Advice needed on a Emporer game ???

[JFL_Dragon]

Map Size : Standard
Land: Pangea but its actually 2 large conts
Level: Emporer
Mission:Conquest
Year: 1600AD

On my cont there are 5 AI civs but they only have 1-2 towns each.
One of them is the Chinese who has been asking for tribute but now I have the tank tech, Im not putting up with his demands anymore.

The other cont consists of the Chinese,Japs,Egyptians, and the Romans. The Chinese are dominant there but not so to take the other 3 on at once. I suspect they may also lack oil. (Maybe)

Im a bit a rookie when it comes to navel warfare and launching a land attack from the sea. I feel I must hit china hard and fast but I am unsure how to do this.

INVASION QUESTIONS:

In Your opinion how many destroyers & battleships are necessary to protect the transport boats ?

How many transport boats should I build ?

And how many initial tanks should I hit the Chinese coast with ?

Should I inculde any other units in the initial strike (maybe a couple of settlers ?)

I have about 60 cities all producing tanks, but only have about 8 at the moment as I have only acquired the tank tech.

Please anybody who plays Cont games and know alot about this area of the game please post.

Cheers

JFL_Dragon

 

[Hurricane]

4 transports and 2 battleships should be enough, if the distance is short. You need to get in some reinforcements quickly, so if the journey takes several rounds, add a few more transports. You could also build a destroyer to spot enemy subs (the AI likes to build lots of submarines). Move all your ships in one big stack. This way it has maximum protection.

Armies filled with Infantry are great for invasions. You need something to protect your tanks, which will be an easy target after getting damaged attacking the chinese cities. Fill about 2 transports with tanks, 1 with Infantry and 1 with artillery. The artillery units are great for damaging counter-attacking chinese units as well as damage defenders in cities.

Remember to keep your units concentrated. Attack one city at a time.

Hope this helps.

 

[skaternate]

I don't agree with hurrican as far as attack only one city at a time, the AI is very poor at fighting two front wars. If you are only building miltary have you pressed your mobilization switch, if not press it, mobilize for war for max building pace. No settlers needed, If you are not at war just yet only one battleship per drop off point needed, I would say two drop off points, with two transports at each, make sure they are dropping off by a city, unless you have air suppiroirity. I find the best way too drop off on new continent is directly into the city, so make one of those transports with marines, and have eight bombers with you, bomb the town first, then drop off the marines, next move all your units into the town, this will do two things. 1) create a buffer zone in wich enemy units can't use their rodes; 2) a place to put your airport right away, make sure to have many airports on your mainland so you can airdrop troops to the battlefield. I say in each transport other than the marine one have 6 tanks 2 Infantry. Use the marines one and one of the other transports to take a town right off the bat. Drop the other on their hind in that way they must split their forces! Anything else?

 

[Moonsinger]

Assuming that I don't have any airport and assuming that my enemy is at least three times stronger than me. My invasion force is as follow:

• 5 transports of artilleries = a total of 40 artilleries units
• 2 transports of infantries = a total of 16 infantries
• 5 transports of calvaries (I don't use tank! I either use calvaries or modern armours)
• 1 transport of 4 settlers and 4 citizen workers
• Escort ships are not neccessary unless I'm currently at war with someone. However, I normally throw in a couple destroyers or battleships just to be sure.

That would be good enough to wipe out any AI enemy force on the planet. Most of the time, I don't even pack that much. If you don't have cavalries, you could use tank, but cavalries are a lot better. Since I won't declare war until my transports are safely within the landly zone, I don't need any escort. Always use the settler to build the first oversea town; this would be my base of operation. If my transport survive the first round, I will disband them to rush production on a barrack, a citywall, a temple, and a harbor immediately at each turn. Now, just wait for the enemy to come and let your artilleries and cavalries go to work. I like cavalries because they can move three space; that means they can attack and kill the wounded (1HP left) enemy units then safely retrieve back into the city to heal. If you use tank, you may be sitting duck in the next turn and will be at the mercy of your enemy. That's how I normally do it and I have never lost an invasion.

 

[Catt]

I take a little different tack. I like to identify 2 or 3 attractive coastal cities -- attractive because they have luxuries (ideally in the city square itself), strategic resources, or a wonder in them. For each target city load up one transport full of marines, one transport full of infantry, and one transport with a mix of artillery and tanks. One battleship should be sufficient for each grouping of three transports (assuming you are not already at war). If you have aircraft carriers and bombers, so much the better, but usually not required.

