Coastal Raids

[Hunter]

Now a big problem I seem to run into when I am not being the aggressor is having a small army.

When a war breaks out and they always do I like to have an Expeditionary force ready to go. No matter what Era if you have ships you have all you need.

Start by having enough ships to accommodate at least four units and one ship to extra to bring reinforcements. Then move you Expeditionary forces to a point in your enemy’s empire that is the farthest from any ally and yourself. Land your force in the best defendable terrain you can find. Having one fast unit to conduct at least one raid is useful however his days will be short. The AI will launch an attack on your position forcing it to divide its troops. This is why you need at least 4 any less and the AI never seemed to divide its forces. Stay and fight only one turn, if even that, then get back on the ship and move to your next position. Make sure you destroy some infrastructure (roads, mines…) every time you land.
This will also allow you time to build up your defenses if you are on the same continent as your enemy. If he is not on your continent then it will also show you the AI’s response time and force, which will help you prepare for a full scale invasion.

This is not really any kind of new idea it was used in ww2 in the form of commando raids and the disastrous Dieppe raid. It just seems to work most of the time and is kind of fun.

Encountered risks and damage:

Total Annihilation of all landing forces: Which can occur if the enemy has not yet committed its force to an attack, causing your forces to take the full weight of it. Or the enemy is really strong. Increase you landing party size or speed to match the enemy’s power.

The enemy dose not attack the landing party: Destroy as much as you can near the coast without engaging the enemy, exploit this until you get a response, then relocate. NEVER LEAVE THE COAST or they will cut you to ribbons before you can get back to the boats.

Suggested force:
4-6 Defense units, 1-2 artillery units or 1-2 fast units, supported by 3-5 ships (2for transport 1 for reinforcements and 1 for fleet defense during transit, until Galleons are available then use 2 Galleons and 1-2 Frigates.). Adjust accordingly for new tech.

 

[Gingerbread Man]

Usually I avoid intercontinental wars until late game, and when an enemy from another continent declares war on me, it rarely becomes anything other than a twenty-turn skirmish. But if the enemy did land on my territory in great number, I just may try your strategy.

For pangea games I use another similar tactic to confuse the enemy when they sent over a stack of doom. Find a valuable city of yours far away from the stack of doom, and remove ALL units from it. when the SoD is nearly upon the undefended city, put all the units back in, and remove all units from another city on the other side of your land. The SoD will start heading back over to try and get this newly undefended city. Eventually you will have the SoD yo-yoing back and forth, almost reaching one city, then turning around and tring to get another.

I did this to a stack of more than 100 riflemen. I would pick off the weak ones on grassland with my cavalry as they went back and forth.

Another good way to divert an enemy's army is to take one of their cities, well distanced from their main offence force. ALL of their army will all of a sudden head for the captured city. When the army is near, desert/abandon the city, or let the enemy throw their forces up against you like they want to die (if you are strong enough)

 

[general Patton]

You know what else was used in WW2 D-day which is what I use. So I land a few defensive units many arty and many offensive. The enemy never attacks my 1 infantry unit with 12 arty but will attack a tank with 12 arty

 

[Sims2789]

what i do is gain technological superiority and kill everyone on my continent early. i also never build a city 1 square away from the coast. if you do, you can't build a harbor and are in range of battleships artillery. to conduct intercontinental wars, first, try to build a COASTAL city if possible on the enemy's continent. defend it well. then, build a huge enemy and conquer a few cities, then call a truce and get your opponent to pay you large sums of money. it usually takes me 3-4 wars before i conquer an enemy, or 1 if they are on my continent early
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[dexters]

What level difficult are you playing? It's tough to consistently hold a large technologial superiority in the early game beyond Chieftain.

 

[The Last Conformist]

If I'm in an intercontinental war, and can't or won't conduct a proper invasion of the enemy's continent, I offen drop eight Inf or Mech Inf on a coastal mountain on the enemy's turf. While they'll typically die the turn they land, they'll take dozens of enemy unis with them. The resultant shift in relative strength is sometimes enough to convince a recalcitrant AI to sign a peace treaty.