Choosing Invasion Target

[GamezRule]

Sounds good. Check you're save tomorrow.

 

[vorlon_mi]

As I was consolidating my gains, and putting the captured French slaves to work, Marseilles flipped back to the French. Sacre bleu! I guess I need more culture back home; only one wonder. I positioned forces to re-conquer, once the peace treaty expired. I was still able to negotiate deals with the Americans, Iroquois and Egyptians on the main continent and didn't want to trash my rep.
By 1380, I had planted a few towns between Paris and the flipped Marseilles, to provide a cultural buffer -- tiles which had my culture, worked by native citizens (not aliens), so that my conquered cities in the east and south would not share a border directly with the French. I garrisoned Paris and Lyons, and finished quelling the resistance.
Still a lot of turns before the treaty expires, so I revolted to switch to Monarchy. Lot of fighting still to come, so better to be prepared. N.B. I did revolt *after* the Golden Age ended, naturally. This also occurred when I was 2-3 turns away from finishing Military Tradition. I had built 47 riders before the revolution, and once I got MT, I would have to build Cavalry.
During this time, America and Egypt declared war on the Aztecs, the little brother civ on the main continent. I declined to be dragged into it, though Joanie joined in, crippled though she was. Maybe Abe pays well? Chartres also flipped back to the French, but no matter. I was going to clean house in Marseilles anyway; what was one more city to cleanup?

Once in Monarchy, I also moved some of my ships to the western border waters, close to Marseilles. Once I had overrun it with riders, I would scoop them up and invade the large island just to the north. It is the stepping stone to the mainland.

The war was swift, and devastating for the French. By 1475, I had swept over the island and sliced through all but one town on the mainland. It took a while to get to Cherbourg, because Lincoln decided not to renew the ROP I had with him. So I had to go through the mtns and around him. Sometime during my war, I got the notice that Abe and Cleo had wiped out the Aztecs. Sorry, Monty.

So, by 1500 or so, I had wiped out the French, had begun building Cavalry, and moved a sizable contingent of riders onto the mainland. I began producing settlers, to settle some of the open land left by the Aztecs and to fill in the French land mass.

My plans (as of the 1510AD save), is to plant lots of towns in "Olde France". Yes, they will be mostly corrupt, but I can get a good deal of science out of them, using specialists.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I visited the Civ3 War Academy, and found this article about invading using the head and tail of the tiger to be very informative.

So, assuming that I can plant a few towns in the far north of the main continent, and assuming that I grow and link the towns I got from France, I need to begin to think about the next invasion.

Whom to invade? America is the biggest and closest, but also pretty powerful. If I could convince Cleo to come with me, we could dogpile Abe and I could capture a few useful wonder cities. Hiawatha is the weakest, but is also the furthest away from me.

How soon to invade? Abe and Cleo have cavalry as well; I'm about 2-3 techs behind them. They will have riflemen soon enough, so their defense will improve. Given my expanded empire, I could out-produce them and keep up in techs. An invasion supported by Frigate bombardment would be nice, or I could wait until Infantry or Tanks.

 

[GamezRule]

I would raze those towns and replant them closer so I can preserve movement points for my units, then they can be loaded, unloaded, and move/attack on the same turn.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I would raze those towns and replant them closer so I can preserve movement points for my units, then they can be loaded, unloaded, and move/attack on the same turn.

Which towns? The 3 French towns on the island, or the French towns on the mainland?

I'm planning to plant new towns on the mainland (former Aztec territory) close together, for just that reason.

 

[GamezRule]

