A Four-Phase Deity Domination Victory Strategy (Modern Age)
1. Sample Walkthrough
1.1 Basic Setting
1.2 Walk Through
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
Phase II. First War.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Phase IV. The Second War
2. Tactics and Execution
2.1 Basic Tactics
2.2 Knowing Yourself; Knowing Your Enemy
1.2.1 Land War
2.2.2 Navy War
2.2.3 Combined Land and Navy Assault
2.3 Attacking with Overwhelming Force in a Single Battlefield
2.4 Strategic Placement of the Cities
2.5 Mobility is the Key to Success
2.6 Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force
2.7 Economic Attack First, Military Attack Second
2.8 Station workers in Oil, Iron, and Aluminum
2.9 Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retreat your forces to the safety of the City
2.10 Understanding the Role of capturing the First City
2.11 Knowing you will win and then march into battle
3. Battlefield Development
3.1 Four Phases
3.2 Preparing the First War
3.3 First War
3.4 Preparation for the Second War
3.5 Second War
4. Sample Walk Through 2
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
Phase II. First War.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Phase IV. The Second War
A Four-Phase Deity Domination Victory Strategy (Modern Age)
Version 1.0
1. Sample Walkthrough
I choose this example because it involves both land and naval battle. The next walkthrough will be strictly a naval battle. Pure naval battles are a bit easier because your invasion force is protected in the transport carriers.
1.1 Basic Setting
Difficulty: Deity
Speed: Quick
World Size: Dual
Map: Islands
Era: Future
Leader: Napoleon against Huayna Capac (Random)
Requirement: oil, iron, and aluminum
Comments:
· Which leader you will fight against has a significant impact on the game execution, but not the game strategy.
· If you do not meet the above requirements, restart the game.
1.2 Walk Through
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
The objective in this phase is to achieve a certain military strength. If you declare the first war, you will be able to achieve this objective. If your opponent declares the first war, you might not be able to achieve the full objective, but you should come to close to your objective.
1. Strategic placement of the cities for battle.
I have six cities; and the entire coastline has cities.
2. Naval Force Preparation.
I plan to set up three “Defensive Fleet”, left fleet, right fleet, and back fleet (I will discuss Pillaging fleet and Offensive fleet later). Each fleet consists of 10 units:
· 4 Battleships
· 1 Destroyer
· 5 Stealth Bombers
However, Huayna Capac started the first war when I reached this point
Left fleet: full strength;
Right fleet: missing a bomber;
Back fleet: only 2 battleships.
This will be enough.
3. Land Force Preparation
The plan is for 6 jets. In addition, two back cities have 2 units each and the four front cities have the following number of units: 3, 5, 3, and 5.
Huayna Capac started the first war before I could reach this strength.
Phase II. First War.
The primary objectives are:
· Destruction of his invasion force
· Achieve naval domination
The secondary objectives are:
· Maximize destruction of his production capacity with Air Force.
· Gain 1 or 2 cities in peace settlement if possible.
1. Huayna Capac declared war. (If he did not, I would have declared the war. It makes no difference who declares the war; the battle plan is exactly the same. The weakest point of AI is that he is predictable. However, being predictable does not mean being easy.)
2. Huayna Capac send two fleets. Here are the components of each fleet:
Fleet A
ForceID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging with aircraft
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
Here:
4T, 2D = 4 transport carriers, 2 destroyers, 22 units total (4 transport carriers and 16 land units)
1A, 3D = 1 aircraft carrier, 3 destroyers, 7 units total (1 carrier, 3 fighters, 3 destroyers)
2B = 2 battleships.
Fleet B
ForceID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the earliest opportunity. A1 and B1 are absolutely the sweets and you will love them.
3. Identification of A1 and B2 Forces
This step is so important, so I listed these two bomber flights as a single step.
