Artillery parks, and general war

[Enigma]

-Catapaults suck. Period

As far as arty I tried to outnumber enemy units in a city 5-10 to 1... overkill always helps.

As far as the 1 movement rate remember that *any* movement rate is effectively infinite when it is moving over rails that belong to your empires borders... the solution?

Focus on expanding your empire's borders right before moving in Arty. I was often able to fire from within my borders into enemy bases when I brought settlers along into combat, this makes it simple to get the most out of your artillery by having it fire every round.

It is always important to get city sizes below 6, and improvements don't matter when you raze a city no matter what (not like this game gives you much of a choice)

Artillery is also useful for destroying enemy roads etc... isolating bases.

[David Floyd]

I use arty MUCH MORE now than earlier, actually...it makes for much more realistic military campaigns, and even though it was a useful tactic I was never to comfortable with "Howitzer Rushing" civs in Civ2...much too easy, much too boring, and very unrealistic.

[David Floyd]

And catapults certainly do NOT suck! You build some cheap catapults early in the game when you have nothing else to build, say in one of your top cities which has maxed out improvements and wonders and whatnot, and then upgrade them to Radar Artillery or whatever it's called a few hundred turns later! Same thing works with Spearmen->Mech. Infantry.

[Kc7mxo]

As long as I'm not playing on a pangea map, i find that a fleet a battleships is a wonderful force. In my last game I simply sailed up and down the japanese coast bombarding cities for a few turns and then assaulting with marines. Casualties among the marines were ussually one or two per city, but these were some sweet cities at the begining of the war.

Admittably there wasn't anything left when i was finished.

[duxup]

I'm all about artillery

I use them for offense and defense. I think they're much more realistic now than in Civ 2 (the howitzer was far to powerful). They're great for offense when you want to "trim down" the population and defenders before invading. Just one or two notches off their health makes a huge difference when they're fortified in a city.

Defensively they're great for holding your position or city you just took that might be faced with a stiff counter attack. Also defensively I use them to fend off bombardment from enemy ships. The AI seems to love raiding or "nuisance" attacks along your shores with his ships (a good strategy) when you're at war. I've found artillery often wild do a good job of driving them off or softening them up for one of my ships to come along and sink them easily.

As for movement. I think having artillery move slow isn't too much of a problem. Until mechanized infantry your defensive units usually don't move any faster so they pair up with the artillery quite nicely. After all moving artillery unguarded in real life is no better an idea than it is in Civ 3.

[cort]

the trick about support units like artillary & cannon, etc. is to use them is vast numbers in which case they are EXTREMELY useful.

1. they are cheaper to build compared to other units
2. they take no damage hence you dont have to "attack, retreat to freindly territory & wait for heal & attack again" cycle comparing to a say cavalary rush
3. even a 24 sized metropolis with all improvements & defended by 5 elite mechs can be reduced to a size 6 town & all improvements destroyed & all mechs have 1/5 hit points by bombarding with 10 artillery in a few turns and can be captured quite easily.

on defense, they are equally useful as well, stack 10 artillery in a city which is attacked by 5 tanks, at least 4 of 5 tanks will lose all their hitpoints even before shooting a single shell.

[Jason]

I redid my recent riflemen vs riflemen war, only this time I changed about half of my riflemen to artillery during the buildup phase - about 10 artillery, 6-7 riflemen to start. It worked MUCH better than the pure foot-troops war. Each city I attacked I took below 6 population to begin with. As well on the turn of the attack I was always able to get the entire garrison down to 1 hp each. Instead of losing half my army with each town I took, I only lost one now and again, especially once I captured Rubber and upgraded infantry.

I conquered my enemy in a much shorter time without losing my tech lead because I didn't have to constantly rush-build replacements to keep the initiative.

I must say, from now on I'm going very artillery heavy.

[Shaka II]

I have to agree that the artillery is much more realistic now than in Civ II and I also use it in offense and defense. Defensively, when opponents (tanks in particular) are weakened to one or two hit points, than they can be taken out even by cavalry most of the time (as long as they aren't on hills). Since there is no upgrade for cavalry, I let them do some of this clean up work, when all my tanks have already played. I lose a few along the way, but this is a good way to go. My pikeman, I upgrade to infantry or mech infantry!

Presently, I am fighting against 5 civs, 4 of which are on my continent. Offensively crushing the Russians on one side, while defending against French, Greeks, and Romans on the other front (these darn mutual protection treaties).

Main problems are:

1) Being careful to bombard cities down below 8 or so, because they defect quite easily if they are larger, like 15 or so. I hate to completely raze the city, especially if is a wonder city (I don't know what happens to the wonder). Also, all that wasted infrastructure.

2) Enemy bombers destroying my improvements like mines and irrigation, etc., is taking it's toll, not to mention the hit on productivity from switching from democracy to commmunism.

I think in future games I will find a more delicate way to wage war without fighting 5 civs at once.

[Jason]

That's the great thing about artillery.

Why bring a settler along to re-found razed cities when you can just blow the bejesus out of the city till it's pop 3 or so, and probobly likely to starve down to one or two while you force the enemy off it's city radius and get rid of resisting workers? Just as easy and you get any wonders or improvements remaining.

It's a little depressing getting messages telling you you've wrecked the harbor, barracks, cathedral, university, library and granary on the same turn that you capture the city, but hey, beats losing 50% of your field army to full strength defenders.

[Cookie Monster]

I think it was Josef Stalin that once said "artillery is the god of war". Artillery (catapults) are very useful in this game if used correctly. Sure it takes forever to move them to the front. If you make sure they are protected with escorting ground units and you have the patience to move them to a heavily defended enemy city they can really aid in the swift capture of said city.

For example, if you attack a city that is well defended then you must have at bare minimum one extra attacking unit than the defenders have. Maybe you'll be able to take that city. However, if you have some artillery, then those same attackers can wait a turn while the artillery comes to the front. Next turn, bombard the city and then use your attackers to take out all the defenders. One strategy I try to use is place a few units on the roads that are on the opposite side of the city from where I'm attacking. This will help locate units that are trying to reinforce the city.

It's a long and tedious process but it is also methodical and it works.

2cents

[Ruiner]

I also think Arty is great. I generally build fortresses inside my border with another civ, put a few arty, defenders and offensive units. That way when I declare war I can defeat most of the AI's units before they get to my territory.

Adam