Good military unit build tactics (for Chinese)

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm playing as the Chinese and currently can't diversify, because I'm too dependent on the insta-Villager function.

I have a question that is a little more general. I think I'm a very economic-minded player. In SP against the AI I focus on eco and tech almost to the exclusion of all else.

Needless to say, while this might work against the AI, it means I get murdered by the humans in MP. So I need a few tips about how much military to have around as a reserve, at how many cities, and when.

The Chinese get gunpowder weapons in the Medieval age, but is that a good time for them to start gearing up for an offensive?



Also: in planning your own military strikes, what's a good force? Against the AI, I often just let my Terra Cotta Army do most of the unit making, and then send my large army of generals, seige, and mostly Fire Lances off to clobber. How important is diversity of units when playing against a human?

[tetley]

I don't think your unit mix is particularly very different just because you're Chinese, but I think you're right in booming. That's what Chinese do best. You can always play a defensive war and use the insta-militia trick. That requires maintaining a reserve of food, so you probably want to emphasize non-food units in your military force. Spies, archers, cavalry do the trick. Probably take Monarchy govt so you can have more cav, and that way you can get slightly more mileage out of your Terra Cotta. I'd also try & grab the Pyramids since you can instantly use the food, but that would probably mean conceding Colossus or TC. Of those, I'd concede TC, because if you're cav-heavy then who cares about the LI from their TC. Colossus is critical.

[Alinestra Covelia]

That's better, that's Tetley! Thanks!

I do think the partisan defence is a good idea. I always have a load of citizens around working and they tend to hold the city quite well against infantry.

I suppose cavalry also makes perfect sense in defending against the other threat that garrisoned units can't touch: seige units. If I have knights or horse archers around, they can target the Seige units while my city itself arrows the foot soldiers to death. (Ow! My skin!)

However, partisans are bad for raiding. They always take attrition damage, regardless of whether you have a Patriot or Supply Wagon.

What's a good raiding strat? If I'm playing as the Chinese, I guess I'll want to have at least a couple of raiders out there disrupting my enemy's production cities... right?

[tetley]

I usually counter siege with siege. And spies. If I can knock off the scout (and usually there's only 1), he can't move his catapult on time. For defense, I like to build a factory next to a fort, and then the siege & supply wagons can garrison the factory. What's nice about siege is, it costs metal and lumber: something you probably have too much of. (incidentally, Colisseum is the same way...metal and lumber). Chinese are slamming the food and the gold.

I don't know how you raid as Chinese, other than if you have cav on defense anyway, might as well cause a little trouble. I play Lakota a lot and they kick butt as raiders. As Chinese, I think the big thing is play raid D and boom (unless you're playing Americans, then you need to beeline it for Terra Cotta or you're dead). Then maybe around Gunpowder you can attack w/ siege.