Is anybody using formations and maneuvers?

[rpodos]

I don't know if it's just me, but so far all I have tended to do is send 1-3 stacks directly at enemy cities, troop clusters, or resources. Maybe I use combined arms depending on the situation.

I'm thinking of more sophisticated strategies, including flanking, encirclement, attack from defense, feints, etc.

Think Agincourt... Gaugamela... Salamanca... Beersheba...

Anybody got good ones?

R

[DrFell]

I use more advanced tactics in MP... with the AI there's no real need, as they don't respond intelligently to any maneuvres anyway.

[petey]

One strategy that I've found that works is to send an injured unit or worker out on its own. The AI will send its forces to attack that guy and you won't have to worry about your offensive units getting hit and worn down before they can attack.

Although this isn't technically a strategy and more an exploitation of a programming error, it still works.

[hitchikingalaxy]

i have found that workers are ai military magnets. even if i have 20 modern armors and mech infantary surounding their city, if i let one worker leave my army they will always send out a force to get that worker.
i usually wipe that force out and then continue to pillage, destroy, loot, all in the name of civilization and manifest destiny of course.

[Thrawn05]

I just head for the nearest enemy city like a bungling idiot.

I just send one stack of 30 legionaries to the enemy territory, and destroy them, one city at a time.

[Kuciwalker]

This is my formation: one giant blob of Modern Armor Armies

[DrFell]

Funnily enough, no one would have said this in civ2. No stack kills has just taken some of the intelligence and tactics out of the game.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by DrFell
Funnily enough, no one would have said this in civ2. No stack kills has just taken some of the intelligence and tactics out of the game.

I thought they did, but they just called it "army"?

[Unregistered]

I use formations (mostly for my naval units) & some tactics. But as Dr Fell observed, the 'ai' tactics consists of putting all the offensive units that belong to that civ into one pile & sending them all out in a group to do battle. It is not difficult to defeat this 'tactic'. It was funny the first few times I watched an ai civ march an army of 60 modern armor - primarily vets with maybe 20 elites - through mountains for seven turns to attack a barbarian encampment of two conscript warriors. After that it became sad.

In one game the Chinese declared war on my Germans. I thought I might actually have a fight on my hands as they had about 80 modern armor & 90 cities all on the biggest continent on the map. I had about 50 modern armor & around 60 cities scattered over four seperate land masses. At the start of the war I only had two cities & two colonies on the big continent, and maybe 20 modern armor. One of the cities had an airport, so I started airlifting units into it & filling transports with artillery & cruise missiles to support what I was sure was gonna be a fight that was gonna end up with me muscled off the continent. Well, the bulk of the Chinese offensives were running around in the mountains, maybe 8 moves away from my colonies. The two cities were on the opposite end of the continent, with the entire Chinese empire between them & the colonies. So the entire Chinese offensive army starts heading for my colonies. (I should note that at the start, the Chinese offensives were only two or three turns from reaching their own territory, and through that, my measly two cities) Anyway, to make a long story short (I hope), the Chinese offensives spent about six turns heading for my two colonies. During those six turns I sent three transports of mech infantry, modern armor & artillery over to reinforce the colonies & stripped everything else I could spare from the rest of my empire & airlifted them over to the city with an airport. With this force in those first six turns I took roughly half of the Chinese cities. After those six turns had passed, the Chinese offensives turned away from my colonies & started marching back towards their empire. After six or seven more turns, while all the Chinese modern armor was still marching through the mountains, I took all but one of the remaining Chinese cities that was greater than 5 pop. This left them with around twenty cities. When they finally agreed to see my envoy, they gave me all their cities but their capitol for peace. During the entire war I never directly engaged their main force, so at the end they had one size 6 city supporting an army that included 80 modern armor. The whole mess was disappointing.

I guess the short answer is, yes, I do use tactics, particularly combined arms, but most of the time I'm left with the feeling that it isn't really necessary. As for sophisticated strategies, well...

There must be some simple tweaks that could be made to the ai code to 'smarten' it up a bit more. Even a change along the lines of "No more than 10 (20?) units (offensive??) per tile might help some of this. Of course, that would ideally include giving the ai the ability to focus on more than one objective at a time, which, while not required, would help even more. Of course, I could be wrong.

Anyway, this is about four times longer than I intended, and veering dangerously ot, so I'll shut up now.

Thanks,

[Arrian]

The AI does have trouble recognizing what actually constitutes a threat, and trouble picking targets. Part of the problem is that it's coded to avoid tough fights. This prevents the old CivII "attack the fortified mech inf. in a mountain fort over and over and over" syndrome. At least the CivIII AI will actually threaten you. Sure, the attack is simplistic - a large stack of units that goes straight at a weak city of yours - but it's infinitely better than the CivII AI.

As for tweaks... simple, small things - like if the AI has a bombard unit fortified in a city, and I roll up with a stack of troops, that bombard unit should activate and bombard my stack. Right now they only engage when I attack. If I show up with a large, powerful stack of troops and march toward the AI's core cities, it should attempt to bring all bombard units to bear and then throw everything it's got at the stack. Right now, it looks at that stack with fear, and doesn't do anything about it. So, it loses cities one by one.

-Arrian

[Inverse Icarus]

i often have 4 or 5 large blobs and usually attack all at once, taking 5 cities in one turn. it's fun.

[Kuciwalker]

Another fun strategy involves 60+ ICBM's and is known as AD: Assured Destruction.

[Zachriel]

All the time

I use tactics in every game, during war and during peace.

Here is an example on defense:

http://www.crowncity.net/civ3/Defense.htm

And one on attack:

http://www.crowncity.net/civ3/Attack.htm

[rpodos]

Zachriel,

Excellent.

On Defense: What was the trap? I see the kill zone, but what enticed the Aztecs to enter it? The wounded Musketeer? Also, why did attack from the tile to the northeast of Lyons, as opposed to the east, where you already had an elite Musketeer? My guess is that you were unifying forces from Lyons and the mountain fortress, but why didn't you simultaneously launch the attack on Atzcapotzalcoo? Lastly, do I see a Maginot Line?

On Attack: Did you keep the entire stack together, or break into strike teams? If the former, you should also take advantage of the slight defensive benefit provided by forests (and jungles), and moved the stack northwest from the coal, as opposed to west.

I see you are an Army fan... so am I. I'll start a separate thread for that discussion.

R

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by rpodos
On Defense: What was the trap? I see the kill zone, but what enticed the Aztecs to enter it? Lastly, do I see a Maginot Line?

There is a Maginot Line, and instead of attacking it directly, the enemy was looking for a hole, which was conveniently available.

On Attack: Did you keep the entire stack together, or break into strike teams?

A single rifleman took out the iron mine. The rest took Nanking.

I see you are an Army fan... so am I. I'll start a separate thread for that discussion.

I use armies every chance I get.