What is a reasonable army size?

[Charlemagne]

The AI keep berating me for having so few troops and they're right. The thing is that there is so much to build (buildings, wonders, districts, builders, settlers etc.) that I keep putting off making troops, then when they attack I have to do wonders with my small army to stave the invasion. Once I sweat it and get peace, I promise myself to make more troops but then buildings-wonders-builders-settlers-etc get in the way again and I fall into the same pattern. It doesn't help that troops take so looong to build and are very expensive to buy directly expecially with inflation. What do you think is a reasonable army to have, maybe expressed as a number of cities/number of units ratio? I think I keep about 1.5 ratio (i.e. about half more troops than cities) and rarely have more than two ships. Of course I'm not satisfied. Cleo and Harald, you are right.

[jonnin]

its relative to their army when they say that. Keeping your army large enough to make the warmongers happy (cleopatra, notably) means serious neglect of your civ's development because all she does is spam armies.

Typically you need 1 "archer class" army in every city, and 1 melee class per district in large important citys (I prefer knight-class / tanks/ etc here). Ask yourself "If the AI dropped 10 guys here and started burning stuff, how bad will that hurt me, and what do I need to prevent it".

Being wealthy so you can just buy the troops you need where you need them works late game.

I do this by having 1-2 military producion citys. High production, encampment, etc city that keeps cranking out troops and little else. The easy way to deal with most civ 6 problems is more citys. I pretty much follow this pattern (sub army types as game goes on) ... make slinger round 1, make settler as soon as its done. That settler spawns a city that makes a slinger, then a settler, which spawns a city that... and after making a campus, the original city will make a second settler, and the second city as well... until I have filled all the space suitable for making citys. Then, having grown a massive empire quickly, I build towards victory. If attacked, the pattern is move archers from nearby city to attacked one, kill all the troops, make siege tower and assault troops, destroy enemy.

I usually rush to knights, siege towers, and then musketmen, then slow down and branch out to suit the victory condition and map etc.

[Despiser]

I usually follow the path that provides boosts (ie: 3 archers for crossbow boost etc.). By late game, I usually have 2 machine gun armies, 1 infantry army, 1 artillary army, 1 AT, 1 tank army, 1 destroyer fleet, 1 sub armada and 1 to 2 missile cruiser armadas. All upgraded for extra range / attacks

[mrmike_49]

I just use the "Savegame cheat" : if they declare war, I reload a save from 10 or 12 turns earlier and just build units in most cities. I only build 1 unit in each city, and then see if that keeps AI off my back

[Martin]

I'd say in general 8 is all you need. Plus a few ships.. melee and ranged. Later on AA guns help, some arty maybe.. not really needed, unless you're wanting to war and don't like using nukes.

Doesn't everyone love that ole nuke explosion?

[Despiser]

Originally posted by Martin:

I'd say in general 8 is all you need. Plus a few ships.. melee and ranged. Later on AA guns help, some arty maybe.. not really needed, unless you're wanting to war and don't like using nukes.

Doesn't everyone love that ole nuke explosion?

What I like about artillery is the 5 hex range once upgraded and an observation unit. It takes down cities super fast from a safe distance

[dcain3456]

threads like this make me miss the advisors from Civ 2... "BUILD CITY WALLS!"

[bmrigs]

The AI is so bad at taking cities that I find one slinger upgraded from archer to crossbowman to cannon is sufficient most of the time. I tend not to build armies since I am a buiilder not a destroyer. But once I get bombers then its on.

[ashvandam_uk]

Originally posted by dcain3456:

threads like this make me miss the advisors from Civ 2... "BUILD CITY WALLS!"

Can you imagine how awesome it would be having those advisor video's back in civ 6!!

My fave;.... SIRE, LET US BUILD MARKET PLACES, (insert -snobby face) SO THE PEASENTS CAN BARTER FOR MUCH NEEDED GOODS!! :-)

[Charlemagne]

Originally posted by ashvandam_uk:

Originally posted by dcain3456:

threads like this make me miss the advisors from Civ 2... "BUILD CITY WALLS!"

Can you imagine how awesome it would be having those advisor video's back in civ 6!!

My fave;.... SIRE, LET US BUILD MARKET PLACES, (insert -snobby face) SO THE PEASENTS CAN BARTER FOR MUCH NEEDED GOODS!! :-)

My favorite (as I recall it): "Wise mercy, only a fool would try to run an empire without luxuries... KING!!!"

[Napoleonic S]

hm let me guess, by late game I'd consider having at least

8 missile cruisers
5 nuke submarines
5 aircraft carriers each with 2 jet bombers
8 or more rocket altileries
5 modern armors
5 mobile sam
5 helicopters
3 or more missile silos
nukes and thermo nukes

[U-Think]

warrio have no miantencace cvost build a ♥♥♥♥ load of them when they are 1 to 3 turn to build. then kept then around and only upgraded them as time pass.

check the scrore of other civ to get an idea of what your need to have for decent size. check the military victory.

a warrior give you 40 each time so for a 1200 score you need 30 warrior. a caravell (ship) will give you 50 score. and the more modern the unit is the more score you get.

so your 30 warrior in the future as mechanise infantry get you a decent scrore. plus ship and nuke and aircraft

[FatalCharm]

I'm going to give you a more 'vague' answer because there really is no 'specific' answer.

As much as you can afford to support, and still have enough income to allow for emergency purchases or other planned purchases.

Create as many trade routes as you can in order to accomplish this.