SIEGE! Taking and Defending Cities

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Time again for Friedrich to unload some of the babbling theory in his head about MP games for everyone else to dissect and examine. Today’s topic: the siege of cities, both from an offensive and defensive perspective. Multiple sides of this issue will be addressed, from the actual attacking and defending of a city in combat, to the preparations involved with laying siege, or withstanding it. Since many MP games are elim-based, being able to truly unleash a firestorm on a city, or withstand the same, can be, quite literally, the difference between victory and defeat.


The Fine Art of Being Rude to One’s Neighbor, or How to Raze Cities for Fun and Profit

Before one launches an all-out attack, you need to consider a few factors. First, consider the territory you are going to be entering. Are you planning a naval assault or a ground assault? Does your opponent have multiple sentries watching for your approach, or are they relying on their national boundaries? Is the route between you a small land bridge of one square in width, or a large, flat chunk of continent? Will you be passing over jungles and mountains, or entirely grasslands? All of these are important factors before you can decide the method- and number- of your attacking force.

The Question of Catapults

I used to think catapults were for the birds – for attacking, they still aren’t QUITE as useful as people would like you to think. Catapults are NOT for every assault, and many times can be the deciding factor that causes you to LOSE, not win. Catapults are appropriate for one type of attack only- big, grinding fights of attrition, when walls need to be taken down and lots of units are involved. Those fights tend to favor the defender, however (with one possible exception, discussed below.) Wall-destroying catapults can make opponents who have constructed The Great Wall suddenly vulnerable, where they were counting on safety before. Catapults are NOT appropriate for surprise attacks (see below) or trips through mountain and jungle terrain, unless you have enough workers either working ahead of time, or a LOT of workers moving with your invasion force. In surprise attacks, waiting for all of your catapults to fire can allow reinforcements to arrive, and trying to pick your way through jungle/mountain terrain to keep your catapults with the army can often cost you many turns- if it is even possible at all! The only other situation in which catapults might be necessary are those unfortunate times when you find yourself forced onto the attack, but cannot muster anything above hordes of archers for the assault.

Invasions Are a Lot of Work(er)

Workers are one of your most useful tools during an invasion. If you think your invasion is going to be a war of attrition that you can win (perhaps you have many more cities, but lower quality units, for example- Archer v Hoplite) and you will need to funnel lots of units (and catapults) to the front, a worker-gang slapping down road before your invasion force sets out can be very useful – particularly if your opponent has no sentries out to detect the worker gangs preparing the groundworks. That same worker gang, once the road is complete, could build a fortress at the end of your road, right outside the opponent’s border (or in it by the city) to allow your units some defense from counter-catapulting and attacks or a safer place to recover from damage. Finally, sending workers on to hills and mountains outside cultural boundaries can sometimes allow you to build outposts that will see reinforcements coming – telling you whether or not to throw your units into a final push now, or bide your time. Lastly, if your game is not Elim, or an Elim non-duel, you can stuff those workers into the town to boost friendly population, and perhaps aid the construction of your own defenses.

Spearing Your Prey

The decision as to whether or not to bring spears along is very similar to the decision to bring catapults, minus terrain considerations. Spears, with their mighty 1 attack (Num Mercs not withstanding,) aren’t exactly a formidable part of any invasion. True, you can always use them in a last-ditch effort, but your production time is better spent elsewhere in those situations. Surprise attacks are not the realm of a spearman; you either win or lose relatively quickly, and if your force doesn’t finish the job immediately, generally surprise attacks are smashed when the forces of the defender have time to respond. Spears also don’t tend to go well with the two units that would ironically, benefit the most from having their assistance: Horsemen and Mounted Warriors. Effectively, stacks of these two units either have to accept reduced speed by taking spears along, or the vulnerability that comes with a failed attack on a city. The only exception to this is Zulu spears- with their increased movement, they can keep up with the horses, providing an unexpected and surpisingly dangerous attacking force.

BOO! Or, Attacking Using Surprise As Your Primary Tool

Surprise attacks typically work best when done from the ocean, or on newly constructed cities before your opponent moves any “sentry net” they may have forward. (Or, if there is no sentry net at all, before the town constructs walls/barracks.) On the rare occasions that you are certain your opponent is leaving a specific city poorly defended, a particularly fast surprise attack can be appropriate. If attacking by sea, the most important preparation you can make is to build the Great Lighthouse. Cultural borders often, if not always, extend into the coastal regions, but rarely extend into the larger parts of sea squares. You can effectively move your entire fleet out to sea and maneuver it into position without warning….and then, with proper use of the turn timer, strike without any warning at all. Beware mountain and hill squares on coastline when preparing sea attacks! An outpost on a mountain can almost always see far enough to pick out an invasion fleet on the move.

