Can't Conquer Cities?

[sierra_one_]

So, I've played two games now where I can't seem to capture enemy cities. I've reduced them down to zero city HP, they're surrounded by my units bombarding them, but they won't surrender. I'm currently fighting Spain and I have a city surrounded and ready to be capped, but I'll have to retreat because their city defences are unstoppable. Is there something I'm missing?

[A Bat From Wuhan]

Once you get a city down to 0 health (or low enough that a melee unit could bring it to 0), you have to attack it with a melee unit (warrior, spearmen, cavalry, etc). If the unit survives the attack on the city, it's yours!

If your using nothing but ranged/siege units, you won't be able to capture the city as those units can't melee attack, so you won't be able to capture it and it will keep shooting your stuff.

[sierra_one_]

Thank you so much! After finding out that ranged units were much more effective against cities, I kinda just pushed my melee troops to one side. It's a Highlands map, so I can only fit so many troops in at a time. Well, Spain won the battle, but I shall return with more soldiers!

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by Page 60 of The Game Manual:

Attacking Cities with Ranged Units

To target a city with a ranged unit, move the unit so that the city falls within the unit’s range
and then right-click on the city. Depending upon the power behind the attack, the city’s hit
points may be reduced by the attack. (The attacking unit is not damaged, of course.) Note
that a ranged attack cannot drop a city below 1 HP: the city must be captured by a melee
unit.

You probably just forgot the underlined part, since the manual is a little long and it's hard to remember everything.

[DerEider]

One other way in the door is to charge a melee ship [e.g. Trireme] into a coastal city's harbor. They also can capture a city.

Personally, I have a gripe about this ploy. The city may have a massive Battleship in it but that's ignored if a puny Caravel or Destroyer attacks when the walls are beaten down. I have lost a city [AND the Battleship] in a situation like that. The city had been beaten down by Bomber raids. "Really" the Battleship would have blown the Destroyer out of the water.

[mss73055]

I'm happy a docked battleship can shoot at all.

[Fat Walter]

Originally posted by DerEider:

One other way in the door is to charge a melee ship [e.g. Trireme] into a coastal city's harbor. They also can capture a city.

Personally, I have a gripe about this ploy. The city may have a massive Battleship in it but that's ignored if a puny Caravel or Destroyer attacks when the walls are beaten down. I have lost a city [AND the Battleship] in a situation like that. The city had been beaten down by Bomber raids. "Really" the Battleship would have blown the Destroyer out of the water.

don't forget though that the city strength reflects a unit that happens to be fortified within. so if the city is dropped to 0hp, even by some weak unit, the attackers had to bring down the unit + the city defense strength.

[DerEider]

Originally posted by horror5how:

Originally posted by DerEider:

One other way in the door is to charge a melee ship [e.g. Trireme] into a coastal city's harbor. They also can capture a city.

Personally, I have a gripe about this ploy. The city may have a massive Battleship in it but that's ignored if a puny Caravel or Destroyer attacks when the walls are beaten down. I have lost a city [AND the Battleship] in a situation like that. The city had been beaten down by Bomber raids. "Really" the Battleship would have blown the Destroyer out of the water.

don't forget though that the city strength reflects a unit that happens to be fortified within. so if the city is dropped to 0hp, even by some weak unit, the attackers had to bring down the unit + the city defense strength.

Ships do not "fortify" and do not contribute to city strength. The BB was at full strength.

[AHA]

click them

[leandrombraz]

Originally posted by SpitfireMK-Pony:

Once you get a city down to 0 health (or low enough that a melee unit could bring it to 0), you have to attack it with a melee unit (warrior, spearmen, cavalry, etc). If the unit survives the attack on the city, it's yours!

If your using nothing but ranged/siege units, you won't be able to capture the city as those units can't melee attack, so you won't be able to capture it and it will keep shooting your stuff.

I don't think the melee unit need to survive, actually they can't die at all. The unit only need to take the last HP of the city to conquer the city and, if it conquer the city, the unit survive even if it lose all HP.

[DerEider]

Originally posted by leandrombraz:

Originally posted by SpitfireMK-Pony:

Once you get a city down to 0 health (or low enough that a melee unit could bring it to 0), you have to attack it with a melee unit (warrior, spearmen, cavalry, etc). If the unit survives the attack on the city, it's yours!

If your using nothing but ranged/siege units, you won't be able to capture the city as those units can't melee attack, so you won't be able to capture it and it will keep shooting your stuff.

I don't think the melee unit need to survive, actually they can't die at all. The unit only need to take the last HP of the city to conquer the city and, if it conquer the city, the unit survive even if it lose all HP.

IF a melee unit survives the city assault, it will be INSIDE the city and have at least 1 HP left. If it is reduced to 0 hp, it is killed and FAILs to take the city. Then send in the next melee unit.

If the city HP have been reduced to 0, the next ranged unit to attack will not earn any XP. That's how you may confirm the walls are down. After that, it should take no more than two melee attacks to take that city.

