Radames
Posts: 77
Joined: 8/6/2004 Status: offline
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Gaza is my favorite map, although not necessarily my favorite battle. I love the city scenery. I've won Gaza each time, but only the last time (#4?) through got a major victory, as this was the first time I took more than one flag. My strategy is in a large part determined by the choices I made that first time through, since I now know what to expect. I should also point out that all but the last try was using the beta builds, which had slightly different AI reactions. On my first time, I decided I would try for a right flanking maneuver. At the outset, I shifted most of my cavalry along the wall to the right side while advancing the rest of my army to contact with the idea that 5-6 turns in I could make the main attack. I was taken by surprise by the cavalry that shows up from my far right! So instead of making an overwhelming attack, as I had intended, my cavalry ended up arriving just in time - but at that point I was only able to fight to a standstill. Meanwhile, I am desperately watching the red and blue bars at the top of the screen. Although my line is now a mess, I've managed to give a little better than I've taken. Particularly on my far left, some judicious manuevering can draw out the chariots, hit them in the flank, and make up in points what I'm losing on the right. Just in the nick of time, the enemy routed giving me a minor victory. As I've said, I've repeated this (I think) four times, but I've always tried varations on my original (accidental) strategy. I've always won by routing, not by taking all objectives. My key strategies are these. 1) Reinforce the right from the beginning. The initial setup doesn't have enough to counter the enemy cavalry, but waiting until the enemy is spotted probably means its too late to get anything there. 2) Push through the enemy center (there's a lot of axemen, susceptible to charge) and neutralize the enemy archers. If they are behind the lines when you stop moving, they'll kill you. 3) Finally, to successfully take 2 of 3 flags, I played a little differently. I advanced more slowly to start with, not trying to force an early contact. In response, the enemy move forward much sooner. Then I sent a small contigent (2 cavalry, 1 spear) through gaps in the lines to grab objectives, while the battle was still mostly at the line of those first two obelisks.
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