Frigates -- best defense against AI?

[jhflif]

It's easy enough to defend against a land invasion... shuffle your units around, play rock paper scissors and whittle them down to SOD (stacks of disappointment)

However I have been on the receiving end of a massive seaborne invasion of fully upgraded units landing right next to my capital and just crapping things up a lot. This only seems to happen between gunpowder and steampower... I've never seen a massive galleon invasion after I've discovered ironclads which eat galleons for breakfast, but the AI really seems to take advantage of this gap where scads of galleons escorted by frigates can seriously eff your up and honestly the only defense I've found is to build an enormous navy of frigates. When you've got Ragnar and Justinian constantly trying to land giant stacks on your shores you tend to have to focus on frigates just to keep them away. I feel like this is really the only time in the game where the navy can be a threat, cause soon enough you get cruise missiles and bombers (not to mention nukes) which tend to put a stop to seaborne invasions.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Ship of the line, OR ironclad, OR airships + frigates.

Any of the above should give your ships commanding odds vs the AI ships in that era. If all you have is tech parity, you have no choice but to use frigates or defend on land. Bit of a shame because dry dock + theo could get frigates that have winning odds at sea generally. If you can't get that, at least get combat I on them.

Even on high levels the AI doesn't have *too* many astro-based ships. I'd be surprised to see a stack of more than 4-6 frigates and 8ish galleons on immortal. 12-15 frigates are expensive in theory, but they are a) 10 hammers more per frigate than a musket and b) 20 hammers less per unit than a rifle unless you're drafting.

Steel is only 1 tech away from chemistry though I dislike the slow ironclads since they can't leave borders (though they are solid for defending seafood). A shot to military science might be called for if playing for naval defensive warfare, as they are the best ship available on the high seas until destroyers and the AI does not prioritize/use them well. They maul frigates and have similarly good odds vs galleons. They're a bit slow but unlike the ironclad can be positioned in the ocean and are fast enough that it's not easy to just dance around them.

 

[Callonia]

In one game I was playing Archipalego map, Mansa Musa alone had like 40 caravels which I slaughtered with Frigates.

Good thing i got them before he got frigate tech -_-.

Mansa Musa fell to me, however there was this one heathen Civilization led by napoleon XD

He constantly declared war on me throughout the ages, he had large land mass, compared to my four city island inital landmass plus one city on other landmass. There was a point where he sent many many many frigates against me, Fortunately coz I had tons of frigates due to the constant warring, and my hatred of napoleon. I had like fifty or more frigates so I managed to win. However but when he pulled one large stack of ship of line. My lvl 4 frigates fled and went hiding into the harbors XD

How you say? That's easy! There's great general you know? You settle him into your high production cities to create military academies to boost production of military units by 100%!

I could build a frigate every 2-4 turns in each city. Oh and they were already metropolis sized XD

One of my frigate lvled up to seven or eight. So I named it but i forgot anyways.

Was playing Next War mod, lost the game coz all civs was tossing nukes like mad anyways and the earth cracked like a egg. XD

 

[jhflif]

I plan to nuke the island city Ragnar took and use it as a base from which to launch my tactical nukes against him, because he has been the biggest bastard i can ever imagine and deserves to die a horrible death

 

[jhflif]

I think Ragnar is an opportunist backstabber... He and Burger King repeatedly settled cities on in my hinterland which were summarily destroyed... Burger King was quite a threat for a while and I focused my war efforts on staving him off, while I let a tiny little 5 population Viking settlement live on my borders because I didn't think it was a threat... However though everyone hated Ragnar, this tiny little settlement I neglected to burn to the ground gave him a highway right into the back door of my empire. And though this jerk was at the bottom of the score list, he still sent in a large force of musketmen and trebuchets through my back door which occupied me for quite some time

 

[capnvonbaron]

Another one... Machine guns. Once you get to railroad, upgrade a few CG crossbows to CG machine guns and park them in your more vulnerable coastal cities. I've had two machine guns stop four frigates worth of trebs, maces, and curassiers. Again it takes a tech lead and some planning, but MGs shred everything until tanks/marines/arty some along.

 

[Renesisfury]

Another one... Machine guns. Once you get to railroad, upgrade a few CG crossbows to CG machine guns and park them in your more vulnerable coastal cities. I've had two machine guns stop four frigates worth of trebs, maces, and curassiers. Again it takes a tech lead and some planning, but MGs shred everything until tanks/marines/arty some along.

I had the exact opposite experience with MG's. I had a stack of Cossacks take out 2 MG's, and 5 infantry.

 

[AlphaShard]

Lmao @ Burger King! I never realized how much constine looks like the BK.

Frigates are good but ship of the line is better and ironclads more so. This is most in a defensive regard.

 

[sabo]

Ship of the line, OR ironclad, OR airships + frigates.

.

Exactly.... silly me has just realized the value of airships against a naval invasion, you can weaken a stronger Navy by bombing, and you can recon way out into the netherlands to scout for any Naval SOD's coming and you can prepare b4 they even get to your shores.

 

[rollo1066]

I always build some ships but rarely have much use for them. Only real exception is founding a city on a nearby island or less ofter a distant island/continent. Usually is is Gallions which are doing this.