War vs greeks and their hoplites in the ancient age

[Leonid]

Is it possible to even think of waging war with greeks and there hoplites? I am Rome in my current game and they declared war on me. I am just wondering if sending legions againt their cities with fortified hoplites is a hopeless battle?

Do I need knights before I even consider this? or is 3 attack enough with alot of human waves?

[uh Clem]

I've done it. Just expect higher than usual casualties.

[Ossi]

Using War Chariots against the greeks

Hi,

last night I had a war against the greeks. Beeing the egyptians I used a hord of about 10 war chariots to capture several greek cities defended by hoplites. The good thing is that even if a war chariot looses its battle it has a good chance of staying alive. Of course you can also use the bowman or a Horseman which is buildable by all civs.

Greetings,
Ossi

[Leonid]

yes I have about 4 catapults with one of my armies and it seems they dont do much help. I guess ill just throw my legions at them in human waves. I have about 40 of them so hehe..should work. I must say these legions rock. My casualty rate has been very low. Ofcourse I heal them up after every battle and attack with mass force at least 3 legions for every defender. So at least 9 per city...working pretty good..gotta love rome.. ooo I got trajan too so I get to build a heroic epic after I make an army with him.

I just hope this long war clearing my continent hasn't let the other civs surpass me too bad. Germany already built the great library on me..on some other unforseen continent. Education here I come..

[notyoueither]

Legions rule. They were made that way. Trust me, the Gods are on your side. Mars is a Roman isn't he?

Make war, have no fear. The future is yours.

Seriously, from experience... AI will garrison cities with 2 or 3 Hoplites. Attack with 6 Vetern Legions (please tell me you built barracks), shake well, then begin to cultivate your new city...

You might find 3 or 4 catapults helpful to assault his larger cities, but I doubt you will need them.

Tribune NYE

[conquistadore]

i agree absolutely. Legions rule the ancient age, the high attack and defence(3,3) make them kick-ass attackers AND defenders.

Not only do i send them away to the front-line, i fortify them in cities too, and mobilise them in case any pesky little babarian or irritating Greek swordsman got close enough to pillage my improvements.

Of course, they had no problems with the hoplites

[Leonid]

Oh yes I have barracks galore. All my legions are at least veteren and about 10 are Elite. They own the greeks and I am taking over all of egypt. I am churning them out like no tomorrow. My only worry is that now that I have conquered this continent..all my legions will be all dressed up with no place to go.

The legions seem to attack better than a 3 rating..I could swear they attack like a 5...I lose very few. They look awesome too..coolest looking special units. Ahh and I love there hearty laugh when they get promoted to elite.

[Footie Mad]

You just wait until your empire grows into a big moldy lump of corruption and then you wont be so eager to conquer your neighbours.

[Sava]

Once my empire gets to be a big lump of corruption, I IFE in my corrupted cities and produce a horsemen/cavalry/knight per turn per city and build up an attack force. If I have 10 corrupted cities, I have 10 units per turn. After 10 turns, I'll storm your empire and destroy half your cities in 1 turn with 100 knights. Then the next turn, when your telling your cities to build more hoplites, I'll rest my knights. Then in the third turn after I've declared war, I'll kill the other half of your cities and build new cities in their place. Then I'll have 20 corrupted cities and I can produce 20 units per turn. Then, with all the leaders I got killing you, I'll rush all the wonders I need, then after another 5 turns, I'll attack the next closest civ with 200 units. And it just snowballs until I have conquered the world.

[David Weldon]

Because I like to build culture and "perfect" cities, I like to wage war without spending all my production on replacing casualties. As a result, I always use fast units, especially when attacking superior defenders. I also use a group of artillery to soften up the target since I'm attacking with inferior strength units.

The most important thing is to never move up to a city and then attack it. This will leave your beaten units (even if they retreat) in range of a counter-attack. Instead just move up to the city en masse. On the next turn, attack and then after your unit gets beat and retreats (note: no casualties), then move him one square away from the city to prevent counter attacks and also to heal for the next wave.

Of course some of the fast units get killed instead of retreating, but it's so few that I managed to take out 8 Greek cities with fortified Hoplites with only 4 catapults and 5 War Chariots. All that lumberjacking went into city improvements and now I have my own continent and the tech, population, production, and culture edge on all other civs. In short, I win. Obviously I was Egyptian, and I found the same tactics were equally effective against Roman Legions.

[Ray K]

Originally posted by SoulAssassin
Once my empire gets to be a big lump of corruption, I IFE in my corrupted cities and produce a horsemen/cavalry/knight per turn per city and build up an attack force. If I have 10 corrupted cities, I have 10 units per turn. After 10 turns, I'll storm your empire and destroy half your cities in 1 turn with 100 knights. Then the next turn, when your telling your cities to build more hoplites, I'll rest my knights. Then in the third turn after I've declared war, I'll kill the other half of your cities and build new cities in their place. Then I'll have 20 corrupted cities and I can produce 20 units per turn. Then, with all the leaders I got killing you, I'll rush all the wonders I need, then after another 5 turns, I'll attack the next closest civ with 200 units. And it just snowballs until I have conquered the world.

And you've done this HOW many times?

By the time you have enough workers and cities to do the amount of IFE you're talking about, your non-corrupt cities should be able to win the game without all of that worker micromanagement.

I just let the governors run the corrupt cities so I don't have to and finish off the AIs as quickly as possible. Who needs to build 200 units to do anything?