Major war with the Americans. It is 1950 or so and I've been at war since around 1910. They have about fifty cities or so and I have about thirty. I have a significant advantage in production, helped greatly in recent years as my retaliatory nuclear stike decimated the American's most productive cities. They only got one of my cities - interestingly, it was probably my least productive city.
Anyway, what's the point? Here goes. I began this war using the Stack of Death strategy. I loaded up ten transports with MA, RA, and MI and sent them over. Then I would send about four more transports every other turn or so. The results were that while I was able to conquer a city or two with every invasion, the Americans were able to push back my attacks - knocking out a stack of twenty MI using 20 MA. The war was going nowhere. I'd lose troops, replace them, then lose the new troops. The Americans were completely unable to counter attack, as I sunk their entire fleet and blockaded the only real accessible shipping lanes to my continent. They have only one major city left that I haven't nuked, and that is only because I live near Philadelphia (in real life) and have some qualms about hitting that city. Still, I could not make any inroads into the continent other than some coastal cities. To complicate matters further, the American continent is basically one big square. There are no defensible positions to hold so that the enemy cannot get through. I can be attacked from any side at any time. Conversely, my lands have four choke points separating three sections of land. It is the most easily defended homeland I've ever had.
Last night I tried a different plan. After an ill-advised government cou on my part (I accidentally hit ctrl-G, then accidentally hit the wrong option) I was stuck without any production for six turns. This gave me a chance to sit back and reflect on my battle plans.
First, no more RA. Against the Americans they will slow me down too much. RA must first be landed (one turn), then moved into position (one turn), before they can be used. For every invasion I have been able to attack once with my RA before the Americans took them. The result of this is that whenever I lose the RA, the Americans get them. And I do protect them - covering a stack of fifteen with about ten MI. It just seems that the Americans go for that stack first. As stated earlier, since there are no defensible positions on this continent the RA are always vulnerable to attack. On a different landscape I would move my RA to positions just behind the lines so that they can use their ranged attack, but be protected by the front lines. Since there really aren't any front lines here, that is almost impossible.
Second - limit my MI. Since they are roughly the same cost as MA, it makes more sense for my invasion to use almost all MA. I am not keeping cities, and the MI cannot keep up with the MA enough to protect them.
Third - continue nuking the larger American cities. Keep them from having the ability to rebuild their army.
Fourth - when attacking a larger enemy, the SOD plan does not work. I followed up a few turns after my anarchy was over with a fleet of twenty transports loaded with mostly MA, about ten percent MI, and a few workers to begin the cleanup of pollution from the nukes once I had gained a defendable foothold. Incidentally, has anyone ever tried to move a stack of over 180 units out from a city? It is a pain.
Once I landed, I broke my army up into divisions of ten to fifteen MA. The biggest benefit here is that I have about ten divisions that can attack per turn; some of the stacks more than once. Using the SOD tactic I can only really attack once or twice per turn. My new method gives me ten to twenty attacks per turn.
Since I can attack so many times per turn now, I can take out more of their cities, further reducing thier ability to build their defenses.
I also don't keep cities unless they have a great wonder in them. Two reasons for this. For one, I can use the workers gained from the cities capture to clean up the pollution when the war is over (although I'd get them anyway) and secondly I don't have to worry about defending the city. This late in the game everyone's culture is so high that I'd have to keep almost an entire division within the city in order to keep it from revolting.
I have been able to attack for two turns now, and will let everyone know tomorrow how the rest of my war went.
Anyway, what's the point? Here goes. I began this war using the Stack of Death strategy. I loaded up ten transports with MA, RA, and MI and sent them over. Then I would send about four more transports every other turn or so. The results were that while I was able to conquer a city or two with every invasion, the Americans were able to push back my attacks - knocking out a stack of twenty MI using 20 MA. The war was going nowhere. I'd lose troops, replace them, then lose the new troops. The Americans were completely unable to counter attack, as I sunk their entire fleet and blockaded the only real accessible shipping lanes to my continent. They have only one major city left that I haven't nuked, and that is only because I live near Philadelphia (in real life) and have some qualms about hitting that city. Still, I could not make any inroads into the continent other than some coastal cities. To complicate matters further, the American continent is basically one big square. There are no defensible positions to hold so that the enemy cannot get through. I can be attacked from any side at any time. Conversely, my lands have four choke points separating three sections of land. It is the most easily defended homeland I've ever had.
Last night I tried a different plan. After an ill-advised government cou on my part (I accidentally hit ctrl-G, then accidentally hit the wrong option) I was stuck without any production for six turns. This gave me a chance to sit back and reflect on my battle plans.
First, no more RA. Against the Americans they will slow me down too much. RA must first be landed (one turn), then moved into position (one turn), before they can be used. For every invasion I have been able to attack once with my RA before the Americans took them. The result of this is that whenever I lose the RA, the Americans get them. And I do protect them - covering a stack of fifteen with about ten MI. It just seems that the Americans go for that stack first. As stated earlier, since there are no defensible positions on this continent the RA are always vulnerable to attack. On a different landscape I would move my RA to positions just behind the lines so that they can use their ranged attack, but be protected by the front lines. Since there really aren't any front lines here, that is almost impossible.
Second - limit my MI. Since they are roughly the same cost as MA, it makes more sense for my invasion to use almost all MA. I am not keeping cities, and the MI cannot keep up with the MA enough to protect them.
Third - continue nuking the larger American cities. Keep them from having the ability to rebuild their army.
Fourth - when attacking a larger enemy, the SOD plan does not work. I followed up a few turns after my anarchy was over with a fleet of twenty transports loaded with mostly MA, about ten percent MI, and a few workers to begin the cleanup of pollution from the nukes once I had gained a defendable foothold. Incidentally, has anyone ever tried to move a stack of over 180 units out from a city? It is a pain.
Once I landed, I broke my army up into divisions of ten to fifteen MA. The biggest benefit here is that I have about ten divisions that can attack per turn; some of the stacks more than once. Using the SOD tactic I can only really attack once or twice per turn. My new method gives me ten to twenty attacks per turn.
Since I can attack so many times per turn now, I can take out more of their cities, further reducing thier ability to build their defenses.
I also don't keep cities unless they have a great wonder in them. Two reasons for this. For one, I can use the workers gained from the cities capture to clean up the pollution when the war is over (although I'd get them anyway) and secondly I don't have to worry about defending the city. This late in the game everyone's culture is so high that I'd have to keep almost an entire division within the city in order to keep it from revolting.
I have been able to attack for two turns now, and will let everyone know tomorrow how the rest of my war went.
)
