How to invade by sea when the AI has tanks

[Dragon2]

I'm playing a Monarch-level game in which I'm fourth of the four remaining civs out of 8. Just as I got computers (the first civ to do so), #3 and #2 invited me to ally against the #1 Egyptians, who are on a continent 3 transport moves away.

I've never used the draft and mobilization before, but it works great. I switched to communism, sent over a transport with a settler, a worker, and miscellaneous mech infantry to found a new city on a coastal hill and rebased all my bombers there. I draft as many mech infantry as I can handle from my home continent and transport them into this city (my allies and I control the seas) The AI attacks every turn, but my defenders win two out of three battles, and the conscripts often get promoted when they survive.

Since the start of the war, my "power" has almost doubled relative to the Egyptians, although I have still not captured an Egyptian city. My hope is that they will use up their supply of veteran tanks and that my battle-hardened mech industry can walk over them.

In order to keep my units healthy, I ship over workers and settlers, build a chain of cities two tiles apart, and rush-build barracks and walls by adding to the population with a worker, then cracking the whip.

It looks as though the secret of invasion is to fight mostly defensive battles.

 

[DBSD13]

Maybe you should try cracking itz back or blowing up itz improvements?

Chances are that the AI ve barracks in their cities n ar continously producing tanks in all itz cities.

Or just concentrate ALL your forces to clear a way to a city, n bombard it wif everything then u can slowly capture its empire.

Thas my theory, dun kow if it will work on modern civ3 warfare, I'm still happy wif my new musketman.

 

[ironfang]

I agree with DBSD, and the best way to do this is the power of bombers. Bomb cities, and tile improvements to slow down their production power. Keep at it and stick it to those nasty egyptians!

ironfang

 

[Daaraa]

I've bombed all the Aztecs resources and have a massive trade embargo against them. I've also got a naval blockade and have destroyed all roads leading to and from the Aztecs capital in my game. That slowed them down a lot.

 

[Dragon2]

I never got far beyond my initial beachhead. The Egyptians could produce 10 veteran tanks every turn. I could kill them all, losing only half as many units, but I could not make progress against cities.

One thing I discovered is that the AI was much more successful at destroying my barracks by bombing (it lasted an average of 1 turn) than I was at destroying theirs. Also, I lost bombers to AI interceptors but was never told that I had shot down AI bombers.

I was counting on my more powerful allies to distract the Egyptians, and they were useless. Neither ever established a city on the Egyptian continent. What I needed to do was to sell the Russians a city with enough defenders to hold out until their transports arrived, but I couldn't see how to do that.

It's starting to look as though a large, late-game civilization that controls a whole railroaded continent cannot be invaded successfully. Perhaps Modern Armor will do the job -- I didn't get to that.