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Effectiveness of diversionary attacks.

sherod

Chieftain
Joined
Mar 6, 2002
Messages
4
Does anybody know of the effectiveness of diversionary attacks?

Heres the situation.

I'm looking at preparing for my first war my game (playing english), I will have (by the time I attack) Cavalry, riflemen and Men-o-war.

I intend using Men-o-war loaded with troops to land on the coast of my intended enemy a few turns after I launch the major assault about 15 squares north, the purpose to

1. Distract and confuse the AI
2. Split the target nation in two, stopping or slowing reinforcements from the south.

My question is, is there any point? Is the AI 'bright enough' to be confused and keep extra units out of the fight?

Or am I better off just committing this cavalry to the main assault?
 
i would land the diversionary force first, a couple of turns before your main force. The AI is definitely "smart" enough to fall for this tactic.
 
If you send in the diversion first, the AI will probably send most of its troops at that force, leaving your real attack much more open.
 
I use diversion all the time and have come up with the following:

1) use a credible force. It must be capable of taking a town or doing some serious pillaging.

2) wait a few turns between the diversion attack and the real one. The AI will shift almost all it`s forces if the diversion lives long enough.

3) use topnotch defenders only for the diversion. This makes it very effective in binding the AI`s offensive arms.

Only if you follow these rules will you keep the AI busy long enough for the diversion to be effective.


One more very important thing:
Remeber that the AI knows where your troops are! This is a AI cheat, one of the more annoying. So it is no use doing a diversion while your main attack force sits in front of the actual invasion beach! Keep that at least 2 moves away - then the AI will ignore it. Now do the diversion. After a few turns (2 will do with Rail built), bring in the main punch.
 
Add to Killer's approach, that you pillage the area surrounded your diversionary force of roads before your main force lands. This will significantly increase the time it will take the AI to get its units away from the diversion area to fight your main army. This is all the easier once you can use bombers, because you can destroy these roads before your diversion force even lands.
 
Originally posted by eyrei
Add to Killer's approach, that you pillage the area surrounded your diversionary force of roads before your main force lands. This will significantly increase the time it will take the AI to get its units away from the diversion area to fight your main army. This is all the easier once you can use bombers, because you can destroy these roads before your diversion force even lands.

:goodjob:
that`s the only reason why you should bring Cavalry: it can pillage, then move back into cover in one turn
 
One more thing. Avoid using an army of defensive units such as infantry in your diversionary force. The AI will not be able to figure out how to dislodge it, and so will essentially ignore it. An army like this is very, very, very useful in your main force though.
 
Originally posted by eyrei
One more thing. Avoid using an army of defensive units such as infantry in your diversionary force. The AI will not be able to figure out how to dislodge it, and so will essentially ignore it. An army like this is very, very, very useful in your main force though.

eyrei, as always you are a source of incredible wisdom and thoroughness :p. I hadn`t even thought of that possibility!
 
Originally posted by Killer


eyrei, as always you are a source of incredible wisdom and thoroughness :p. I hadn`t even thought of that possibility!

A testament to my boring job.:) I have way too much time to think about civ when I am not playing it.
 
It seems to be tricky finding just the right combination for the diversionary attack. Too strong defensively and it will indeed be ignored. Too weak and the AI will quickly rip it up.

Leads me to consider landing relatively moderate forces down the enemy AI coast line to draw attention then reboarding them or reinforcing them.

Another way of dealing with the AI is to simply build a killing zone on your border and wait until the AI uses up its surplus offensive units before proceeding with your assault.
 
Originally posted by jimmytrick
Leads me to consider landing relatively moderate forces down the enemy AI coast line to draw attention then reboarding them or reinforcing them.

As Killer mentioned earlier, you will have to leave them for several turns, so reboarding them quickly wouldn't work. Far better to consider the units expendable and maximize the amount of diversion they can provide.

