Can't be bothered to attack overseas.

[Mr Jib]

My recent games have all followed a similar pattern. I build up a decent army and conquer and vassalise my neighbours on my continent, then I start building ships and more land units to get ready to invade another continent. After about ten turns of doing this I suddenly can't be bothered to build all the right numbers of transport ships, escort ships, siege and normal land units so I decide to quit the game.

Also there is also the fact that it takes so long to build up all the units for an overseas invasion that often your units are obsolete by the time they get there and the defender has upgraded all his units, although since I now play on epic it isn't quite such a problem.

I could play on pangea, but I like the idea of naval power playing an important part in history. It is just that I don't actually enjoy the mechanics of doing it.

Does anyone else seem to have this problem?

 

[sherbz]

theorhetically it should only take you 3/4 turns max to transfer your forces from one continent to another one anyways. I think they are quite fun, although admittedly i always used to do what you are doing. I guess it depends on whether you need to vassalize them or not. If you dont and just need to take out a culture city, you dont even need to build battleships. Just get lots of transports, fill em with all attacking troops, then attack and burn their cultural city. QWho cares if you lose ure troops afterwards. You should be near to winning by that point anyways and its all easily replacable. If you need to take and hold their cities I would reccommend a massive massive stack of many many different units, mostly defensive, take one city, and await the inevitable onslaught. Id also make sure i took a city that only had one road access point, then destroy the road leading to the city so that his injured troops are stranded there after their attack. Either that way or amass more troops and try to establish a beach head of 3 cities, then immediately make them a colony/burn a great artist. Or you could just nuke.

 

[Mr Jib]

That's all pretty good advice, especially about taking the road connecting to the city out.

But in my recent games I've been pretty confident about the military victory, just I can't bring myself to micromanage enough units onto boats, across the ocean to their cities and then start the whole process of a land invasion which is often pretty slow (especially if you have no culture over there at all).

 

[Yamps]

You should read the TMIT's guide on speed civing...Set some cities on auto ship production, others for unit building (alt + click) and use rally points. (select cities, use shift to set a rally point)

 

[Mr Jib]

Hey thanks that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. I've always been a bit lazy about learning the more complicated shortcuts.

 

[jst666]

And you don't need to transport all of your troops at once, if you have enought escorts. First send defensive units, and position them on forests etc.. When enemy attacks your stack, you have good defensive positions. When/if they come near your stack, have some offensive units to strike and retreat. Then just send second wave.

 

[DrewTate]

Just play on a pangea map.

 

[mariogreymist]

My current favorite game type is tectonics (70%water), huge, marathon, conquest as lone victory condition, vassals off. This means at least one, usually two, and often as many as 4-5 intercontinental invasions in a game. I couldn't be bothered to play such a game without rally points. Once I figured out how to effectively use them, I haven't started a game with any other set up. (I like big wars)

 

[Hellfire]

I have to agree sometimes you have to work up the will to go overseas. Once you've conquered a continent, you've pretty much dominated the game. Building a navy and going overseas should take effort, but it's because of that effort that so many people like to play on pangea so they don't have to think about sea power and just roll over everyone with land units. Then again, there's a hardcore minority which really love the challenge of archipelagos.

I play continents so I only have to deal with half of the civs at one time. Civs that harass you with coastal bombardment are like flies buzzing. They do no real damage, so there's never motivation to build up sea power.

 

[Windsor]

There is a huge difference between archipelago and continents. On archipelagos you'll HAVE to build a navy. Continents on the other hand is like playing a small pangea. You may have to raze a legendary city a few times but you can usually just ignore the other continent. Once you've conquered the continent it's often easiest to just head for space.

Continents is my favorite map script in theory, I want navies to matter and I like not meeting everone right from the start. They just don't play out as good as they should. I also belive alliances between civs (on same and on different continents) doesn't work good enough to really give you the gaming experience you want.

Pangeas work very well and they are much less predictable than you expect.

 

[mariogreymist]

There is a huge difference between archipelago and continents. On archipelagos you'll HAVE to build a navy. Continents on the other hand is like playing a small pangea. You may have to raze a legendary city a few times but you can usually just ignore the other continent. Once you've conquered the continent it's often easiest to just head for space.

Continents is my favorite map script in theory, I want navies to matter and I like not meeting everone right from the start. They just don't play out as good as they should. I also belive alliances between civs (on same and on different continents) doesn't work good enough to really give you the gaming experience you want.

Pangeas work very well and they are much less predictable than you expect.

I used to like continents maps for that reason, but have migrated to tectonics (70% water) maps. I find the variety a little better, and have seen maps where I was isolated to start (highly uncommon) and some where I had some form of coastal access to all the opposing civs. In any case, navies pay off (without being as essential as with archipelago), and continents are large enough (usually) to take one and head for space - if that's your desire.

 

[karadoc]

I have to agree sometimes you have to work up the will to go overseas. Once you've conquered a continent, you've pretty much dominated the game. Building a navy and going overseas should take effort, but it's because of that effort that so many people like to play on pangea so they don't have to think about sea power and just roll over everyone with land units. Then again, there's a hardcore minority which really love the challenge of archipelagos.

