Legal one turn wars!!!

[Chingis Khan]

Okay, so there I was, the biggest, baddest and meanest Egyptians you have ever seen. My territory was almost twice as large as most other civs. Had about a four tech lead on everyone which meant that I had modern armor when they didn't and I was ready to come out of my turtle shell, if you know what I mean. Trouble is, I was surrounded on all sides and everyone had MPP's. I attack one, they ALL attack me. Hmmm, I needed a way to finish one Civ quick and turn about on the rest. I never really liked the Iroquios and they only had about 20 cities. As I did a little recon I noticed that if I took one city, I could then use the captured railroads to move my armor within range of the next city and so on and so on. Unfortunately there were a couple of "gaps" that I wouldn't have been able to bridge using this tactic. I remebered a post about the feared Combat Settler being used for D-Day landings and an evil thought began to form. Sure enough, I marched a few Combat Settlers into the "gaps" which the Iroquios didn't seem to be concerned with (insert evil chuckle here). My settlers all built their cities in the heart of the doomed Iroquios empire, thus declaring war. My armor rolled over city after city and thanks to my new city "bridges", I was able to take every city in just one turn. Later on, after a truly disgusting battle with the Greeks (modern armor fell like flies to hoplites, tanks and even one cursed spearman!!!), I made peace with the world and did the same Combat Settler manuvour to take the stinkin' French in two turns (only because of poor planning, I missed one gap). This tactic does away with the need for attacking resources, enemy armies and worrying about massive counter attacks! I have since used this tactic several times, on Regent, Monarch, and Emporer, and it works every time (unless I run out of armor before the job is done, in which case I have already taken enough cities to sue for peace and start again within a couple of turns. One thing to keep in mind is that by the time you have armor and they have railroaded the majority of their territory, they will probably have mech infantry in a lot of their forward cities. The cities which they deem to be safe ie. in the middle of their empire can sometimes be surprisingly poorly defended, and of course, with this tactic, you give them no chance to either conscript or move units into their cities. Is this a well known tactic by others? If not, try it out and let me know what you think.

 

[Rneilan]

explain this to me man... what's the deal with the settlers? if its neutral territory after you destroy their cities, wouldn't you be able to use the railroads anyway?

 

[Chingis Khan]

Sorry for not being clear. Okay, here goes. When you conquer a city, you have zero culture in that city, ie. your border for that city extends one tile. Usually the AI packs his cities close enough that your new border is close enough to the next city for your armor to roll up to the edge of your newly conquered city border with free movement (railroad) and then roll across two spaces and attack the next city in the same turn. However, sometimes the next city is too far away and his border extends three tiles out. This means that your armor can only roll up to the city, but not have enough moves to attack the same turn (this can be due to distance or terrain ie. forest, hills etc.). This is what I refered to as "the gap". When you plant your cities inside enemy territory, your new borders (one tile around your new city) will cut into the enemy borders at strategic points so that when you reach this "gap" your new city is there and the railroads are within your control to enable you to be in range of the previously out of range city. This is what I called "the bridge". Does this clear it up?
If the image attached works, the diagram is even clearer. In the diagram, "A" is your first captured city. "B" is within range for you to attack next. "C" however, is out of range. "D" is your combat settler that you just built a city with thus bringing "C" within range.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

Good thinking Khan!

I'll have to experiment with this one myself. There may still be a use for settlers in the late game after all.

 

[dikwhit]

Been expiramenting w/ combat settlers myself lately. They are the perfect way to move an invasion force cross continent also.
Send 1 settler with 2 transports of def units of the day. unload all to same square. build city. Buy airport who cares the cost. 15 def ubits will hold just about any 1 turn response. Start airlifting in the attackers next turn. A few turns later unload the transport of settlers and go to town(and build them )

 

[Chingis Khan]

Dikwhit, I have heard on another post somewhere of a similar D-Day landing tactic you describe. The theory is to land a settler, build a city and then your transports move into your new city and unload. Apparantly, the unloaded units keep all their movement points! If this is true, then this tactic can still be used with the one turn invasion. You would need quite a few transports I would imagine but a combination of the "one turn war" and your landing city tactic sounds like it should work for a one turn invasion war to take a new continent!! I have been playing Pangea almost exclusively so I am not too sure. I will try this out though.