If you load a few artillery in with some infantry, they make an excellent diversion since you can sit on a mountain and bombard all their improvements away.

If you want to ensure that your enemy can't repair damage to their infrastructure, bombard some improvements near their coast, then when the workers appear use marines and grab them.
 
Originally posted by Sparrowhawk



If you want to ensure that your enemy can't repair damage to their infrastructure, bombard some improvements near their coast, then when the workers appear use marines and grab them.

Although the value of this tactic is questionable, because you lose a marine (worth something like 100 shields) to grab a couple 10 shield workers, I still use it occasionally, because I get a good laugh out of it.:lol:
 
On border wars and setting honeypots : try to find a border full of mountains and hills, occupy these mountains at all costs. The AI will send hordes of units to try to dislodge you, and lose many. This is especially useful if you are trying to conquer the border cities with few units while you are waiting for reinforcements.
I have eliminated countless knights, cavalry and longbowmen, just with a few cavalry and riflemen on top of mountains while waiting for my main invasion force.
The best way to counter AI's hordes is to use the terrain.

loki
 
I generally try to establish my national borders based partially on geography. Mountain chains make wonderful borders, and even add a certain realism to the boundaries, since many national borders in the real world are natural. I will build a few fortresses in the mountains with artillery, so that, should someone try to come across they get pounded until they simply turn around and go home. Even if the AI sends one of its infamous giant stacks of cavalry, they will be slowed down enough for reinforcements to arrive. The other benefit of these mountain fortresses, is that extra square you can see. Often, this extra sight gives you an extra turn to prepare for an invasion, which can often make a huge difference.
 
Diversion "attacks" can also mean founding a city with a few defender in it right under the enemy`s nose.

He will not tolerate beachheads - period. So when he comes for you, load a settler and s many defenders (maybe even an army) into a transport or two and found a city (preferably on a hill and with a river to shield it from the main attack direction) on the enemy`s home territory.

The enemy will turn his entire attack around!
 
*sigh*

It's all become a moot point anyway.... I developed steam power so I could use railways as my decisive advantage only to find out there are only three sources of coal on the entire map.

All of them with national borders of reasonably powerful nations, None of them available for trade.

Now I'm faced with prosecuting a war on the far side of the map against a nation I had no intention of fighting in order to get coal.

Of course - when I get it, it would be an incredable advantage.... hmmmm.... Time to build me an expeditionary force.

To the boats!
 
Similar to what Killer said, you can establish a beachead during peace time on the continent of your soon to be enemy and divert an attack on your invasion force. Just leave the city undefended and have a boat full of defenders wait out side of the city. When you declare war the enemy will always go after an unprotected city. When you see their units coming, move the boat into the city and fortify your troops. The AI will go back and forth between your city and the main fighting force. This tactic is harder when the AI has a rail network and can move quickly. To combat this you should get bomber and bomb their key rails leading to the city. This is probably to much work :rolleyes: for something not worth doing though, but i thought that it was cool:cool: .
 
Originally posted by MummyMan
S This is probably to much work :rolleyes: for something not worth doing though, but i thought that it was cool:cool: .

no, No, NO! This is exactly what you should do to even the playing field. After all you never know the eney`s troop layout unless you pay an incredibly large amount for it. And it is not much work when you plan ahead - like build fortresses to leave only one approach open - then you only have to cut the rail + road from 3 tiles - and he will stick to attacking the beachhead - takes 3 moves; a Cav of yours can move 9 squares in that time! It should give you enough time to take several cities before he can swing round!

Even better against 2-move units! I sometimes sacrifise units for the road cutting for that purpose!
 
Originally posted by eyrei
Although the value of this tactic is questionable, because you lose a marine (worth something like 100 shields) to grab a couple 10 shield workers, I still use it occasionally, because I get a good laugh out of it.:lol:

Actually, I've only lost a couple of marines in all of the times that I've done this. Usually because I target mountain or hill squares to bombard. You just have to be clever about it.
 
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