How conduct an ancient era war?

[planetfall]

Situation: warlord, middle ancient era,
5 cities, closest is egypt with 3 cities and
pop 1,1,3. Military advisor, compared to egypt you have a strong military.

This is before embassies. How do you successfully conduct a war?

attact city of 1 with?
2 warriors?
horseman and warrior?

Fear is by time get a couple swordsmen
and horsemen, egypt will be defended with spearman.

Is there a way to goad the AI on the other side of Egypt to attack at the same time?
Score of 3 civs is within 5 points of each other, so not much bigger. Less pop for me but more warriors.

Normally I would build infrastructure first.
Trying to learn if there is another alternative.

thanks for the advice.

[Jon Shafer]

The way I do things is that I simply rush out as many Warriors as you can early on, and charge them into cities. Sure, you'll lose a lot, but you'll be constantly making them as well. By the time that you don't need warriors anymore, then they should be completely overrun.

Where in Colorado do you hail from?

[Moonsinger]

I would normally attack those cities with horsemen. I only use warriors for peace keeping. Since the horseman can be able to retrieve from battle, there are better chance that they will survive the battle. Plus, horseman are fast and we need to strike quick before the enemy fortify their cities with spearman. Even if they have spearman, that's no problem; two or three horsemen will overrun a spearman without any problem. On the other hand, the warrior is no match for spearman.

[Theseus]

Ah, an excellent predicament.

A little more info please:

What civ are you?
Who is on the other side of Egypt?
What technologies are the three of you up to?
Are any of Egypt's cities on hills?
Are any of Egypt's cities directly adjacent to hills or mountains?
(but not with a river in between)
Who has horses?
Does Egypt's size-3 city have any desirable resources or bonuses?

Or you could just post the file.

[Harovan]

Horsemen are fine till pikemen show up (with feudalism). Of course, also beware hoplites, not only that they're strong, you'll also trigger the greek golden age which can be a pain in the butt.

Swordsmen are powerful but way too slow, use them only on standard maps or lesser.

[Moonsinger]

It doesn't matter what the Egyptian has, you need to attack immediately before they run out of land to expand and focus their attention on you. If you are the weaker civ, try to attack their newly formed cities and match your army directly to their capital, that would force them to sign a peace treaty and probably turn over some of their techs to you.

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
Horsemen are fine till pikemen show up (with feudalism).

Yup, I would stay away from those pikemen until I can upgrade my horsemen to knights.

[Captain]

all other things equal, warrior vs warrior is 1:1.
you'll need numerical superiority.
if you can get horse before they get spear, it's 2:1.
if they get spear, then it's 2:2, same results as warrior versus warrior so again, you'll need numerical superiority. remember that now in 1.21, there's no auto-retreat for horses.
if you get swords, then its 3:2. even if they have spears, you will most likely win until they get swords to counterattack.
i would wait until I have a few swordsmen. but that's playing it safe and assuming you get swords before they do.

[zulu9812]

I like to attack with horseman - the added mobility allows you to quickly overrun an empire. Since this is early in the game, there won't be many roads, so high movement is even more important. Yes, Swordmen have better attack/defend stats but at the end of the day it's about sheer military logistics - you need to overwhelm in numbers in the correct position. This also cuts down on resistance, although that isn't such a problem in the early game.

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Captain
remember that now in 1.21, there's no auto-retreat for horses.

You mean the horseman unit won't be able to retreat from battle no more?

[Arrian]

Horsemen rock. Build chariots. Lots of 'em. They're cheaper to build. Meanwhile, hoard gold. Then, discover horseback riding and upgrade them to horsemen. Then kill. Trust me, it works. Same idea as the warrior -> swordsmen upgrade, but cheaper and it provides you with fast units. True, swords are 3/2, so I usually bring a few of them along too.

-Arrian

[Inverse Icarus]

aztecs and the jaguar warriors. gotta love it.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
You mean the horseman unit won't be able to retreat from battle no more?

They still do, just not always anymore.

[planetfall]

Originally posted by Theseus
Ah, an excellent predicament.

A little more info please:

What civ are you?
Who is on the other side of Egypt?
What technologies are the three of you up to?
Are any of Egypt's cities on hills?
Are any of Egypt's cities directly adjacent to hills or mountains?
(but not with a river in between)
Who has horses?
Does Egypt's size-3 city have any desirable resources or bonuses?

Or you could just post the file.

Definitely saved the game, this is one I want to replay the ancient era a couple of times to get the hang of it. First time with 7 civs.

Civ==germany
land mass 6 civs & me on elogated H continent with fat middle. {ok will find the file}

ger- north central
egypt-- 3 cities in line blocking access to jungle {& rubber later}

SE- weak china
SW- med rome
NE of china- persia
SEE- Russia, huge land mass under control

tech tree, actually right now just ended ancient era, but want to play back and learn from mistakes. About 1/2 to 2/3rd thru tech tree.

Key resource: I have Iron and Egypt does not.

don't know if cities were across rivers, did not notice any hills.

I have horses.

Egypt does not have any key resources, just know from previous games, egypt plays high score games and if can eliminate early should be easier in later game.

Actually since I have played to end of ancient, the capital city was hidden under fog by city of 3. Do not know its size, but think it is only 2 or 3.

Problem is everyone is about at navigation and go for Egypt either China or Persia will end run and plop a city behind my city line.

In present game, just 1st turn in middle ages, was able to keep Persia out, but missed and China landed a city. I beat out another Egyptian settler team by one turn.

In previous games I have tried to build defense and then worry about offense, but don't think that has any hope of succeeding in current game.

Annoying that Russia declares war on me. Score was about: Ger=128, Russia=119, rest of known between 85..112. Both China and Egypt allow free passage so can attack a border city.

To answer Arrian, don't remember chariots in build list. I will have to check to see if they are available to Germany. First time started using catapults as got tired of losing a few units to russian invaders.

Any suggestions on how war mongering to be?
I was assuming taking on one other civ was about the maximum. Many it is not. 2 civs are hidden on another continent that my galleys
can't reach so have no data on their strength.

Trip is correct, horsemen do sometimes retreat and sometimes not.

This is hard to explain. I will see if I can find a good version of the game and make it available.

[Theseus]

If you have Iron and Egypt doesn't, then take out their 3-pop city with Swordsmen (I suggest 6). Leave them with the other two, negotiate peace and extort techs / money, and turn the Swordsmen to the next enemy...

Anyway, I would worry about Persia and Rome a LOT more.