Maybe I just suck at this game...but

[mananath]

What I like to do is attack cities with a group of 12. Within the group I place 6 cannons/artilery/catapult and fill the remaing 6 with tradional ground forces. Although I don't like to do much attacking before I have tanks. Mainly because I like to build lots of cities, very early on in the game (new city build queue: warrior, settler, settler)and so the early gov't types can't support my empire expanding much. Generally i concentrate on developing all my cities and increasing science (be it tradtionally or through spying). However once I develop the tank I am usually in a situation where I can devote ALL of my cities to building them without losing out on development and I also have corporate republic. At this point I just stack 12 units of tanks and literally roll through the AIs land. Acknowleding the AIs lack of ability to counter attack, the other day I took over 80% of one of the top ranked AIs cities with two stacks of 12 tanks.
In short -- I have found the best way to capture cities is to wait to you have the production and scientific capabilities to adequately wage war. (on a side note, does anyone else here LOVE the cargo helicopter as much as I do? It is sooo much better than the troop ship)
-mike

[jackbean]

Nowadays I try to stay away from bombarding because the AI is simply too dumb to handle your bombardment most of the time. Instead, I usually send two stacks of 12 units, (e.g. 7 infantry men & 5 cannons), place both stacks outside the city on the same turn (to avoid being bombarded twice). When the next turn comes, attack the city with these two stacks one after another. You will lose the first stack, but the second stack is almost guaranteed to take over the city.

Why does this work? When the first stack attacks, it will eliminate about 3 or 4 defending units. When the second stack goes in, there will not be enough defending units in the front line, leaving the cannons vulnerable.

It's costly to you, but that's the way it's supposed to be. You should only expect victory if your attacking force is twice the defending force. (according to Sun Tze)

------------------
------------
There is more to strategy than rushing
towards scientific supremacy

[Michiel B de Boer]

I think it's way easier using a spy to turn a city (even capitals) to barbarian and then take it with 1 unit. Costs a bit of money, but hey, there's plenty of that around, no ?

Edit :
Man, the AI is stupid... :
I turned a city to barbarian while they had a stack of 7 units next to it. What did they do ? Move away !
It also doesn't seem to have any influence on regard...


[This message has been edited by Michiel B de Boer (edited December 29, 2000).]

[cdo2001]

jackbean,

i use 3 12-unit armies to surround the city, i use the first 2 armies to attack and retreat after just 2 rounds, only lose 2 defender units, after the 4 rounds, the defender city usually loses 3-4 defender units, and then the 3rd army captures the city losing at most 1-2 unit. So totally i lose 3-4 units the most instead of 12+

[Basileus of the Romans]

The best way to take a city is by diplomacy. That way, you do not lose precious time or material.

The second best way is through intrigue, either with Spies or Cyber Ninjas.

If you have to resort to war to take a desired city, then what I find is the most effective way is to bombard the city with stacks of bombers. the advantage of bombers over, say, battleships or artillery, is that bombers can fly back to their carriers or airbases without fear of retaliation from the city's garrisoned artillery units that battleships and other units must endure.

If all else fails (and I do mean all else), then simply nuke the foolish city and take what remains of it. This should be a last resort, as the pollution, diplomatic penalties, and the sheer devastation of the city are rather bad.

Also, jackbean has the right idea. Read The Art of War by Sun Tzu. It actually does help with strategy.

[jackbean]

quote: Originally posted by cdo2001 on 01-04-2001 02:22 PM i use 3 12-unit armies to surround the city, i use the first 2 armies to attack and retreat after just 2 rounds, only lose 2 defender units, after the 4 rounds, the defender city usually loses 3-4 defender units, and then the 3rd army captures the city losing at most 1-2 unit. So totally i lose 3-4 units the most instead of 12+

That's what I did too !! Why didn't I get the same result?? Hmmmm ..... Ah, I remember now, I jacked the defense bonus of city walls way up, hoping to give defending side more advantage.
What happened was, I gave computer players many more cities to start with, hoping this economic advantage will translate into military might. And to prevent the AI from 'rushing' me, I jacked up the defense bonus of city walls. With all that extra units lying around, you would think that AI would attack me constantly.
But Nooooo .... they just sit around and wait for me to slowly eat them up one by one

Anyway, back to the point. cdo2001, I think that's a good strategy, and a reasonable one too. Attacking enemy cities with three stacks of 12 units is like surrounding the city. You can normally expect to reduce your own loss to a minimum by surrounding enemy troops. I just wish AI can counter this particular strategy.

Basileus, I agree that diplomacy is the best way to achieve supremacy, but there doesn't seem to be many diplomatic options unless you ally with a nation. I only got to use "request withdraw" and "stop piracy" on a regular basis. sigh .....

[Felan]

I built up a nice flight of 12 Interceptors and flew around devastating the Greeks with them. I would attack the city, usually not losing even one Interceptor and then I would break into three groups of four Interceptors and distribute them along the frontline cities. This worked well for me till they started to get significant numbers of Tanks then the gig was up, but I had achieved my objective by then and was maxed on cities (actually starved a couple down to pop of 3 so I could disband the city) so I didn't really care and the Greeks agreed to a cease-fire then about 5 years later a peace treaty. I should mention since someone will that you can't capture a city with Interceptors, but I would march a single Machine Gunner up and have him occupy the city after the Interceptors had done their thing.