Ra Mesh Strategy Guide: Conquering Abroad

[DaCoroner]

Fun thread, and it looks like I'm the only one who actually likes using the Paratroops.

First, in multiplayer games a large stack of paratroops in a border city/airfield can seriously worry a human opponent. Against humans and AI alike they are very usefull for diversionary raids, just drop them away from the main attack area and see how many troops the enemy sends off to greet them. Also, they're not bad defensive units, if you can find some strategically important tiles it may take quite a few units to dig them out. As an alternative or supplement to merely bombing improvements, they will require the enemy to send workers AND military units to repair the damage. Scatter small stacks of them around the country side while your main invasion force moves in and watch the confussion as the enemy tries do decide whether or not you plan on using them to attack the 10 cities you just landed around

As for marines... Love 'em, but Spyder has pretty much coverd that side of it. Personally, I use them for any amphibious invasion, nothing says "I declare war" like taking over 4 or 5 coastal cities in one turn before they even know where you plan on attacking.

Also, a side note for the general concept you posted. It also works well against neighbors on the same continent. They'll expect the main attack over the land border, but what about a few transports full of Marines right up their tail... err, as the tail

 

[fullflava]

The two pronged approach is the one that is most effective. Your point that you need to force the enemy to face down two fronts is on the money since the AI has a tendency to stack almost all of its invasion/defense forces into one group. By splitting your invasion force in two you can occupy the AI in one place and wreak havoc everywhere else. Seems the AI can't compute being in two places at once.
Marines are very effective when capturing the less defended coastal cities because the AI does not get a chance to reinforce.
As for paratroopers, well, they can provide a nice distraction for the AI and draw units away from an attacking force. they can also be used to provide advance views of where ground troops are if placed on mountains as far inside enemy territory as possible. They have very weak attack and defense capabilites, so they can be used to sabotage improvements and create general havoc.
Nukes are dangerous because you can have every civ on the board turn against you if you use them too quickly. If you plan on nuking the capital (which starves the AI of resources) then make sure to get as many other civs in alliance with you before you launch an ICBM. Without a strong alliance you could find yourself in a very nasty and protracted war.
As for capturing cities, I prefer to raze everything I come across unless the city has a great wonder. Culture flips happen far too frequently, so be sure to bring along enough settlers to fill the gaps your troops create. Trust me, building a ton of small towns is far easier (and cheaper) than trying to keep the peace in cities in full revolt.
Personally, I also try to build factories and high-end power plants in every city as soon as possible so I can produce mechanized infantry and modern armor units as quickly as possible. That means you will be busy moving workers around cleaning up pollution, but if you build recycling centers and mass transit then you'll be fine.
Like I said, it takes time to build that kind of infrastructure, but once you do you will be so happy you did. Right now I am in the late stages of a game and am outproducing my primary rival -- the Persians -- because I can outproduce him on a grand scale. Along with the draftees I accrue on each turn, I am also producing between nine and 12 modern armor units per turn. Yes, with all of the production improvements in place you will garner a mech or m/a unit per turn in high pop cities. Once again, I cannot stress enough the importance of building factories as soon as possible.
For me they key is to get a healthy tech adavantage then simply outbuild the other countries left on the map until i can overrun them with units they can't even build yet.

 

[fullflava]

For me the key is to get into the industrial age to set up for a win in the latter stages of the game. I like long games, so sue me.

Anywho, keeping healthy established foreign relations is key for me. This way I can boost my economy through a realistic representation of trade, economic development, military buildup and infrastructure development. But once I hit the Industrial Revolution, lookout.

First off, build Leonardo's Workshop so you can improve your military at half the cost. Build the Hoover Dam to dot your map with hydro plants, and as soon as you can build factories in every city you control. Trust me, sacrificing military buildup in the short run pays off in the long tenfold, especially when you find yourself able to build your space ship about 10 times faster than your nearest competitor. Remember, the reason the United States turned the tide in WWII was not just because of its immediate military strength, but because it had a manufacturing base capable of outproducing both the Japanese and Germans at the same time. By the time the US landed at Normandy the German war machine was literally out of gasoline, its factories were kaput and the US was churning out enough tanks to run four blitzkriegs of Poland. Trust me, follow the mid-20th century model of the US if you enjoy a long game.

This strategy will force you to play nice with the AI for quite a while, but this will also allow you to lay rail lines all over the map while developing an infrastructure that will allow you to build battleships, tanks, mechanized infantry and modern armor at an astounding rate. The payoff comes in the modern age when you find yourself able to produce as many as 10 or more veteran (you do have the Art of War don't you?) units every turn to add on to draftees you are pulling out of your larger cities. Once you install nuclear power plants, you are on easy street, because if you play your cards right, you can have an economy that is pumping anywhere from 150 to 1200 per turn into your coffers.

So here's the breakdown:

1. Just get to the industrial revolution with solid relations and a high culture score. I have found high cultrue generally prevents overt aggression in most cases. Then begin building factories in every city you can.
2. Build Leonardo's Workshop and the Hoover Dam ASAP. Beat the AI to these two very important wonders and you will get an incredible advantage when it comes to building guns.
3. Keep enough workers around to keep building rail lines in every nook and cranny of your empire. You will need every shield you can get your hands on and the workers will be handy for pollution outbreaks.
3a. In the case of pollution, if you can keep a good 40 workers (either slaves or homegrown) around you can control most pollution problems in one turn. Do it and save yourself the trouble of waiting for sqaures to become available again. Also remember to micromange the cities every turn to maximize the production levels. When a square gets cleaned up, make sure that it gets worked again immediately.
4. As soon as you can, build cleaner running power plants and get those nuclear plants up and running. Unlike the real world, nukes here only go in to meltdown if you let a city go into prolonged unrest.
5. Build recycling centers and mass transit. They lower pollution levels to two per turn if both are built. Trust me, they remove a ton of hassles.
6. Churn out the military units and build an invasion force allowing you to run a classic two front (read: two enemy) war if need be.

