Logistics of an assault, need some help

Ok, I'm invading the Incas with about 16 gren and about 16 trebs, but I really have no idea where to start. Its always been a weakness of mine, how to move my troops around and where to attack first etc.

So any tips(general of specific)?

Thanks!

Here is the incan territory:

I'm no expert but, in general, I would say go first for those cities that either:

I. Have important strategic resurces(horses, iron, oil)
II. Or have good production

From what I can tell from the screenshot, a possible assault route could be:

Tiwanaku -> Capital

Tiwanaku is their largest city, plus it's coastal so it would serve as a good beachhead for your attack. After those two cities you have propably reduced their production quite a bit.

Of course, I can't see the resources, so it might even be good to attack some small city just to deny them some strategic resource.

I personally would hold off and whip/draft/rush pay for some defence troops (rifles/infantry?) before any invasion. Ensure you have some frigates in your landing group, and choose a target.

I would possibly land on the peninsula (hills) below Tiwanakus pop counter, and establish a "base". Soak up the attacks which will ensue, and bring in reinforcements. When you've seen them off for a few turns, strike.

Separate a smaller force to get Ica, and throw the bulk first at Tiwanaku, then at Cuzco. Assuming the fights go well, move the extra reinforcements (ie rifles and siege weapons) to Cuzco, with a view to moving onto the northern cities.

It's a bit general, but I can't emphasise enough:

Frigates: Good for harassment, can soften city defences while the land forces are still traversing countryside. Also needed for Galleon cover!

Defence Troops: Take a good group of rifles with City Garrison (or adapt their promotions to the Incan troops). They can hold off the initial repulse when you land, and will be invaluable in securing larger locations such as Cuzco.

This could all change depending on resources of course - if you're facing Knights/Cavalry, try and land your beaching team close to the resource, and after the repulse head there to cripple the finest enemy units.

I would establish my beachhead on the northern peninsula, taking Cori first, followed by Ollyatumbo. This is because I could focus all my forces on the next city without worrying about leaving a large enough garrison behind as the city cannot be flanked. I follow the general rule to have as small of a border as possible.

Once the northern two cities are taken, I would take Andaya, then Vitcos, then Vilcambaba. At this point, if I need to heal, I'd sue for peace and get a bunch of gold. 10 turns later (or however long it takes to get adequate Trebs/Grenadiers) I would then continue, taking Huamanga, then Cuzco. After that, mop up the west then the east.

The Tiwanaku -> Cuzco direct route may leave you vulnerable to attacks on Tiwanaku or Cuzco. Furthermore, Cuzco may be significantly culturally pressured by the surrounding Inca cities and be mostly useless until you can free it from that pressure.

so thats 3 different suggestions in 3 posts.

Thats Civ for you, so many ways to do thing

I agree with Spammurabi - you want to establish an easy to defend beachhead.

Also attack a city where you can camp on hills or forests next to the city. You will face a steady stream of attacks to begin with.

What tech level are the Incans? I wouldn't try this without rifles unless you are sure they don't have cavalry. The AI spam cavalry and they would eat your grenadiers for breakfast. If you are fighting only medieval units you should be OK.

Make sure your grenadiers include some defensive promotions - most of your battles in this war will be with you defending. Your Trebs should do most of the attacking vs longbows - you will need every grenadier you can muster to hold off their counterattacks.

Don't stop building troops - keep them coming over. Thats why its important that your beachhead is easy to defend - you don't really have lots of garrison troops.

Another advantage to starting with the northern peninsula: Reinforcements have a much shorter route to travel. If you have any doubts about how resistance you will meet, this is clearly the most conservative approach.

I guess the advantage to going for Tiwanaku first, then the capital is if you are confident in your military superiority, and wish to break the Incas as quickly as possible. Acquisition of wonders, shrines etc. could also play a role - I see Cuzco is the founding city for Buddhism. Maybe it has a shrine (rubs hands gleefully)?

I would go for the Tiwanaku -> capitol route.

Reasons:
It is nearer of your territory

It is the biggest city of them ( your info is updated?)

It has a line of hills right to the capitol ( defensive ground while advancing)

I would combine that with a reinforcement stack landed near Huamanga.

P.S : Put pikes in the stack. Grens are vulnerable to mounted units (even knights can kill them with some ease)

Luckily for me, Huyana doenst have Liberalism, Music, Printing Press or Chemistry. So I'm pretty sure I have pretty good tech lead on him. So I doubt I will encounter cavs or rifles. Knights definately will be the biggest issue. I didnt even think about bring pikes. Thats definately one of my biggest weaknesses in regards to warmongering. I always build these 2 unit stacks and never think about bring 5-6 different types of units.

I'll probably attack from the top, since I also dont like having a very large exposed border. As the intial invasion force is going over, I'll be whipping some garrison troops and sending them over.

Hmmm, just looked at the power graph and Huyana is just barely below me. Not sure if thats good or bad. I guess I can expect to encounter a lot of knights. Which makes me wonder if its worthile to go and pillage the Horses first . . . so many choices! aaagghgh

Oh, hes also got the shrine for both taoism and buddhism.

It would help if you could post the screencap with the resource button triggered and if you could list your other assets (resources, GP, etc). but generally I'd hit Tiwanku first (expect losses) and I'd bring at least five Rifles in addition to your current loadout but if need be those can wait, they should be ready for pickup on your mainland by the time the boats return from the initial invasion. If there's a costal strategic resource you should land a few of your best defender on top of it immediately after declaring to pillage it and hold the square. Burn all the infrastructure you can, only developed cottages should be spared.