4. Initial Battle
4A. I usually see A3 and B3 first before A1 and B1 appear. That gives me a chance to wipe A3 and B3 out. Fight both in a distance where you can retrieve your ship. For example, if his ship is 5 spaces from your city and your destroyer can travel 8 spaces, then your destroyer will travel 4 spaces to have a fight and then travel 4 spaces back to the city.
4B. Allocate two bombers per enemy unit if possible.
4C. You should wipe out A3 and B3 with almost no damage.
5. Sweets.
5A. As soon as A1 and B1 are within striking distance, allocate all of your air resources to do the maximum damage to A1 and B1. After that, they will be heavily damaged and will be your ice cream in the entire war. This is the place you might not be able to retrieve your naval units after fighting; and therefore, you will lose some units here. Had this been a land war, you could destroy both A1 and B2 with almost no losses because you could retrieve your units back to the city.
5B. In my battle, he managed to land 8 units, which is not a major problem.
To summarize it: Spot it, Bomb it, Destroy it, and Retrieve your forces to the safety of city.
6. Finish the rest of his fleet.
7. Annoying stream of attacks. The general sequence is this:
2B, 2B, nothing, 2D1C, nothing,
2B, 2B, nothing, 2D1C, nothing,
…
At this point, all of the AI’s cities are pumping out units and as soon as these units are produced, they are headed your way, so you will receive a stream of attacking units. They will cause damage to your units, but you should not loose any units. Again, bombers will be used first, and then ground units.
8. My Back fleet is finally built with 4B, 1D, 1A and three fighters. I begin to bomber his resources with three fighters, which did little damage. Had this been a land war, all healed stealthy bombers will be out, which can do a lot more damage.
9. King Huayna Capac came for peace. I love this guy; he gives me three out of his six cities. Had I fought with Napoleon or Julius Caesar, I would have gotten none. That will be the next walk
through in section 4. By giving me the three cities, I have gained control of his oil field so he will no longer be able to build modern navy units. The rest of the battle will be a land war.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Because I have gained control of his oil and cities on his island, the next battle will be a land war. He lost half of his cities so the next war is much easier than it should be (No such luck in the next walk through). He has lost half of his forces, including entire navy and sea domination.
My airports are ready to ship land units and the Transport finishes the additional logistical works. Since my island is out of his reach (he will still try with ancient ships), this phase becomes much shorter than normal.
The most important assets are 20 bombers. Why do I even have this phase to start with? Well, many reasons, in this case, I have gained several cities and his oil field.
Phase IV. The Second War
Obviously, you will declare the second war. Once again, AI will fight will a predictable pattern, i.e. in a land war, two army groups; in a naval war, two fleets; and in a mixed war, 2 army groups and one fleet. However, in the second war, A1 and B1 is only at half of the strength of the first war, if you can reduce the length of Phase III.
The objectives are:
· Destruction of his invasion force
· Complete destruction of his production capacity with stealth bombers
· Capture of the first city.
· End the game.
1. I Declared War.
2. Huayna Capac sent two army groups. In a land war, AI will generally send two army groups. The normal components of each Army group:
Army group A
ForceID Number Function
A1 20 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging rail
A4 2 Pillaging resource
Army group B
ForceID Number Function
B1 20 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging rail
B4 2 Pillaging resource
In this case, his is only half of the normal strength. The most important job you will need to do is
to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment.
3. Identification of A1 and B2 Forces
This step is so important that I listed two bomber flights as a single step.
4. Initial Battle
4A. I usually see A3 and B3 first before A1 and B1 appear. That gives me a chance to wipe A3 and B3 out. Fight both in a distance that you can retrieve your units. He will destroy your railroad; your worker will repair the rail faster.
4B. Allocate two bombers per enemy unit if possible.
4C. You should wipe out A3 and B3 with almost no damage.
5. Sweets.
5A. As soon as A1 and B1 are within striking distance, allocate all of your air resources to do the maximum damage to A1 and B1. After that, they will be heavily damaged and will be your ice cream for the second time. The good news is that A1 and B1 are at least one turn apart; it makes your job so much easier.
6. Fish the rest of his attack force.
This completes Phase 4-1.
