Civ 4 Strategy

[Edward64]

I know there's that other Civ 4 thread but I wanted an answer to a specific question.

Early to mid, my style is to build up my city defenses and protect my borders. I get the walls built, have 4-5 swordsmen/bows/pikes etc in each, fortify them etc.

Invariably someone starts to pick a fight with me and comes at me with a stack of units and wears me down.

I'm sure you've encountered this also, how do you successfully defend? Do you go on the offensive?

[molson]

1. Culture builds city defense - don't overlook that, and make sure each city is building some culture so you can have that % continue to grow.

2. Have some seige units in vulnerable cities if you've advanced that far and sacrifice them on the offensive against attacking stacks. The collateral damage can take a lot of steam out of your attackers, and they have nowhere to go to heal quickly.

3. Make sure to use city defense unit promotions - that makes a big difference.

4. Otherwise, hang back and let them die at your walls. It drains their economy to have soliders in your territory. Defensive wars are sometimes satisfying because you don't really have to do anything to "win". They take the financial hit, lose military units (leaving them vulnerable to later attack from you or others), and your units gain experience.

5. Don't evenly distribute your military, especially in the early stages. Focus on defending the border cities.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by molson

2. Have some seige units in vulnerable cities if you've advanced that far and sacrifice them on the offensive against attacking stacks. The collateral damage can take a lot of steam out of your attackers, and they have nowhere to go to heal quickly.

Thanks for the quick reply. What is your typical border city composition of units? How many seige units do you normally have to sacrifice early on?

[molson]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Thanks for the quick reply. What is your typical border city composition of units? How many seige units do you normally have to sacrifice early on?

Depends on where my neighbors are, but if I have a close threat, I load up the most vulnerable city with archers and then crossbowman, all with the city defense promotion. If I'm roughly even in techs with the other CIV, I don't think I've ever lost a city if I had 5-6 crossbowman in that vulnerable city.

By the time I get Catapults, I'm usually building my "offensive army". I have maybe 2-3 units in every city and put all the rest is that most vulnerable city. By then it's mostly for future offensive purposes, but they definitely keep me safe as well.

The latest patched BTS AI is pretty good about going after your weak cities when they're on coasts, but when they're inland, it's just not very practical to march around border cities to attack weaker cities inland, and the AI doesn't do it.

[fantom1979]

This is better then my usual scorched earth policy. I try to lose as few cities as possible and get peace as quick as possible. Then I build up my tech quickly and beat the hell out of my rival as soon as I get tanks (assuming they didnt beat me to them)

[Alan T]

The best defense in early Civ4 games is really going on the offense. In order to combat another offensive civ, you have to build enough troops to keep them off. If you're already building those troops, you might as well just build different, more effecient troops to go after them before they can become ready instead.

Remove your closest two threats and then you don't have to worry about defense for the rest of the early/mid game.

If you play a purely defensive strategy, your research and other techs will suffer and you'll eventually fall behind (this is far more noticable on tougher levels. On easier levels you likely can get away with it).

[ColtCrazy]

molson's strategy is usually mine, although instead of sacrificing seige units, I usually have a couple of swordsmen or axemen stored away in a central location. They are dispatched to a seige city and used to soften up the opposing armies stack. I also concentrate on defensive upgrades...barracks are an early priority so all my troops have city defense. I never go on the offensive until I get gunpower so I put everything into city defense early on.

Also, if during a battle you get a general, I usually use him to create a military academy (where you get 2 free upgrades) in a city where I have good production. You can produce some great defense troops there.

[Tyrith]

Best defense = axe rush neighbors that are likely to try to pick a fight, or that are likely to not defend themselves adequately. Try to play nice diplomatically with everyone else. Otherwise, keep several siege units around, not in the border city, but in the city right behind that - you want enough culture in your border cities to make an invading army march 2-3 turns before it can attack.

Main defense in the early game ought to be archers, because they're cheap, get good defense, and axemen don't get offensive bonuses against them, but mostly you want to be building axes and killing people - eventually you have enough cities you can make enough units and shoot your power rating high enough that no one will dare touch you.

[Celeval]

Try not to allow there to be good defensive squares right around the edges of your cities - if you're running sorties out, you'd much prefer to face them on plains than hills. Also, if you can set things up for them to attack across rivers, that's a help before Construction.