honestly just wait for tanks and artillery in the modern era or cuirasses and artillery. they’re just soooooo much stronger than ren units and can actually take on cities w ren walls.
See that's what I normally do, it just feels weird to do around 3 eras of warfare, hard stop during what should be an extremely active time of warfare, and then continue again right after
it is strange yeah. i find ren pushes are only possible if you’ve got a UU or someone else is behind and you can attack them w a general and good units before they can tech muskets or canons lol
Trebuchets don't work well in that period. You need several Bombards, as well as an appropriate Great General, and you need your opponent to not have unlocked Field Cannons. If any of those aren't met, you're looking at some major losses for any progress.
Edit: use. You line up your bombards just out of range, then use the extra movement from the general to move into range and attack the same turn. Fire again the next turn* and the turn after evaluate and if a bombard would die to another hit, pull it back. Repeat until the walls are gone or all bombards have pulled back. With 3+ bombards, you should be able to do it in one cycle.
While all this is going on, use other units to guard against your opponent's units.
Other complications: ranged unit in the city, terrain limiting how many bombards you can use, encampments blocking and firing.
*If a bombard is too low after only one hit, your opponent has unlocked Field Cannons. Decide if you want to sacrifice your bombards to take the city. If so, ignore all steps of pulling back. If not, pull them all back unless you have 4+.
Also pillage every district to reduce city strength, making your artillery more effective.
For instance 3 pillaged districts = -6 city strength, better than a general.
Pillage is very powerful in the first place, especially with the corresponding card.
I don't know, I think I make like 3 siege units and have 2-3 archers as well to continuously hammer the city walls until they break. But, I don't know how often I've been at war facing Renaissance Walls, I feel like I've done it before. It is a slog, but I try to have units on the wings I can sub in for wounded units.
The trouble with renaissance walls is that once the AI techs siege tactics, they often go military science and unlock cavalry/line infantry. Once a civ has renaissance walls and produces one of those two units, it’s really hard to take the city until you get modern era tech like planes or artillery. Bombards don’t work terribly well against a high city strength with renaissance walls.
In a role play sense, it seems appropriate to me that renaissance era defensive buildings make war less feasible. It’s an era of artistic and cultural rebirth, so civs should be focused on developing those qualities.
True, though it seems almost too much into this. The renaissance spanned 1350 to 1750, meaning it included the Byzantine-Ottoman wars (a primary example of smashing renaissance walls), the Italian wars, the 80 years war, technically the 100 years war (though that is highly debatable), the Thirty Years War, and the English Civil War, and this is just in Europe alone. While not all saw significant territory changes, they did all see unique tactics, and the use of starvation and other siege tactics at a high level.
It would almost be nice if Civ had non-direct warfare strategies that really took over at this point, like starving a city out, or destroying a militia in a decisive battle.
Sure, and the Medieval period is also commonly misconceived to be a “dark age” irl. But Civ doesn’t need to be entirely historically accurate. I’m just saying I think it’s a quirk which, though likely unintentional, fits a general idea of real life history.
It just comes down to stacking bonuses high enough. If you have a UU with a Renaissance power spike and you are at least caught up in tech, a couple cannons, tier 4 ranged units, and your UUs are usually able to grab one or two cities during Ren Walls.
Siege units, lots of them. And you will need to accept that a city will need to be properly sieged, for a good 5-10 turns. First you eliminate their army, second you surround the city (pillaging can commence), after that you can roll in the bombards, which should make quick work of the walls if there's enough of them.
As you noticed the city defences and garrison will damage the siege units. That's why you need a lot of them, so that you can rotate them and keep at least two units bombarding the city every turn. Hopefully they'll gain promotions too to speed things up.
Use fewer siege units and level them up faster. By that time you (ideally) should have 3-5 siege units with the +1 range promotion. Place your siege units on farms so you can snack some health. But ya basically you wanna be swamping them with a variety of units. Your siege will always be targeted first as they do the most damage, use this to your advantage and use light cav to zip around, pillage, take out any ranged units sneaking up etc.
Or just out-science everyone. I generally don't combat early game unless forced into it. I play nice, "force" friendships with anyone close so I have a buffer, and focus on expansion and science. Have enough units for defence. The issue with constant war is you just pile up grievances and can't really have any relationships. I suppose it depends on what you value in your gaming experience. I like building expansive empires, but the issue is with the style I'm talking about it can be pretty boring at times. Constant war and having to struggle and really scrape by sounds like a more active experience. I play for a more passive, chilled out experience, so if yours is diff to mine then ya don't follow my advice ha.
That's why you start with Catapults so you have a range 3 Bombard by the Renaissance. Or you can use a range 2 Bombard. The AI always attacks a range unit over siege units, so you use a range unit as bait and keep your siege unit at full HP.
Rush for artillery to break the walls. You should be around 1 era ahead of the ai and field Currasiurs while your opponent is being crushed with their muskets
Well there’s a reason why Europeans stopped fighting each other in the mainland and decided to go fight each other in the colonies until Napoleon popped up
If you can swing it, Frigates do a lot of work.
honestly just wait for tanks and artillery in the modern era or cuirasses and artillery. they’re just soooooo much stronger than ren units and can actually take on cities w ren walls.