If your surprise attack is coming in by land, either aim for a new city (for the aforementioned reasons) or a city with minimal contact with the rest of the opposing nation – either due to land, or simply one town “sticks out” on the national boundary. This can slow down reinforcements that have to travel longer distances, buying you precious time if your attack IS detected. As strange as this may sound- it is generally NOT a good idea to build roads if your attack is to be a surprise, no matter if the units move 1 or 2 squares per turn. Even if your opponent does not see any workers or units moving on the road yet, they’re going to wonder why the road was put there….and may even use it to run units back to you!

Surprise attacks are done, ideally, with 2-movement units, to prevent a total wipeout if your attack fails badly. If you lose a surprise attack but still have units remaining, assess the situation- are there damaged units showing in the city? Are your remaining units likely to win the day with an immediate return on the next turn? If the answer to that question is no- RUN AWAY. Don’t waste those units when you know that large numbers of reinforcements are going to beat you to your goal- save the elites and use them when you show up again (or to defend against the wrathful counterattack that may now be coming.)

Lastly, there is one thing you can do in some cases to increase the possibility of a successful surprise attack by land. If you have any type of 2-movement unit or hardy 1-movement unit, run three to five of them blindly into a far section of your foe’s empire and head for the farthest corner you can. This has a few different effects- first, your opponent is likely to think that your attack is small, and right there. Secondly, if your foe is on a tight budget, those rear cities might be weakly defended- if at all! Even if they are adequately defended, your foe will almost certainly shift some, or perhaps much, of his movable reserves around to meet your suicide thrust. The most important thing here is to get as deep as you can as quickly as you can- the more disruption the better. If you’re lucky, your foe might not even notice the new force appearing in a relatively ‘quiet’ corner of his map, and heading for a city…

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Building a Bigger Stick, or “When Surprise Isn’t an Option”

The “Bigger Stick” approach is, ideally, just a slightly less surprising and more brute-force version of a surprise attack. You effectively trade immediate surprise for a choice of ideal terrain for your attack (if you aren’t surprising your foe, you may as well pick the best location to attack, right?) and are betting that you can funnel more units to the “front” than your opponent can. This is a risky proposition; your units don’t heal in enemy territory (unless, for some shocking reason, your war is going on in the late-industrial, in which case most of this document is useless to you) and odds are that you also can’t get units in as quickly- they have farther to go. However, if “Bigger Stick” is the way you have to go, combined-arms approaches with lots of worker support is a must. Build a road from your city of departure all the way to the border of your foe- you need to cut down your “Production complete to front line” time as much as possible. Don’t build the road any further- you can’t use road in enemy territory anyhow. Build a fortress for injured troops to rest at just outside the enemy border, and if you can get the workers in that close safely (probably after the siege has started) build a fortress right beside the enemy city. This isn’t as risky a choice as some people think- after all, why would the enemy bother to use a fortress when they have a city with barracks right next door? In most situations, they’ll stick to barracks and “real” walls. Use catapults liberally- while it is possible to have too many, it’s awful hard. If you haven’t got the town down to size 1, and aren’t destroying newly built barracks and walls as soon as they appear, you probably should bring a few more. If you can actually get units to show damage – especially if you can get them into the red – it is definitely time to attack. Otherwise, use your judgment and hopefully you’ve been counting the number of units that came into the town. Generally, attacking in blocks of 20 is a nice, round number. Also consider uprooting your siege and rushing towards another town- if the road situation is such that you can beat your foe there, you have a very likely win since the huge defensive force is in the old town, and if your foe CAN beat you there, dodge back and forth a bit- one fast way to cut your opponent’s defense in half is to force it to split into two places.


Weathering The Storm, or “No Soup For You!”

After reading all of the above, one might dismay at the thought of EVER being on the defensive. Take heart, though- in Civ3, it is actually a good bit easier to defend (if your defense is organized intelligently) than it is to attack. There are several different considerations you’ll need to look at when it comes to proper defense – in fact, from the moment the game starts, if you want to build an empire that no one likes to attack.

“I Claim This Land For Spain! (Or Arabia. Or Aztland. Or Zululand.)”

The land you set your settler down on can make all the difference in your future. First and foremost: ignore the production of the square you choose. You will ALWAYS get the same production, whether you settle on tundra or jungle, grassland or hill. What you won’t get is the defensive bonus that settling on a hill gives. Whenever possible, plant that city down on a hill! The 50 percent defensive bonus is worth it, particularly once you start adding in other factors like walls. Also, most people know to settle by rivers- but which side? If possible, you want to put the river BETWEEN you and your enemy’s empire- attacking across a river adds another defensive bonus. You can’t FORCE your foe to attack across a river, but it can add one more concern to their plate. Lastly, if you can, avoid giving your opponent a good place to rally his troops in safety- try to build on ISOLATED hills when you can. There’s nothing an attacker likes to see more than a mountain right next to your city- nothing like a nice 100 percent defensive bonus for your troops while preparing your attack, eh? The same goes for hills to a lesser degree. Ideally, you want to force your opponent to attack your city with walls, on a hill, and across a river, with no hills or mountains nearby, in that order of priority (sometimes there’s just no way to avoid building on hills by mountains or hill-chains, so don’t let that stop you from utilizing them.) That’s quite a defensive boost, if you get them all! Throw in the Great Wall, and you can almost rest easy at night – almost. There’s more to life than just the land you live on.

