The best civilsation for defending cities

[Zorn]

Oh yeah, another one of those "best civ..." threads, sorry for that.
However, I like to capture a single settlement far away from my home-area, and defend it against waves of AI assaults. I just love sieges.
So, which civ would be most suited for that gamestyle.
Obviously, the civ needs stone walls, wich excludes all barbarian factions.
The next important thing are good archers. Only two non-barbarian factions have long ranged archers: Romans and egypt. Pharaonic archers are superior to auxiliary archers, so this point goes to egypt.
The third, and least important criterium is good infantery, wich can hold the walls against ladders and towers. Here rome wins obviously, especially since the legions can even add a little firepower, but I consider this less important than having better archers. Besides, axemen do a decent job.
Finally egypt has Phalanx-units, wich are perfect for holding the gate, should the enemy manage to break it and ie foolish enough to enter it.

So in my opinion, egypt is the best defender in the game (unless you capture stone walls of course), but did I forget to take something into account?

[aw89]

macedonia, greek citys, seluicid empire.

forget the walls (put som archers there, and once they reach the walls with the equipment, run your archer out of there.) and take the phalangites/hoplites in the streets, works like a dream

[Somebody Else]

I'd say, to defend against an AI, almost anyone would suffice. However, a faction that has horse archers or suchlike will be able to sally forth and cause casualties with impunity before withdrawing behind the walls. If when the settlement is taken, you leave a gap in the wall - no matter how many siege engines the AI brings, it will rush all it's troops a for it. Otherwise you'll want hard hitting infantry on the walls - to repel towers and ladders - as well as strong archer support. If the gate is broken, street fighting will occur - phalanxes work well here, cavalry too I find, a cavalry charge down a narrow road, with another coming the other way is rather nasty - especially if elephants are involved.

I'd go for the Egyptians, Seleucids or Romans as the best city defenders - but against the AI, any faction will do. It's just too easy.

[The_678]

I would probably have to say the Egyptians for this. They have the phalangites for the street-fighting and axemen and superior defensive bowmen for the walls.

[IrishMike]

Hmmm... an interesting question. I would have to side with the seluciods. They got the pike men to defend the streets and gatehouse, and the roman legion imitations to defend the walls. Plus it never hurts to have a few elephants to charge a gate filled with the enemies men.

[LordKhaine]

Armoured Hoplites all the way! (just be sure to have a few Cretan archers and cavalry too)

[Sin Qua Non]

Another one for the Selucids. They just have such a diverse selection for all of your seige breaking needs. Of course, any of the Romans are great too.

[Oaty]

I had a battle where I was assaulting a town with 1 unit inside and the A.I. and the comp had 30 units of reenforcements. So my elephants break the gate and I capture all gates. Wiped out the town center and before the A.I. get's close to the walls I had my whole army inside. Unfortanately as soon as the units routed they headed for the town square only to get massacred on my huge infantry wall. Units outside the walls should route off the map not to the town center.

[The Stranger]

macedonia, greek citys, seluicid empire.

forget the walls (put som archers there, and once they reach the walls with the equipment, run your archer out of there.) and take the phalangites/hoplites in the streets, works like a dream

defenitly i did every time with the greeks this way you can use their special ability

[Ziu]

The seleucids have good defenders except that the range of the archers is horrid. The only saving grace is being able to hire Cretian archers.

My vote is for Germania. Phalanges, archers and great axemen.

[dismal]

did I forget to take something into account?

The whole analysis seems to assume that the AI will assault your city.

I find they usually don't and I end up sallying out.

As someone mentioned earlier, horse archers make good sallying out troops.

As Parthians I'd often send my horse archers out one of the side door and have them come around to where they could fire on the enemy formation while standing in the shadow of the walls. An enemy that decides to chase them can be led in a circle around the walls, taking fire from the towers and the horse archers. And, if need be, you can duck inside the walls as well.

[Zorn]

The AI wil allways attack a settlement it`s besieging.
Sometimes it will take up to three turns to build siege equipment, but in the end it will attack.
In my last 4 campaings, I had like than 100 sieges - an not a in a single one of them the Ai waited things out.

[dismal]

The AI wil allways attack a settlement it`s besieging.
Sometimes it will take up to three turns to build siege equipment, but in the end it will attack.
In my last 4 campaings, I had like than 100 sieges - an not a in a single one of them the Ai waited things out.

Really? That's good to know. I guess I've been too impatient then.

I don't fight a lot of defensive siege battles.

At least I get the income flowing, the production queue moving faster, and less devastation.

[dismal]

FYI -

Taking this advice, I tried waiting out the AI on a siege this weekend and they most definitely did not attack.

I was Germans on VH/H. As I'm heading down the Italian penninsula (taking out the Julii in Arminium, Arretium, etc.) the Brutii sent an army up from Greece and besieged Patavium.

I think I had 8 turns to last.

I waited all the way down to the last turn and the AI did not attack. In the mean time, I lost production, incurred devastation, and had about 20% troop loss as well.

[Siris]

The next important thing are good archers. Only two non-barbarian factions have long ranged archers: Romans and egypt. Pharaonic archers are superior to auxiliary archers, so this point goes to egypt.

Your wrong. Cretan archers will whipe the crap out of the Roman archers & Archer Auxilia any day, along with the Pharonic archers. The superior Hoplites that they have (i.e. Spartans & Armoured) can easily hold the gate from any foe, and hold the walls very well vs. any Roman army that scales them.

I would rather have a army of Greeks defending a city in Multiplayer than any other civilization in the game because of their ability of the Cretan archers to fire so freaking far & fast, and the great defense of them.

But to go with them, is to decide that you want horribly weak calvery, and that you want to watch your guys slowly walk (or occassionally run quickly if you take off the formation) into battle everytime, which does get boring after 100 battles.

[Fridge]

The Seleucids, but then, I'd go with them for everything.

And, it's cheeky I know, but I found out by chance, if you let someone make a gap in your wall, and then don't fix it, the next time you're under siege, the enemy will totally ignore all their siege equipment and make straight for their gap. You only need a few decent phalanxes arranged in a box behind the gap to eat a whole army. Much quicker than letting them attack your walls, and you'll do far more casualties to the enemy.

[jerby]

i agree with you fridge,
seleucid's rule, the ideal mix. if you can buy some cretan archers on your way to your settlement you wil rule there. it wil be hard on population there, for teh distance to capitol stuff. can be fixed by MAKING it the capital, but that would cause problems in your homeland.

leaving the hole there isn't cheezy. if I where the enemy I would also go threw ( misspelling?) the hole. and histroically ( another misspelling) people couldn't fix their walls so quick.

[Simetrical]

Your wrong. Cretan archers will whipe the crap out of the Roman archers & Archer Auxilia any day, along with the Pharonic archers.

Archer auxilia, yes, due to better morale. Vanilla Roman archers, yes, due to tons of stuff (range being most important). Pharaoh's bowmen, not a chance. Cretan archers have 11 attack, 170 range, 0 armor, 8 morale, and good stamina. Pharaoh's bowmen have 14 attack, 170 range, 7 armor, 10 morale, and good stamina. That's not even considering the possibility of melee combat, where Pharaoh's bowmen so totally own Cretans that it's barely worth it to look up the numbers for melee attack and defense skill.

-Simetrical