7. Annoying Streams of Attacks. At this point, all of the AI’s cities are producing units and as soon as these units are produced, they are headed to your way. So you will receive a stream of attacking units. They will cause damage to your units, but you should not loose any units. Again bombers first and then ground units.
8. Use bombers to destroy all of his land and sea improvements. He will lose his production capacity. But he will still maintain the stream of attacks, at the cost of dropping his total number of units.
This completes Phase 4-2.
9. Capturing the first city is the most important offensive step. If you execute this step well, the war is basically over, because it is here that you will annihilate at least half of all his forces. This is also the biggest difference between the land and naval battle; had this been a naval battle, the invasion force will stay inside 7 transports and will be totally untouchable. For the first time, your force is unprotected. Send units to his city while you reduce his culture defense to zero with bombers.
10. Once his culture defense is down, concentrate your entire air force to do unit damage. This is followed by a stack attack of your land unit. The most important tactics here is not to capture the city. YOU MUST LEAVE HIS LAST UNITS THERE.
11. In the next turn, his city will be back up to almost the previous strength. Repeat Step 10. You should do this as long as necessary, or as long as your units can support. Allocate enough force for this task. Remember, at this point, he no longer has the production capability. He can only fight with the units he has on hand.
12. Finally, there is no longer a point to wait, capture the First City.
This completes Phase 4-3.
13. The rest should be easy.
Congratulations! You have just wasted a whole day; and sorry to your wife/husband or girl/boy friend.
2. Tactics and Execution
2.1 Basic Tactics
The basic tactics used are:
· Knowing yourself; knowing your enemy; you will win 100% of the time.
· Attacking with overwhelming force in a single battlefield.
· Knowing you will win and then march into battle.
· Strategic placement of the cities for battle.
· Mobility is the key to success.
· Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force.
· Economic attack first, military attack second.
· Station workers in oil, iron, and aluminum.
· Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retrieve your forces to the safety of the city.
· Understanding the role of capturing the First City.
The first three strategies are straight out of Sun-Tzu’s “Art of War” 2000 years ago. You think I am here quoting his work; I should at least read the book, right? Well, I have been trying to read that book ever since Michael Douglas’s quote in “Wall Street”. It has been 20 years since then. Does he still collect royalties for his book?
2.2 Knowing Yourself; Knowing Your Enemy
The weakest point of AI is that they fight in a basically predictable pattern; and because of that, they will lose.
For sake of discussion, let us assume that an AI has 6 cities, send a spy into these cities, and you will find a huge stack of forces. You will face these forces in a fixed manner. When a war is declared, either by him or by you, these forces will be sent to you in a fixed manner. As a result, these forces will go to their grave at almost no cost to you.
At the Deity Level, I often found:
(1) AI’s force will outnumber mine by 2 to 1;
(2) AI will send a bit over half of all his forces to me at once.
1.2.1 Land War
In a land war, AI will generally send two army groups. If AI is fully ready, here are the components of each Army group:
Army group A
Force_ID Number Function
A1 20 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging
A4 2 Pillaging
Army group B
Force_ID Number Function
B1 20 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging
B4 2 Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment.
2.2.2 Navy War
The navy war mirrors the land war. If AI is fully ready, here are the components of each fleet:
Fleet A
Force ID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
Here:
4T, 2D = 4 transport carriers, 2 destroyers, 22 units total (4 transport carriers and 16 land units)
1A, 3D = 1 aircraft carrier, 3 destroyers, 7 units total (1 carrier, 3 fighters, 3 destroyers)
2B = 2 battleships.
Fleet B
Force_ID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment. A1 and B1 are absolutely the sweets and you will love them.
2.2.3 Combined Land and Navy Assault
In this case, you will face two army groups and one fleet:
Army group A
Force_ID Number Function
A1 18 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging
Army group B
Force ID Number Function
B1 18 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging
Fleet C
Force_ID Number Function
C1 2T, 2D City Raider
C2 1A, 3D Pillaging
C3 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1, B1 and C1 at the first available moment.