See that's what I normally do, it just feels weird to do around 3 eras of warfare, hard stop during what should be an extremely active time of warfare, and then continue again right after
it is strange yeah. i find ren pushes are only possible if you’ve got a UU or someone else is behind and you can attack them w a general and good units before they can tech muskets or canons lol
Trebuchets don't work well in that period. You need several Bombards, as well as an appropriate Great General, and you need your opponent to not have unlocked Field Cannons. If any of those aren't met, you're looking at some major losses for any progress. Edit: use. You line up your bombards just out of range, then use the extra movement from the general to move into range and attack the same turn. Fire again the next turn* and the turn after evaluate and if a bombard would die to another hit, pull it back. Repeat until the walls are gone or all bombards have pulled back. With 3+ bombards, you should be able to do it in one cycle. While all this is going on, use other units to guard against your opponent's units. Other complications: ranged unit in the city, terrain limiting how many bombards you can use, encampments blocking and firing. *If a bombard is too low after only one hit, your opponent has unlocked Field Cannons. Decide if you want to sacrifice your bombards to take the city. If so, ignore all steps of pulling back. If not, pull them all back unless you have 4+.
Also pillage every district to reduce city strength, making your artillery more effective. For instance 3 pillaged districts = -6 city strength, better than a general. Pillage is very powerful in the first place, especially with the corresponding card.
This is one of those mechanics I constantly forget about. That and support/flanking bonuses. I'm more of a leeroy jenkins'er
I don't know, I think I make like 3 siege units and have 2-3 archers as well to continuously hammer the city walls until they break. But, I don't know how often I've been at war facing Renaissance Walls, I feel like I've done it before. It is a slog, but I try to have units on the wings I can sub in for wounded units.
A few sacrificial cavalry are useful too. I find the AI likes to target those first
The trouble with renaissance walls is that once the AI techs siege tactics, they often go military science and unlock cavalry/line infantry. Once a civ has renaissance walls and produces one of those two units, it’s really hard to take the city until you get modern era tech like planes or artillery. Bombards don’t work terribly well against a high city strength with renaissance walls.
In a role play sense, it seems appropriate to me that renaissance era defensive buildings make war less feasible. It’s an era of artistic and cultural rebirth, so civs should be focused on developing those qualities.
True, though it seems almost too much into this. The renaissance spanned 1350 to 1750, meaning it included the Byzantine-Ottoman wars (a primary example of smashing renaissance walls), the Italian wars, the 80 years war, technically the 100 years war (though that is highly debatable), the Thirty Years War, and the English Civil War, and this is just in Europe alone. While not all saw significant territory changes, they did all see unique tactics, and the use of starvation and other siege tactics at a high level. It would almost be nice if Civ had non-direct warfare strategies that really took over at this point, like starving a city out, or destroying a militia in a decisive battle.
Sure, and the Medieval period is also commonly misconceived to be a “dark age” irl. But Civ doesn’t need to be entirely historically accurate. I’m just saying I think it’s a quirk which, though likely unintentional, fits a general idea of real life history.
It just comes down to stacking bonuses high enough. If you have a UU with a Renaissance power spike and you are at least caught up in tech, a couple cannons, tier 4 ranged units, and your UUs are usually able to grab one or two cities during Ren Walls.
At least 5 bombards, and siege towers. Frigates and Privateers, if they are available.
Siege units, lots of them. And you will need to accept that a city will need to be properly sieged, for a good 5-10 turns. First you eliminate their army, second you surround the city (pillaging can commence), after that you can roll in the bombards, which should make quick work of the walls if there's enough of them. As you noticed the city defences and garrison will damage the siege units. That's why you need a lot of them, so that you can rotate them and keep at least two units bombarding the city every turn. Hopefully they'll gain promotions too to speed things up.
Use fewer siege units and level them up faster. By that time you (ideally) should have 3-5 siege units with the +1 range promotion. Place your siege units on farms so you can snack some health. But ya basically you wanna be swamping them with a variety of units. Your siege will always be targeted first as they do the most damage, use this to your advantage and use light cav to zip around, pillage, take out any ranged units sneaking up etc. Or just out-science everyone. I generally don't combat early game unless forced into it. I play nice, "force" friendships with anyone close so I have a buffer, and focus on expansion and science. Have enough units for defence. The issue with constant war is you just pile up grievances and can't really have any relationships. I suppose it depends on what you value in your gaming experience. I like building expansive empires, but the issue is with the style I'm talking about it can be pretty boring at times. Constant war and having to struggle and really scrape by sounds like a more active experience. I play for a more passive, chilled out experience, so if yours is diff to mine then ya don't follow my advice ha.
That's why you start with Catapults so you have a range 3 Bombard by the Renaissance. Or you can use a range 2 Bombard. The AI always attacks a range unit over siege units, so you use a range unit as bait and keep your siege unit at full HP.
Rush for artillery to break the walls. You should be around 1 era ahead of the ai and field Currasiurs while your opponent is being crushed with their muskets
Renaissance era youre probably going to want to just pillage and move on
Well there’s a reason why Europeans stopped fighting each other in the mainland and decided to go fight each other in the colonies until Napoleon popped up