Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Grakelin]

No archer bombard in FFH, either, though I think RiFE may have had it.

[Shiv]

What made you think that the Aztecs were weak, by the way?

Their main city, Tecnochtitlan (however it's spelled) was only 3 stars and I saw no other cities around it. Also their best attackers were the base clubmen.  Then when I saw them later they had falcon jaguar dudes and axemen.

Anyhow, so are archers worthless?  If they don't have ranged capabilities and just get slaughtered...or are they for shock value?  Also, any chance to pick which units you want to fight?  Seems kind of pointless to bring spearmen when you only have a small chance of actually having them pitted against the cavalry.

[Heron TSG]

When you attack the cavalry with spears you will always get that match up first because it is the most advantageous for you. Archers get first strike chances, so they usually attack first.

[Toaster]

Archers are great early city defense, and that's pretty much it.  They're good if you have a chokepoint that's a hill, too.

I always rush for alphabet, then trade writing around until I have every tech anyone does, then rush for Rifling and send in riflemen while they have macemen at best...

[Onlyhestands]

The only time I ever bother with archery at all is if I'm rushing without bronze and all I have is horses, to get horse archers (or If I'm playing as the mongols to get Keshiks). Don't play defensively, sitting around in your cities garrisoned with archers is an open invitation for your enemies to march in and start pillaging your improvements. It's better to have offensive units near the border to 1. Smash any attacks made towards you then 2. Invade the enemy. If you rely too heavily on defensive units you're at the mercy of your enemy. Even if he can't take your cities, you have no way to throw him out of your territory because defensive units suck on the offense(at least until later in the game, especially after riflemen become available).

If you're a beginner here's some tips for taking cities
1. Get a large stack together, mostly consisting of the strongest unit you have at taking cities(give them city raider promotions if at all possible), also include other units, such as axemen or maceman to ward off enemy melee troops and finish off badly wounded garrisons, and some anti cavalry units such as war elephants. Get siege units as soon as they become available.
2. You want to take out large, well garrisoned cities first to cripple your opponents war effort, unless you have a strategic need to capture different cities.
3. Early game expect to lose about 3 warriors for every warrior garrisoned in a city, 3 axeman for every archer and 2 swordsmen for every archer. You will lose more units if the city is built on a hill, or has other defensive factors. However plan for the worst, have extra units. luck is a big factor in civ games.
4. As the game progresses, city defenses become more powerful. Luckily, siege units become very powerful as well. First, bombard down the enemy defenses. Then suicide siege units until all the defenders in the city are badly damaged (artillery causes collateral damage which damages multiple units in a stack at a time. You then should have excellent odds with the rest of your offensive units. You will go through lots of artillery but your troops will become veterans and receive many promotions, if you keep upgrading them you will have a huge advantage.
5. Finally, only keep cities that will benefit you. Useless cities drag down your economy hugely. Keep either very strategic cities (such as one that blocks off a land bridge) or profitable ones. City placement is very confusing when you are a beginner, but generally try to keep cities that have lots of resources, and have lots of hammers, or lots of food/commerce.
6. When you consolidate you're conquests make sure to build courthouses to reduce maintenance costs in your new cities.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Generally a big fan of the game and got it and all of the expansions on Steam. Some of the mods, including the Fall from Heaven 2 stuff, is pretty cool too.

WRT Gandhi error: Is the disc scratched by any chance? If not... I really have no idea.

I'm considering getting Civ4 Complete, just to play it with mods especially Fall from Heaven 2, because I hate going ahistorical in when playing this game. My question is, is it worth it if I just get it for the mods?

[ThtblovesDF]

Playing fall further (a mod for a mod) lots of times, its great. On a different note there is also a mod for that.

[andrea]

uh... while staying all defensive is bad, I strongly suggest keeping at least 1 unit in each city, if not for defense at least to avoid all the unhappiness you get from having cities undefended.  And archers are perfect for that, since they are also a semi decent defense, should something get past your defenses.

[optimumtact]

On a related note Civ V looks to be shaping up as another great addition to the series. I especially like the new 1 unit per hex (and the hex based map looks amazing) rule. Finally we can actually bring some lower level strategy to Military. This brings the focus away a bit more from the build choices and more to the usage of the units.

[Onlyhestands]

uh... while staying all defensive is bad, I strongly suggest keeping at least 1 unit in each city, if not for defense at least to avoid all the unhappiness you get from having cities undefended.  And archers are perfect for that, since they are also a semi decent defense, should something get past your defenses.

I usually keep a couple of offensive units as garrisons(I never said don't keep any units in your cities). They are usually higher strength then defensive units, so they are about the same defending a city, and can throw enemy units out of your territory. However, if you get a large empire there is no need to upgrade garrisons in central, well protected cities.

Besides, most units have unique bonuses anyways. Longbowmen, strength 6, get a 25% bonus defending cities, so in a city they are really strength 7.5 (plus city defense score and fortification defense). Macemen are strength 8 and have a 50%bonus against melee troops, making them better at defending against melee, as they are strength 12 vs melee(enemy melee units will also get the bonus, but you are defending in a city and should win). War elephants have a 50% bonus against cavalry, which makes them strength 12 against horses, which can kill even knights (except they don't get a bonus for defending or fortifying). However, when I get gunpowder I do usually start using them as garrisons because they are better on the offense than older defensive units, and offensive units stop getting a fortification or city defense bonus, such as cavalry and tanks.

A problem with researching archery is Wfyabta (We feel you are becoming too advanced), where other nations won't trade techs with you if you have too many. By skipping unneeded techs this will help alleviate the problem.

Besides if the Ai can get a big stack to one of your cities, your gonna lose it unless you have tons and tons of units in it. The ai will use suicidal siege units, and your garrisons no matter what they are, are useless when they only have a fifth of their health. Its much better to wipe the stack out first before it can get to you.