2.3 Attacking with Overwhelming Force in a Single Battlefield
AI will outnumber your forces in a 2 to 1 ratio at the deity level when the first war starts. The first wave of the attack forces, at its full strength, will consist of 50 units. To me, that is more than my entire force.
AI has several weaknesses here:
· The attack force A and attack force B are not synchronized. They are off by at least one turn, quite possibly by two turns, because they are sent to you from their stationed cities directly. This one turn or two turn differences are fatal.
· AI does not have the mobility you have; they can only move 2 squares in each turn, sometimes only one square, if the artilleries are involved.
As a result, you will wipe out A1 first, and then B1 next.
When you finish his first wave of 50 units, you will lose about 10 units as follows: 1 or 2 land units, 1 or 2 naval units, 2 or 3 workers for repairing your railroad (they do a lot of repairing in one turn and then die the next turn), and 5 – 6 air units.
How to execute this 5:1 loss ratio:
· Engage the enemy at a fixed distances only;
· Use 20 Air Force units to do the maximum or close to the maximum damage to A1, and then to B1;
· Land attack to wipe A1 or B1 out;
· Use the railroad to retrieve all of your units back to the city after a fight.
I will have more discussions on this topic later.
2.4 Strategic Placement of the Cities
In the initial phase of the war, any units outside of a city will be lost; therefore, when a unit finishes a fight, it must be allowed to retreat to the safety of a city. This is the key to achieve 1:5 loss ratios in your advantage.
There are several things you can do to facilite this:
· The front is placed in a strategic location;
· The frontline city has high culture value so it will have 3 spaces to the border;
· The railroad system is established very well with some redundancy in front of these cities;
· There are workers stationed in these cities, ready for a suicide repairing.
The city placement is especially important if you are preparing for a naval battle. The battleships and destroyers need to be launched from one city, conduct a fight, and retreat to another city.
2.5 Mobility is the Key to Success
Mobility offers the protection of your forces after the fight and allows you to have a 1:5 loss ratio in your favor. Again, trade workers for railroad. A worker can repair a lot in just one turn. Also, at least 30% of your total force will be Air Force to ensure the maximum mobility.
2.6 Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force
The key to killing an enemy unit without losing your unit is the Air Force. Most of your losses will also be the Air Force units. The good news is that you can ship them anywhere very fast.
2.7 Economic Attack First, Military Attack Second
Once you wipe out the opponent’s first wave of attacks, all of his city will be pumping out units. As soon as these units are produced, they are sent to you. Assuming he has 6 cities, producing units at the rate of 1, 1, 1, 0.5, 0.33, 0.25; then you will receive 4 units from him each turn on average. These 4 units will not cause much damage, but they do keep 8 Air Force units occupied and injured. They also cause some damage to your ground units, even though you do not lose any ground units.
This will be a major problem if you are on the offensive. To reduce this stream of attacks, you have to bomb his resources.
2.8 Station workers in Oil, Iron, and Aluminum
Station workers in oil, iron, and aluminum, together with the anti-air units. The workers will repair the well or mine in one turn.
2.9 Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retreat your forces to the safety of the City
The most important two battles will be undoubtedly the destruction of A1 and B1, and capturing the first city. The tactics for A1 and B1 annihilation is air force, air force, and air force. The tactics for such annihilation with almost no loss of units except minor damage is mobility, mobility, and mobility. Mobility is not free; it will cost you several workers.
2.10 Understanding the Role of capturing the First City
The goal is to achieve the maximum fight right here. Think about it; the city has no culture defense and any units in there will be instantaneously bombed to minimum strength; why not engage them there and reduce them there? So be patient, as long as they have something to spare in the first city, take it.
