Stack of Doom Counters?

[newyooper2017]

I'll take suggestions... I love this game except for the combat.

[CHE]

Originally posted by newyooper2017:

I'll take suggestions... I love this game except for the combat.

When defending, you have an advantage - whatever unit attacks, the defender's best counter to that unit fights.

Units that do collateral damage are also useful against stacks - e.g. catapults.

When I am attacking a stack, I try to bring enough of the appropriate types of units to defeat each of the defending units (this is not the same as bringing the same number of units). The more I've played, the more I've become expert at knowing what to bring. E.g. if an enemy stack has mostly pikemen, I won't bring many mounted units, but I will bring more anti-pikemen units, e.g. axemen or macemen.

I use promotions to be more effective. E.g. when the enemy is in a city, I bring artillery (e.g. catapults), first they bombard to reduce the city defences to 0%, and then, I generally use remaining artillery which I've given city raider and/or collateral damage promotions. They weaken the enemy units, and then I generally use units with a high attack number for that circumstance (usually also with city raider promotions), e.g. swordsmen. Each time I attack, I usually make sure I am using whatever unit I have that will get the highest victory %.

[ghpstage]

-Suicide seige is the primary one, their collateral ability is the main reason thaty the attacking stack holds an overwhelming advantage in most circumstances in civ 4s combat.
-Second is to make use of defensive bonuses, but due to the above you have to wipe out the enemy seige first, which mounted units flank attack (collateral vs seige) allows you to do. This bviously carries the additional risk that the enemy stack simply goes elsewhere....
-Third is to overwhelm them with larger numbers/higher tech units. Most notable during Cuirassier, cavalry or rifleman wars which can frequently tear through multiple civs with no seige support whatsoever.
-Fourth is something available later, air power. Even the humble airship can have a surprising impact by bombing the top defenders.
-Then theres nukes. The ultimate counter to everything.

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

As the others have pointed out, seige weapons such as cats and teens are made to counter stacks. Usually if you hit a midsize stack with five or so seige weapons, your other units can mop up the stack with little trouble.

[Big Boss]

have a bigger stack?

[Username Unavailable]

Two nukes is enough to destroy any stack, regardless of size. Keep that in mind during the late-late game when you start seeing 50-100+ sized stacks running around.

[Big Boss]

icbm or tac nukes?

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

Originally posted by Discount-Rambo:

icbm or tac nukes?

Both types of nukes have the same effect when launched. The only difference is the operational range and production cost.

[Big Boss]

is fallout and global warming different between them?

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

Originally posted by Discount-Rambo:

is fallout and global warming different between them?

No. All effects are identical.

[red255]

Generally speaking you counter a stack of doom with a bigger stack of doom.

IF you are defensive you take a weakly defended enemy city and let him try to take it back against a stack of defensive units.

while he holds the city (in revolt) you hit it again with City Raider units.

So basically if he has 200 units. you take a city poorly defended, then move 50 infantry into it. with either city defense or drill (or both) Drill reduces collateral damage in the higher forms.

the guy pounds the city with his stack to take it back. then you have 50 more city raider Tanks or whatever the era is. and they pound away at his army in the city. Weakening it some with bombardment, from bombers or artillery or rockets.

Or yes you could nuke him.

But if you got a city on a hill weakly defended by the enemy on your borders, that should work.

If you are defensive, 100 defensive units might work better, possibly cheaper.

[Liquor]

collateral damage is the counter to stacks of doom. either bomber units or siege units will do

[Purplefairy22]

Originally posted by I Am The Liquor:

collateral damage is the counter to stacks of doom. either bomber units or siege units will do

Horses do a pretty damn good job too. Gotta love the flanking damage

[red255]

flanking damage is only vs siege weapons (WHo are immune to collateral damage) Siege weapons once they are undefended are pretty easy to take out. horses need to survive the encounter to flank.

again for the hammers, I prefer to sacrifice a city to deal with the stack

[d!NO]

Catapults, catapults, catapults. Those bad boys are relevant until you get cannons (!) thanks to their superior defense over trebuchets.

Rookies (including myself back in the days) typically underproduce siege. A well-rounded army should IMO be 30-50% siege - on the higher end if you play defensively (ironically).

And yes, there are later game siege too but catapult era is the most crucial.

The issue with defense tactics, is that it's sort of like instructing an MMA fighter how to absorb punches while on the mat. IF you're having consistent problems with stacks invading, you're either a) not retaining the initiative yourself, i.e. failing on offense, b) the size of your military is too small, or c) both.
The occasional mad dog attack from leaders like Genghis Khan, sure, but the default situation in a winning game is the AI not attacking you at all thanks to power rating/diplomacy.

That said, cavalry are also stack counterers. Having a small band of maybe 5-10 cavalry units readily available, can completely cripple an enemy army giving you enough time to muster up

[Ghetsis]

Siege and Mounted Units :) Siege units do alot of damage to a stack, even if the siege unit dies. (If you have about 10 cannons or so and hit a stack with those, the stack is badly damaged then XD) then after hitting the stack, hit it with mounted (mainly horse archers, cavalry,) which will kill parts of the weakened stacks. If you are in the mid-late game, have your stack filled with Calvery/Gunships, along with artillery, machine guns/Marines with first strike and medic, and then have whatever unit you are going to use to begin normal combat with the weakened stack.