Concentration of force

[Last Conformist]

Concentration does only pay up to a point; as DaveMcW says above, it'll mean that the excess troops will lose time before they can attack somewhere else. What makes this really bad is that it means that the AI will get more time to build more units, which spells more casualities for you. In addition, the AI is too dumb to deal with multiple invasions one at a time, and will send small counterattacks against all instead of crushing one.

So, the real trick on offensive is balancing between sufficient concentration to break thru and sufficient dispersion to bring the war to a tolerably swift end. This is, of course, particularly important when in Rep/Dem.

[cumi]

Originally posted by bongo
The point of concentrating your force is that you don't have to have a bigger army, you only have to be superior where the actual fighting takes place.

Yep! Look at the military strategy of US against Japan in the 2nd WW. They took over the islands one-by-one by concentrating their forces. The japaniese didn't knew where the next offense will be, so they couldn't defend only the next target... Please correct me, if my historical knowledge is not adeqat...

[vulture]

Bingo bongo!



And as vmxa1 says, the AI tends to send out units in small groups to pillage and harrass the cattle. A large, fast squad can take them out one at a time with small losses to you. As long as you can afford to leave their other units alone for a while. This way you can whittle their forces down until you are ready to go on the offensive.

[bongo]

The point of concentrating your force is that you don't have to have a bigger army, you only have to be superior where the actual fighting takes place.

[vmxa1]

I do not want to fight one on one, unless I am using a much better unit. I want to fight 2 bombardment units and two or more attackers on 1.
If you have a much stronger force than they do on the scene, especially in a city. They will tend to send units to pillage improvements. These are in ones and twos often. Better yet you should have arties in the city to blast them with before engaging.

[johncmcleod]

This is a great thread!

It brings to mind a quote by Patton. "When in doubt, fight." This thread proves that that statement is not a good strategy when you have a smaller army then your enemy.

So, if you have a smaller army then your enemy, how do you avoid fighting with concentrated troops and fight more 1 on 1?

[lmtoops]

Very likely they redeployed based on city size and culture. It makes a little sense, but of course the fleeing defenders are killed as soon as the leave the city.

Of couse I have sent out defenders so as to divert the AI's forces. That is: If there is a big AI stack, you can send out weak units. The hope is that the AI will attack these weak units and not your city. This draws a portion of the AI force away from your city. This could buy you time to rush a defender, get strong reinforcements, and/or counter attack. For example if you have some archers left over (acting as MPs) during the industrial age. These archers are useless as defenders or attackers.

In any case (back to the subject at hand), I don't think the AI is using this elaborate strategy.

[Frank Johnson]

They probably programed the AI to leave more defenders in bigger cities, where there would be a larger defensive bonus.

[inca911]

The Fleeing AI

bongo:
I also thought I saw AI troops leaving a city after intensive bombardment. I had a couple different attacking forces at the time and just figured they were moving to counter the larger force, but perhaps it was a valuation that the AI performed saying in effect: "This city isn't worth 7 defenders, only four. I'm moving out some of these units." I'm definitely going to watch for this because I think you may be right!

[bongo]

The best explanation I can think of is that the AI values the city less after I have pounded it a bit and then decides it is over-defended

[vmxa1]

I can't say for sure, probably a coincidence. The AI is not too bright you know. They will sit there with 50 units as you attack a city and not send anyone up to defend the city and have only a token force on hand.
They will do this city after city until they are out of units.
The doggedly try to get their min number of defenders in a city.

[bongo]

Using spies I saw that their cities were very heavy defended (7+ pikemen) by that eras standard but after a while they send troops out of the city. Not to fight, it actually looks like they tried to escape. This occured only when I had killed many citizens by either bombarding or starving(pillaging)

[vmxa1]

What do you mean by flee? Do you mean no troops left to defend? Or did they just happen to send a unit ot so off to some other task?
The reason I ask is I just had to invasions. One where I dropped 64 units on a city in Japan and the other where I dropped 72 units on a hill next to a Chinese city. They did not flee in either case. In the first case they sent attackers by the dozens. In the second they did not attack as I dropped the troops on a hill. That would have been deadly for them as I had MI and Tanks, they had Infantry and Riders.

[bongo]

On numerous occasions I have seen the AI 'flee' his cities. Typically this happens when I have moved a large force close to one of his heavily defended cities and killed some citizens either by bombarding or starving. I don't know why he do it, maybe he is scared Or maybe he values the city less after I have pounded it a bit(why do I have 7 pikemen in my capitol, it's only worth 4 now?)

[cumi]

Originally posted by Frank Johnson
This is a very good suggestion. It is very important to send enough troops to actually seize the target. If you send one less unit than you need, and just end up fighting even battles, you haven't gained anything.

Even worse: Maybe you created a GL for AI.

But, what is sure: the next turn will be even more difficult: the AI now has promoted units, and they can be healed in the city. Your sigeing units are weaker and weaker every turn.

If I want to "enter" in a city and I am not sure, I always wait outside (al least 1 tile away from the city) until all the (planed) units are there. When I am sure, that all my units can attack in the same turn, I go for the city.