Homeland Security

[Mr. President]

I realized something this afternoon. Keeping two units in each base works fine in Alpha Centauri, since you can make speeder garrisons and shuffle them from base to base in the event of attack. But it seems to me that such a strategy will not work in Call to Power since if you get attacked it could be by an army of nine units that will stomp all over your national guard. (Thank heavens the AI has yet to bring twenty-seven knights to the gates of my capital.) So, what do you advise in the way of base protection?

[TheBirdMan]

Try install the MedMod 4.13 and lower the costs for units a little.

Then you shall see the AI using groups of stacks, that normally only are seen in a MP or PEBM game between humans.

[jpww]

My advice is simple, keep an eye out on your enemy... ahem... I mean kind neighboors. It will buy you time when they decide to get hostile

[J Bytheway]

Build a good road network and have a mobile defense force can work well, especially if you have 3-sight units to spot the enemy quickly enough to move the defenses into place.

But most of all ensure you have combined arms - mix ranged and close combat units, and your armies will be much more effective.

[Mr. President]

Ah, cool. An idea I've been thinking of is to use Samurai as a mobile defense force in the ancient era. They're fast and have a good attack rating, so they can pre-empt on anyone who enters my territory; but a downside that I can see is that their defense rating is low, so they'd be in trouble if the enemy manages to counter-attack.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Mr. President
Ah, cool. An idea I've been thinking of is to use Samurai as a mobile defense force in the ancient era. They're fast and have a good attack rating, so they can pre-empt on anyone who enters my territory; but a downside that I can see is that their defense rating is low, so they'd be in trouble if the enemy manages to counter-attack.

Yeah go for Knights then Calvary...

plus Phalanx have a great defense with Walls....

build a good gold-making kingdom and soon you will be ahead in tech,,then have those wonderful Tanks..not a bad bargain for "quelling" disturbances

[TheBeagle]

First, I agree with jpww that you should watch your rivals. Sneak out vision units into the periphery of your civ's borderlands.

I like to keep lots of Warriors, even after they go obsolete they're valuable as look-outs (and scouts for exploration). Make sure you have a lot of them, even if your military readiness is peaceful, it doesn't affect their vision.

Next, build your cities in defensible locations. Mountains are naturally defensible terrain, as are valley chokepoints (or the narrow strip of land between ocean and mountaintop).

Maintain your fronts. This way you only have to defend facing in one direction.

At two corners of your city (for example, the NW and NE cells when your adversary is attacking out of the north (coming south towards you), send a Warrior or Phalanx and have them fortify themselves.

This forces any adversary who may drive up to your city gates to stop for one turn because the spaces around your city are threatened by these two defenders, possibly waste one turn destroying one of your bastions of defense, and then finally on the third turn they can attack your city.

If you really need a lot of time, with six units you can build out two forks that will delay the enemy one additional turn. If you have look-outs some distance out and see the invasion coming, you can build a fork one way or the other with half the manpower.

Behind the city I like to maintain a road, for speedy reinforcements, as Bytheway suggests. One caveat is an invader will use your infrastructure against you, following your road to their next target faster than they otherwise would.

Another tactic is to run patrols in one or two spaces surrounding your city, to intercept Slavers and Clerics. You have 9 Phalanxes in your garrison, right? You don't need them to sit there. If your enemy uses Slavers and Clerics, get them out there. Have them "walk" around the spaces around your city. They may bump into a Slaver or Cleric (note that I've bumped into Clerics in the same space I moved a unit out of, so daisy-chain your patrol so they overlap each other's steps).

Of course, a city wall repels Slavers, but not Clerics. This patrol routine stops Clerics dead.

As I've mentioned in another thread, and you thought of as well, Samurai strike teams can pre-empt an attacker (hung up on these forks), which is good since they're otherwise worthless in a garrison.

The counter to that which I've also used, is to stand your invasion force on an ice patch, or forest, two spaces away from the city before going in. This way, the city's defenders are unable to pre-empt you (I learned this from the CTP AI, actually).

