How to wage war in the ancient era

[furbster]

Hi guys,

Im the Egyptians and I have just declared war with the romans. i Have a large army of about 5 swordsmen, 10 horseme/ chariots. Yet no mattere how hard I attack there cities they always win. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Please help me how to wage war sucessfuly in the aancient era.

[Tuberski]

Are you attacking one city at a time?
Also use catapults.

5 Swordsman and 10 horse/Chariots is not that big of an army.
Concentration of forces is important. Make sure you can attack with ALL of your units in the same turn. Otherwise, the AI units gain experience and become hard to kill.

[Theseus]

A little more info please...

How many cities are you attacking at once?
Are any of them on hills?
Are you attacking across rivers?
Are they defended by Legionaries or Spearmen?
What is the typical experience level of the defending unit?
What experience level are your units? (esp. the Horsemen and WCs)
In what order are you attacking, both by unit type and by experience level?

I know that sounds like a lot, but trust me, it all counts. Especially in an early war against Rome... couldn;t you have picked someone easier?

[Harovan]

When I attack in the ancient age, I first look up the map. Then I choose up to 3-4 strike directions and place stacks of horsemen in that direction, preferable vets. A direction with high priority (resources/luxuries) or more than 2 cities gets up to 8-10 horsemen, a direction with less priority or only 1-2 cities gets 4-6 horsemen, depending on terrain. If I can, I put 1-2 spearmen in the stacks for defense and a settler to close autorazed gaps. I try to do all preparations in peace time. Then I declare war and usually take the first 3-4 cities in the first turn. The stacks then follow the predefined directions to achieve all goals, with reinforcements following in their footsteps. Usually this results in total extermination of an AI civ or crippling it down to 1-3 cities.

[Coracle]

I often let them come on first into a killing zone in open terrain. The stupid AI thinks that's great as it is not good defensive terrain - but he's the one who suffers when I attack him first. Then I go on the offensive into his terrtory.

Just leave some open terrain undefended; place some frtresses on hills; leave some workers undefended, etc. The AI goes for those, resources too, so you can kind of direct it to where you want.