SIEGE! Taking and Defending Cities

[Fried-Psitalon]

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…

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.


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.


Another day, another theory, and another hour of the company’s time put to productive use (for once!)

[Mad Mariner]

Er does this come in an abridged version?

[Fried-Psitalon]

I've written longer stuff. Flip back a few pages.

Thoroughness is a sign of excellence.

[Wizard55]

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Was there anything interesting??????

If this was for newbies, then maybe

!!!!!!

Originally posted by:Fried-Psitalon
being able to truly unleash a firestorm on a city, or withstand the same, can be, quite literally, the difference between victory and defeat.

Well, DUH!!!!!

[MissCleo]

Considering some of the admittedly unplanned quick kills I’ve actually been able to pull off, I’d say these tips might be news to some…

[trevor]

good to know that corporate America keeps it's employees busy

[Fried-Psitalon]

Nothing like a lil' constructive, useful feedback to make someone wanna write some posts.

[eloquence]

Fried - your post is insightful as usual. Anyone throwing mud on the forum at you probably isn't that great at multiplayer. :P

One thing that I would add to your siege strategy is the necessity in long sieges to make sure you take a city down to size 6 or below to get rid of 50% defence bonus.

I'll pillage nearby irrigation or sit a spear on a floodplain to get the pop down before attacking to accomplish this.

So my question for you is when will you be tackling the opening moves dilemma?

[Thoth]

Fried: I don't MP, but I always read your posts. As always, your essay is well thought out, well written and a very worthwhile read.

I disagree slightly with you on the usefullness of catapults. They're essential if you're going up against a foe with a 3 defence ancient UU. I find they're also good for generating ancient leaders (in SP, may not apply as strongly to MP )

[The Mad Monk]

I found it informative.

[BoNeHeD]

I like the ideas which you write so us Boneheads can gather insight into aspects of this game which were previously neglected. have you any thoughts to seeking out and destroying luxuries/resources? I will certainly take note of these tacitcs when playing..thank you again for your omnipotent insightfulness HEIL! Bon(scott)ehed

[Drachen]

Hey Friedrich:

I always enjoy your posts and appreciate your work. Thanks for yet another fine effort.

I’ve been concentrating on SP lately but back in November I started a thread about MP and was wondering if you could answer some of my questions as to game development in MP since it’s so closely related to the current topic. Please excuse my laziness as I paste some of the thread…

PTW lands us in a decidedly more dangerous world because the AI is a pushover in war and people aren’t. So multiplayers…who’s winning? Are you Warmongers rushing your way to wins over Builders? Does map tiny vs. huge change the equation markedly? Any Napoleons or dominant civs emerging?

And…

I think Marcus and Calc make a good point in that nobody can be purely a builder or a warrior and that we play within a continuum. I have found that both styles can work at Monarch and Emperor for single player: I have never heard that Deity can be won by building but would love to see the thread if anyone knows one. I actually prefer builder because I think it’s more difficult than warmongering. You have to compete with the AI in the areas in which it excels (cheats), i.e. production and research. Why should I consider it to be fun or challenging to beat an opponent who chooses to fill transports with warriors rather than tanks? The AI just can’t fight…but people can. When you rush the AI it keeps building settlers and rarely forms alliances. [If you go to war early] what are you going to do when you have four cities trying to out produce eight cities using integrated defenses and your opponent is chatting up your neighbors to tell them you just left the back door wide open? Even if you win it’s likely to be so exhausting that the builder on the other side of the continent will be more than ready when you show up. I’m not saying that the build strategy will dominate in PTW post patch but rather that it’s not clear yet just exactly what mix will.

[Master Zen]

Excellent work Friedrich!

don't mind the other trash-talkers, they're probably pissed off because you posted this first. I've read your previous stuff and especially liked the civ-comparison post.

My experience would tend to disagree only with the catapult. I find it useless in ancient warfare, the effort spent on catapults would most wisely be spent making Archers and Horsemen rushes. Sure, you'll lose alot of units but you'll take the cities eventually.

I would perhaps find them usefull in the early middle ages when AI cities might be at around size 7 or 8 and you need to drop it down to 6. Still, artillery in Civ3 is notoriously ineffective and you would still need a lot of catapults to do this.

[Fried-Psitalon]

Good questions, Drachen!

I remember pre-PTW, back when I was just a lurker, it was indeed very common to see people bemoaning "warmongers" as the best style, by far. (And for SP, I certainly agree.)

However, after fiddling with several styles in multiplayer, I'm going to take a big risk and say that in MP games, the intelligent DEFENDER/BUILDER, *not* the warmonger, will generally win, provided a points victory is possible. Why? Quite simply: under the mechanics of Civ, an aggressive, intelligent, proactive defense built by someone with a solid infrastructure can easily turn by an attack by an equivalent Civ, at least until the late Industrial. Things change there because of the advent of Bombers.

Your points about war vs. players are entirely valid, and if anyone out there has ever read "Forever War" you'll be familiar with the concept of "time lag" fighting. Simply: By the time your army gets to its objective, unless you're quite close, the army is probably outdated, or at least outproduced. An intelligent player will have sentries, know you are coming, and have the world waiting to crash down on you. Surprise attacks therefore are a must, unless you have a tremendous production advantage. It HAS been the case in the past that I have out-built to such a huge degree that it becomes obvious that I have but to flex my production muscle to bring an army down on someone's head.

Now the warmonger counter-argument would be along the lines of the "Zulu Choke." If done properly, you can stifle a builder's growth enough to get your OWN growth as a warmonger to sufficient levels to deliver a knockout punch. (See also: How to kill Carthage in 3 easy steps.) Ideally, the warmonger forces you, with a moderate amount of units, to spend SO much time and resources countering him, that the warmonger can build up a knockout force at home.

Master Zen- for the most part, I agree with you. The one way I've found catapults to be quite effective, though, is either when I KNOW a town I'm going to surprise attack is so isolated that he can't respond with help to the town in one turn no matter what, or when I'm "prepping" ahead of time. Sometimes it can be fun to bring 4 spears and 7 or 8 pults and just camp out at the city you plan on attacking, well ahead of time. 7 or 8 pults working for a handful of turns can bring a city to a size 1 empty village pretty nicely. Your opponent's troops will probably take a small beating, and best of all.....

When you slam your main force into another city by surprise while he super-garrisons that one you've been bombing, you go through it like wet paper.

[Drachen]

Friedrich Psitalonavich...I salute you, thank you for your time, and raise a glass of finest Russian wodka to your health and continued success!

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon

...(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...

... Generally, attacking in blocks of 20 is a nice, round number.

... 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

... 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.

... 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.

... 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.

Absolute m-therf-cking gems... F-P does not get nearly the recognition he should. And yeah, Bowman can take down Hoplites, no problem, it's just numbers... thanks for highlighting that.

He writes mostly about MP, but this all applies in SP and in the demogames too.

Flamers... don;t waste my / our time.

Kudos, Friedrich.

(but we are all dying to know... what's up with your nickname??!!)