Attackimg enemies on other lands

[Fasturd]

Hi guys, it's 1370 AD and I've got a whole big island (or smallish continent) to myself as the Russian chick and over the ocean a long way a way there are several more big islands. I'm playing a Huge map on Chieftan. We've got bronze but no iron. I've started sending out boats with Exploerers and was wondering what the best tactics are for conquering the other countries? I take it I need a massive navy? It takes about 20 odd moves just to sail to their shores. Any advice much appreciated,
C

 

[Genv [FP]]

You're . .. .. .. . out of luck until gunpowder.


Anyways, just make a mega-production city, have another city build transports, and assemble your SOD.

However, the AI has a SOD. You MUST destroy the AI's stack of doom before it tears you apart. A good tactic is to capture a city then abandon it. The AI will waste a turn moving it's SOD inside the city.

 

[Fasturd]

ok thanks...also the citizens are 10+ angry because it's "too overcrowded" do I need to halt growth to help with overcrowding? Thanks very much,
C

 

[vorlon_mi]

First thing, welcome to CFC!

Next, you will want to be prepared. That will involve a couple of aspects:

-- Have a mixture of troops in your invasion force, including
archers/longbows to hold the city you conquer, siege weapons for wearing down the defenders of the city, swords or other offense to attack the city
-- Have enough boats (galleons) to bring over your whole invasion force. As you noted, it takes a *long* time for any reinforcements to arrive.
-- Bring other ships (frigates if you've got them, caravels otherwise) to take on any AI ships you meet, and protect your galleons.

Galleys can't cross the ocean, and caravels can't carry troops, so you will need to wait until you have galleons.

Try to pick a smallish coastal city to attack, and once you have it, brace yourself for the AI counterattack.

 

[Rubbaduck]

Biuld many transport ships, find a good place to land your troops(not in your targets land).
Then when you have a big enough stack in there just attack. At chieftain the AI won't even come for your lands.

-- Bring other ships (frigates if you've got them, caravels otherwise) to take on any AI ships you meet, and protect your galleons.

Caravels are weaker than galleons and thus not a choice for stack defense. Keeping a few PROMOTED empty galleons with UNPROMOTED full ones can work.

 

[Fasturd]

great thanks! I can biuld galleons now so will get going, thanks again C

 

[mboettcher]

Force a capitulation since the colony factor will drive you up the wall in support. So move for a few quick city captures. In 3.17 it shouldn't be too hard to achieve this. Maybe look to found a few corps later and suck Cathy dry of all her pertinent resources for your economy.

If the cities you do take are causing you problems you may want to look into forming them into a colony. Or giving them back to Cathy since they will lose any culture war with her cities.

 

[mboettcher]

And don't focus on one city cause the AI will counter there. Instead try to land by 2-4 cities and take them all at once. It'll take the AI by surprise. Otherwise it'll just prep your nest targets for invasion and they'll be even harder. So then you'll not only disable multiple important resource centers but the AI military scrambles around and it will buy you some more time for the multiple attacks to move on to 2-3 more cities. If you take 7 cities in 5-7 turns the war should be over.

 

[Polobo]

ok thanks...also the citizens are 10+ angry because it's "too overcrowded" do I need to halt growth to help with overcrowding? Thanks very much,
C

Both health and happy have two parts:

The number of negatives currently present
The number of positives currently present

As long as the positives are equal to or greater than the negatives you are fine.

The number of positives is generally considered your "happy/health cap".
Overcrowding relates directly to the size of the city; thus in order to reduce overcrowding you have to reduce the number of people (starve/whip). A better option, however, is to increase the number of positive modifiers and thus allow more people into the city without causing the negatives to outnumber of the positives.

The war academy has some articles "ways into happiness", "ways into health" that provide greater detail as well as ways to get more positives.