All Roads Lead to Rome (Or Seoul, or London, or Thebes, or…..)
While speed and surprise are the primary tools of the attacker, awareness and mobility are the key tools of the defender. In the Civ (ancient/feudal) world, nothing improves your mobility quite like (surprise!) a road. If your city doesn’t have at least two roads leading to at least two other cities, you’re asking for trouble. Irrigation is dandy and mines are fine, but unless you can hustle troops from city to city, your land improvements will only serve to hasten the assimilation of your city into your opponent’s empire. There are many different ways to set up your empire in order to set up a good road network; I personally recommend “Wheel with Spokes” (two or three rings of cities around a capital city, with a central nexus of roads running outward from the capital and a ring of roads connecting your outer layers) or a “Fan” approach – really just a section of “Wheel with Spokes” pointed in the direction of your attacker. Obviously, these are models to be followed loosely, but the point is sound. Empires with chunks sticking out are empires with chunks soon to be cut off.

[FriedrichPsitalon]

The Best Defense is a Good Offense

When you’re expecting someone to bring the world down on your head, it is often useful to have a small section of the world to dump on theirs. There are several ways to do this, depending on the situation. The first and most important step in successful city defense is, ironically, to have an attack force. If possible, build 5-10 (scale up or down based on the size of your attacker’s probable force – shoot for roughly half the size of the incoming force, if you can – and if you can get more, keep that as a second reserve somewhere else, possibly for use in counterattack) of your most MOBILE attack units. Yes, that may simply be a choice between swords, horsemen, and archers, but when possible, do take the horses over the swords for your “Mobile reserve.” Swords are great, but if they don’t get to the front in time…. (Please note there’s nothing to stop you from building a few swords in the city to be attacked, though.)
If you have detected an attack coming (especially if you have the good fortune to not let your opponent know the detection has occurred) then you should “play dumb” as long as possible. One of the greatest feats in war is to allow your opponent to see EXACTLY what they want (and expect) to see until the time of your choosing, and then take it all away in one brief, terrible moment. The best way to do that in response to an attack is to hit them as soon as they move into the square next to the city- or one square further out, if they intend to “rally together” on a mountain or hill. Some sports refer to this as a “stop punch” or “stop thrust.” The idea is to defang your opponent right before they unleash their assault – not only saving you the brunt of the immediate attack, but leaving your foe wondering what the heck they are supposed to do now. This is particularly effective in Civ since, with the exception of Numidian Mercs and Legionnaires, every offensive unit in the Ancient/Feudal era has a lower defense than attack value. Assuming you have a sufficient defensive force in the town (and you should- you DID build all those roads to move troops around on, right?) then your reserve force should be able to take a chunk out of the attacking force without fear of losing the city if the “stop punch” fails. After cutting your attacker’s army down to a size where they can’t hope to take the city, you can rest easy – probably without your attacker fully realizing how badly they have been had; after all, they can’t judge your force in that city…and you CAN judge theirs. When they crash into the city and fail the following turn, you can use the survivors of your reserve-force attack to quash the sad remainders of the offensive force. If your foe chooses to abort the attack on the city (consider the psychological damage you’ve just done there, to boot!) you have to play it by ear- can your reserve attack force actually smash the rest of the offensive force facing you? If so, go for it- if not, just hang back. Nothing unnerves a foe like the expectation of an attack that never comes. (Well, except for maybe facing fifty screaming Ottoman Sipahi, but that’s beside the point.) If you have the extra troops to have a second reserve force, now is probably the time to launch your own counterattack- your opponent may have stripped his/her cities to very low levels in order to throw a massive assault at you, or they may have one or two units scooting down roads in order to join the attack in progress- either way, now is the time to throw a counterpunch.

If things don’t go quite so well for your initial “stop punch” that you used to defang the attacker, or both of you are so bloody and battered from the initial confrontation that a counterattack isn’t worth it, here is where the mobility of your reserve force comes into play again. Your opponent will probably have to scoot one or two squares out to rest and prepare to attack again- you can rest right where you stand, and if your city has the barracks it should, you will be ready to move again in one turn. While your foe is beating feet for the border, you ride him down from behind with your counterattack force! A smaller force at full health stands pretty good odds against a larger one full of red health bars. Just watch out for any catapults they may have, and send your regulars (eugh?) or weakened veterans in first to soak up the ‘pult fire.

