So, I'm playing as Peter of Russia on Deity, and it's the Renaissance era, and I'm dominating my continent, but Ragnar is dominating his and running away with the lead on demographics. He has an insane size 23 capital with some wonders that is powering his economy, I think.
I also know from my scouting with caravels that he has about...oh...20 galleys that he will be upgrading to galleons to come attack me sooner or later. Thankfully, he has not researched astronomy yet, but he already has chemistry, so once he gets astronomy he will be upgrading all of his caravels to frigates and using those as escorts, so my initial plan of shooting his navy out of the water with my own galleons would not work (plus, he got the circumnavigation bonus, plus all of his boats have navigation I, so I would have to have some luck on my side to be able to intercept them). I cannot research astronomy and chemistry fast enough to have my own frigates prepared for him.
For these reasons, I have resolved to try a sneak attack to raze his capital once I get galleons. His capital appears to be guarded by only 4 or 5 units. However, I suspect that he may have some units loaded onto the ships that are docked in harbor (the AI likes to do that, I know). It is possible that ALL of the ships are, or will be, loaded with units. Therefore, I am loathe to land a force of any plausible size on his continent because I fear that it will get wiped out within even one turn, or at the very least all of his units will disembark and I will have no chance of taking the city, or his ships will leave harbor with or without their units onboard, and they will then be upgraded promptly (if they are not already) to come unstoppably invade me. I just don't think there will be any way I will be able to deal with a stack of 60+ units invading somewhere unpredictably on my territory. I mean, I guess I could let him take a city, and then collateral it to death, but he will have the tech superiority and strong veteran units (I have deciphered that he has been steamrolling all game). And I So I am staking everything on this sneak attack.
First what I want to know is, can artillery units bombard from galleons or other transports? I suspect not, or else I feel like I would have taken advantage of that in many other games. If not, then I am left with the question of:
Assuming (conservatively) 5 decently-strong defending units (I hope just muskets) that will have about 90% city defense (I will bombard it down as much as I can with my galleons, but they won't do much vs. his castle in one turn). My units will also have a 50% amphibious attack penalty. I will be attacking mainly with knights (probably promoted to strength II, unless I see a bunch of drill units, which so far I don't). Oh, and the city is on a hill. So, 12 str knights will be going up against about str 27 muskets (once you factor in the bonuses). About how many knights should I make sure to have to be able to raze the city confidently on the first turn? I figure about 4 knights per defending unit, so about 21, or 7 galleons-worth to be safe. Sound good?
I also know from my scouting with caravels that he has about...oh...20 galleys that he will be upgrading to galleons to come attack me sooner or later. Thankfully, he has not researched astronomy yet, but he already has chemistry, so once he gets astronomy he will be upgrading all of his caravels to frigates and using those as escorts, so my initial plan of shooting his navy out of the water with my own galleons would not work (plus, he got the circumnavigation bonus, plus all of his boats have navigation I, so I would have to have some luck on my side to be able to intercept them). I cannot research astronomy and chemistry fast enough to have my own frigates prepared for him.
For these reasons, I have resolved to try a sneak attack to raze his capital once I get galleons. His capital appears to be guarded by only 4 or 5 units. However, I suspect that he may have some units loaded onto the ships that are docked in harbor (the AI likes to do that, I know). It is possible that ALL of the ships are, or will be, loaded with units. Therefore, I am loathe to land a force of any plausible size on his continent because I fear that it will get wiped out within even one turn, or at the very least all of his units will disembark and I will have no chance of taking the city, or his ships will leave harbor with or without their units onboard, and they will then be upgraded promptly (if they are not already) to come unstoppably invade me. I just don't think there will be any way I will be able to deal with a stack of 60+ units invading somewhere unpredictably on my territory. I mean, I guess I could let him take a city, and then collateral it to death, but he will have the tech superiority and strong veteran units (I have deciphered that he has been steamrolling all game). And I So I am staking everything on this sneak attack.
First what I want to know is, can artillery units bombard from galleons or other transports? I suspect not, or else I feel like I would have taken advantage of that in many other games. If not, then I am left with the question of:
Assuming (conservatively) 5 decently-strong defending units (I hope just muskets) that will have about 90% city defense (I will bombard it down as much as I can with my galleons, but they won't do much vs. his castle in one turn). My units will also have a 50% amphibious attack penalty. I will be attacking mainly with knights (probably promoted to strength II, unless I see a bunch of drill units, which so far I don't). Oh, and the city is on a hill. So, 12 str knights will be going up against about str 27 muskets (once you factor in the bonuses). About how many knights should I make sure to have to be able to raze the city confidently on the first turn? I figure about 4 knights per defending unit, so about 21, or 7 galleons-worth to be safe. Sound good?
