What do you defend your cities with?

[faded glory]

Usaullly 2 Riflemen in each...that is enough. And in ancient days. I place Hoplights/swordsmen.

I know, not good against sustained attack. But it works until you get more.

What works for you?

[civman2000]

1 or 2 of the current best defender

[1]

I don't defend my inner cities. Because of the new model of railroads, and enemy literally CANNOT get to them. So I only defend border cities. This makes the AI try to hop over these cities and get the undefended ones, BUT since they waste turns doing this, I can bombard them mercilessly and take them out with fast units. And since they're in my territory, they can't retreat using roads and railroads. So usually in my border cities I have about 4 defensive units, sometimes more. Also, since I don't have 2 units in every city, I pay much less in military, but I'm using my military much more effectively.

[Thrawn05]

Walls, three or four defenders. No planes, no artillary.

[Da_cOmRaDe_MiKe]

as i expand i move my offencive units along and leave 1 unit in each city and once i get railroads i lighten this further

[Bolleck]

Originally posted by 1
I don't defend my inner cities. Because of the new model of railroads, and enemy literally CANNOT get to them. *snip*

Very interesting! Has the AI used ever Paratroopers against you?

[steelehc]

By the end of the game, if it gets that far, each city has 2 modern armor, 3 mech infantry, and 1 radar artillery, and possibly some stealth bombers. That combination is unbeatable.

1: How did you get your registration date to be 1969?

Steele

[Worthingtons]

I like to defend cities in ANY possible danger with 2 of the best defender's and 2 artillery if i'm not using them elsewhere.


However, in Civ, NO defense is unbeatable, I once had a town in the hills defended with an ARMY of 4 Infantry. Yes, you read that right, an 4 unit capacity army with infantry, when the best unit around was cavalry, I also had a couple of spare infantry but with enough cavalry, the city was taken.

[Harovan]

I former used to garrison my cities with 2 defenders, altering their upgrade, like: spearman+pikeman, musketman+pikeman, musketman+rifleman, infantry+rifleman, infantry+mechinf. But in big empires that is a waste of units, the upkeep should better be spent for more mobile forces. So now I defend most of my cities with 1 unit of the best available defender, border cities may have more.

[Spec]

I always have 2 units defending my cities (2 best def. units available) but when I hit industrial ages I make that 3. Always.

Spec.

[Zouave]

I have at least two units defending my cities until the end of the middle ages, when I start building a real army. Since I do not bother to defend my interior cities, my border cities sometimes have as many as 10 units in them.

[Sava]

1 unit, that's it. Usually I form a "line of control" of infantry on any land border. When the AI attacks me, I might lose a unit, but then my huge force of mobile units overwhelms them. Then I fight to the death. In my many hours of Civ 3, I've only lost 1 city. And that was because the Egyptians attacked me with 20 (yes 20) chariot units. I was Rome, and I quickly struck back and annihilated them. BTW, this was my first ever game. I keep the comp out of my territory. That is my strategy. Since you can't tell if ships have units in them, I just blockade key points to prevent comp units along my coast, that way there is no possibility for a surprise invasion. Usually, I conquer the continent I am on early on, so a land invasion isn't possible. When I play on Pangae, I usually take the AI's out one at a time by overwhelming them with numbers. I kill all units that the AI leaves out of cities, then I bombard their units in the cities to 1 HP and mop them up. I usually just raze the cities unless there is a wonder. And even then, I'll make sure to bombard the city to 1 pop point so there are less foreign citizens. I've tried other victory conditions, but they aren't as fun.

The best defense is a good offense. That's my philosophy.

[Cookie Monster]

Depending on what govt. type I'm in I use either 2
or 3 of the current periods' best defenders. In really
critical cities I add a bombard unit of some sort.

Then I station one or two mobile groups on roads
in my empire for mobile defense.

[Locus]

Great ideas above, I gotta think aobut revamping my strategy. For now, I put two of the best defenders in every city. I play as the Greeks and use Hoplites and upgrade them as I go along. If I'm short on cash, I only upgrade border cities. It is a bit expensive to have so many units, but I also use them to repulse invasions by rotating them to where there's danger a la Chariman Yang's strategy in SMAC. I can pull off dozens of defenders in a single turn to defend any breach. The AI is terrible at fighting on multiple fronts so I'm pretty safe. Also, with the new invasion model, you usually get atleast a turn to prepare for an attack. A good road network is key. Also, I use my defenders when I go to war as part of the invasion force to wreak havoc on my enemy and defend my real invaders.

[Melboz99]

3-4 best defenders inner, and 6-8 on the borders. Why? I'm playing on warlord and the enemy came at me with 150+ guys, most of them were cheap infantry (Pikeman, Spearmen, Longbowman, Swordsman.) But there was a good 20 cossacks, and maybe 10 infantry and rifelman. I had no source of rubber, (in fact, thats why I started the war) so I only had rifelman, 250 of'em! I moved all my units where there was mor than three per city, and then 2, down to the battlefield. I only produced about fifty more. It come in really handy to be able to attack with mass forces at a moments notice. Plus, my cities are usualy well defended.