1. Sample Walkthrough
1.1 Basic Setting
1.2 Walk Through
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
Phase II. First War.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Phase IV. The Second War
2. Tactics and Execution
2.1 Basic Tactics
2.2 Knowing Yourself; Knowing Your Enemy
1.2.1 Land War
2.2.2 Navy War
2.2.3 Combined Land and Navy Assault
2.3 Attacking with Overwhelming Force in a Single Battlefield
2.4 Strategic Placement of the Cities
2.5 Mobility is the Key to Success
2.6 Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force
2.7 Economic Attack First, Military Attack Second
2.8 Station workers in Oil, Iron, and Aluminum
2.9 Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retreat your forces to the safety of the City
2.10 Understanding the Role of capturing the First City
2.11 Knowing you will win and then march into battle
3. Battlefield Development
3.1 Four Phases
3.2 Preparing the First War
3.3 First War
3.4 Preparation for the Second War
3.5 Second War
4. Sample Walk Through 2
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
Phase II. First War.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Phase IV. The Second War
A Four-Phase Deity Domination Victory Strategy (Modern Age)
Version 1.0
1. Sample Walkthrough
I choose this example because it involves both land and naval battle. The next walkthrough will be strictly a naval battle. Pure naval battles are a bit easier because your invasion force is protected in the transport carriers.
1.1 Basic Setting
Difficulty: Deity
Speed: Quick
World Size: Dual
Map: Islands
Era: Future
Leader: Napoleon against Huayna Capac (Random)
Requirement: oil, iron, and aluminum
Comments:
· Which leader you will fight against has a significant impact on the game execution, but not the game strategy.
· If you do not meet the above requirements, restart the game.
1.2 Walk Through
Phase I. Preparing for the First War
The objective in this phase is to achieve a certain military strength. If you declare the first war, you will be able to achieve this objective. If your opponent declares the first war, you might not be able to achieve the full objective, but you should come to close to your objective.
1. Strategic placement of the cities for battle.
I have six cities; and the entire coastline has cities.
2. Naval Force Preparation.
I plan to set up three “Defensive Fleet”, left fleet, right fleet, and back fleet (I will discuss Pillaging fleet and Offensive fleet later). Each fleet consists of 10 units:
· 4 Battleships
· 1 Destroyer
· 5 Stealth Bombers
However, Huayna Capac started the first war when I reached this point
Left fleet: full strength;
Right fleet: missing a bomber;
Back fleet: only 2 battleships.
This will be enough.
3. Land Force Preparation
The plan is for 6 jets. In addition, two back cities have 2 units each and the four front cities have the following number of units: 3, 5, 3, and 5.
Huayna Capac started the first war before I could reach this strength.
Phase II. First War.
The primary objectives are:
· Destruction of his invasion force
· Achieve naval domination
The secondary objectives are:
· Maximize destruction of his production capacity with Air Force.
· Gain 1 or 2 cities in peace settlement if possible.
1. Huayna Capac declared war. (If he did not, I would have declared the war. It makes no difference who declares the war; the battle plan is exactly the same. The weakest point of AI is that he is predictable. However, being predictable does not mean being easy.)
2. Huayna Capac send two fleets. Here are the components of each fleet:
Fleet A
ForceID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging with aircraft
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
Here:
4T, 2D = 4 transport carriers, 2 destroyers, 22 units total (4 transport carriers and 16 land units)
1A, 3D = 1 aircraft carrier, 3 destroyers, 7 units total (1 carrier, 3 fighters, 3 destroyers)
2B = 2 battleships.
Fleet B
ForceID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the earliest opportunity. A1 and B1 are absolutely the sweets and you will love them.
3. Identification of A1 and B2 Forces
This step is so important, so I listed these two bomber flights as a single step.
4. Initial Battle
4A. I usually see A3 and B3 first before A1 and B1 appear. That gives me a chance to wipe A3 and B3 out. Fight both in a distance where you can retrieve your ship. For example, if his ship is 5 spaces from your city and your destroyer can travel 8 spaces, then your destroyer will travel 4 spaces to have a fight and then travel 4 spaces back to the city.
4B. Allocate two bombers per enemy unit if possible.