The Non-Question of Catapults

While catapults may or may not be the answer on attack, they are always important to any defense. Remember that bit about “stop-punching” a force the moment they arrive? A volley of catapult fire that comes in right as the attackers arrive is a dandy way to soften up an attacking force before your reserve force hits it. Toss in the fact that they will also fire in defense of a city (or any square) – even if they have already fired that turn!- and catapults can make a big difference. Many people (particularly if they are unaware of the presence of ‘pults) will throw their best units into the fray first; having a catapult cut that Elite Immortal down to one or two health can make it a much more manageable foe, and when the catapults fall silent, your much-less-injured troops will find themselves facing sometimes seriously bloodied units, or even better….regulars. Even if the attacker wins some of those fights, you can bet that most of his units will be pretty badly injured – and therefore ripe for wiping out next turn by your remaining reserves.

[Armageddon1]

god fried! how can u manage to write that much .these techniqes have worked very well for me though, so i dont mind when i can win a game ;D.

[Drang]

A question about Catapults: I can't make auto-bombard work. Does it work in MP? It'd be a real help if it did.

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Auto-bombard only works if you UNcheck the box under preferences that says "Cancel movement when near enemy unit."

Unfortunately, that means that ANY time a unit (read: worker) is near an enemy unit, it will keep right on doing what it was doing - and in the case of a worker, that usually means expending its turn "working" rather than allowing you to move it out of the way.

It's a trade-off, and I usually toggle the switch anytime I'm expecting to need autobombard.

[Drang]

Thanks a bunch... that'll help Soooo much.

[agntsmith]

how did you know that Friedrich ??(auto bombard)

[Dr Shot]

you have to be close to an enemy to bombard them...
If 'cancel moves when near enemy' is on, the auto feature is...cancelled!

[TheBrain]

Attacking with boats

The naval attack is often used but it does often fail the defenders learned how to react to the danger from the seaside.
There are ships out there scouting for a naval invasion or at least units on mountains watching for enemy boats.
Those scouts take the attacker’s greatest advantage. Naval attacks have to be invisible as long as possible. Or the defender will prevent u from landing the troops or will have enough units in town. Attacking from sea means u have to build ships and that means your stack will be 1/3 smaller maybe 20 swords instead of 30 .
My ideas for a successful ship attack:
First sending out scout ships early is a good idea now there u have the first ships with alphabet u can send out ships very early.
It seems like no one has a naval defence until 1500 bc trying a sneak attack early with 3 ships or more full with swords may will give u an easy kill.
Sometimes it’s also a good idea to send out 1 ship with 2 swordsmen.
Everyone thinks that 1 ship is a scout but 2 ships are an attack your ship will be able to sail through the enemy’s boarder without any reaction of your enemy maybe u find a weak city defended with 1 or 2 defender and u can kill him. Sometimes u can also use those 2 swords to go on land with them and cut of the support road. While your big stack is coming through the landside.
The most used way for a sea attack is a stack of about 10 ships or more .
By attacking that way u should send 1 of the boats about 3 squares in front of the main army
Look for enemy’s scouts if u see a foreign boat try to sail around it. If its not possible try to use the timer and do “double movement” and hope he will not see u. U could also attack on an other part of the map to make him watch there while your ships move through.
The best chance for a too late seen sneak attack is to play a seafaring nation or to have the great lighthouse or maybe both. Imagine 5 moves if u move intelligent your enemy will never see your ships. And you don’t have to fear deep waters if u have both the rate to sink is very low. Even with on of the both seafaring or the great lighthouse your chance to sink is very low. Losing some of your ships is worth to stay invisible. U will be able to attack one of the weak defended citys behind the front lines. The Great Lighthouse is a must build wonder for a successful sea attack.
Never forget that u can also sail through the west or east end of the map a lot of players even some elite players tend to forget this possibility. So there is a big chance to surprise your enemy.

I hope u understand my bad English feel free to tell me better strategies, would love to hear some suggestions.

[donaldkipper]

sea attacks can be very effective, but like u say, many people put out scouter ships to watch for them


also, building the great lighthouse is like announcing "watch out for my naval attack"

[Avogadro]

If I kill in last ten turns of a game, I pillage all the roads leading to my newly acquired town. Is there anything more frustrating then getting a kill only to have that town picked off turn 88?

[CiverDan]

One thing I have discovered, Dromons in stacks are very powerful. With Def bombard when attacked, the other needs many curraghs/galleys to take that stack out. I also agree I have had many times I wish i had 1 boat with 2 swords on it to land next to that city guarded by 1 warrior.