On a side note:

I prefer to build a gigantic navy to coinide with my ground forces. I like to have about 20 to 30 battleships at the ready and at least five aircraft carriers. This way I can ring my empire and repel transports and marauding vessels. Trust me, nothing beats a state isolated from the riff raff in this game.

Any thoughts guys? Similar experiences, anecdotes, feedback, strategies? Anywho, I love this site.

 

[Dines]

Hi all,
I dont get the it?
When I make an oversea assult in the ages ramesh speaks of, it goes like this.
(I only attack if theres a reason.. so the civ Im planning to attack is most likely in power lead and strong!)

Build up an army...... HUGE!
Build up some subs and a few battle ships.. recon the oversea route...
Build airports (lots and lots!!) in cities and on non used tiles as many as possible!!!
load a settler and rest workers in a transport.
Turn 1 of invasion.
Go to coastline (I supose you have a specefic destination) unload settler at the spot you want the city and scatter workersaround the settler as possible. This should be far from enemy cities as possible best in non railed hills if possible.
Turn 2 build
1 Setup city.
2 Build airport with worker
3 Build radar with worker.
Now all you got to do is fly in the army, 1 airport can take 1 troop.
So the number of the invasion troops will be desided by airports on homeland.
Wupti you have the entire force on your enemies land.
A bonus is that the new build airport can also get the entire Airforce you have in 1 turn!
Moreover you can fly in reinforcements as they are build in the homeland....

The only thing about this is you have to transport artillery the oldfasioned way....

Now all you gotta do is bomb and spread death!

HAWK

 

[daengle]

RaMesh's conquest strategy better work...

While I am all in favor of massing one's forces before an attack, the army that he describes is enormous.

In the article he recommends attacking with -

shield cost
------------------------------------------
8 radar artillery 960
8 mech infantry 880
16 modern armor 1920
4 transports 400
3 carriers 540
6 jets 600
6 stealth bombers 1440
------------------------------------------
Total 6740 shields

Plus an unspecified number of battleships and nuclear subs.

A complete starship only costs 3200.

 

[Wahsayah]

Nice tactics but only thing i think your lacking is more aircraft carriers, I personally mass produce about 5-8 carriers and even more battleships, depending how my day is going, but I have my carriers to prevent the enemy from nuking my whole damn established beachhead and wasting it all in one blow so i always make suren i ahve a few destroyers outside my little box of carriers to watch for subs, and if i see other battleships the next turn i simply callin another battleship or bomb the hell out of the ships, but i don't like to bomb the ships simply because they have thier ways of downing my aircraft, even if they are stealth so normally i go Sea to Sea combat, but the thing what i do with my battleships is just send them out each with a destroyer as they serve as not only a rtillery platform, but as shore reconnassince to, i personally will leave a battleship or two behind with eh carriers should them enemy try to pull some crap with any other ship so i can sue my battleships and own them at sea. only thing though i think this game always has a way of pissing me off for is when i'm fighting britain and they send out a few ancient frigates againest my battleship and they ACTUALY HURT MY BATTLESHIP! the whole ideology of a british frigate doing damage to a battleship with more than 10" inches of Clas A steel and somehow by the power of god himself, make that lil british cannon fire a cannonball traveling at about 200 miles per hour, actually do damage to the hull of that battleship, and yet so far this is the only way i found how that whole thing is possible.....


But back to the article, i normally use aircraft as a primary destroyer of land units and i take some faster units like tanks and just move them in the city once the aerial bombing of that city is done to try and conserve my forces for the next invasion that will go onto who ever the hell pisses me off or whoever i hate the most, and occasionally i'll pick the strongest person on the map, even if i am not already just to have some fun.

Now i never been a fan of destroying strategic resources even though i know it is vital for a quick war but to maximize my fun in the game i take out all thier forces before i start bombing thier resources to stop them from building anymore, sometimes i don't even use bombing on them resources since usually by the time i think about bombing that resource is usually when i have control of the land already or am a turn away form doing it and in any which case i don't.

However if i am facing a world power, i do not haste and will bomb all thier vital roads, area's, radio stations, forts, unescorted forces, and all resources with strategic resources being the first to go, the next thing is i try to bomb the hell out of a city usually with precision strikes to help evade the trading ways of a city to the motherland or other people.

But i am always sure to pack at least 10 modern tanks and a few mech infatry before going, but i usually mass fill my 5-10 tranports with marines and modern armor, as a matter of fact i'll tell you the roder in which i do the following in.

1. bomb the enemy back to the stone age.

2. bomb the major cities or look for a beachhead.

3. set units on that square, either it be a city or a normal square, but always sure to do the bombings first before landing, and since i'm in enemy territory i bomb all roads to my city or beachhead.

4. continue bombing the enemy back to the stone age and begin major assaults on the cities.

5. By the third turn the enemy is devastated by the sheer force and is usually taken out completely about 5-20 turns later and removed from the game, then i begin to feel sorry for who else is on that continent and I will have to kick off of the continent anf if not the game......it's a cruel world in the games play, but i usually like to be isolated on an island or islands with resources rather than owning a continent and i was never a fan of sharing continents so usually about 50 turns into the game i begin invasions on my neighbors and start taking land before they grow strong so that i may flourish my country.

 

[Wahsayah]

however though i usually never use artillery as an offensive platform , but I will use it if it's within range or if the enemy decides to bring thier ships in for a tour of my country, I usually welcome them with Harpoon missiles then.