4C. You should wipe out A3 and B3 with almost no damage.
5. Sweets.
5A. As soon as A1 and B1 are within striking distance, allocate all of your air resources to do the maximum damage to A1 and B1. After that, they will be heavily damaged and will be your ice cream in the entire war. This is the place you might not be able to retrieve your naval units after fighting; and therefore, you will lose some units here. Had this been a land war, you could destroy both A1 and B2 with almost no losses because you could retrieve your units back to the city.
5B. In my battle, he managed to land 8 units, which is not a major problem.
To summarize it: Spot it, Bomb it, Destroy it, and Retrieve your forces to the safety of city.
6. Finish the rest of his fleet.
7. Annoying stream of attacks. The general sequence is this:
2B, 2B, nothing, 2D1C, nothing,
2B, 2B, nothing, 2D1C, nothing,
…
At this point, all of the AI’s cities are pumping out units and as soon as these units are produced, they are headed your way, so you will receive a stream of attacking units. They will cause damage to your units, but you should not loose any units. Again, bombers will be used first, and then ground units.
8. My Back fleet is finally built with 4B, 1D, 1A and three fighters. I begin to bomber his resources with three fighters, which did little damage. Had this been a land war, all healed stealthy bombers will be out, which can do a lot more damage.
9. King Huayna Capac came for peace. I love this guy; he gives me three out of his six cities. Had I fought with Napoleon or Julius Caesar, I would have gotten none. That will be the next walk
through in section 4. By giving me the three cities, I have gained control of his oil field so he will no longer be able to build modern navy units. The rest of the battle will be a land war.
Phase III. Preparation for the Second War
Because I have gained control of his oil and cities on his island, the next battle will be a land war. He lost half of his cities so the next war is much easier than it should be (No such luck in the next walk through). He has lost half of his forces, including entire navy and sea domination.
My airports are ready to ship land units and the Transport finishes the additional logistical works. Since my island is out of his reach (he will still try with ancient ships), this phase becomes much shorter than normal.
The most important assets are 20 bombers. Why do I even have this phase to start with? Well, many reasons, in this case, I have gained several cities and his oil field.
Phase IV. The Second War
Obviously, you will declare the second war. Once again, AI will fight will a predictable pattern, i.e. in a land war, two army groups; in a naval war, two fleets; and in a mixed war, 2 army groups and one fleet. However, in the second war, A1 and B1 is only at half of the strength of the first war, if you can reduce the length of Phase III.
The objectives are:
· Destruction of his invasion force
· Complete destruction of his production capacity with stealth bombers
· Capture of the first city.
· End the game.
1. I Declared War.
2. Huayna Capac sent two army groups. In a land war, AI will generally send two army groups. The normal components of each Army group:
Army group A
ForceID Number Function
A1 20 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging rail
A4 2 Pillaging resource
Army group B
ForceID Number Function
B1 20 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging rail
B4 2 Pillaging resource
In this case, his is only half of the normal strength. The most important job you will need to do is
to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment.
3. Identification of A1 and B2 Forces
This step is so important that I listed two bomber flights as a single step.
4. Initial Battle
4A. I usually see A3 and B3 first before A1 and B1 appear. That gives me a chance to wipe A3 and B3 out. Fight both in a distance that you can retrieve your units. He will destroy your railroad; your worker will repair the rail faster.
4B. Allocate two bombers per enemy unit if possible.
4C. You should wipe out A3 and B3 with almost no damage.
5. Sweets.
5A. As soon as A1 and B1 are within striking distance, allocate all of your air resources to do the maximum damage to A1 and B1. After that, they will be heavily damaged and will be your ice cream for the second time. The good news is that A1 and B1 are at least one turn apart; it makes your job so much easier.
6. Fish the rest of his attack force.
This completes Phase 4-1.
7. Annoying Streams of Attacks. At this point, all of the AI’s cities are producing units and as soon as these units are produced, they are headed to your way. So you will receive a stream of attacking units. They will cause damage to your units, but you should not loose any units. Again bombers first and then ground units.
