Blocking - fun with captured workers

[Zero]

line defense style that you mention, golden bear, was far more useful in civ I and II... Stacked units died together when they were not in cities or fortress and it was almost impractical to form defense positon of stacked unti cause the whole group were endangered by attack. Thus, making a line of unit was not only good for denying enemy method of bypassing defense but also to spread units and not overlap them so casualty can be kept at minimum. Civ III now gives advantage to stacked units in that they die one at a time now. This combined with enemies not being able to use your homeland road brings more interesting way to create an invisible line that an enemy cannot cross. The traditional line can be still used and can be effective, but it is far better to stack a pocket of units, leave a open terrain between the pockets and intercept AI units coming in with mobile units. (This strategy really makes riders and panzers much more valuable cause you can widen tht gap more and still return to rally point.) In this strategy you must learn to read the terrain ahead and see if you can widen your gap thus, saving military budget by asking whether enemy can enter terrain w/o losing first strike, then position your unit accordingly. Sometimes, it is best to leave mountains between your pocket, most times it is best to occupy it with ur units so that enemy cant enter and gain def bonus. IMO this tactic will be more cost effective in the long run then maintaining a single line or double stacked traditional lined unit and I hope this helped you in adding more arsenal of strategy in ur playing style.

This tactic won't work on humans who will stack large amount of defensive unit and just occupy the hole, but then again, neither will one line defense work on human who will just focus attack on one square.

[Chemical Ollie]

I normally have better use for my workers than idling in a blocking line. Better to use a few horsemen to follow and block foreign settlers.