buy when it came to beseiging a city. Before you know it you have a whole bundle of extra troops in the city ready to defend!

...leaving you thinking "Where the hell did they come from!"

I reckon that the whole resource model is so important that most of your confilicts will end up based around resource denial or seizure.

Hey! Now that's realism!