8. Use bombers to destroy all of his land and sea improvements. He will lose his production capacity. But he will still maintain the stream of attacks, at the cost of dropping his total number of units.
This completes Phase 4-2.
9. Capturing the first city is the most important offensive step. If you execute this step well, the war is basically over, because it is here that you will annihilate at least half of all his forces. This is also the biggest difference between the land and naval battle; had this been a naval battle, the invasion force will stay inside 7 transports and will be totally untouchable. For the first time, your force is unprotected. Send units to his city while you reduce his culture defense to zero with bombers.
10. Once his culture defense is down, concentrate your entire air force to do unit damage. This is followed by a stack attack of your land unit. The most important tactics here is not to capture the city. YOU MUST LEAVE HIS LAST UNITS THERE.
11. In the next turn, his city will be back up to almost the previous strength. Repeat Step 10. You should do this as long as necessary, or as long as your units can support. Allocate enough force for this task. Remember, at this point, he no longer has the production capability. He can only fight with the units he has on hand.
12. Finally, there is no longer a point to wait, capture the First City.
This completes Phase 4-3.
13. The rest should be easy.
Congratulations! You have just wasted a whole day; and sorry to your wife/husband or girl/boy friend.
2. Tactics and Execution
2.1 Basic Tactics
The basic tactics used are:
· Knowing yourself; knowing your enemy; you will win 100% of the time.
· Attacking with overwhelming force in a single battlefield.
· Knowing you will win and then march into battle.
· Strategic placement of the cities for battle.
· Mobility is the key to success.
· Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force.
· Economic attack first, military attack second.
· Station workers in oil, iron, and aluminum.
· Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retrieve your forces to the safety of the city.
· Understanding the role of capturing the First City.
The first three strategies are straight out of Sun-Tzu’s “Art of War” 2000 years ago. You think I am here quoting his work; I should at least read the book, right? Well, I have been trying to read that book ever since Michael Douglas’s quote in “Wall Street”. It has been 20 years since then. Does he still collect royalties for his book?
2.2 Knowing Yourself; Knowing Your Enemy
The weakest point of AI is that they fight in a basically predictable pattern; and because of that, they will lose.
For sake of discussion, let us assume that an AI has 6 cities, send a spy into these cities, and you will find a huge stack of forces. You will face these forces in a fixed manner. When a war is declared, either by him or by you, these forces will be sent to you in a fixed manner. As a result, these forces will go to their grave at almost no cost to you.
At the Deity Level, I often found:
(1) AI’s force will outnumber mine by 2 to 1;
(2) AI will send a bit over half of all his forces to me at once.
1.2.1 Land War
In a land war, AI will generally send two army groups. If AI is fully ready, here are the components of each Army group:
Army group A
Force_ID Number Function
A1 20 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging
A4 2 Pillaging
Army group B
Force_ID Number Function
B1 20 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging
B4 2 Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment.
2.2.2 Navy War
The navy war mirrors the land war. If AI is fully ready, here are the components of each fleet:
Fleet A
Force ID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
Here:
4T, 2D = 4 transport carriers, 2 destroyers, 22 units total (4 transport carriers and 16 land units)
1A, 3D = 1 aircraft carrier, 3 destroyers, 7 units total (1 carrier, 3 fighters, 3 destroyers)
2B = 2 battleships.
Fleet B
Force_ID Number Function
A1 4T, 2D City Raider
A2 1A, 3D Pillaging
A3 2B Pillaging
A4 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1 and B1 at the first available moment. A1 and B1 are absolutely the sweets and you will love them.
2.2.3 Combined Land and Navy Assault
In this case, you will face two army groups and one fleet:
Army group A
Force_ID Number Function
A1 18 City Raider
A2 6 City Raider /Pillaging
A3 2 Pillaging
Army group B
Force ID Number Function
B1 18 City Raider
B2 2 Pillaging
B3 2 Pillaging
Fleet C
Force_ID Number Function
C1 2T, 2D City Raider
C2 1A, 3D Pillaging
C3 2B Pillaging
The most important job you will need to do is to send a stealth bomber out to identify A1, B1 and C1 at the first available moment.
