Defending your coastline help please

[Dominico]

yeah i agree rugger. It is a better system. Till then though the only way to stop seaborn invasion is to set your defence deeper.

Its only possible if you know where the attack is coming from, but means standing a long way off the coast rather then actually on the coast line. I think the suprise invasion is actually impossible to stop though, but again this is pretty realistic. I mean in ww2 germany could have caused a lot of damage to the invasion fleet with aircraft, subs, and tanks waiting on the beaches had they known where they were coming from. Unfortunately for them they missed it by a turn!

Having defensive zones would be cool though. There is almost that option with the sentry button. It just doesnt attack. I have a few ships out at sea "patrolling" and then if they pick up an attack fleet, the main ships can go out to meet it and hopefully sink it in transit. I think if you could set to attack as they went past shipborne attacks would be perhaps too hard for the ai to do. I think you would stop most of them before they reached your beaches.

 

[rugger11]

I went to a defense in depth approach. It worked fine, but dang you have to have a lot of ships. It is much easier to blockade his ports and have subs on key appraoches.

 

[Bushface]

To destroy an invading fleet you need at least one warship per ship (warship or transport) in the invading fleet. Even battleships, which do collateral damage, don't help the situation because they can at best sink one ship per turn. This means that a big fleet cannot be stopped by a defensive curtain, which won't be able to bring enough vessels into combat unless the defender has enough warning. A while ago I thought I had good defence and was able to get my ships into position to stop an incoming fleet, but by so doing the curtain couldn't cover all my coast and the AI (Mansa) sent another fleet through the wide gap, using Galleons on a short sea crossing. Now if only battleships could be given the Blitz promotion . . .
And if you do succeed in sinking the escorts you can't tell (with 2.08) what units they were carrying. And I'll bet that if you sink one transport out of two, the one sunk will be the one carrying weaker units

 

[Strato]

Yes indeed, I've since learnt of the need for a navy the hard way myself. Of course, it's more useful having a navy in the water rather than gathering barnacles/rust sitting in your city ports.

I also really hate it when, despite having good land based defence on a battle front, the AI swings around via sea and deposits a few troops on the doorstep to say hello. Kinda like the Maginot line idea

 

[SewerStarFish]

Another stop-gap measure for coastal protection is to take note That old Monty didn't bring any Marines. This means you can shield your coast from invasion by using your land forces (anything -- warriors chariots) to cover the swath of squares that the transport can reach.
Everyone shuffle left or right as the transport moves.

 

[pkp]

To destroy an invading fleet you need at least one warship per ship (warship or transport) in the invading fleet. Even battleships, which do collateral damage, don't help the situation because they can at best sink one ship per turn. This means that a big fleet cannot be stopped by a defensive curtain, which won't be able to bring enough vessels into combat unless the defender has enough warning. A while ago I thought I had good defence and was able to get my ships into position to stop an incoming fleet, but by so doing the curtain couldn't cover all my coast and the AI (Mansa) sent another fleet through the wide gap, using Galleons on a short sea crossing. Now if only battleships could be given the Blitz promotion . . .
And if you do succeed in sinking the escorts you can't tell (with 2.08) what units they were carrying. And I'll bet that if you sink one transport out of two, the one sunk will be the one carrying weaker units

I don't know, but then again it is impossible to tell. I once sank one of 3 transports and I was all nervous about an 8 tank onslaught. But on the next turn 5 cavalry and 3 cannons came out. 2 tanks killed them in 2 turns and they landed on desert so they didn't pillage even one thing. I know she had the techs for more powerful units though.

 

[rugger11]

Another stop-gap measure for coastal protection is to take note That old Monty didn't bring any Marines. This means you can shield your coast from invasion by using your land forces (anything -- warriors chariots) to cover the swath of squares that the transport can reach.
Everyone shuffle left or right as the transport moves.

I thought about that but didn't do it. That sounds pretty ingenious.

By the way, I am still playing the same game and I just did a General Sherman on Montezuma and cut his country in half.

Thanks for the help and insight

 

[Joe Harker]

what i tend to do is to have a small amount of warships in each coastal city, u don't need a fixed amount, just the right amount to defend the coast and beat back the emeny, also picked your battles, do you really need to go after that lone battleship or should i keep my ships safe in port for a invasion fleet.

 

[Charles 22]

I like the forting the coast idea, though I must say I have never actually done it. Problem is that usually means you aren't getting the most out of those tiles because they could be farmed, etc. It also seems that the AI isn't keen on naval invasion unless the city is literally a city on a coast. I'm absolutely certain I haven't seen the AI land from the sea when the city is two tiles inland, though I might had seen some opposed that were 1 tile away (therefore not a port).

I would like to suggest that while taking an economic hit may not be worth it, as having a good navy may be a better idea, this does bring to mind the use of forting elsewhere. For example, in my current game I had to declare war on a northern neighbor to get his oil. Most of the time I don't think about forting, but the land up there is often worthless that defending what I take by that means is a very good strategy. I even have some tiles more within my empire that could use this treatement, since they are more a threat to be attacked by that civ, being they are attached to one of his rails, but are just ably defended by infantry in the woods. Why not fort that same woods tile if I have no notion of putting that woodchopping building there? I mean it's a tile easily lost if I improve it, and not good defensively if I farm it etc, so why not fort it? There are more economic improvements to be made within the empire elsewhere, but doing this would ease some of my security concerns in my flanks. This would have been brillaint if I had thought to do it before I started the war.

 

[Rod]

hello,

I do not believe that you can protect your coast line 100 % . Whatever you do, how many ships you have the opponent will attack at the coast where your defenses are weakest. So I define focussed targets for all my units. The Navy has to protect my fish resources and that is it(1 best 2 ships on each resource) . There they will stay the whole time. When I am going to war then 2 ships will raze the opponent's coast and later protect my invasion fleet. But still the 1 ship on each resource rule applies.

Of course these ships on the resources can be used to destroy enemy vessels when the chance is there. They do not have to glue to the resource. But after this mission is fulfilled they will return to their position.

The protect the coast line, you need mobile land forces and many many roads/railroads , but do not expect your navy to take care for everything.

 

[chessplayer]

use bombers to strike naval units in a stack. use fighters against a single ship

 

[SewerStarFish]

Double post -- delete

 

[SewerStarFish]

Actually on certain archipeligo games, especially when I'm way behind in techs I've gone completely defensive and guarded every coastal square. One -- always make the Vikings happy, then you're safe until Marines are available. This is of course is a completely defense strategy -- but often when you're going for a cultural victory you'll fall behind -- this can help you achieve a cultural victory.

 

[boneys26]

I've always used destroyers just of the coast every 3 squares apart and use sub's a little away from the coast that way i get to see them coming i can use my subs and move the destroyers into position ready to sink what ever gets through

 

[SwordofStriker]

On smaller islands, a ring of forted machine guns tends to dissuade and would-be invaders. Machine guns mow down pre-gunpowder units and get a hefty bonus against gunpowder units, so they are ideal for this if you can produce enough.