Ironclads and Destroyers

[BaronVonHungste]

Hey all,

I just recently discovered just what an impact running half a dozen Ironclads with Leo's, Sun Tzu's and Magellan's will do to soften up the enemy. I usually like to turtle on my own island, tech up then bring 4 transports full of armor and mech. inf to conduct continent-wide blitzkrieg on the enemy. This time, I started with more of an emphasis on exploring and man does it make a difference.

The Ironclads/Destroyers scout out almost the entire map and shell the enemy coastline until ground forces arrive. Then it's clear out all defenders with the ironclad and take the city with no resistance. I can't believe I waited this long to figure out how cool these ships are.... especially Vet Destroyers that can move 8 spaces each turn!

Are there any other naval strategies anyone can share?

The other one I do is bribe all pirate barbarian landing party boats and use them as my own.

 

[Prof. Garfield]

In civ2, navies are not actually all that useful. After railroad, sea units become much less flexible than ground units. With railroads and a few spacious and cheap transports, ground units can travel across your empire in a turn. You can take most of your offensive ground units to fight an enemy, wipe them out, and in a couple turns have them all poised to strike your next target. Meanwhile, sea units get stuck traveling at 6 spaces per turn, and will take a long time to move from place to place; they are only good for one conquest.

A ship's slow movement is also a hindrance when you're trying to rehome units. If you want to spread support around (particularly in a democracy, or if your producer city meets a certain multiple almost exactly) it takes much longer for your navy to get into the field; also, navies can't do very much in a city, so in a democracy they are a constant source of unhappiness.

Usually, you build sea units if you want to fight a protracted, limited war. Sea units can then protect your transport chain against attacks, or they can harass the coast. The latter, while fun, probably isn't a very good use of resources (unless you are fighting pre-gunpowder units with an ironclad) as your ship will get worn down rather quickly and become a sitting duck. In the former case, either the outlay should be moderate, or you should consider moving the ship chain to a less dangerous area.

You might also want to use navy units if you want to move some strike power into position while waiting for a "diplomatic incident," since sea units can't be forced to withdraw. If you do, and have the technology, bring along an aircraft carrier and a bunch of stealth fighters.

In the rare event where you find yourself fighting an enemy across a large body of water that separates your two civs, you have two strategies: try to win, or, try not to lose. If you can outproduce your enemy, build battleships and AEGIS Cruisers and try to win. If you can't outproduce your enemy (or don't want to) build submarines and keep them relatively close to home, while trying to intercept all the ships coming for you.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

When attacking single tile cities your only choices are marines, naval bombardment, or air bombardment. Of the three naval bombardment is the best.

As for other naval strategies, I try to use destroyers only for scouting and do the actual attacking with Cruisers and later battleships.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The other one I do is bribe all pirate barbarian landing party boats and use them as my own.

Doesn't that leave you with a lot of triremes? What do you do with them all?

 

[Terrapin]

Triremes can always be upgraded with Leo's. I like to do this after magnetism so that I upgrade them to Galleons to avoid unhappiness in their supporting cities while they are busy making up my ship chains.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

I usually like to turtle on my own island, tech up then bring 4 transports full of armor and mech. inf to conduct continent-wide blitzkrieg on the enemy. ... I can't believe I waited this long to figure out how cool ...

You owe it to yourself to study the Early Conquest techniques developed over time and mastered by players like Peaster. They do not even get to the early industrial age to use Ironclads and destroyers. They conquer the world with Crusaders on Triremes.

 

[BaronVonHungste]

You owe it to yourself to study the Early Conquest techniques developed over time and mastered by players like Peaster. They do not even get to the early industrial age to use Ironclads and destroyers. They conquer the world with Crusaders on Triremes.

links plz

Thanks for all the responses, guys.

I'll have to learn how to do a ship chain.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Hopefully Peaster will see this soon and respond on how to get his early conquest guide.

As for links, here is what I found searching the site:

Ship chain strategies: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=244754

Early Conquest Guide: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=113188

Discussions about early conquest:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=223483
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=259314

 

[BaronVonHungste]

Thx Ali... those links help a lot. I've never been one for EC, as I'm more of a perfectionist when city building, but the efficiency is hard to beat.

Also, not having to deal with the enemy civ using modern military units like riflemen and mechanized infantry makes things a lot less stressful.

Although I've never like Crusaders, I'll take them if it means I'll be going up against mostly Phalanxes and Archers...

 

[Ali Ardavan]

You will learn a lot and have a lot more fun by joining the GOTMs. GOTM 112 is still ongoing and GOTM 113 just got started. If you are a builder (as opposed to conqueror) and a perfectionist, you should enjoy GOTM113 tremendously. Check it out.