Zigzagdada’s military unit guide for Civ V

Overview

A Basic guide to my units, the ones I think are the top units and what units are effective at

Unit types

Melee Infantry: Can only attack adjacent units, will take damage in doing so, good for main force, do most of the killing and most of the dying. They are split up into defensive units (e.g. Pikemen) and offensive units (e.g. Longswordsmen)

Melee Mounted Units: Fast, units that can also only attack adjacent units (Note: War Elephant (India special unit) is not a fast unit).

Ranged Mounted Units: Armed with ranged weapons, most can attack up to two tiles away unless there are obstructions (trees, hills, mountains etc).

Melee Ships: Can only attack adjacent units, will take damage in doing so, limited to water tiles, useful for protecting you trade routes (DLC: Brave new world).

Ranged Ships: Can attack at range, useful for attacking ground units as well as ocean units, this makes them good for supporting ground combat near water tiles (Note: cannot be built in lakes).

siege Weapons: Good for attacking cites and little else, these do lower damage to units and can’t take damage well but are imperative for taking cites.

Bomber Aircraft: Good for long range attacks, good against cities but take damage when attacking cities & units. Must be stationed at a city or aircaft carrier.

Fighter Aircaft: Can be set to intercept enemy aircaft nearby, can ground strike but does take damage. Must be stationed at a city or aircaft carrier.

Anti-Air units: Ground units that can attack nearby enemy aircraft that attack within it’s range, increasing the damage that aircraft takes on it’s attack. Can attack ground units but is melee and isn’t very effective at it.

Anti-tank units: There are two specific anti-tank (or anti-armour) units, the helicopter gunship and the anti-tank gun, these specialise in dealing with armoured units (Tank, Panzer, Modern Armour Giant Death Robot). They are quite cheap but anti-tank gun is pretty ineffective against much else, helicopter is slightly better but still doesn’t get terrain bonuses.

Submarines: These units are good for sneaky attack and can only be discovered by destroyers, nuclear subs can carry cruise and nuclear missiles. Subs can go through ice tiles.

Tanks: Tanks are strong, fast units.

Missiles: Cannot be intercepted by planes or AA. These can be carried by cites, Missile cruisers and nuclear submarines, they are a one shot unit that deals large amounts of damage (especially nuclear missiles) from a long distance.

‘Drop-in’ Units: Paratroopers and Excom squads (DLC: Brave New World) are melee units that can fly a fair distance from inside friendly territory. Good for getting behind enemy lines.

Giant Death Robot: It’s exactly what it says on the tin. A super powerful mech, yours for a supply of Uranium.

Melee Units

Melee infantry are your font line, rough and ready units, they will die and they will kill. Lots of countries special units are melee infantry, especially early game units. This includes sword, pike, melee firearm units, helicopters and tanks. Melee units should be the main part of your army should have their flanks protected, they are best when you have more units attacking the enemy than they do yours.
Melee units are split into defensive melee units like pikemen and offensive melee units like longswordsmen.

They vary in strength and ability but the ones I think are the best from each era are:
Ancient era: Hoplite (Greece)
Classical era: Legion (Rome)
Medieval era: Berserker (Denmark) / Impi (Zulu)
Renaissance era: Janissary (Ottomans)
Industrial era: Carolean (Sweden)
Modern Era: Pracinha (Brazil, DLC: Brave New World)
Atomic Era: Panzer (Germany)
Information Era: Modern Armor (Stock)

I picked these units based on their overall strength in comparison to other melee units (for example the Hoplite has the most strength of the ancient era melee infantry) and their abitlies (for example Caroleans start with march, heal every turn even if it does an action, very helpful).

You may disagree with my choice as these are my personal top units, but I chose them from personal experience and comparing the stats of units.

Cavalry Units

Cavalry are better at early game, they stop research for cavalry at the industrial era (they are upgraded to tanks or tank destroyers). Cavalry are useful for moving quickly, they can cross two tiles of rough terrain per turn and can cross many flat tiles per turn, making them good for hit and run, harassment and ambush attacks. They are not good front line units as they do not get terrain bonuses but are good at supporting you main body of units (Melee infantry good for core of army). Cavalry require horses to build and have a reduction if you don’t have any anymore (e.g. if you had the city taken, land pillaged, traded them, were having them traded to you, received a cavalry unit from a city state). When attacking, you should have cavalry on the on the flanks, back and infront of your army by about 2 tiles, this will stop enemies from attacking you by surprise and tell you terrain features that might be of use or to avoid.

Remember that cavalry are vulnerable to pike armed units, and certain cavalry are more effective against other mounted units.

Some mounted units have ranged abilities, this makes them excellent harassment units.

So to summarise cavalry, they are good for harassing the enemy, for covering the flanks of your army and for attacking weak or priority targets.

Siege Units

Siege unites are important for attacking enemy cities, they do colossal damage to cities. They have a range of 2 tiles until you get artillery, this has a range of three tiles meaning the enemy cities can’t attack them. Siege units should be your priority to defend on offence and your priority to destroy on defence. They are poor in defence.

