To stack or not to stack...

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I must note that it's a major pill as it is even on regent to wage a wide-front war. I couldn't see waging them very often a higher difficulty level, or if I did, limiting my objectives (i.e., not forcing myself to absorb an entire large empire)

[Paddy]

stack away... a large army can be fun when wandering around behind enemy lines.... bloody fantastic.... especially if you are leaving there cities in ruins.. ie not having to leave troops behind for garrison duties etc

[Last Conformist]

Panzer32: Forget Riders. Try mountain-hopping with Samurai, and see the light!

Yahweh Sebaoth: Fighting wars of annexation on lengthy fronts is perfectly doable, at least on Monarch and Emperor. You'll want to destroy the AI's "mobile reserve" before you start attacking in earnest, so it usually pays to fight defensively for the first few turns - the AI is likely to send its troops into your territory, where you destroy them with artillery and counterattacks. Then you only need to keep up the pressure so the AI can't assemble large counteroffensives, and plenty of defenders to secure won ground.

I often find it helpful to take one "layer" of cities a time. This way the front doesn't lengthen the way it does if you advance towards the AI capital along a single vector (à la Napoleon 1812). This works best if you've got enough troops to field a few SODs advancing in parallel, but having one stack zigzagging works too.

[Vince278]

By all means stack! (Concentration of forces is so very Clausewitz ). There is one exception you will need to keep in mind: By all means do not stack if any opponent has nukes.

[badams52]

Ah, but what you mean is do not stack units next to or inside a city if the AI has nukes. The AI only nukes cities from what I've seen, and I was unfortunate enough to leave a huge stack of MA next to one of my cities idling by waiting for orders once.

So when I do my idle stacks, my troops are usually away from the cities so that they won't be affected by the blast radius of a nuke.

Of course if you're playing multiplayer...

[bongo]

Keep your stacks small and separate in the nuclear age, at least in multiplayer. Maybe the AI learns to use nukes on large stacks one day...

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Panzer32: Forget Riders. Try mountain-hopping with Samurai, and see the light!

He refers to the PTWDG war going on in which something similar was done with Riders

[dexters]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Panzer32: Forget Riders. Try mountain-hopping with Samurai, and see the light!

Yahweh Sebaoth: Fighting wars of annexation on lengthy fronts is perfectly doable, at least on Monarch and Emperor. You'll want to destroy the AI's "mobile reserve" before you start attacking in earnest, so it usually pays to fight defensively for the first few turns - the AI is likely to send its troops into your territory, where you destroy them with artillery and counterattacks. Then you only need to keep up the pressure so the AI can't assemble large counteroffensives, and plenty of defenders to secure won ground.

Something may have been changed in 1.27f, but the AI I've fought against (in a whimpy regent game) kept on the pressure with groups of two cavalry on two fronts for a sustained 20 turns, followed by a steady stream of medieval infantry on foot.

The MedInf's steady arrival may be due to the long distances they have to travel and their relative lack of mobility, but it seems to be at least that the AI is now not big into blowing its wad in the first 5 turns, and would instead send smaller groups and keep pressure on the front and prevent the human player from making any outrageous cocky moves, or rather, catch them in a weak configuration, like leaving weakly defended offensive units without an escort.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I think what LastConformist may have been referring to - correct me if I'm wrong - is the tendency of the AI to send a slow stream of units to a target, take the target, and then mass all the units there, without disbanding them, if there's no other target to get to.

For example: say I play as the Iroquois, with the Aztecs to my West and the Americans to my East. I declare war on America and invite the Aztecs along, but don't give them a ROP. The Aztecs take Detroit, and I take everything else. Now I want to take out the Aztecs. But first, I have to take down numerous horsemen, Jag warriors, Medival Infantry, etc., that are massed in and around Detroit. Perhaps more than I will encounter in the Aztec core proper.

This is a common experience for me, at least.

[vmxa1]

I have been using 1.27 for the last 4 or 6 games and do not see any real change. The AI will send a few waves (if you are on the same land mass) and then send what ever it generates each turn after that. It will hold its massive number of troops in its cities. At least two and some with 4. If it has a large empire it could be sitting on over 100 units and you have no fear it will put together 80 or so and hit you with them. You can just take down one city at a time, if that suits you.

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I find that the Civs with no units in their build preferences tend to have insanely well defended cities. Babylon in the prime example. Spain and Korea also tend to have very well defended cities.

[dexters]

No change is likely the case. I'm just reading too much into AI perhaps. Although I recently played a debug game on the same tiny map I watched the AI play on 1.21f. It seems like there may have been minor tweaks as far as networks go. Based on that one game, it seems like the AI are much more eager in establishing a trade network. In this particular game, the civs connected much earlier than in my 1.21f, but it may just be the luck of the draw.

Also, the AI worker inefficiency of disbanding workers in one turn and building a new one in a size 12 city within a few turns seems to have been mitigated. Although I have to look into that some more.

Lastly, AI now likes to send its naval support into captured cities to pound any incoming units silly. I'm not 100% sure that this is a new addition, but I don't recall seeing much of it in 1.21f. It still have problems with reinforcing cities captured on islands/different continent. That really needs to be fixed or the AI will never be able to mount much of an invasion against another AI civ. Because of this, games on "Continents" maps are essentially broken. I'd be happy if the AI can invade each other better. This would certainly add some tension to some of the map types out there .

I hope Soren or whoever is working on the AI makes some good changes in C3C core.