About Industrial/Modern combat

[Blitzer]

Good post, Blitzer, but doesn't work on large/huge maps with continents, or else you have to be an extreme war monger in the ancient/medieval eras, taking out all others, do you?

I play mainly on reg maps, continents. I rarely if ever leave a war-capable AI opponent on my continent. Once I left the romans alive (I had no iron, and those legionares are a beating). After 3000 years of peace and another 2000 or so years of a mutual protection pact during which we fought many wars together, they decided to backstab me over a patch of uranium. I lost a wonder city which was generating 80 culture per turn off the bat, but crushed them by mobilizing for war and using conscript infantry and my 8 garrison tanks to hold them off until the war machine whipped into gear. The end result was that I lost out on a cultural victory and was forced to win by yet another boring spaceship win.

Lesson learned... continental rivals are to be crushed at any cost regardless of their supposed loyalty. If you can drive a tank to my capitol, you are taken out, as early as possible.

If you have enough catapults to get defenders hp down to 1 or 2 hp, swordsmen do just as well(actually better when attacking 1hp unit) as horsemen. However, moving a stack of catapults and swordsmen is very slow. I only make major use of swordsmen if I don't have horses, and then it is in a specific war to gain horses. Having a few swordsmen along with a horsemen army attacking can help crack a tough city if all your horsmen have to retreat and the city is just left with 1 or 2 weak defenders. This way your horseman+swordsman army could be a little smaller than your horseman army otherwise. It doesn't matter if you are trying to wipe everything out, but if your goals are limited this would be good.

I disagree... but then again that's what makes the game great. Perhaps my liking of the greeks and their exceptional hopalite unit assists this strategy, but I prefer the slow moving mass of swordsmen as the main assault force. With hopalites defending, you ignore any attempt to chip away at your army with blitz units... horsemen are completely ineffective against hopalites and catapults.

If I were playing a civ with a blitzing UU, strategies change... Massed horsemen with defending jaguar warriors and/or Impi were effective, but not enough for me to want to play one of those civs. I've had success with War Chariot assaults, and although I've never played the Iriquois, I imagine a 3/1 fast unit is quite a beating. All things being equal however, I love the cheap, sturdy, and effective swordsman.

[Arrian]

I admire your patience - I don't use any bombard unit short of artillery... and usually all of my artillery is upgraded AI catapults/cannon that I've captured.

As for defenders in cities... my "core" cities get 1 unit. That's it. The border towns generally get... 1 defender, MAYBE two, and a bunch of attackers... note that, post-horsemen, the "attacker" 2-move units do have ok defense, knights in particular - a 3 defense in the middle ages is equal to the best defender. The AI rarely rushes you... they usually bring a lot of footsoldiers, which march slowly up to your town. During that time, you can mass your mobile troops. When their stack reaches the square next to your town, hit it with everything you have. Any of your troops that retreat will do so back into the city. Any that win will also end up back in the city, until the stack is destroyed. That way, you don't leave any units exposed. This is the most effective way of destroying the AI's army. If you have bombard units that can be used first, by all means use them too. Then attack. The AI will have very little left to counter you.

For me, the above scenario usually plays out in the first AI city (and sometimes several cities) I capture. I weather the counterattack, destroying most of his army, and then proceed.

-Arrian

p.s. I just want to throw in my 2 cents re: horsemen vs. hoplites. Sure, you need a bunch, but in numbers they do fine. How do I know? I've done it. I've beaten the Romans (3.3.1. legions) with horsemen. The difference is, of course, your use of catapults and the fact you are smarter than the AI.

[nibbles]

The AI has serious problems with two front wars.

i recently played a game where i as Chinese at war constantly with the Zulus , anyway the Zulus would send down a hell of a lot of troops, i.e. +100 anyway i got France on my side.

France was located on a couple of islands while the Zulus and me on the same continent (France did have some cities on this continent, most it founded some i gave to it ), anyway i eventually retired after 2 much of a beating looking on the reply i saw the Zulus managed to capture about 10 of the 15 French cities on our continent at the same time as it's war with me. France initially captured some of the Zulus cities.

The French cities on the whole where on the other side of the continent and i could not support it, and the French weren’t in the way of my cities so to speak. I also noticed that the Zulus seem to pull some of it troops from it attacks against me , about 20% of it troops i guess they went north to get the French.

The thing that impressed me but i didn’t know till i retired was that using the French was an effective measure, alright they didn’t do great but they where the smallest civ in the game and also there main cities where on islands and i don’t think they had access to modern ships/transports. But for the cities they had it seem it proved to be a good diversion and cause the Zulus some initial headaches, i did have to pay for the luxury of the French alliance though in the form of luxuries.

If i had continued the Zulus would off ejected the French from the continent and the french would off been unlikely to do much from it's main islands.