Ok, just finished taking him out. He only had musketmen as defenders and a few knights(eventually he got rifleman, but they were no match for my CR3 Grenaiders). I probably could've used more pikemen/riflemen as his knights kinda became annoying.

I appreciate all the advice. Two things I definately need to work on is building more support troops and more garrison troops.

That's generally good advice. If they seem like tough opponents though, it's also good to build up momentum by taking their weakest cities (ones with near zero defense ratings) to at least raze.

Poppis said:

in general, I would say go first for those cities that either:

I. Have important strategic resurces(horses, iron, oil)
II. Or have good production
/QUOTE]

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Spammurabi said:

I would establish my beachhead on the northern peninsula, taking Cori first, followed by Ollyatumbo. This is because I could focus all my forces on the next city without worrying about leaving a large enough garrison behind as the city cannot be flanked. I follow the general rule to have as small of a border as possible.

Once the northern two cities are taken, I would take Andaya, then Vitcos, then Vilcambaba. At this point, if I need to heal, I'd sue for peace and get a bunch of gold. 10 turns later (or however long it takes to get adequate Trebs/Grenadiers) I would then continue, taking Huamanga, then Cuzco. After that, mop up the west then the east.

The Tiwanaku -> Cuzco direct route may leave you vulnerable to attacks on Tiwanaku or Cuzco. Furthermore, Cuzco may be significantly culturally pressured by the surrounding Inca cities and be mostly useless until you can free it from that pressure.

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I agree with this.
The 2 northern cities are big = it would hurt incas a lot.
About reinforcements, I guess you should aim for steel. canons are a lot better than trebuchets.
The other option, if you can afford it, is to build up a large navy (= enough frigates to bomb down the defenses+ enough galleons to carry your grenadiers) and hit from the coast only. That'if you intend to mostly raze those cities.

I would attack from the north, capture 2-3 cities, and wait reinforcments, then finish them off.

I would say leave the frigates, if you have Caravels and galleons when everyone else is using paddles I'd go with it.

Soneji said:

I would say leave the frigates, if you have Caravels and galleons when everyone else is using paddles I'd go with it.

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obviously, you didn't look at the map!
1) It's 1520AD, so I guess everyone has at least optics.
2) there is a bit of water to cross = better have galleons.
3) The OP said he had grenadiers, so he has chemistry. if he has galleons = astronomy and chemistry, he can build frigates, right?

Tiwanaku-Capital for sure. From there, it's pretty much mop-up duty.

Late post but here would be my advice.

1) Send the grenaders and trebs to the nothren most Cori city, take that then go south and take Olla... Sue for peace
2) While you are doing thi send you galleons home. Build more support troups (riflemen, pikes, horse units if you have them) on your smaller island to Guard against the inevitable coulter attack.
3) Build an armada with Frigates/Galleons and a variety of troops in you stacks in the bigger island (more production?). Sail towards the southern side and sit outside Machu Pichu (far enough way so he doesn't see you.
4) Bring your support troops from the small island to Olli.. and send what troops are on land already south (Vittios) and fight for a few turns.
5) At this point launch your armadat at Machu pichu and Vilchambu.
6) Hold the new cities luanch attacks on the two desert cities and raise them. At that point you can launch a pincher attack on the capital and mop up the west coast

I think it all depends on HOW you want to conquer the territory -- and bear in mind, that is what you're conquering, not the people.

You have to ask yourself if it's worth it to try to take and hold EVERY city, or if you'd be better served razing some and keeping only the ones that are, say, >5 population.

As a general rule, if you're warring to conquer and grab all the cities, you need garrison troops. I try to land on a square next to a coastal city, preferably one that's got good defenses (forrested hill, jungle, or forrest). When planning the attack, bring defensive troops that'll have good defenses for that specific territory. And don't forget to bring the medics. A pikeman with Combat I and Medic I, and a pikeman with hill defense or whathaveyou can be very very useful. Also, don't SIMPLY build city-raider units for attacks. Sometimes you'll have to fight in open country and those CR3 troops will be worthless against combat I or higher promoted troops (which the AI loves).

Often, I'll take a coastal city and wait for the counter-attack. The AI is oftend dumb enough to send its Stack o' Doom to hit you at this city, so if you're well defended with garrison troops, you can fight him off and severely deplete his military.

You also have to decide how you want to fight. Will you try to decapitate him, cutting off his production capabilities? Will you strike deep into his territory, take his capital, and let him come to you? Or will you nibble away at the edges of his empire, letting him chase you around while you raze his weaker cities?

Personally, I advise going for the high-pop cities ASAP. The AI is notorious for having population 18 cities that all of a sudden become population 9 cities with a large garrison or the beginnings of a Stack of Doom.

Another thing to consider is bringing along a pillaging stack or two, to cut off his strategic resources (ivory, iron, copper, mines, etc.). Remember, the only things you can't rebuild quickly are cottages and their upgraded equivalents.

Also, don't be afraid to starve him out by razing his farms. You'll cut down his ability to whip new troops while his peasants starve.

In retrospect I should've done the Tiwakana -> capital route. By the time I got there via the north he had upgraded to rifles and had a lot of knights.

If I had taken his core cities first I doubt he would've been able to do such. Also all I needed was to vassalize him to get my dom victory, so I think the AIs tend to capitulate if you take their capital.

Also, the culture from his capital was incredible my cities were constantly in and out of revolt.