I usually don't start active war campaigns until I reach gunpowder, because before then, it seems as though my units are not powerful enough to take over a city. This is especially the case in CTP2 because the AI does a lot better job at defending its cities.

When I am ready to start warring on the other civs I create two infantrymen (formerly musketeers) and two cannons in every city. I fortify one infantryman and one cannon in the city for defense, and the other two I send out to join up with my other cities' infantrymen and cannons. This way I can create a stack of 12 pretty quickly, with very good bombarding capabilites. Furthermore, I send out any old units that were fortified in the city.

I repeat this process when I reach Artillery, with machinegunners and artillery. My cities always have up-to-date units and I get a good stream of units to wage wars.

Any new cities I take over, I only create one of each defense unit and bombard unit, because I have found that the cities I conquer usually don't have all the improvements that I like to have.

I continue to do this every time I come across a new set of defense and bombard units. It seems to work pretty well.

I am the Russians in around 320 BC and I just got Infantrymen and Cannons. 90% of my 17 cities have 2 Hoplites defending them. I have 3 armies of about 3-4 Samuri with a Knight roaming around.

I'm not at war with anyone. I defeated the Americans in 1000 something BC because they were just filling my continent with little crappy cities. I wanted the land, they wouldn't give me any cities, so I beat them down in about 1000 years.

However, they were very skilled diplomats... They brought the Irish (the military power in my game) into my land as their allies I think. And they got the British to come to their aid in a similar way.

The British are now my allies and we have a peace treaty. Who said giving 1500 gold over 3 turns and then throwing a reception with a diplomat doesn't pay off? hehehe

However, the Irish are fortifying hoplites all over my continent! It is really annoying because they are taking out chunks of roads etc. The problem is that while I could easily dislodge the units, I don't want to start a war. I have Forbidden City, which I think is saving me right now, but I'm not so sure.

If I simply attack the Irish Hoplites, will they be able to declare war on me since I initiated it? I know forbidden city says that they can't but does that hold true even if I initiate the conflict?

Finally, and this is where force updating comes into play, how do I modernize my army effectively? Might makes right and nothing succeeds like success, but does this mean that I should make a bunch of powerful offensive units that AREN'T my best for offence and then use my BEST defensive units in my cities.

For example:

Offensive City Production:

2 Knights (about 11 turns for both)
2 Samuri (about 7 turns for both)

Defensive City Prodcution:

2 cannons (15 turns for 1)
2 infantrymen (13 turns for 1)

I'm really confused. I haven't seen any Irish Cities yet, but think that if I can hold them off for another 6-7 turns I could get another ally and pull a three on one. British, other Civ, and me vs. Irish.

Finally... Sea Power.... Anyone seeing the advantage in sea power until Ship of the Line or gunboat? I don't use the sea for commerce at all.

quote: Originally posted by MarkG on 11-17-2000 04:31 PM i dont like dispanding units, so one thing i tend to do when i want to upgrade the defense units of my cities, is to build new ones, fortify them, and send the old to ones to war

My maintenance costs got too high and I have the luxury of geographic isolation. Starting a war just to "retire" some older units seemed a little overkill to me. I like to move my obsolete units to one city (building a wonder) and cash them in there. This way I don't have to build a transport fleet (which would be more units to maintain).

but that was ctp one.

so far this game I just got tanks. and I love them more than ever. and Battleships REALLY KICK BUTT!!!!!

Really there is no other way to put it. Right now I am at about 1980. I have wiped out the French, the English, the Scots, and the Japanese have one city left on a single square island (I have yet to get Marines). The Germans have 8 cities and the Native Americans have 11. I have about 60 or 70 tanks poised on the Germans border and I expect to, well, think of a hot knife and some butter.

Tanks seems to take damage well, dish it out really well, and move fast. They rip through machine gunners and artillery. Ahh, tanks.

On a side note, its kind of sad. Here I am, its 1980 and I have almost won the game (my first, medium difficulty). Its been a fantastic game (this is what CTP1 wanted to be) and I am impressed. Although, I have to say, if the AI doesn't improve much on higher levels (and I expect it would), I will never be able to discover some of the more advanced advances. I look forward to a "good" war with fusion tanks and other advanced units; the AI hitting back hard with a variety of different tactics.

Ahh well, I guess that what multiplayer is for -- anybody up for sitting around for about 30 to 40 hours trying to finish a game?