Ranged Units

Ranged units are useful for attacking targets at range and therefor not tanking any damage in return. There are quite weak when attacked in melee, so keep them protected. Their attack ranges vary from 1 to 3 tiles, after the industrial era, the range is reduced to 1 tile and limited to Gatling gun, machine Gun and Bazooka (All 3 from DLC, first two are Gods & Kings, Bazooka is Brave new world). I prefer ranged units to attack from afar, so I tend to use ranged units earlier on. My favourite two ranged units are Bowman (Babylon) and Longbowman (England). Bowmen are ancient era units that replace archers, they have a higher strength than any other Ancient era units. Longbowmen are Medieval era units which have a 3 tile range, do large amounts for damage and have high strength. When moving your army you want them to be certainly placed along with your siege units, as they are poor in melee.

Ships + Submarines

Ships are effective for protecting trade routes (DLC: Brave New World), if you put them at intersections along trade routes on guard mode, you can usually catch pesky barbarians and sneaky enemies trying to cripple your economy. Ships can also be used to take cites. A ranged bombardment followed by a melee ship capture usually does the trick, but if you fail to take it, you’ll have to run all the way back to friendly territory to repair, unless you have the trait which allows units to heal outside of friendly territory, supplies. Ranged ships are good for assisting ground units provided they are near water tiles, they are handy for attacking well placed defenders. Ships are quite strong as well, ground units don’t have it easy trying to kill them. Late game ships are very useful, Missile Cruisers and Nuclear Submarines can carry missiles and Aircraft Carriers can take Aircraft to the front lines. Submarines are great for sneaky attacks. Battleships are extremely powerful, costing one oil they have a 3 tile range and do lots of damage, but make sure you keep an eye out for enemy Submarines.

Attack Formation

This is a picture of what I think a good attack formation should be like, the cavalry-scouts will spot any enemy forces coming from almost any directions. The weak units (ranged & siege) are protected by melee units on all sides.

Unless you hugely outnumber you opponent with superior forces, you don’t want to just charge straight in there, you need formation.
A good formation should follow regular army layout. First: Cavalry Scouts for the reasons listed below. Next: The Vanguard troops to pin down and a frontal wall for the enemy to attack. Next: The Main Column, in Civ 5 this will consist of Ranged and Siege units, with infantry and/or cavalry close either side to protect them. This will also include any Generals you might have. Lastly: The Rearguard, these guys will make sure no-one sneaks up behind you, this will consist about 2 parts infantry and 1 part cavalry to keep enemies from doing damage to your main force.
You force should consist about 1 part Siege units, 2/3 parts Ranged units, 3/4 parts cavalry/scout units, 5 parts infantry.

As time progresses in games, your armies should too. You need to field larger armies and also fight with multiple divisions in order to beat enemies. One large army will be much harder to use as the game progresses than if you divide armies. Also, as the game progresses, you will need to use more siege weapons, as cities will get stronger and brute force tends to be a much less forgiving strategy.

Cavalry’s role:
Cavalry should be a couple of tiles on around your army, at the front to scout for enemies and terrain features, at the sides and rear to prevent enemies from flanking you or attacking your priority units.

Infantry’s role:
To eliminate enemies and capture cities, they don’t need much protection but try not to let them get surrounded, you want to have as many troops attacking the same target as possible.

Ranged unit’s role:
To Support the infantry in dealing with hostile forces. Ranged units can also safely attack enemy cities but it is not advised to use these as your against cities without siege units.

Siege unit’s role:
Simply to destroy enemy cites, can support infantry but ranged units are better for this.

Generals:
Boost the combat effectiveness of nearby troops.

Defence Formation

Enemies at the border? Exellent, fighting on your home ground is preferable, they have to come to you. So go to your most easily defendable positions, for example, an infantry unit on a hill supported by a ranged unit on a hill. Funnel your enemies down; no doubt they outnumber you, so make them go through mountains to get you, a great idea would be to let them drip out through mountains the let them walk one by one into a death trap of ranged units, however, the enemy will stop going through this way, and will try to flank you, this is where cavalry is useful, attack the enemies as they try to flank, they will probably have lost any sense of formation so bide you time until a wandering siege piece comes through and strike from the shadows. Cities are your priority to defend, the enemy has to melee attack it to take cities, so surround your city to stop them, they will throw their units forward then you should strike at their ranged and siege units that are now unprotected. Also remember that they will be bringing reinforcements, most likely one by one, what an excellent target for your cavalry, position them between you land and theirs, and surprise their reinforcements. Aircraft are brilliant at taking out the most dangerous enemies, cities can do this too but only have a 2 tile range, so can’t get artillery, but remember that with a unit in the city does more damage, so ranged units are good to garrison the city.
Remember, you heal more in friendly territory, so hold fast!

Summary

Cavalry are super important, they give you a huge advantage in PROTECTING YOUR MAIN UNITS, just because I say they are important, a main force of cavalry isn’t very effective as well as it’s expensive in horses and upkeep.

Infantry are you main forces, have plenty and the front (3 parts of infantry force) some at the sides (1 part each side) and some at the rear (1 part).

Siege units are imperative for taking cities, but are vulnerable and need protection

Ranged units are good for supporting and defence

Ships are good for defending trade and supporting armies.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please ask and I’ll try to answer them and add them into this guide, good luck!