How to you manage a large invasion force across the ocean?

[Seven05]

Naval invasions aren't THAT hard

Sweep first, send one or two ships head to make sure the path is clear. This is easy since embarked units are sloooow.

Keep a couple escorts near the convoy but not right on top of it, spread them out so you have more visible areas around them so you will spot hostile ships well before they are in range to sink your valuable units. Again, embarked units are very slow so your faster destroyers can easily reposition around them to respond to any hotile ships you find.

If you can't kill other ships... I don't know- are you using fresh, un-promoted zero xp units? My destoyers one-shot caravels with Targetting III, frigates might take two hits, sometimes not and other destroyers are done in 2-3 hits. If you plan ahead having a highly promoted navy is easy, caravels with targeting, sentry and mobility promotions upgrade to destroyers and frigates with bombard, sentry and range get upgraded to battleships. Only my subs and carriers start fresh.

For the invasion you have a lot of options to make it easier. You don't need a massive army first of all, even on huge maps. You also don't need them to all charge in at once unless you're invading a small continent or island. I like to send in a small force of highly promoted units with the objective of simple grabbing a piece of land and holding onto it. Once that beachead has been expanded I'll start ferrying over the rest of the army. The toughest part of the fight is going to be the target's initial response to your landing so pick somewhere easy to defend and outside of any city's bombard range.

Also, don't forget city states. If you can get a bonch of city states near the target to be your ally they make for a great distraction and may provide you with a good site the stage your invasion from. Worst case- they get conquered, but that's not so bad as then you can liberate them

 

[ywhtptgtfo]

Maybe you should sweep the sea lanes before sending your transports in?

I haven't tried Civ 5 yet, but I'd say it may be better to give transports an HP upgrade every time you unlock stronger ships. After all, it wouldn't make sense for a modern transport to be sunk by some wooden galley or something. At the same time, it shouldn't prevent a strong enemy navy from gobbling up your invading land forces.

 

[Abremms]

P.P.S: Try and land all your embarked units (if you can) side by side, along a continental coast owned by a major power, without nuking the enemy cities first, to see what will happen to them in the few next turns.

see, i think this is one of my favorite parts about V. continental invasions are supposed to be costly and challenging (think Normandy). but again, it all comes down to tactics. I wouldn't try an invasion before Frigates, because shore bombardment is essential. once you have battleships and carriers it gets a bit easier thanks to the exra range and firepower.

Success in V's wargame is 100% about combined arms tactics. every military action should be as well supported by frontline troops, ranged fire land forces, naval forces, and air forces as possible.

I can understand if thats not something some people are interested, but when you get a handle on it, it is intensely staisfying. Luckily, V also offers rather satisfying peacefull victory options as well. and if you HAVE to go to war to stop someone else from getting a victory or to defend yourself, launching a nuke from a sub doesn't take much tactical maneuvering

 

[SlothMD]

I haven't tried Civ 5 yet, but I'd say it may be better to give transports an HP upgrade every time you unlock stronger ships. After all, it wouldn't make sense for a modern transport to be sunk by some wooden galley or something. At the same time, it shouldn't prevent a strong enemy navy from gobbling up your invading land forces.

That idea doesn't suck.

 

[I_am_sin7]

Carriers Carriers Carriers Carriers. You need a carrier, its battle group escort, sufficient naval artillerly to soften up the shore position prior to landing, and spare troops to lose in the landing effort - You need to batter their coast before boots hit sand. Naval combat is more realistic in this iteration of the series I think. It's certainly more satisfying in my opinion. It is VERY different to CIV4...But I was bored out of my mind with CIV4.

 

[IdleEnergy]

If you don't like it, play as the Songhai. End of story. Otherwise, you should be making SMART use of ZOC to keep enemies from getting at your transports. Hint: DON'T BOMBARD FROM 2 SQUARES AWAY, get up in his grill so he can't sail around you and hit your embarked units.

 

[Fieryphoenix]

I love naval invasions, I actually have to use strategy to protect my forces. Thanks for the diagram, I forgot how moving adjacent to a unit blocks movement.

 

[Me,myself,and,I]

I have pulled off invasions before frigates, admittedly the enemy was backwards, (My musket men and cannon to his archers, spearmen, and dog warriors) I nearly got tossed back into the sea, but they took to many casualties and were never able to scrape up the force to drive my all the way off.

 

[duxup]

I love naval invasions, I actually have to use strategy to protect my forces. Thanks for the diagram, I forgot how moving adjacent to a unit blocks movement.

They are certainly exciting. Getting on the first tile, fighting your way to a defensible city and/or rough terrain and trying to provide naval / air cover.

SOOOOO much better than Civ IV.

 

[Craftsman]

Thanks for your replies and great tips, people!

Some of you should consider writing some "Civ 5 War Academy" articles.

Best regards!

 

[Earthling]

This was predicted by almost everyone a very long time ago. Real naval invasions across significant distances and general naval warfare would be an awful headache with 1upt and the AI doesn't manage well either. Just bring overwhelming force and be prepared to spend huge amounts of time positioning things well.

That taking hours to do anything over the sea sounds like Civ IV to me rather than V.

Invading over the sea was far less time consuming, whether or not it was easier in civ4. (The AI was clearly more competent though. And it is ironic that all this insistence on "strategies have to differ" actually ends up in suggesting the exact same strategy useful in civ4 or civ3 etc...anyway - just nuke em before landing) Any answer otherwise indicates severe lack of understanding of how to play the game. Civ5 scales up worse and worse with the size of a map which wasn't nearly so problematic with civ4 as well.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

You need to defend your convoy.

Omg! Common sense wins!

 

[EdCase]

Large invasion force ?

Not always needed. Napoleon learned to fear the English in my current game as I swept in with Ships of the Line to clear his land units. Established a beachhead. kept him at bay with bombardment.
THEN moved in the main force.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat............

 

[Warspite2]

I also noticed in my game last night that you have to be careful escorting your transports. What I did was put an escort about 2-3 hexes in front and another 2-3 hexes at rear. This worked fine for a small sea that I needed to cross, a big open ocean you would need 2 more ships on each side. Carriers would be ideal but if you are in the early eras, you have to make do with other units.

 

[Thoughtful Thug]

I also noticed in my game last night that you have to be careful escorting your transports. What I did was put an escort about 2-3 hexes in front and another 2-3 hexes at rear. This worked fine for a small sea that I needed to cross, a big open ocean you would need 2 more ships on each side. Carriers would be ideal but if you are in the early eras, you have to make do with other units.

Destroyers have good visual range when you upgrade it after winning many battles. Depend on what difficulty setting you have, and how big the world is if you are not too careful.

 

[duxup]

Invading over the sea was far less time consuming, whether or not it was easier in civ4.

Anything other than the act of giving orders to a SoD in Civ IV was far more time consuming.