[BTS] Late Game advice for Immortal

[cfmooney]

I'm at 1806 here in the attached and could really use some guidance. I've won a few Immortal games before, but generally had them either done or nearly so by this time so I'm not sure about late game military. In this one it took me too long to cap Korea - they had by far the most cities and resisted despite many city captures. I now have a big lead in # of cities but am not sure the best military path to take out the other continent:

- Was hoping to build lots of Panzers when Industrialization is done in a handful of turns but everyone else save 1 already can build anti-tank units
- Also need some time to build a navy to get over to the other continent
- Anti-tank will counter the Panzers and machine guns will counter the infantry. I'm assuming Artillery has no hope in city attack against machine guns so not sure how i can soften defenders (can't get bombers to the other continent)
- Am thinking of attacking Darius first since he can't yet build anti-tank and seems the weakest - but maybe it is better to go after the strongest first - Egypt - and try to crush them before they build too much AT. They all are pleased or friendly with each other so probably a big risk of a coalition forming against my upcoming attack.

I suppose another option is to tech so I can build Modern Armor and perhaps some Mobile Artillery but am afraid that will take too long. Mansa just finished Apollo.

 

[Gumbolt]

Hmmm you are behind the AI techwise. I think Panzers with a mix of artillery. You will need a big stack here. You will face issues if all the Ai have destroyers and bombers. Defending your fleet will be a big issue. Have you scouted out the AI?

Artilery should weaken the anti tank units. Your destroyers can bombard from sea. AI will likely have?

How quickly can you build an army here? Eygptians will only get stronger here.

Caste vs slavery. How many workshops are you actually running? Once all production bonuses kick in would it be better?

 

[cfmooney]

Hmmm you are behind the AI techwise. I think Panzers with a mix of artillery. You will need a big stack here. You will face issues if all the Ai have destroyers and bombers. Defending your fleet will be a big issue. Have you scouted out the AI?
>>Not yet, just finished the Korean war.

Artilery should weaken the anti tank units. Your destroyers can bombard from sea. AI will likely have?
>>Artillery can survive attacks against cities with machine guns?

How quickly can you build an army here? Eygptians will only get stronger here.
>>What do you think about taking on Mali first, overwhelming them with numbers and eliminating the leading space threat and the tech leader? Not sure if Rameses would have lots of units already - need to scout - but I am guessing Mansa does not normally build as many during peace.

Caste vs slavery. How many workshops are you actually running? Once all production bonuses kick in would it be better?

>>Roughly 45 workshops so the +1 would be good but I was thinking to stay in Slavery initially to get the panzers and navy quicker, and to get some infrastructure in the last couple of cities captured.

 

[pi-r8]

Can't open your save but I think you're focusing on the wrong things. In general, taking cities is pretty easy in the late game- the hard part is defending your stacks from all the collateral damage available.

"Anti-tank will counter the Panzers"
Anti-tanks are a terrible unit, so don't worry too much about them. And the AI usually doesn't build many anyway. Just promote a few of your panzers with combat, or combat/pinch, or bring along a few infantry/machine guns. Attacking cities with city raider tanks will beat anti-tanks easily (and anything else).
"I'm assuming Artillery has no hope in city attack against machine guns"
The opposite! Artillery gets a 50% bonus against siege units, which includes machine guns, so it does great against them. The only catch is that their other units will defend first, so you might have to do a lot of damage before the machine guns will defend against artillery. But basically artillery plus anything kllls anything in late-game warfare. Be very cautious about moving into enemy territory when they have artillery and railroads.

Basically there are three ways you can go:
-Tanks plus siege. Land somewhere remote and try to bait them into attacking you, then you can kill their entire stack with massed collateral plus blitz tanks. Since you've got panzers, I think this is your best option, just don't lose your stack. Better to lose a city than to lose all your units.
-Amphibious attack. With marines, battleships, and carriers full of fighters, you can easily take any coastal city. Then spin it all off into a colony and make them capitulate. Or go inward with the tanks after you've taken all their coastal cities. Probably the safest option overall.
-Nukes! Two nukes can kill unlimited numbers of units, or even just one damages them so badly you can beat them with anything. It'll make everyone hate you, but once you get nukes they can't really do anything to you. Probably the fastest option, and the best way to go if you're badly behind.

 

[cfmooney]

Very helpful. I went the Panzers+Artillery route and went for Rameses first. He will soon be capping hopefully since he's about to lose a 3rd city and I've lost very few units so far. I stayed with Slavery rather than switching to Caste - did a fair amount of whipping to get a navy quickly and avoided 1 turn of anarchy.

 

[dankok]

A strategy I use in latter stages of the game when AI's have large stacks is leave a city on the border empty and lure them in. Then when they put like 100 units inside, I bomb the living hell out of them with artillery/bombers etc. and wipe them out to a man. Then the war is just a slog going from city to city but the AI can rarely mount any kind of serious response.

 

[Gumbolt]

Looks like you got the job done here. You had the city number advantage. Panzers and artilery are pretty lethal.

 

[cfmooney]

yup, was able to crank out the panzers fast w/ all the workshops and assembly plants. After I captured the 3rd egyptian city Mansa peace vassaled to me for some reason, then Rameses capitulated, and the others folded pretty quickly when i attacked them. it was all over in 1907.

 

[lymond]

Siege or speed always wins.

Mansa has a high peace vassal chance if he likes you and you reach a certain power threshold, if he is not too big himself which often he is not.