Preferred city defense unit?

[kamikazi21358]

What type of units are preferred to defend cities? I usually just use bowmen, but eventually they become machine guns which I don’t think are as good as artillery. Trebuchets are not bad imo either, but I honestly don’t know what hit harder, crossbows or trebuchets. I don’t know either of a non-ranged unit is worth it either, if it makes the city much stronger than just a ranged unit, despite taking away the attack of a second unit, at least that’s in th city. What kind of units are preferred for this?

[Amanoob105]

Crossbows have a ranged strength of 18, while Trebuchets only have a 14 so for city defense crossbows are simply better.
The same is not true when attacking a city however, in that area the siege unit will always win for damage that can be done thanks to their built in bonus.

Never seen the use of melee units in a city for defense as they take damage when attacking while ranged units don't but are now protected from attack as the city takes the hit instead.
What unit type you have in the city makes no difference to the cities attack power, with the semi exception of the Oligarchy social policy which make the cities attack stronger if any military unit is in the city.

If the city is on the coast it can have both a land and a sea unit inside it at the same time.

[zxcvbob]

Composite bow, crossbow, frigate, cannon, artillery, battleship, machinegun, bazooka. The battleship and artillery are especially good because they have indirect fire.

[Grendalcat]

My usual progression is composite bow -> crossbow -> cannon -> artillery.

Sometimes use gatling gun if a city state gives it to me.

[kkeday]

Interior Cities away from battlelines I often garrison with obsolete units. Otherwise I use the best available ranged unit. Amanoob105 mentioned crossbows as better than Trebuchets, but Cities under attack can allow the the Trebuchet to gain experience - especially extra range. When the crossbows upgrade to Gatling guns, they lose range. A cannon with a range of 3 can then be used to decimate other cities.

[John]

Depending on the situation, usually i just start with an archer or whatever i have laying around. Upgrade when someone declares war at me, up to crossbowmen. Then i switch over to artillery. I also tend to go for coastal cities so i can have a ranged ship in my city as well. Depending on the location of that city, i might decide to leave a battleship in it with indirect fire instead of a missile cruiser.

[kamikazi21358]

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

Crossbows have a ranged strength of 18, while Trebuchets only have a 14 so for city defense crossbows are simply better.

I didn’t know if that really mattered to be honest though, if the defense was dismissible. As an example, Choybalasn in my empire has 20 defense by default, and 21 with a composite bow. But with a trebuchet, and with the same bowman as a crossbow, the defense is 22 for both. I didn’t know if, since it isn’t additive, the defense difference mattered, and which one would be better at offense. Since if the difference is none or only 1-2 points max, if the trebuchet hit harder than the crossbow or something overall. (Except for fortified units obviously).


Also side question — does cover promotion effect anything in cities? Or is it useless in cities?

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

Never seen the use of melee units in a city for defense as they take damage when attacking while ranged units don't but are now protected from attack as the city takes the hit instead.
What unit type you have in the city makes no difference to the cities attack power, with the semi exception of the Oligarchy social policy which make the cities attack stronger if any military unit is in the city.

I presumed so with the melee, I didn’t know though if like, if the melee unit is much stronger in defense, it mattered any more. I didn’t expect it to be the better option though.
But I was asking which type of range unit, since both the city and the range unit attacks, was preferable? Since the city attacks, it doesn’t change, apart from the policy, but I didn’t know if trebuchets were any stronger than crossbows in attack power, outside of fortified units and cities.

Originally posted by Amanoob105:

If the city is on the coast it can have both a land and a sea unit inside it at the same time.

Originally posted by zxcvbob:

Composite bow, crossbow, frigate, cannon, artillery, battleship, machinegun, bazooka. The battleship and artillery are especially good because they have indirect fire.

Does ships effect city defense at all, or just as an extra attack? I didn’t think I noticed a difference in the past, but it would be kind of useful if it did effect defense.

[jreese46]

If England, longbowmen for as long as I can. If Korea, then the Hwach'a for as long as possible. Sometimes, I'll stick with longbowmen even after I can get cannons, because of the range difference and not needing to be set up.

For my capital, if at all possible, I like to sandwich it between two forts, eventually two citadels, so there's not much space, adjacent to it, that an enemy can stand without taking damage.

