Help with invasion

[ManiaMuse]

Hey, just wondering if I could get some advice for this game.

Monarch/normal/continents/Lincoln (decided to try and give all leaders a go)

Started on the small continent with Gilgamesh. Think I did quite well with landgrabbing and building up the economy but got a bit sidetracked with some wonderspamming (got GL in 1040AD lol). As a result I didn't get round to wiping him out until this point in the game (1775AD cav/spies/cannon, probably should have wiped him out a lot earlier as he wouldn't trade any techs)

I've played through a few times and haven't had much success. The main problem is Brennus. Tried to do a space race one time but he has three culture cities going and has a habit of turning into a monster. He has Isabella as a vassal and seems intent on vassalising Darius as well. Initially I sided with Brennus/Isabella and Pacal as Brennus doesn't like Frederick or Darius. Frederick is probably going to come after me at some point as well since I *accidentally* have a -10 with him for arrogant demands (was just trying to see what would happen )

Anyway, I think diplo win is out for the moment and space would require me to raze a few culture cities at least. Basically I need to war a bit more. Problem is that although I'm fairly comfortable with monarch pangea warring I'm not so great at intercontinental or tech parity wars in general and my attempts to do so far haven't gone so well.

So I'm looking for any general advice as to how to kick some ai ass. Like who to invade first/which city/what units/how many/how to build them quickly/how to win. Feel free to criticize my empire management as well (workers are automated as there was mostly just road building left before I killed Gilgamesh and I know I'm not leveraging philosophical enough but anyway), though I'm more interested in strategies for invading someone. Like should I assist Brennus with taking out Darius as it seems inevitable he will attempt to in order to get a foothold on the continent, or is that only going to make Brennus stronger?

Cheers. Save was made with 3.19 and BUG mod.

 

[dirtyparrot]

Can't open your save right now. Nuke Brennus back to the Stone Age if he's going for culture. I'm assuming that you have uranium somewhere.

 

[ManiaMuse]

Yeah Uranium is in Gilga's old lands. So what, beeline fission, build manhatten, rush buy a load of nukes and flatten his culture cities and hopefully his SoDs as well? Surely that won't make me that popular with everyone else though! I need a plan for after that as well!

 

[bestbrian]

Yeah Uranium is in Gilga's old lands. So what, beeline fission, build manhatten, rush buy a load of nukes and flatten his culture cities and hopefully his SoDs as well? Surely that won't make me that popular with everyone else though! I need a plan for after that as well!

More nukes is always the answer.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I usually use marines + support for naval strikes, or just drop good ole' infantry/arty (anti-tank if needed), the latter which works way longer than it should.

Just drop a 50+ unit stack of that stuff next to a city upon declaring and it starts to feel a lot like a land war.

If other AIs are closer on the same land mass, you can drop them in their territory and invade via land that way, using a 2nd wave of forces to land on the other side later and capture from both sides.

It's really a question of logistics and planning ahead: intercontinental war only takes 4-7 turns of naval travel typically...not unlike a land war w/ anyone but you closest neighbors. However, you need to plan ahead a bit to actually ship sufficient units over there. I like to get a coastal city cranking galleons early when I know I'll invade. I can either use tech-lead troops with those + a few frigates or wait for transports as necessary (and upgrade), lowering the investment needed at one time to launch the attack.

Nukes will definitely work, but basic infantry + CR II arty COMPLETELY OWN earlier eras, operate solidly at parity, and continue to be effective on a Kill/death basis long after they've fallen behind, and thus are my favorite offensive combo in the game.

 

[bestsss]

As a rule I almost always drop a good stack on the land (preferably hill, forests are usually chopped by that time) w/ the siege and good defense for. After the siege leaves the city defenders at 20% I safely attack from the ships (no marines) and then move the ships into the city for the troops to defend.
Re-base some stuff to the city and it starts turning into a land war...
Load/unload to the next city - to save traveling by land.
Infantry/artillery is indeed a strong and reliable combo.

 

[ManiaMuse]

Hey thanks for the tips. Decided to go artillery + infantry with a few anti tanks and couple of machine guns. Bribed Brennus to go to war with Frederick and then backstabbed Brennus the next turn . Plonked my units on a hill and went straight for his capital, taking it and one of his stacks out within a couple of turns of landing. Now carving up the big continent since it rightly belongs to me.

 

[Negator_UK]

I usually use marines + support for naval strikes,

Don't you suffer horrendous casualties attacking at tech parity ?

Or do you have a more horrendous production rate...

 

[ManiaMuse]

Don't you suffer horrendous casualties attacking at tech parity ?

Or do you have a more horrendous production rate...

Well I guess at Monarch it doesn't matter than much if you can outproduce them and have loads of fighters.

Anyway, won the game. Once I had enough airports on my continent it was really easy to bring reinforcements of artillery/tanks/navy seals + some bombers and mining inc helped quite a lot. Brennus's 2nd culture city was quite well reinforced but enough artillery/tanks and bombers sorted that and he capitulated after that, as did Isabella after I took a couple of her backwards culture cities. Then went on to steamroll a couple of juicy Persian cities and was just about to invade Pacal when I won a diplomatic victory by 1 vote (probably would have been a much bigger margin if I hadn't earlier acquired that -10 with Frederick earlier in the game )

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Don't you suffer horrendous casualties attacking at tech parity ?

Or do you have a more horrendous production rate...

Production rate .

Actually, the losses aren't that bad at parity even if you use only marines. There won't be any culture defense so you generally only lose one marine/defender killed. In other words, it's a 1:1 kill/death situation with an EXTREME tactical advantage (You can blow right past well-defended cities to capture less-defended ones, and the AI will shift garrisons, opening it up elsewhere).

But if you're willing to hold off a bit for flight, it doesn't have to be bad at all. Carriers can carry as many fighters as you need, and once you are fielding >30 or 40 fighters, even jet fighters don't have enough pure #'s to intercept (at parity or better you can use less). Since fighters take things down to 1/2 strength, there is literally nothing in the game that will be odds-on in the defending city. Even mech infantry (16 str after injured down) and modern armor (20) won't look very impressive against just basic combat marines. Marines with CG aren't pushovers against anything except modern armor once you have the city, although an alternative is to just keep razing coastal cities until the target AI capitulates.