2.3 Attacking with Overwhelming Force in a Single Battlefield
AI will outnumber your forces in a 2 to 1 ratio at the deity level when the first war starts. The first wave of the attack forces, at its full strength, will consist of 50 units. To me, that is more than my entire force.
AI has several weaknesses here:
· The attack force A and attack force B are not synchronized. They are off by at least one turn, quite possibly by two turns, because they are sent to you from their stationed cities directly. This one turn or two turn differences are fatal.
· AI does not have the mobility you have; they can only move 2 squares in each turn, sometimes only one square, if the artilleries are involved.
As a result, you will wipe out A1 first, and then B1 next.
When you finish his first wave of 50 units, you will lose about 10 units as follows: 1 or 2 land units, 1 or 2 naval units, 2 or 3 workers for repairing your railroad (they do a lot of repairing in one turn and then die the next turn), and 5 – 6 air units.
How to execute this 5:1 loss ratio:
· Engage the enemy at a fixed distances only;
· Use 20 Air Force units to do the maximum or close to the maximum damage to A1, and then to B1;
· Land attack to wipe A1 or B1 out;
· Use the railroad to retrieve all of your units back to the city after a fight.
I will have more discussions on this topic later.
2.4 Strategic Placement of the Cities
In the initial phase of the war, any units outside of a city will be lost; therefore, when a unit finishes a fight, it must be allowed to retreat to the safety of a city. This is the key to achieve 1:5 loss ratios in your advantage.
There are several things you can do to facilite this:
· The front is placed in a strategic location;
· The frontline city has high culture value so it will have 3 spaces to the border;
· The railroad system is established very well with some redundancy in front of these cities;
· There are workers stationed in these cities, ready for a suicide repairing.
The city placement is especially important if you are preparing for a naval battle. The battleships and destroyers need to be launched from one city, conduct a fight, and retreat to another city.
2.5 Mobility is the Key to Success
Mobility offers the protection of your forces after the fight and allows you to have a 1:5 loss ratio in your favor. Again, trade workers for railroad. A worker can repair a lot in just one turn. Also, at least 30% of your total force will be Air Force to ensure the maximum mobility.
2.6 Air Force, Air Force, and Air Force
The key to killing an enemy unit without losing your unit is the Air Force. Most of your losses will also be the Air Force units. The good news is that you can ship them anywhere very fast.
2.7 Economic Attack First, Military Attack Second
Once you wipe out the opponent’s first wave of attacks, all of his city will be pumping out units. As soon as these units are produced, they are sent to you. Assuming he has 6 cities, producing units at the rate of 1, 1, 1, 0.5, 0.33, 0.25; then you will receive 4 units from him each turn on average. These 4 units will not cause much damage, but they do keep 8 Air Force units occupied and injured. They also cause some damage to your ground units, even though you do not lose any ground units.
This will be a major problem if you are on the offensive. To reduce this stream of attacks, you have to bomb his resources.
2.8 Station workers in Oil, Iron, and Aluminum
Station workers in oil, iron, and aluminum, together with the anti-air units. The workers will repair the well or mine in one turn.
2.9 Spot it, Bomber it, Destroy it, and Retreat your forces to the safety of the City
The most important two battles will be undoubtedly the destruction of A1 and B1, and capturing the first city. The tactics for A1 and B1 annihilation is air force, air force, and air force. The tactics for such annihilation with almost no loss of units except minor damage is mobility, mobility, and mobility. Mobility is not free; it will cost you several workers.
2.10 Understanding the Role of capturing the First City
The goal is to achieve the maximum fight right here. Think about it; the city has no culture defense and any units in there will be instantaneously bombed to minimum strength; why not engage them there and reduce them there? So be patient, as long as they have something to spare in the first city, take it.