I disagree with you on a couple of points...

Firstly, I don't think that conquering a continent means that you've dominated the game. Sometimes it does, but often it doesn't. Obviously if it is a relatively small continent then it won't mean that you are dominating, and even if it's a large one you might still find that your wars have put you way behind in tech.

Secondly, I don't consider archipelagos a hardcore challenge. Moving troops across the sea does take a bit more thinking than it does for land, but that's what makes it easier! The AI stinks at that kind of thinking, so I find that archipelago maps are much easier to win.

In the game I just finished I was on a continent that was a sort of sideways 'S' shape. I liked that because I could use a combination of naval and land attacks on the same continent. In the mid game I crossed one of the gaps to conquer another civ so that I ended up sandwiching a third civ whose land was on the bend. Later on, I found it useful to build forts on the edge of the land to base bombers so that they would be in range of enemy cities on the other side. Fun times.

As for the OP. Sometimes I couldn't be bothered with intercontinental attacks, and when this happens I just choose not to. It's quite common for me to just conquer one civ and then spend the rest of the game going for a peaceful victory. Wonders, great people, corporations, diplomacy... that kind of thing. Naval battles are an important part of the game, but that doesn't mean you have to play that way. Domination isn't the only victory condition, and I find it fun to play different games in different ways.

 

[kornuletz]

This thread explains EXACTLY my grief with navies and other continents.
I also play continents, make my continent neighbors my bitc.. erm vassals, but somehow can't be bothered to coordinate and attack other continents and opt for just get the spacerace victory. I think somehow navies are just very boring and unnecessarily hard to use/master with not so many benefits when doing so.

I had this game where i really didnt notice until it was too late and ended up with around 15 cities with only 2-3 coastal cities, and none of the costal cities was that developed... in short, my production was skyrocketing high in the mainland cities with a fenomenal army, 2 vassals and no way to gain any naval superiority/foot on the other continent. It SUCKED because i really wanted to just conquer everything but it proved to be too tiresome to just wait for transporters that would be sunk because not enough support, so i just made mass nukes and loled as i nuked the other continent to ashes! Then i got bored and quit.

IMO carriers with bombers should be able to dominate the seas too, similar to say in CivI, so I can actually build something useful in non-coastal cities for a naval victory!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I think somehow navies are just very boring and unnecessarily hard to use/master with not so many benefits when doing so.

The AI sucks at absolutely everything naval except pillaging seafood. It literally forfeits any chance at victory to pillage seafood actually.

Anyway, a simple naval stack of frigates or destroyers and galleons or transports is enough to launch a lot of forces overseas and can even bombard for you. It won't good breakfast for you unless you have carriers/fighters too though.

 

[prototypetolyfe]

I play on lower levels, but what I do is have my home area, the cities that I have no conquered from annother civ, pump units and transports. Then, I'll take out two or three cities on the other continent. Since my home cities are more advanced building wise, I have airports (if it's late enough) and I use those initial cities as anchors and send reinforcements by air rather than sea, that way I dont have to worry about losing four tanks cuz the AI decided to attack my transport with one escort with a stack of 4 ships.

 

[kochman]

My recent games have all followed a similar pattern. I build up a decent army and conquer and vassalise my neighbours on my continent, then I start building ships and more land units to get ready to invade another continent. After about ten turns of doing this I suddenly can't be bothered to build all the right numbers of transport ships, escort ships, siege and normal land units so I decide to quit the game.

Also there is also the fact that it takes so long to build up all the units for an overseas invasion that often your units are obsolete by the time they get there and the defender has upgraded all his units, although since I now play on epic it isn't quite such a problem.

I could play on pangea, but I like the idea of naval power playing an important part in history. It is just that I don't actually enjoy the mechanics of doing it.

Does anyone else seem to have this problem?

Play in marathon, armies are relevant much longer that way.

 

[redazncommieDXP]

How do you cancel a rally point once it's set?

 

[mariogreymist]

How do you cancel a rally point once it's set?

Select the cities you wish to cancel it for, then Shift+Right Click directly on any one of those cities.

 

[sabo]

You don't need an insanely huge invasion fleet. But make sure you have some carriers with you, four is a nice number, then find a city that sticks out in the much of the water without many roads you, and oh.. bring lots of Arty. If you can bomb the roads two hexes back from the city center you have in essence slowed him enough so most until have to slop right in front of your city, just waiting for collartoral from your arty and even more from your jets, then his stack of doom can be taken by you invasion force. If you can get through it without losing too many units you should suceed.

 

[Navarre]

I play continents so I only have to deal with half of the civs at one time. Civs that harass you with coastal bombardment are like flies buzzing. They do no real damage, so there's never motivation to build up sea power.

You should try Better AI. In my current game a fleet of 10 frigates and 6 ships of the line wasn't enough to stop the waves of galleons Sitting Bull was sending my way in a war. And now I have to deal with privateers coming from all around.