Is anybody using formations and maneuvers?

[rpodos]

So the trap is both the wounded Musketeer and the hole in the line?

R

[Dom Pedro II]

Personally, I never found that the Stacked Kill made strategy any more important in Civ 2. I just found it irritating. It was totally unrealistic. Not to mention the fact that when the AI actually mustered a concentrated attack force, which was almost NEVER, I could just wipe it out with one unit. Not altogether difficult. The only thing the Stacked Kill made me do was usually break the army into two attack groups, which 90% of the time I do in Civ 3 anyway.

[Ninot]

well, my modern formations are VASTLY different from my ancient ones...

mainly because my ancient ones need more structure to work... cuz the units are less able?

As i go to war mostly and only as the Romans in the ancient era, all of my offensive attacks are 3 legionaries in a line, with who knows how much to each stack.

This does two things for me.

1: When a legionary gets hurt, he goes behind the line, and only a flanking horse attack will kill him (that is, if there are no roads).

2: When at the outside of a town, all squares occupied by my troops are denied to the town for food/production/gold.

So, i can heal up any units that are attacked, and deprive cities of whatever i want.


But, in the modern age, i attack mostly only with high speed offense, so Cavalry or Tanks. The defense stays at home, or moves up to cities only after i conquer them.

so in the modern age, i have almost no feeling i must defend retreating units.

so my modern age strategy is to stack as much as possible, so i dont lose a piece of land i want to attack from

however, i still follow step 2 to ancient age attacking. When i get close to a town, i will send out a few units to start choking a town of its food and production. Basically, if im not gonna take the town quickly, i want it to suffer more while im there.

As for how i back up my offenses, well... i might send in a defensive unit guarding some artillery, but they will stay behind the lines (ala ancient era healing units) or move up to the furthest distance neccesary for bombardment.

[Aeson]

I was doing a little history for a game over at CivFanatics. Against the AI there are different tactics you can use to give yourself an edge. In the Ancient Era, Scouts are very valuable...

The Japanese Iron War

[Goatguy]

i remember the good old days w\ civ2..

...When i had my "Carrier battle groups" all around the world. They consisted of 2 carriers(1 w\ bombers, 1 w\ fighters), 8 or 9 battleships, 7 or 8 destroyers, 4 subs, and 2 trasnports loaded w\ tanks!! hehe...try and stop me now! Too bad the aircraft dont work the way that they did its hard for complete airial domination...MUWA HA HA HA

[rpodos]

GG: Yeah, I miss that too. The sheer power. Capturing Moscow and cracking Russia in half. I mostly play early games now.

Aeson: I salute you. That is great... exactly the kind of maneuvering I am trying to learn. I still don;t understand how you deny resources with Scouts.

Ninot: I, too, am learning the power of Rome. Same thing, a skirmishing line of three stacks abreast. Effectively, we are re-creating the phalanx. It's unstoppable. You can run but you can't hide. I'm now trying it across the diamonds, with gaps in between and a trailing force of executioners. This is what Alexander did at Gaugamela. Enemy units won;t attack your primary stacks, and try to slip through to get at the wounded. Bad idea.

R



R

[Giovanni August]

Aeson

That was GREAT

I hope one day I will be be able to do something like that

Saluti

[DrFell]

To deny resources with scouts: cover the resources early on, if you get onto the resource before they get a road on there you can sit in their territory almost indefinitely on top of the resource. They can't get to it without declaring war, which they often won't do. They will whine about your troops being in their land, but that's no big deal and they wont ask you to leave or declare war. I think occasionally they do demand your units to move but you can just head back in there and sit back on the resource. Using this tactic you can stop them from getting say, iron, for long enough for you to build up for a big attack on them, guaranteeing you will only face spearmen and archers at best.

[rpodos]

OK, I get it.

I'm surprised however that the AI doesn't put a unit on the resource while you are gone.

In any case, it sort of feels like an exploit... doesn;t it?

R

[DrFell]

Not really, they can always go to war and claim the resource, anytime (because the scout will be killed by any unit). They won't get many opportunities to get control of the resource as you will be sitting there most of the time - I heard from one person that about once every 20-40 turns they demand you leave, if at all. Either way, every turn your scout is firmly planted on that resource, is a turn your enemy is hurt.

[Inverse Icarus]

Aeson: did the japs actually ACCEPT that peace offer? it seems a bit weighted to me

[Aeson]

Yes they did accept it. There was even another city and some gold per turn in the deal. It was weighted in my favor because of the ratio of my power to theirs. At that point I had destroyed almost all of their army and the city count was ~70 to 12 in my favor. It wasn't a bad a deal for them considering the circumstances.

[Aeson]

Originally posted by rpodos
I'm surprised however that the AI doesn't put a unit on the resource while you are gone.

In any case, it sort of feels like an exploit... doesn;t it?

I think it's an exploit, and have said so in several posts where I've mentioned it. As it isn't against the CivFanatics HOF rules though, I'll use it to increase my score. I definitely don't use it in cases where I'm playing just for fun.

The AI will eventually demand the Scouts removal, but it's not soon enough. On average I would say 40 turns, but that's assuming the player has the power lead as I almost always do. The weaker the AI is in relation to your civ, the longer they seem to let the Scouts stay. When the AI demands the widrawal, they will send a Worker to hook up the resource. Often times the Scout can get back in position before the Worker can get there.

In any case, 40 turns is long enough to get ready to take out an Iron deprived civ.

[DrFell]

Originally posted by UberKruX
Aeson: did the japs actually ACCEPT that peace offer? it seems a bit weighted to me

If you start an early war and beat the AI down to a few cities you can often get all their techs, all their gold, maybe 1 small city, and some gold per turn - I had a one city American empire giving me 20 odd gold per turn (not sure how a size 3 city generated that much). This strategy is what I use to catch up with the AIs on deity as not only does it take out an opponent, but it also strengthens you considerably.

[rpodos]

And here we have yet ANOTHER reason for early war!!

In the Roman game I am currently playing, I finally went on a true punishing campaign with Egypt (up to now I;ve just been oscillating on them).

Cleo had built maybe 20-25 cities at this point, and I had maybe 30.

I razed 5 of her key cities, denying her access to iron and dyes. I wanted to turn my attention to Persia, but when I tried to make peace, she kept refusing to see me.

The problem is, I didn;t change the relative power of our civs ENOUGH.

In very early war, capturing or razing a couple of cities has a much bigger impact on relative power.

So send out those warriors!!

R