That One Dangerous City

Yahweh Sabaoth · October 27, 2003, 11:36

I wanted to start a thread re: a common problem I encounter and I'm willing to bet many other players encounter as well. It pertains to individual cities captured by an ally in a war, which then host massive amounts of your allies' troops (often knights/medival infantry, or cavalry/riflemen, etc.) and sit there, sometimes in the middle of YOUR newly acquiring territory, perhaps threateningly.

I have a .sav with a perfect example of this problem, but unfortunately, I didn't bring it to work today... it'll have to wait until tomorrow. But in the meantime, envision this: France takes on Carthage, and beats it soundly, but needs the help of the nearby Celts to get the job done. France takes all the Carthaginian cities, except for a few small ones and one size-9 city, Hippo.

Hippo is ringed with French cities - some newly built, others recently captured - and is SWARMING with Celtic knights, medival infantry, Gaelic Swordsmen, etc.

Celtica is next on the list of French conquests. In fact, the Celtic luxuries and sources of iron are near to the French border, and easily accessible. But the troops stationed in Hippo threaten the very valuable newly captured Carthaginian cities.

The question is, how to deal with Hippo? Should one expend the troops crushing this one city, where the bulk of the Celtic army is no doubt kept? Or should one strike into the Celtic homeland, while the troops are away?

In general, this specific example aside (I know it's stupid to debate this example without seeing the .sav), how do you deal with these cities, and the AI tendency to pour loads of troops into them?

Y'all know what I'm talking about, right?

Arrian · October 27, 2003, 11:42

I do know what you're talking about.

My response to that situation is typically a big grin. My enemy's main offensive army, bottled up in 1 city, surrounded by my cities? SWEET!

I'd probably throw everything at that city, destroying their offensive forces (many of which are probably "patrolling" around the city instead of foritifed inside of it) and probably getting a number of shots at GLs with my elite units. Then it's on to the Celtic heartland.

-Arrian

pvzh · October 27, 2003, 11:49

I would do a limited offensive against Celtic mainland: at least pillage they irons/horses (you mention that they are close), and in the same time the main forces will strike on Hippo to kill off the main army. AI would keep most offensive troops outside the city, so it should not be that diffcult.

Changing the order of priorities could be done if you can block Celtic army on very well defended positions: mountains or hill narrow pass, but from your description it is not the case.

Yahweh Sabaoth · October 27, 2003, 11:53

No, it's not the case; in fact, a late-night offensive against Carthage resulted in some sloppy moves, and I lost about 12 knights (woulda been cavalry) due to irritation at having to go back and rest about before attacking... stupid, stupid, stupid... Hippo is surrounded by several new French cities... I was going for possible culture flips in the just-taken Carthaginian towns, but I think I'm just going to skip that and take Hippo down.

I don't know... my .sav'll be here tomorrow, so you can see my exact position and see if I should wait, or what.

But it would be great if some others could upload .savs with similar predicaments. I come across this problem/opportunity a LOT... I wonder if they'll ever fix up the AI so this does not occur.

asleepathewheel · October 27, 2003, 12:41

I have the situation in one of my current games.

When I plan to kill that civ (arabs) (I have been saving them as a buffer zone, just playing around a bit on Emperor) I will (some steps have been taken):

1. build culture zones around nearest cities, trying to get at least 3 or so squares of movement from their city to my worked territory (I don't particularly care about non worked, other than defensive land)

2. On the attack, I bombard all units surrounding the city and all road tiles leading out from it. I send in cavs or other fast movers (or slows against a stack) and kill off the depleted units.

3. If I have more artillery or bombers or something and I can hit the city the first turn,I do so, if they have to move a square, I might do that and defend it heavily.

4. Ring the city with units on the defensive terrains and leave open the fields, will probably draw out any attackers.

5. 2nd turn, kill units that have moved out of the city and sack the city.

works for me

And arrian is right, great killing fields for elites.