Attacking another continent...fact or myth?

[AcCoL]

If the map is something other than pangea do you guys even bother conquering the other continent(s)?

I ask this only because staging a cross-continental raid requires a great amount of prep work...at least in my opinion

 

[GoodSarmatian]

It does require some preperations, but it can be done.
Just load three of four transports, escort them with some destroyers, bomb the city defenses and land your stack.
It is very helpful to have flight. Carriers and Fighters can weaken the city defenders, and as soon as you have your first city on the new continent you can start to airlift one unit per turn to reinforce the defenders.
When you are sure you can hold the city, rebase your bombers...

 

[Psyringe]

It can be done, but I rarely see the need for it, unless I disallow the spaceship victory. In my experience, conquering other continents usually isn't worth the hassle. Enlarging your empire on your own continent is usually more efficient, and sufficient fpr winning.

 

[zeise]

I do it all the time, i love stacking up a huge naval force for the invasion and landing like 40-50 troops on their coast and taking two cities at the same time. However you should expect to take SERIOUS casualties in this kind of action, especially in the late game, but its fun.

 

[drkodos]

If the map is something other than pangea do you guys even bother conquering the other continent(s)?

Frequently. Especially if playing a continents game in which almost half of the other nations are off the starting continent.

I find it one of the less mundane, and more strategically challenging, aspects of the wargaming paradigm.

 

[Norseman2]

You do need quite a bit of preparation, but that's half of the fun. Generally it's best to wait until flight and those types of tech to attack other continents. Carriers and destroyers can drop a city's defenses to nothing, marines can usually storm it on the same turn, then units can be airlifted in on the same turn. Once you've secured a foothold, you won't need your transports anymore because you'll be able to airlift units in faster than you could send them by transport. If you need to take a very heavily fortified position, you can just nuke it. By the time you get to this level of tech, production decides everything. Whoever can make the most nukes the fastest, the most tanks, the most marines, etc. is going to wipe out all the competition very quickly, and nearly bloodlessly.

 

[JonnyB]

Landing a big stack on an enemies coast is always fun. Unless the AI is as big as you and has railroads, then he can bring in a lot of units to counterattack right away.

 

[LDeska]

Almost in every game I play I do trans-continental attacks mainly because I play only with other human-players and usually we start on different continents. So if there is more than 2 squares of sea between continents we have some time to develop (till Astronomy) and then first attacks occurs. Usually by then first wave is done with: galleons, macemen, war elephants, crossbowmen and catapults, second wave is very shortly after first and is done with grenadiers and cannons. Third wave might be done with infantry and artillery, but it all depends on the situation.
When playing with AI it's much simpler - simply gather a lot of units and attack in one point - AI is too stupid to defend... with human player you have to think more - your opponent will see in demography that you're getting stronger and stronger so he will be prepared and he might start a counter-attack.

 

[Panda]

I mostly play on continents because the invasion is so challenging.

 

[Tavenier]

I also like continents maps for the invasions. But you must really, really prepare. Don't bother with only two carriers. Even against the AI. I often saw my stack of doom diminished before even bombard the city once. So you MUST have bombard-ships and a lot of different type of troops. Also a lot of defenders and try to land your forces on a hill for extra defense bonus.

But if one DOWs you and you don's have an invasion force then it can be a real catastrophy. I often had landings on my shores while I was fighting a war against an opponent on my continent. Then only having defensive forces in your cities will cost you a lot of resources, cottages and other vital things...

 

[LDeska]

It all depends (as usually ) but two carriers is surely not enough. Sometimes I won games attacking with only one galleon with one macemen inside but those games were won economically, not in military way - my opponent saw in demography that is staying behind and surrendered (not because of that lonely macemen )

 

[CivCorpse]

IMHO (being worth 1/50 of a dollar) if you are invading across the water in the modern era, the most important unit is going to be spies. You need all three of them knocking out the railroads in a 3 tile radius around your landing spot. Or the counter attacks will kill you. Barring that, a turn before your attack force lands, have a big big stack of defensive units with max hill defense land on a coastal hill to absorb the waves of the enemy counter attack.
Airports are nice but transports are quicker. One unit per turn isn't much. But 4 or 5 transports can move a lot more troops in a quicker period of time. Just don't get lazy and let time lapse in the reinforcements.

 

[etherealcat]

I haven't played continents for sometime now, but when I did I usually waited until I had the State Property civic. Otherwise the cost of maintaining captured cities would be a major drain on my finances.

About the only time I would make an exception is if I wanted to grab a religion and build a monastery before Scientific Method prevented me from doing so.

But building a fleet of galleons and loading up my army of conquest was actually kind of fun, especially since the AI was unlikely to counter it due to surprise (and inability).

 

[Bushface]

I like playing on a 2-continent map. What seems to work best is to conquer "my" continent as soon as possible, then develop it until I get Transports and Tanks, at which stage I switch to war-based civics and turn out the biggest forces I can. Then I invade the other continent in several places, build lots of Bombers, rebase them to the captured cities, and blast the enemy to fragments.
Airlifting reinforcements is slow: only one unit per turn per city since the chance of a captured city having an Airport is very remote, if indeed it is possible (I've never had it happen, but I try to invade before the opposition gets Flight). May be an idea to airlift the occasional Explorer-medic or Missionary, but combat troops from Transports can be landed in force at new bridgeheads, which reduces the time to conquer.
And as EtherealCat said, State Property is a good thing to have. Almost an essential.

 

[ChicagoCubs]

I start planning for the invasion when the game starts. First get those couple early era units with +hills and + forest defense, then save those units for a promotion infantry later in the game. I think you get all of these promotions off the barbarians. It is even easier with an aggressive civ and barracks. Let these guys defend at your beachhead, and hopefully, you landed at a wooded/jungle hill. Surviving the counter-attack at the landing is the toughest part.

The biggest problem is that many people forget to build the navy along the way. If you decide that you want to build a navy late in the game, it is usually not worth the wait. I will build the occasional ship here and there and then upgrade them to transports and destroyers later in the game. In so many words, it is almost an instant navy (if you have the gold to upgrade).

If you have airports, you can drop one unit per turn in a newly captured city. Not that great for an instant defense, but you can drop important units when they are needed instead of waiting for a transport. I like dropping the Great Artist to have a culture bomb after the revolt ends. The airlift is safer than running the risk on the transport or losing him if the city is taken back.

Also, you can land you aircraft in a newly occupied city. This is great for defense. You fighters can wound any advancing troops (if you have enough warning) and the base for the bombers helps keep the war machine moving.

 

[Armorydave]

I like dropping the Great Artist to have a culture bomb after the revolt ends.

Why wait until the revolt ends? Culture bombing ends any revolt.

 

[Ben E Gas]

I love the overseas invasion. I'm not that great at it yet, but it is fun as hell.

 

[ChicagoCubs]

Why wait until the revolt ends? Culture bombing ends any revolt.

When a culture bombs is dropped in a newly captured city, a certain amount of the culture bomb points are used to end the revolt and the rest are applied to the culture of the city.

I wait until the revolt ends so that the entire culture bomb affects the culture of the city.

Check the city status (F1) for both situations.

 

[Wolfwood]

I always attack other continents, but that's mainly because I play on island maps and often start on an island that can host no more than a few cities...

 

[T.A JONES]

I go at it like its a sport league, East meets West. Soon as transports are well in the water, the cue for the playoffs has arrived. I am always the visitor but he gets that to his handicap for being so dumb.

The regular season is the long time leading up where you battle for the continent!

The third coninent is the wildcard, depending on its size an being isolated you never know how powerful they can become.