Balanced Invasion Force?

[Dominico]

I was just wondering, in my last game Sitting Bull declared war on me foolishly. I created a big invasion army to take him out and sat it in one stack, it was probably about 10 units of infantry, some artillery and a couple of machine gunners. This was facing up to sitting bulls Riflemen and cavalry. The sad thing was he sent cannon and then wiped them out with rifleman and cavalry attacks, we probably lost about the same amount of units but its costly for me since i do not have as big standing army as him.

Im now building up a second force and researching tanks but i was wondering if anyone had any good advice, i have never had an invasion force spanked in one turn like that before!! It was fun but a bit shocking to see them disappear on setting foot in indian territory!

Its the first time i have used machine gunners in an offensive army though and i was very impressed with how well they defend because they dont take collateral damage which held off the cavalry after the cannon attacks for a while!!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Ruler]

I don't know if this comes too later but anyway.

Sounds little bit odd, did they caught you on open field and if your units were inexperienced that could make sense although enough collateral damage and double size of a stack kills almost anything. That kind of loss usually pays a lot, rushbuy/whip/chop/draft, and start to pump out tanks from your West Point city and throw in a few Machine Gunners and you shouldn't have any kind of problems and if you are going for cities, artilleries are a must, bombers even better.

 

[InvisibleStalke]

Machine gunners are great. Often when you get to renaissance it helps to let them attack you first (declare war but don't send your army out). That way you get to be the one throwing cannon and artillery first.

Another tactic is to send machine gunners + artillery out and put them on a high defense tile like a forested hill and let them exhaust themselves on your army. Then bring up your infantry.

 

[travathian]

Make sure you're machine gunners have a few first strike promotions, this makes them last considerably longer.And dont forget to bring along a unit with healing abilities

I created a big invasion army to take him out

*chuckle* No you didn't. How many cities were you planning on capturing with that group? I never bother attacking unless I have over whelming forces, which for me is at least 2-1, for each city I want. Instead of attacking before you were ready, you could have sent calvary in to do some pillaging, especially of key resources.

 

[mnf]

Balanced Invasion Force?



Maybe?

It's actually funny how in this game the AI doesn't build a lot of siege weapons. My stacks of say ten are often getting attacked with one or two catapults and then four to six other units. This is BTS with Solver's Patch.

Maybe it's just the tech lead making up for the collaterals.

 

[Aurelius321]

He might have had a stack of a similar size but he probably pulled other units from close by to attack you as well. You said your standing army size was smaller than his but a bit more advanced, which says he had a numerical advantage against you. Calvary & Cannons aren't that far off with Inf and Art if the foe has enough of them stationed in nearby cities that they can pull and attack your stack with.

 

[LemonJello]

A heavier reliance on siege units is somthing that I will have to adjust to in BtS. Previously I neglected those, except for maybe 3 or 4 cannon/artillery that were used to reduce city defences.

(Note to self: build the big guns in BtS)

 

[DutchJob]

if you didn't place your force in woods or on a hill 10 inf. is nothing for invasions. that's just two 1/2 of transport space. when attacking your first blow must be devastating. in order to be that you must first survive the counterattack: cannons and more cannons followed by cavalry etc.

furthermore: Cityraider outfits are weak when in the open and not attacking. they all need defenders cause they'll loose most defensive fights when cannons are involved.

in short: more machinegunners my friend.

 

[DutchJob]

do you have a save btw?

 

[Dominico]

I will have a look for a save but i dont know,do they auto save lots of saves or only the newest and write over the others? thanks for all the advice i think it was a mix of everything you have all said.

No the force was not big enough to take lots of cities but i never have time in my games to build forces that big, i spend a lot of time on cities too. It was enough (i thought) to take the city and hold it. I landed on flat ground near the city which was dumb, and also not enough machine gunners.

The second time i invaded i hit a wooded hill just across the bay near another city. The enemy crashed quite a lot of units into this landing!! I had woodsman 3 infantry this time and also a few more machine gunners thanks to your advice. Not so many city siege units because as you say they are useless caught in the open in a straight fight!!

I dont think i needed to change the makeup of my force so much. Just choose a landing zone and better qualified units!!

Thanks for all the input! I still far from a master though caus my next attack across desert against ghandi was a massive failure too lol!! I still second in this game thoughso far.

 

[sabo]

I will have a look for a save but i dont know,do they auto save lots of saves or only the newest and write over the others? thanks for all the advice i think it was a mix of everything you have all said.

You mean you don't save before a big invasion??? Yikes!!!

 

[bonafide11]

I have a question for anyone who knows:

I believe Longbowmen cannot be upgraded to Machine gun men, but Crossbowmen can be. While machine gunners are unable to receive the City Garrison promotions, they seem to be the best defenders for their time. So it seems to make sense that we should consider promoting City Garrison III Crossbowmen to Machine gunners?

 

[Dominico]

You mean you don't save before a big invasion??? Yikes!!!

hehe no i dont, im one of those wierd players who never reloads no matter how bad what i do is. I like to make mistakes they help shape the game! For me its fun that way.

The other day i had reduced sitting bull to 3 cities and i went to him to offer peace and he offered capitulation and all his techs i was impressed but wanted to see if i could get a city too and cleared the table then accidently clicked on peace so he got it for free. I was so miffed i reloaded from the autosave but the rest of the game i felt like i had cheated a bit lol.. I dont really think that was cheating because it was a button slip though. But that shows how bad i am!

 

[LemonJello]

hehe no i dont, im one of those wierd players who never reloads no matter how bad what i do is. I like to make mistakes they help shape the game! For me its fun that way.

I play like that, too. Not quite "Ironman" style, because I can't dedicate the time to sitting through an entire game without saving/stopping to re-enter real life for a while, but I don't save before I go to war. I used to play that way all the time, re-loading if things get too bad or don't go my way.

I was so bad, I'd reload after any goody-hut, if I didn't like what I got!

 

[Figaro]

I have a question for anyone who knows:

I believe Longbowmen cannot be upgraded to Machine gun men, but Crossbowmen can be. While machine gunners are unable to receive the City Garrison promotions, they seem to be the best defenders for their time. So it seems to make sense that we should consider promoting City Garrison III Crossbowmen to Machine gunners?

Yes, this is a good strategy, along with promoting City Raider'd Macemen into Grenadiers (who wouldn't otherwise be able to take the promotion).