Tip for New Players: Avoid Counterattack

[Blakbrd]

I'm new here, so this may be obvious to everyone, but I wanted to offer this as a tip to newer players. When you go to war and you are approaching your enemy's city, avoid using 1-move units or using 2-move units that will end their turn next to the enemy city without attacking. This is because if you leave the enemy a turn to get ready, they will often attack your forces in the field or bombard you, leaving you with a weaker attacking force on the next turn. The best strat is to attack with 2-move units, and come at the city from directly north or south, so that you can move into their territory and attack in the same turn instead of leaving your forces in their territory for one turn, giving them the chance to weaken you.

[Dominae]

If you are "stuck" using slow-moving units, create an attack plan that takes into account the defensive terrain in the enemy's territory. If there's a nice chain of Hill/Forests (or better yet, Mountains) leading up to an enemy city, use it. Oftentimes, this is the sole deciding factor concerning which city I'm going to attack next. Note that this also applies to fast-moving units, who may not always be able to reach an enemy city in one turn (due to expanded cultural borders).


Dominae

[Arrian]

In addition, once you have taken the first city, hole up there for a few turns and slaughter the AI units that will show up and try to retake it. This works best if the city you take is surrounded by open terrain. It isn't a good idea if it is surrounded by mountains and you're fighting the Romans (legionaries on mountains... shudder).

Once you break the AI's offensive force, you will only have to deal with piecemeal counterattacks from that point on. Cut their vital resources, and you will find yourself dealing with archers.

-Arrian

[punkbass2000]

It's also good to bring along a few defensive units in case they attack your stack anyway. Also, attacking directly from the East or West yields the same effects as attacking directly from the North or South.

[Blakbrd]

Oops, yep, east-west is just as good as north south (my last war was all north-south so I am stuck in that mode ). Also, if you are aiming for coming in from the North (as an example), try to build up a stack of workers to build railroads (or at least roads) for you army first, leading up to the enemy borders. That way, you can move in and attack with fresh units as quickly as possible.

Generally, I use my local workers for this time-critical task, and send the slower captured workers back far behind the lines to back-fill my railroad network.