Early game conquest

[somekindofpast]

What is that? What even is that?! Can anyone tell me how it's supposed to be done?
I get an army of about 8 units, triremes, archers, warriors, they can't even maneuver because they take up all the tiles....only to get butchered one by one by a city.

One volley of a city can get any of these units near the brink and certainly out of the fight, meaning I should pull it back, but moving anything anywhere in this game isn't all that easy (boxed in all the time).

Did nobody ever conquer anything before the middle ages? Because by the time I have an army gigantic and powerful enough to bash cities, it's almost halftime. I can't make a whole army out of catapults, nor should I have to, that is ridiculous. A large army should be able to take a city with only one defending unit. A city by itself shouldn't have more offensive capability than an army.

Conquest in general is laughably punishing in this game. You get smacked with warmonger, massive penalties for taking a cities...the game disincentivizes you so much. Just do the same thing, sit on your hands for the entire game, watch the numbers go up for hours.

I have played enough Civ V to where the magic of watching my farmers shuffle around has worn off, and i'm sick of not being able to do much else for the majority of the game.

[Grendalcat]

What difficulty level are you playing? I find that swordsmen + catapults, both available in the Classical era, make a decent early city attack army. I often make a couple of warriors, kill barbs with them and take ranged defense for their second promotion, promote them to swordsmen when available, and use them as the core of my first army. You can do the same with catapults.

As to warmonger penalties, it doesn't matter much if you are going for a domination win.
You can play the "sit on your hands" approach for a cultural or science win, but I have had plenty of games where I run wild pushing for a domination win. Just go through the Honor tree, and later go for the Authority ideology.

[somekindofpast]

I'm on king. I guess going out of your way to level up starting units is a way to do it, but it still feels dumb how powerful the cities are.

[Damsteri]

You have too many units. This game is not about stacking units, hence one-unit-per tile system. You need only 5-6 units (plus great general). Ranged units are king and learning how well city can defend itself.

My usual city conquering army is this: (NOTICE, you need to kill their army first)

• 4-5 ranged units or 2-3 siege units
  
• 1-2 melee units
  
• 1 Great General
  
• 1 Scout / Horseman (optional, spotter for siege units / observer)

This army size is good for every era, IF your units are not obsolete. You don't need more against the stupid AI, but it's totally a different thing against a human player.

The attack plan

1. Melee units move next to the city and fortify
   
2. Ranged/siege units move to range and shoot city to 0 hp while melee units just sit fortified next to the city
   
3. A surviving melee unit capture the city once it has shot to pieces

Some tips for early game city conquering

• You can capture a city with just archers (4+) and warriors only, if A) city is not on a hill and B) it doesn't have archer in it.
  
• If any of the two cases is true, then you need catapults or swordmen, don't waste units
  
• You can try to lure a defending archer to death with a worker
  
• Warrior's role is to take the city fire, hope that city fires them, not archers (move them frist, all archer next turn
  
• You need just one melee unit, attack against 0 hp city is quaranteed victory. Better still to have a spare, if the only one dies
  
• Retreat immediately if you lost all your melee units that can capture a city (scout or tritreme can capture a city)
  
• Plan your attack, so that you can get all (ranged/siege) units attacking simultaneously
  
• Catapults are weak, swordsmen are better option for late ancient wars if you have iron
  
• Some cities are located so awkwardly that they can't be conquered with ancient era units due space limitations
  
• Befare of Byzantium, their cities are almost impossible to capture early game if they have a dromon and an archer inside the city (can fire total of 3 times in turn, killing one unit per turn)
  
• Extra protip: bring (/capture) a worker with you and keep him with your army. Then you can heal by pillaging repeatedly, because your worker can repair those pillaged tiles
  
• EDIT: One more... Look carefully if the city has walls. Composite Bowmen are super effective against cities until the city builds walls. Comp(4)+Spear(2) is a very good (and popular) combination at early game

Example with Gandhi:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=299046463
Total overkill, 4 unique swordsmen and 2 catapults, all 6 units (one didn't participate though) capable of inflicting major damage to the city at that point of the game. But that's the point, don't use weak or outdated units, they just eat all the space. Go with force, if you want to take a city.

[somekindofpast]

thanks for the tips

[zxcvbob]

Don't forget that scouts and horses can capture cities if the city is at 0 health. A horse can stay out of attack range. 2 scouts can move into range on the same turn and the city can only kill one. (use 3 scouts if the city has a garrison) It's not efficient but it works.

I tend to use spearmen and composite bows to take cities.

Don't move a catapult into range unless there's a damaged but fortified melee unit for the city to shoot at. If all your units are at 100% health, the AI will target your catapult (as it should) Or you can move multiple catapults in at once, knowing that one probably will either have to retreat or take one shot and die. Catapults do so much damage to cities it can be worth sacrificing one.

[Grendalcat]

These are all good tips. You can also play as a civ that has early unique units good at city attack.
Ballista(Rome), Siege Tower(Assyria) and Battering Ram(Huns) are all strong against cities.

[Damsteri]

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

These are all good tips. You can also play as a civ that has early unique units good at city attack.
Ballista(Rome), Siege Tower(Assyria) and Battering Ram(Huns) are all strong against cities.

The Huns are very good early game, clearly the best civ for early game warmongering, but they require super-aggressive playstyle. You can clear the whole continent in first 100 turns easily (at least up to Emperor level). Rome and Assyria are good too, while Greek is quite nice for that too. Actually the Huns' second UU Horse Archer is the key. Those are unstoppable (like mini-Keshiks) after they get Logistics and Range promotions. I usually replace Battering Rams with Horsemen when they become available, because they work better with Horse Archers (faster).

[knighttemplar1960]

Give Bismark a try. You will have LOTS of sacrificial units to use....

[Xaphnir]

You need catapults to effectively attack a city early game.

Or you could do the Attila cheese, where you get your starting warrior upgraded from ruins then go one shot the first city you see with it. I had one game where I conquered two cities by turn 35 doing this.

[Ashley]

Generally I would do maybe 2 melee, 3 archers and maybe 2 siege weapons. If I expect units to die i pump out an extra 1-3 and send them to the line as they're made and the units on the front die. Kill the army, get everyone into their positions then fire on them with your ranged. If needed I put my sieges on a tile that can be pillaged so they can pillage then attack if need be.

[mklmcgrew]

Damsteri made a great point...you have to kill their army first. The AI will tend to send their units at you, so you hold back out of city range, fortify your melee units, and take out the AI units with your ranged/siege units. Once the AI army is decimated, you can focus on the city.

[Novu]

Check out this mod if like early game conquests.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456409557