Position yourself outside the enemy's borders. Declare war. Bombard city with battleship. Attack directly from transports with marines. When the marines take the city (they will ), move your other transports into the city, unload within the city, and fortify. I have honestly never seen a transport full of marines fail to take a city guarded by no more than 3 infantry -- with mech infantry, however, you will want to have substantial bombarment before you launch your marines at the defenses.

Several advantages to this approach:

(1) you never have to drop you units off into enemy territory where they will be repeatedly attacked by huge stacks of AI units (especially now under v1.21);

(2) the first AI counterattack is against your fortified units, units which are probably fortified in a city or metropolis, both of which factors mean substantially increased defensive power (i.e., that infantry defense of "10" goes up to "22" when fortified in a metropolis);

(3) (related to #1 above) because you control the city, you also control one tile around the city -- AI infantry can enter "your" territory, but cannot attack in the same turn; AI tanks can enter and attack, but cannot attack twice in the same turn; and

(4) if you have taken cities with luxuries, you have likely deprived the AI civ of its luxury and/or disrupted its trade of an excess luxury, causing much greater unhappiness in the AI civ population than a mountain or hill landing of land units can accomplish.

A lot of people complain that marines are useless -- I have used them frequently and with great success (again, especially after v1.21 and the AI's new penchant for attacking with massively concentrated force).

 

[skaternate]

moonsinger why don't you like tanks, sure thay don't have the three movement of cavarly, but if you are trying to wipe out an enemy with Infantry you have to use tanks. If the infantry is in a metropolis, wich by this time most their cities are! then you would wipe out half your cavalry in every wave of attack. They just can't compare with tanks when attaking infantry! Sure thier great for sweep up units, something to keep on the battlefeild to wipe out units moving toward you, hit and run, but not good at attaking cities.

 

[Hurricane]

One tactic that might be a bit of cheating is to have your invasion force wait just outside the border. Land a settler on the enemy coast. Wait until the next round (they will ask you, but not force you, to leave) and declare war. Found a city with the settler on the coast and move your transports into the city. Now all your units have full movement and can attack cities within range.

The main difference from the Marine assault strategy is that you now can use Tanks instead of Marines (much better stats), and you immediately have a city with no resistance in to build an airport in.

 

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by skaternate
moonsinger why don't you like tanks, sure thay don't have the three movement of cavarly, but if you are trying to wipe out an enemy with Infantry you have to use tanks.

I never have much luck with tank. They are too slow and too vulnerable. Since most of the time, the AI civ is much stronger than me (Emperor or Deity level), I use artilleries to reduce their infantries down to 1HP before I send the cavalries to finish them off. It's a "killing off wounded enemy and run" method. With tank, you can attack, but you can not run. Since the enemy is a lot stronger and since I'm expecting no re-enforcement for the next 4 turns, their mission is really to weaken the enemy. When the enemy has virtually no attack capability left, that's when I start moving forward to take out their next city. Anyway, by now I should have at least a couple armies and I use that to take out the city defenders. After the cavalries killing off hundreds of enemy units, you should get at least one leader by now. Btw, it's really fun just to fight one major battle to decide the outcome of the war. Normally, for the next 7 turns after my troop landed, they are expecting to kill at least 30 enemy units in every turn and taking very little casualty. Even enemy infantries have only 1HP left, they are still very tough to kill. Therefore, you can expect some light casualties. After I build a barrack and a city wall, I can start rushing more cavalry units to replace my dead one right on the frontline. Beside, most of the time, I don't have tank technology at this point. By the time I get tank, I'm either already dead or already controlling the world.

If the infantry is in a metropolis, wich by this time most their cities are! then you would wipe out half your cavalry in every wave of attack.

That's when the stack of 40 artilleries will come in very handy. You can reduce that metropolis down to a small town if you like.

 

[JFL_Dragon]

Thanks guy's for your comments

There seems to be quite a few different methods out there, of which all seem to be quite effective.

To: Skaternate

Bombers, Marines, inf and Tanks. I think I better delay my attack as I dont even have flight or Marines Im so far behind in tech its not funny. But I have more land And thanks, No I haven't pressed the Mobilisation button.

To: Moonsinger
Artillery: Must admit I found them not very effective in Civ2. I will try using them in Civ3. They sound pretty awesome

To:Catt
Marines and Bombers. Yes Ic they do have Mech Inf so I definetely need flight & Adv Flight. Should be cheap they all have space flight

To:Hurricane
Interesting Settler scenario. I was going to use a settler be not wait a turn to get that first strike. It seems a little like cheating though what you suggested ? If that was the attention of the programmers, why cant you attack straightafter loading on there territory with units. But you have already pointed that out

They is no chance of the AI spaceflight victory though everyone is at war