Ranged units in a city only help if their Ranged Strength is higher than any other unit you could have. Between an Archer and a Phalanx, go with Phalanx. Archers fold like putty when they get to the front of a battle. Phalanxes are just as strong as Archers whether in the backlines, or getting hacked down in front, and Phalanxes cost less.

If you have stronger defensive units, like Pikeman, then it may pay to have Archers or Musketeers in the backline, because the Pikemen can take the damage long enough to let the ranged units wear down the attackers, and you can't afford all Pikemen.

I haven't noticed if ranged units are smart enough to attack enemy ranged units instead of melee combatants. If so, and you're being attacked by a lot of ranged units, that might be the only reason to keep them in a garrison.

Der Beagle

[Mr. President]

Thanks! I appreciate the advice.

I think I do need to pay a little more attention to army-building in my games. I've suffered some pretty embarassing setbacks recently which should have been avoidable.

On a slightly different tack, what do you find the best way to modernize your army? When I reach the Agricultural Revolution or Gunpowder or any other advance that gives stronger military units, I build lots of the improved units in an internal city / cities and disband the older units when I have enough to take their place. Is there a better way to modernize?

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by Mr. President
Thanks! I appreciate the advice.

I think I do need to pay a little more attention to army-building in my games. I've suffered some pretty embarassing setbacks recently which should have been avoidable.

On a slightly different tack, what do you find the best way to modernize your army? When I reach the Agricultural Revolution or Gunpowder or any other advance that gives stronger military units, I build lots of the improved units in an internal city / cities and disband the older units when I have enough to take their place. Is there a better way to modernize?

say 4 Musketeers and 3 cannons + several 9 Stack Calvary strategically placed around territory, as a "quick" response to a city in need. But if your civ is a good gold producing (hence good science rate) civilization, then you will be to modern (explosives =artillery + machine gunners) or mass production (=Marines) or even (DROOL) TANKS!! In no time, so try to balance a good defense with steadyily advanceing forward. Rememeber: The more units the more upkeep, the less gold being put toward science.



Troll

[jpww]

Originally posted by Troll
Rememeber: The more units the more upkeep, the less gold being put toward science.



Troll

Actually, if I understand this correctly: the more city improvements, the more upkeep; the less gold being put toward science.

Also, the more units, the less production put toward building more units/city improvements.

Of course, it all depends on what units or what city improvements you build! For instance, banks give you more gold to put toward science, and Diplomats may serve as inexpensive look-out units that never go obsolete

I could split hairs even more, but I won't... Unless you ask nicely and mail me a check for $1000 USD

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by jpww


Actually, if I understand this correctly: the more city improvements, the more upkeep; the less gold being put toward science.

Also, the more units, the less production put toward building more units/city improvements.

Of course, it all depends on what units or what city improvements you build! For instance, banks give you more gold to put toward science, and Diplomats may serve as inexpensive look-out units that never go obsolete

I could split hairs even more, but I won't... Unless you ask nicely and mail me a check for $1000 USD

So, if I have 100 Tanks this wont cost me any negative aspect of Gold vs science increase?

I thought that if you had a bunch of units, that adversely afected your gold?

Not to slpit hairs and my check might not stop bouncing before it hit you, BUT...If I have 2 units or 100 units, my gold amount wont change?
Just asking..


Troll

[J Bytheway]

You are correct. Unit upkeep comes out of production, not gold. This is a very common misconception.

[Grandpa Troll]

Originally posted by J Bytheway
You are correct. Unit upkeep comes out of production, not gold. This is a very common misconception.

Ok..I thank you, for I be one of the mis-concieved spoken of by you!

[mandarin]

Hold on what about unit maintenance....surely troops/units are paid in gold! ???

[J Bytheway]

No, only city population get paid. Soldiers work for the greater good out of the kindness of their hearts.