Pressing the enemy

[bomb851]

I've noticed this phrase being used on some of the posts. Is this strictly harassing a city by attacking them or is there more to it? Like camping on their squares around their city? Can you press when your attack unit is weaker then theirs? If so, how?

[Zefelius]

I've noticed this phrase being used on some of the posts. Is this strictly harassing a city by attacking them or is there more to it? Like camping on their squares around their city? Can you press when your attack unit is weaker then theirs? If so, how?


It's funny you mention that: this is exactly the part of my game I need to improve. Here's a quote from Grayson from the thread right below this one:

"Even if he kills the units, pester them and slow them down. Don't spend all your time producing units to press him unless you ultimately think you can finish him off, but you should be looking for things like galley drops, places to camp on his squares, chokes and lookouts in his territory."

So it looks like pressing an enemy can mean all these things. Even if you can't immediately take over a city, you can do galley drops and such. I also think there is a link on the Straegy Archive about pressing enemies. I'm sure someone else will have more to say about this than I can possibly explain, but I just thought I'd chime in by pointing out it has more than one meaning.

Zef

[Grayson]

Basically it's a loose term that means anything you can do to bother your enemy. Don't leave them alone! Even if it's passive pressing like setting up chokes, droping units off on lands that he may want to settle by etc.

More active pressing includes:
- camping out on the resources next to their cities, most commonly on their forests since you get a +50% defense boost.
- Also, killing their units, no matter how puny. Setting units on hills works great.
- Having units in your galleys to drop in their cities if they don't have any units in them.
- If they are beating you in tech, and they have island cities, go take the island cities with a catpult army, because 9 times out of 10 they just have militia or single archer there anyway.
- Use spies, which I almost never have one used against me online. I use them all the time, but often forget about them. Almost no one uses the for defense, so you can send them in and destroy their libraries, steal their GPs, or steal gold.
- Have units posted on hills in their terrirtory to attack units, or to steal settlers.

Whatever you can do to make your opponnet think twice about what he is doing, making him more defensive, making him go out of his way to get to what he wants to do, anything at all that will stall him, that's pressing. If you can kill him, that's rushing.

Unless you're trying to be sneaky, don't leave the other guy alone, because this just raises the other guy's chances of winning the game. Too many people turtle in the game and are afraid to attack with anything other than horsemen, knights or tanks. Other than that, people just sit around, tech, and try to expand/build useless buildings.

Try being more aggressive, you'll be surprised how many "good" players crack under the pressure.

[TyShine]

If you just show up with a legion army, several is better of course, or something with some force they will put more effort into defense. Also many people rush in the beginning, and then just leave the other player alone until knights or maybe cats. Since this is the case, players start expanding with little defense. The better players know to defend around the time of knights, but most do nothing for defense until then. This is why I am working on attacking in this period. Ive been working on delayed attacks(after the first 15-20 turns), and they can tear through their entire empire, sometimes with nothing more than a horse army, especially when you are a non-aggressive civ.

Like grayson said don't leave them alone. I know this takes some getting use to, because Im still working on it myself.

[Pedal2Metal]

Notice how everyone assumes that they are playing a passive opponent who isn't contemplating the exact same things against them? Notice how no one addresses the fundamental questions of:
How do I get units to attack while also defending my own cities against being attacked exactly as it's being suggested in this thread?!?

All things being equal, you'll just have a slug fest so clearly there's more to it than this. The map is a huge factor in determining what makes sense to go for. So ultimately, you need to be able to predict your opponent's current status (how & where are his defenses, etc...), the surrounding terrain/distances/etc... & his next likely move. So you'll have to have some means of formulating a plan & executing that plan while still expanding, teching, etc....

So my recommendation is do all these things & use militia as Grayson has suggested in other threads to view the defenses in your opponent's kingdom & be aware of the map & what makes the most sense. For example, if you have 1 & only 1 way to enter your kingdom by land, choke it out strongly. Now if you have a superior navy, you can put patrols along relevant coasts & just destroy any ships which come along. You don't have to do this for silly warrior on trees type of things but those types of things aren't game-changers, just annoyances. True attacks & empire defenses must be planned at a strategic level which is more than just following a set of disjoint tips w/o context of the map, opponents, etc....

And some things are just lucky. If a guy gets in your area early w/strong unit(s) due to 7 cities, KT, etc... it's going to be tough to repel so don't lose sleep over that. However by 2000 BC, you should usually be able to do something even w/slow start.

best regards,
Pedal2Metal

[Hellogoodbye123]

i hate when ppl press on me :(

i go from 15 cities, to 7-8 cites.. and it ruins my whole plan

i still regain them, with my strong culture, but it makes a bigggggggggggg hole in my plans....

[Pedal2Metal]

I love it when people press me and I'm playing the Spanish. If someone has built lots of offensive units and/or teched fast early in the game, it means they have close to 0 defenses. Perfect for galleon drop-offs! Lots of people forget that Spanish have the fastest movement early in the game & for some time beyond. They can move 4 squares in 1 turn w/galleon + unit. I've won 10-20% of my Spanish games w/early drop-offs against overly-aggressive opponents.

best regards,
Pedal2Metal

[Dzenith]

How much to press becomes even more complicated in FFA. I have had many games where 1 opponent spends all of his resources pressing another player, weakening them both in the process and leaving a third or fourth opponent free to expand at will.

I find one of the most frustrating aspects of FFA is when another player commits everything to pressing me early in the game, crippling my expansion and teching, only to quit around 0 AD when the opponent that has been left alone is smoking them in tech.