[leandrombraz]

Originally posted by DerEider:

Originally posted by leandrombraz:

I don't think the melee unit need to survive, actually they can't die at all. The unit only need to take the last HP of the city to conquer the city and, if it conquer the city, the unit survive even if it lose all HP.

IF a melee unit survives the city assault, it will be INSIDE the city and have at least 1 HP left. If it is reduced to 0 hp, it is killed and FAILs to take the city. Then send in the next melee unit.

If the city HP have been reduced to 0, the next ranged unit to attack will not earn any XP. That's how you may confirm the walls are down. After that, it should take no more than two melee attacks to take that city.

That's weird, because I'm pretty sure I took several cities without losing the unit, with units that definitely would die if it wasn't the last hit. I'll pay more attention next time I play, see what is giving me this impression..

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by DerEider:

Originally posted by leandrombraz:

I don't think the melee unit need to survive, actually they can't die at all. The unit only need to take the last HP of the city to conquer the city and, if it conquer the city, the unit survive even if it lose all HP.

IF a melee unit survives the city assault, it will be INSIDE the city and have at least 1 HP left. If it is reduced to 0 hp, it is killed and FAILs to take the city. Then send in the next melee unit.

If the city HP have been reduced to 0, the next ranged unit to attack will not earn any XP. That's how you may confirm the walls are down. After that, it should take no more than two melee attacks to take that city.

Not quite...

For reference, I have captured fully loaded 25+ population cities with a SCOUT. If the city is reduced to 1 hp (i.e. it's completely beaten into a pulp) then ANY unit will succeed in capturing it and be left with as little as 1 hp. I went on a city hopping spree using nothing but an army of battleships and a scout. The scout would capture the city, lose 99% of his health, then I'd fortify him until he was fully healed. Meanwhile, the battleships are blowing away the next city and the scout moves in to clean up after them. You can do this over and over with any melee unit, they literally cannot die if they attack a defeated city. Units blowing themselves up was in the original game, not in Brave New World.

[Murgen]

If the city is at 0 health, the next melee attack will automatically succeed. The attacking unit will still take damage (sometimes even 99% damage, depending on the unit), but it will never be enough damage to kill the unit.

Battleships can be put in cities and can attack with impunity from within the city, making attacking the city that much harder. But if the city falls you lose the ship too.

Edit: Ninja'd by future corpse.

[DerEider]

Originally posted by Future Corpse:

Originally posted by DerEider:

IF a melee unit survives the city assault, it will be INSIDE the city and have at least 1 HP left. If it is reduced to 0 hp, it is killed and FAILs to take the city. Then send in the next melee unit.

If the city HP have been reduced to 0, the next ranged unit to attack will not earn any XP. That's how you may confirm the walls are down. After that, it should take no more than two melee attacks to take that city.

Not quite...

For reference, I have captured fully loaded 25+ population cities with a SCOUT. If the city is reduced to 1 hp (i.e. it's completely beaten into a pulp) then ANY unit will succeed in capturing it and be left with as little as 1 hp. I went on a city hopping spree using nothing but an army of battleships and a scout. The scout would capture the city, lose 99% of his health, then I'd fortify him until he was fully healed. Meanwhile, the battleships are blowing away the next city and the scout moves in to clean up after them. You can do this over and over with any melee unit, they literally cannot die if they attack a defeated city. Units blowing themselves up was in the original game, not in Brave New World.

Originally posted by Murgen:

If the city is at 0 health, the next melee attack will automatically succeed. The attacking unit will still take damage (sometimes even 99% damage, depending on the unit), but it will never be enough damage to kill the unit.

Battleships can be put in cities and can attack with impunity from within the city, making attacking the city that much harder. But if the city falls you lose the ship too.

Edit: Ninja'd by future corpse.

You both are talking about units that succeed in taking the city. The succeeding unit never reaches HP = 0; it may have HP=1 but it will then be INSIDE the city waving the national ensign from the city gates. If its HP reaches 0, it has failed.

I never said it required a powerful melee unit. In fact I said a puny Trireme could do the job.

BTW, a single unit doing the job fits the qualification of not more than two. Two might be needed if the city still had a small amount of [not visible] HP left.

If a unit attacks the city and FAILS to take the city AND its HP = 0, it is killed/dead/kaput

[Fallenstarz]

Originally posted by author:

You both are talking about units that succeed in taking the city. The succeeding unit never reaches HP = 0; it may have HP=1 but it will then be INSIDE the city waving the national ensign from the city gates. If its HP reaches 0, it has failed.

I never said it required a powerful melee unit. In fact I said a puny Trireme could do the job.

BTW, a single unit doing the job fits the qualification of not more than two. Two might be needed if the city still had a small amount of [not visible] HP left.

If a unit attacks the city and FAILS to take the city AND its HP = 0, it is killed/dead/kaput

This is incorrect. I have taken cities that still have health that shows both the city and unit being killed. However, when I attack, the city goes down and my unit survives. I only play Brave New World. Perhaps, maybe in earlier versions of the game this is true.