Notes on Attacking Cities

FIRST, the basics of combat.

There are principally three types of units in Civ Rev - attacking units, defensive units, and ranged/artillery units.

Attacking units are Warriors, Legions, Horsemen, Knights, Tanks. These have higher Attack than Defence scores, and will move into a square after successfully attacking it.

Ranged units are Catapults, Cannon, Artillery. These are also strong in attack and weak in defence, but the key difference is that they will not usually move into a space that they have attacked. They sit in their space, and do damage to a unit in another square (who will also damage them back). If they win, they heal up to full strength, but do not move forward, except in the case of conquering a city when they will roll into the city after eliminating the last defender.

Defensive units are Archers, Pikemen, Riflemen, Modern Infantry. These have a higher defence stats, but are poor in the attack. (At the start of the game, Warriors are also by default defensive, as are Rangers, but realistically they are both so weak that they will be destroyed or over-run by more technically advanced attacking units.)

(Some civs have special names for their units, e.g. German "Panzers" = tanks; Japanese "Ashigaru" = pikemen. As far as I can tell, having a special name gives no special advantage. Only in a few cases do units have real advantages - e.g. the English Longbow archer defence, and the French Cannon attack. Look at the stats, not the names.)

As a final note, whenever you attack into a square, your unit's attack strength is calculated, and the best defensive score in the target square is paired up with you: you always attack the toughest defender first. If your target is in the open, you'll see their scores, so can decide whether to attack or not. If they're in a city then you will only see their stats if you have a unit with the Scout attribute adjacent to that city. (Note, the Scout need not be the unit attacking, nor even in the same square as the unit attacking - a Ranger unit on a ship next to the city, for example, should work perfectly well!)

SECOND, preparing for an attack.

If your attacking unit can only move one square, then you will end one turn outside the city the turn before you get the chance to attack. (That means that the AI will have the chance to react, and a human player may also do so, before you can actually launch the attack). You need a strategy to deal with this.

The safe strategy is to pair up a defensive army with your attacking units. E.g. if you are using catapults, then you can have a catapult army - or 2, or 3, or 4, or any number - in the same space as a single Archer army. If the enemy has ranged or attacking units in his city, then any pre-emptive strike he makes from the city will be intercepted by your defenders in that square. Having attacking armies travelling in a "stack" with a defensive unit is your main way to make sure your units survive long enough to make an attack.

The risky strategy is to rely on speed. Knights move 2 squares, for example - so they don't have to wait adjacent to a city before attacking it. They can wait one square further away at the end of the turn, and then move in and attack the next turn. (Beware enemies who see you coming - e.g. cities on hills, which can see 2 squares, as you may find enemy Horsemen/Knights/Tanks coming out to meet you.)

There are also other tricks to keep in mind. If you attack from a hill you will get both a bonus to the attack, and also a bonus to defence if you are attacked there - so try to attack a city from an adjacent hill. The second best option is to attack from a wood - it doesn't help your attack, but if your armies are attacked from the city they'll get a boost to defence. Equally, try not to attack across a river, as this benefits the defender, and remember that troops defending a capital have a bonus.

Two other things to note are roads and coasts.

Roads are important because your enemy will use these to reinforce his city. The AI is prodigious with its ability to rush armies, and will do so - moving rushed armies into threatened cities. So, if there is only one road into a city, you might want to use this as the square you launch your attack from. Your army, preparing to attack, will also be blocking access to the city for reinforcements, and if the attack takes multiple turns you won't have to keep eliminating fresh reinforcements.

Coasts are vital later in the game, because of the naval support rule. Cruisers and Battleships can supply assistance to units fighting in adjacent squares - a Battleship Fleet gives a bonus of around 27, if I recall, which is a huge bonus. So watch for enemy ships in support, and use your own fleets to assist attacks.

THIRD, making the attack.

This is easy. Use the most up-to-date troops, attack with your best unit first, and (unless something very odd is happening!) only use armies, never single units. The AI will be defending with armies, not (usually) single units.

Select target (city) square, and order the attack.

One point: if the defender has tougher units than you expected and you aren't likely to win, don't be afraid to hit "Retreat" immediately. Sure, the defender gets an upgrade for that, but your army survived and you can always go off and find a less advanced civilisation to invade.

Once your attacking or ranged unit has captured the city, then you want to move your defensive unit in immediately to "hold" the city. How dumb would you look if you marched across the map to take a city, only to have the city retaken the next turn because all that was holding it was a pitiful catapult?

FOURTH, after the attack.

If there is a road leading into the city you've taken, you can expect an immediate counter-attack. You have to decide whether you sue for peace or keep steam-rollering forward - it depends how many troops you have, and how strong your defensive troops now in the city are. If you took the high-risk approach of attacking swiftly with, say, Knights, who were not moving with a defensive shield, then they will be very vulnerable to attack.

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Capitals:

Arabs: Tripoli
Americans: Washington
Aztecs: Tenochtitlan
Chinese: Beijing
Egyptians: Thebes
English: London
French: Paris
Germans: Berlin
Greeks: Athens
Indians: Delhi
Japanese: Kyoto
Mongols: Karakorum
Romans: Rome
Russians: Moscow
Spanish: Madrid
Zulu: Zimbabwe