Civ 5

[Jackalope]

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At the time I started I was just beginning the medieval era. I had 2 catapults, an archer unit, 2 horsemen units (1 archer and 1 melee) and a swordsman unit. Plus about 3 triremes around the city. I would have probably took the city but (with the stupid way right click and left click works in this game) I ended up sending 2 of my units into the sea inadvertently. That's when an enemy trireme came out of nowhere and destroyed one of my catapults and archer units. I still should have had enough to beat the city but it brought in some spearmen reinforcements which further dwindled my military presence and in the end, it just turned into a stalemate. I had every city producing gold just so I could rush units back into the battle but they just couldn't reach the city quickly enough to put the pressure on. My catapult was doing fine and I had the city at low health, but I didn't have the melee units to finish the job. Like I said, ended up that whenever a melee unit got near they'd be destroyed by the enemy's trireme. Leading me to rush another unit, send it in, have it destroyed and then I'd repeat. I just thought it's better to give in and regroup rather than carry on this cycle of stalemate.

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Yeah I definitely learnt a bit about what units work and what units don't, and how to use them. I only went for the siege because I was an ally with the Siamese and they asked me to go to war with the Persians. I'd been eyeing up their capital for a while because it's right on my boarder, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I have a much bigger military now though, I will probably wait for the right moment and I don't think it will give me as much trouble as before. I didn't anticipate the enemy navy punishing me as badly as it did. I won't be making that mistake again.

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Yeah, you had the right idea, but I can make a couple of suggestions.

1) Try to bring a big enough force to do the job so that you won't need to produce/buy
2) Redundancy. Bring at least two siege units (which you did), and at least two foot soldier units (spear, pike, sword, musket, etc) above what you need in 3).
3) Everything else you bring along has two jobs a) keep the units in 1) and 2) alive and as undamaged as possible, and b) kill ungarrisoned units / protect your flanks.

As you know, ranged units can't take cities. Mounted units are nearly useless for doing so - though I have occasionally used chariots / knights / cavalry for storming a city once it has been reduced to 0 defense. Infantry units are far better - though it's still a good idea to fully reduce a city with siege first.

Bringing along some naval units was a good idea, you don't want to get flanked by surprise from the sea. Later in the game, you may ditch most of your naval melee units in favor of naval ranged units, which can be invaluable in laying siege to coastal cities (hit 'em with 3-5 battleships, and then swoop in with a destroyer to take the city. No ground units needed.)

Mis-clicking sucks. Still happens to me occasionally.