Builders: What kind of defensive military do I need?

[vmxa1]

Ducki, Thesues was talking about once you are Republic or Dem. At that time, your core cities are not on the front lines. People remember that the military police effect under despotism and carry it forward (and yes get lazy as well). This is well before RR are up. It is an old civ2 habit that many have (I have to remind myself at times).

[ducki]

Doh, I missed the Dem/Rep connection.
My bad.

[Random Passerby]

That's all well and good, but I'd be willing to wager that the AI looks at a bunch of juicy core cities that have no defenders in them and sees nothing but a big fat bullseye. One scenario that I've seen whenever I let my expansion outpace my military production is when a neighboring civ is powerful but not particularly mad at me: Somewhere snug behind my borders is an undefended or underdefended city. A few odd offensive units (usually swordsmen, indicative of the time period this scenario tends to occur in) stroll across the border and start plodding off towards the vulnerable city. If I tell them to get out or declare war, they say "OK", declare war, and start whacking on whatever's convenient. If I leave them alone, they continue plodding, declare war while standing at the city gates, and promptly conquer it. If I prop up a few defenders strong enough to make the not-quite-secret invaders have second thoughts, they plod back over the border.

Now a lot of people will point at this and holler and scream "See? See? The AI is cheating! Unfair! Unfair!" and advocate using this against the AI, having your defenders play musical chairs to keep the invaders running around in circles. I know for a fact that I have more advantages than the AI ever will and consider it only sporting to allow them some advantages, and terribly unsporting to try and turn their advantages into advantages of your own; therefore, once it becomes clear what the enemy is doing in my territory, I just demand them to leave and let them declare war. Usually, of course, I simply try to avoid presenting targets that will goad the enemy into war in the first place, hence the garrisons.

[vmxa1]

Undefend core is meant for times when you have a decent buffer between you and the next civ. You will have units to fill the gap when/if they come for those cities. Some are even intending to invite the AI to attack those cities with the intention of showing up in the nick of time to whack them (some say that is an exploit).

[Jawa Jocky]

Originally posted by Theseus
ALL OF YOU:

STOP putting in 2 defenders per city!! If you are in Republic or Democracy, you don't need ANY in the heartland.

Civ2 habits die hard.

Forgot he was looking for building strats. I get forced back into Monarchy so much I just leave units in cities for the MP effect. I also like to have the additional defensive units there to raid when I'm quickly expanding and only producing offensive units.

[DFHNY]

building w/ corruption

dear "builders" (who appear to be fond of this thread):
I was once a "builder" way back when CIV2 ruled the land, but now in CIV 3 PTW (playing emperor level, std map), I find that corruption is so powerful I can't really follow a "builder" strategy. Rather its build but at the same time wage war, more or less from day 1 (on and off of course). I am curious to know how you follow a building strategy with only 1 shield available out of say 10 at a newly founded city some distance from the capitol?

(Just to stay on topic, I keep 1 spearman in every single city and upgrade as often as I can. If AI attacks I put 2 or 3 archers nearby for counter attack, and 1 catapult in same border town if I have math. At higher level of difficulty you must have units garrisoned to stave off unhappiness/deter AI. The trick/problem is to massively expand while still making A. barracks and B. spearman.)

[gsmoove23]

In my case I'm just absent minded sometimes. I'm in Republic or Demo ASAP but I still keep at least one in those core cities. Sometimes one harmless enemy unit will come walking into the centre of my empire and I'll simply forget about him, the game makes it easy constantly hopping around from one unit to the next until suddenly the turns over. I've forgotten to do many an important action because of this. My fix for it is keeping 1 unit that I always press w for. Once there are no other units after him I try to think what I've forgotten. Doesn't always work Besides its always useful to have nearby units for those pesky naval landings before RR.

As for border towns, when I'm really defending(usually after I've been sneak attacked and learned my lesson) I keep a layer 2 cities thick with about 4 or 5 on the border(this is usually in the later ages) and 2 or 3 in the 2nd layer.

DFHNY, I've just gotten into the habit of stopping my expansion when I'm happy with my core of cities, sometimes I pass up large plots of land and leave them for the AI if I don't think they'll be productive enough. After that I'll stay out of wars of conquest, only conquering cities that have a luxury or resource that I can attain. In the end I have a nice productive core and a number of small corruption ridden colonies peppered all over the place.

[warmachine]

There are a number facets to my defense.
1. 2 defenders in borders cities and 1 or 2 in core cities. Better to have 2, even in core cities, as spare units can be pulled from safer fronts for reinforcements and counter-attack forces.
2. At least 1 best attacking unit per 2 cities and preferably fast ones. However, in the Ancient era, I prefer Swordsmen to Horsemen.
3. A good road and rail network. This is good for the economy and vital for defense.
4. All veteran, best technology force. These are supplied from the 1 in 3, high productivity cities that have Barracks. Upgrades are done as soon as practical.
5. Border garrisons. Guards ingress road connections and spots enemy movement.
6. High productivity. When a war starts, Barracks cities must start building as many reinforcments as soon as possible. If the enemy is determined, cities without Barracks may have to be converted so they can join the war effort.

[Sinapus]

Originally posted by Theseus
ALL OF YOU:

STOP putting in 2 defenders per city!! If you are in Republic or Democracy, you don't need ANY in the heartland.

Why? For one, 2-3 defenders per city can help keep a city from falling to surprise attacks. Two, you can always strip cities far away from the front (or fronts if you are really unlucky) and send them forward to try to stop an enemy advance.

(Oh, while you're doing this, you *have* put a few more offensive/defensive/bombard units into the production queues of your high productivity cities w/rally points set to near the current wave of invaders, right?)