[knighttemplar1960]

For me it depends on the terrain around the city. If it is on the edge of my empire in barbarian territory but not near an AI my preferred unit is some type of mounted unit so that I can stop the constant pillage attempts. My coastal cities I prefer the longest ranged hardest hitting unit I have available and a ranged ship. If I'm up against aggressive sea faring races i'll supplement with privateers in the early game and subs in the later game.

If I have an aggressive AI neighbor then I keep the strongest melee unit available in the city and my best archer on a hill over looking my perimeter. The archer and the city soften up the target and the melee unit finishes them off unless I'm getting swarmed then its the other way around. Attacking with the melee unit against a strong melee opponent won't kill the opponent on the first attack which leaves my injured melee unit inside the city where its still safe from a flanking attack and can heal while the archer finishes off the injured enemy unit. If I'm in hilly terrain or heavy forest or jungle I'll also go with a strong melee unit since I may not have line of sight with an archer. But once I get artillery I use that instead and keep a mounted unit nearby as a forward observer.

[jreese46]

Originally posted by kamikazi21358:

Does ships effect city defense at all, or just as an extra attack? I didn’t think I noticed a difference in the past, but it would be kind of useful if it did effect defense.

I don't know but I'm going to try to play later this evening, and I'll take a look and see if the numbers change or not.

[DerEider]

Originally posted by kamikazi21358:

Also side question — does cover promotion effect anything in cities? Or is it useless in cities?
I presumed so with the melee, I didn’t know though if like, if the melee unit is much stronger in defense, it mattered any more. I didn’t expect it to be the better option though.

Does ships effect city defense at all, or just as an extra attack? I didn’t think I noticed a difference in the past, but it would be kind of useful if it did effect defense.

"Cover" promo would not have effect while unit is in the city, as the city is taking the attack/damage.
i also have never noticed any effect by a ship on city defense. To me, this makes sense since ship's company would remain on board the ship and not "man the ramparts".

[Matthew]

Just use crossbows. By the time artillery and bombers are on the map, a single garrison isn't going to do much anyway. You can switch it out for artillery later on, but realistically if you are getting attacked by a large enough force to take down the city, you are going to need much more than the garrison. At which point, it matters less what is in the city and more about what you have surrounding the city.

[kamikazi21358]

Originally posted by DerEider:

Originally posted by kamikazi21358:

Also side question — does cover promotion effect anything in cities? Or is it useless in cities?
I presumed so with the melee, I didn’t know though if like, if the melee unit is much stronger in defense, it mattered any more. I didn’t expect it to be the better option though.

Does ships effect city defense at all, or just as an extra attack? I didn’t think I noticed a difference in the past, but it would be kind of useful if it did effect defense.

"Cover" promo would not have effect while unit is in the city, as the city is taking the attack/damage.
i also have never noticed any effect by a ship on city defense. To me, this makes sense since ship's company would remain on board the ship and not "man the ramparts".

I was checking, I usually go for just the attack ones for units I just plan on stationing. The ship one I didn’t think so either, and yeah it does make sense, at least from ground attack (navy attack it would but it doesn’t matter that much).

Originally posted by John:

I also tend to go for coastal cities so i can have a ranged ship in my city as well. Depending on the location of that city, i might decide to leave a battleship in it with indirect fire instead of a missile cruiser.

Tbh I haven’t really fought defensive wars later game, but that is good to know when I do. Makes sense thinking of it now, since some battleships and cruisers have fired on enemies while still on port, or even ran aground to stay afloat and fire.
I wouldn’t imagine a missile cruiser would be very useful for it though, since then you could just use guided rockets in the city, and keep the cruisers at see to fire rockets where needed.

[jreese46]

I am currently playing England with Ships of the Line. I can't say whether or not there is some hidden mechanic or buff, but the numbers didn't change at all, whether or not I had the ship in the city.

[zxcvbob]

I don't think even destroyers increase the city defense strength, but I'm not sure.

[jreese46]

I don't know either, but I don't think I'd put a "melee" ship in, if I could avoid it. With a ranged unit (artillery) already in the city, I would try to make use of the ship slot to be able to slip even more ranged force in there, so I could take 3 shots at the enemy. One with the city, one with the garrison, and one with the ship.