Okay, I should be more specific, I would abandon Marseilles, and rebuild 1NW. I would also have a navy of about 7-8 caravels or 5 galleons waiting outside. I would also at the same time land a settler SE of Rouen with mainly a defensive force with just enough offensive troops to raze Rouen. Once the new towns are in I would move the rest of my force and attack then. Also, if you have galleons, only one town needs to be razed. Also, if you are not playing with "Always wait at end of turn" turned on, do so. In my Chieften days, I have had many a plan foiled before I found that option. This is also how a ship chain works if the gap is larger then one ship can go in one turn. Basically, you load up on one side, move it to the transfer point, which must be well defended if the AI can reach it, wake all and then load them into another ship. It takes practice to learn, but it is a useful technique. If you keep enough ships at each checkpoint, you can move a whole army across the ocean in 1 turn, and still move them that turn.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Thanks for the tips about the ship chain. I will try to set one up to reinforce the troops across the larger ocean, on the other side of my empire. In the invasion route I've been using, the gaps are nice and small.
-- I can get from my home island to "Mongolia" in one ship's movement, and the riders can move all the way across Mongolia in one turn.
-- I can move from Mongolia island to France proper in one ship's movement, and unload.
-- Using the roads the French built (that I have conquered) I can get all the way across in 2 turns.
-- Getting from France to the southern end of Rouen Island is one ship's movement, and riders can run the length of the island in one turn
-- Getting from the northern end of Rouen Island to my newly conquered city of Poitiers is one ship's movement.

Perhaps you didn't read one of the posts correctly ... after I conquered Marseilles, I loaded up the troops and invaded Rouen Island around 1475. I began attacking the next turn, and overran the island (3 towns in all) in a single turn. Riders Rulez!

I'm now planning for expeditions on the main land mass, and trying to figure out the best way to take down the current leader, Lincoln of the Americans.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Here's my latest save game. I had a scare about 5 turns ago, where I saw American ships approaching my coastlines. A frigate and galley sailed up to the northwest corner of "Mongolia", and another galley showed up at the southwest corner of my main land mass. Abe had railroads and cavalry before I did, so I was concerned that he was planning an invasion. Sure, I would crush the two units that landed from each galley, but I was worried that I would lose all the cities I took from the French on the big continent.

Remembering one of vxma's tips about "blocking landing sites", I mobilized a flock of workers, along with a few riders. I occupied all the tiles next to the boats, so they had no place to land. On the Mongolian island, I put a few caravels in the way, to force them to swing wide, away from the coast, and use up movement points. I started making cavalry in most of my shield-producing cities. As Abe's boats moved north, I slid the blockades north, keeping all the landing sites blocked.

Lot of worry over nothing ... Abe's boats blew on by, sailing off to the north.
No declaration of war, on land. I can't be sure if they were just carrying settler pairs to a new island, or if my buildup served as a marginal deterrent. My military adviser still says we are weak compared to America, about the same as Egypt, and strong compared to the Iroquois.

I am still planning to invade America, rather than the other two. I don't have good exposure to Egypt's borders, and my supply lines would be even longer trying to invade Hiawatha. Abe has a few luxuries that I want; I *will* have to deal with him sooner or later. Unless one of you makes a good case for invading one of the other civs ... just need to build more troops and position them well.

 

[scratchthepitch]

Remembering one of vxma's tips about "blocking landing sites", I mobilized a flock of workers, along with a few riders. I occupied all the tiles next to the boats, so they had no place to land. On the Mongolian island, I put a few caravels in the way, to force them to swing wide, away from the coast, and use up movement points. I started making cavalry in most of my shield-producing cities. As Abe's boats moved north, I slid the blockades north, keeping all the landing sites blocked.

My memory may be wrong, but if an opponent is planning an invasion instead of just settling a town, they can and will land military units on a worker occupied tile and capture the worker in the process.

 

[vorlon_mi]

My memory may be wrong, but if an opponent is planning an invasion instead of just settling a town, they can and will land military units on a worker occupied tile and capture the worker in the process.

I don't think so; here's the reference in the section called "Island Block". Only marines (and viking berserks, but this is vanilla) can actually attack from the sea, and an "attack" is required to capture the worker.

Abe never declared, and there were *no* empty tiles on the land masses he was approaching. Settling was not an option, though he may have been sending a settler to a 1-tile island that he found somewhere.

 

[scratchthepitch]

I don't think so; here's the reference in the section called "Island Block". Only marines (and viking berserks, but this is vanilla) can actually attack from the sea, and an "attack" is required to capture the worker.

Abe never declared, and there were *no* empty tiles on the land masses he was approaching. Settling was not an option, though he may have been sending a settler to a 1-tile island that he found somewhere.

I just ran a test and found that with non marine units landing right off the ship, that while you couldn't attack a military unit, you could attack workers. But this is in Conquests. Maybe non marine type units cant attack workers directly from a ship in vanilla and PTW?