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Conquering enemy cities

Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 8:00 pm
by jackieclay
I have noticed that the Ai, if it is powerful enough, can take my cities without destroying them. How is this done? Is it through diplomats? Also, why have all of my units been unsuccessful against a certain npc. I have poured comparatively advanced units into one city and keep losing to Alpine troops. Riflemen, Alpine troops, Armor, naval cruisers, it doesn't matter, they all lose and I can't take the city or even bring its population number.

Any help in this matter is greatly appreciated.

Re: Conquering enemy cities

Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 8:32 pm
by Alien Valkyrie
Usually, if a city is attacked by a land unit and the defender loses (and the city is greater than size 1), the city shrinks. Cities also shrink when conquered, possibly destroying them. However, this can be prevented (in both cases) by building city walls. If you have city walls and the enemy conquers your city, it still shines as brightly as ever ─ or if the city has less defenders than its size, because then, it doesn't have the chance to shrink small enough to be destroyed. Of course, it's also possible that the AIs incite a revolt in your city, but I think that would explicitly say so in the message window, so if you pay attention to that, you'll know if your city was conquered or peacefully stolen.

To address your second question: Defending is usually a lot easier than attacking. Alpine Troops have a base defense of 5, but cities give x1.5, City Walls, Coastal Defense, SAM Battery and SDI Defense give defense bonuses against certain unit classes, and lastly, the Terrain gives a defense bonus ─ up to x3 for mountains. You should try using strong offensive units, such as Artillery or Howitzers, or perhaps Battleships and Bombers. Howitzers are best, as they ignore City Walls. Do make sure to gurad them though, the Catapult-Cannon-Artillery-Howitzer unit line has a rather low defense.
Also, the city most likely has Barracks, so every defender you don't kill will regenerate to full hit points at the beginning of the next turn.

Re: Conquering enemy cities

Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 2:44 pm
by The Square Cow
If nothing else works, you can always build nukes and just nuke the city. Be sure to have a fast unit near by though, so you can conquer the city in the same turn as you set off the nuke.

Generally my strategy is to attack using a massive army of units all focused on a single city.