Massively strong island civs

[Dezzilisk]

I have recently been playing a game (MEM random map ) where bulgaria occupies a semi small island in between the other two islands. recently i occupied my whole continent and looked to nab the bulgarian island.

Trouble was they had been left to their own devices for the whole game and hav a TON of units that can reach my landing parties in one turn.

I responded to them completely owning my landing parties by landing them on mountains

Didnt work, they got owned, repeatedly.

Then i built a massive navy with Arquebthingys (amphibious assault) and tried to capture the coastal cities but couldnt hold on to them for more than one turn

So i started razing them and they started settling more 2 turns after i razed them.

At this point i have 3 cities that i got in a peace deal and i want some adivice on how to whip them

P.S it would help if you knew the units in MEM

 

[vmxa]

I don't know the units you speak of, but I do know how to take down an island civ with hundreds of units. You need to have at least one army that is strong enough to be left alone.

It depends on the units they have as to what the army needs to be, to survive. Sword armies are good enough if they best they have is 4 attack units. If they have tanks, you need rifle or better defensive rating armies.

You land your units on a hill and the covering army prevents them from being attacked. Well that is as long as they do not have bombers.

Then if you can do so, cut the roads around the landing spot, so when you found your town, only a fast mover can reach it in one turn and attack. This lets you kill a good chunk of their troops and recover.

If they really have a large force compared to your landing party, you will want to surround the town with armies to prevent any attacks, until you are ready.

I tend to rush a barracks and then a wall and then let them in. Now, I get the bonus of the forting, the hill, the wall. I get the full heal of the barracks, so any units not killed are ready for the next wave.

Late game, I may even rush a civil defense. In these types of invasions, often I will use a wall of armies to force the attackers to past through the ZoC and take some hits. This makes many of the attackers redlined and easy prey.

Do not bring any bombardment units to the landing, unless you have enough room for all the units you want. IOW I would rather have a unit, than an artie.

This is because arties cannot defend and I have seen battles where 4 or 5 hundred attackers wear down my stack and I need the extra unit. Otherwise the AI will put up an army that is redlined for it to maybe die.

I bring in my arties types on the next wave, along with extra settlers and workers.

 

[Dezzilisk]

I have two cities where the cultural borders prevent any units from reaching it in one turn, the attack of my units is only a few points above the defence of theirs so i'm taking heavy casualties even though ive got about 100 Sipahis on the island now ive only razed one city.

Ive destroyed about 5 SoD's but they just keep coming

At the moment ive probably lost about 40 Sipahi attacking plus one sipahi army (theyre 1 unit armies in this mod) not to mention about 300+ arquebusiers when i was churning them out at about 5 every 2 turns and making SoDs for the AI to chew up.

And the units are:
Arquebusiers 7 attack 4 def 1 move
Sipahi 7 attack 3 def 2 move

They are using arquebusiers and halberders which have 5 defence plus the odd Pistollier which have the same stats as my Sipahi, and obsolete late knights which are 6 attack 2 defence 2 moves

 

[civverguy]

I thin that you should first use bombers/ships to bombard the units (they're in your mod right?) and improvements. Move your units in along with a lot of artillery to capture the city.

 

[Dezzilisk]

Yes There are some ships i can use to bombard them and ive got about 40 of them sitting round doing nothing, ill try that.

 

[vmxa]

Well I guess I should but as I have no experience with mods. One thing that I can say is that when they have the ability to crank out units faster than you or faster than you can kill them, you have to bypass the units and go for the cities.

 

[Panzy]

problem we've all faced, many solutions

1) if you dont care for futre productivity of the land bring a bunch of air craft carriers and bomb all theres roads starting with those to reasources and block all coastal citys, second off start the bombing of the units on the city at some point all theyl have left is tow infantry or rifle men either finish off the units on one city by bombing or a nuke and move a large defensive force lead by a marine there, since youve destroyd all those roads and left them with units that can only move 1 a turn let them try to reach that city trew a strom of bombing, move you forces to land and finish the deminished country.

2) dont feel like turning it in to waist land bomb the units of one town move in bomb it till theres no units march the marine on the the city drop off the defensife force hurry a airport as soon as the resistance stops and fly in the armor

 

[pol1]

two things than vmxa said : army to defend units and going for cities.

as You land and have armies, AI won't move units out of the cities, but if You have city with direct access (i.e. not surrounded by armies) it will be stormed with lot of units.
but if AI keeps most of them in cities, capturing one might be very costly. so how about combining all of that : armies, open access to Your city and pillaged roads to slow them down - used to draw them out of the cities.

still You will have to be prepared to withstand attack if You want to keep that decoy-city.

[You wrote that You have only one unit armies, so it does not really work in Your situation]

 

[psweetman1590]

If there are any amphibious units in this mod, just go around razing their coastal cities, one by one. Like VMXA said, you have to bypass their units. Once you raze a sizable number of their cities, you'll be able to grind them down inland much easier.

Even if they're resettling the city sites two turns later, that city is only a size 1, and it has no improvements. Thus, they are still losing a lot every time you raze the city.

 

[sercer88]

also, you said the sipahi has defense 3, and the units they are attacking with have offense of 6 or 7.....

get more defense!!

 

[Dezzilisk]

With the 1 unit armies the AI loves to attack them especially as the highest defence unit i can come up with is 5 to their 7 offensive. the AI also has some armies of their own which are extinct now thanks to me

I managed to destroy all of the offensive troops with my Sipahi and capture one of their size 17 cities further inland.

Now I just have to ferry some more troops over and finish them off.

I had originally bought over about 6 or 7 armies and most of them were destroyed. I realized that I had to run in and take the cities in one turn with Amphibious units then rush inland with my cavalry once they were landed.

I also bombarded anything along the coast with my navy, helped a lot.

 

[mr_lewington]

massivily strong island nations arent exactly new 2 teh world... like look at england, hasnt been invaded for almost 1000 yrs, because after the normans they were left 2 their own devices (26% of world ftw)

 

[Snarkhunter]

massivily strong island nations arent exactly new 2 teh world... like look at england, hasnt been invaded for almost 1000 yrs, because after the normans they were left 2 their own devices (26% of world ftw)

Technically, England & the British Isles generally were invaded, repeatedly. But the only invasion that could be considered successful would be Bolingbroke's--you may know him better as Henry VII. OTOH, I don't remember how many troops he brought with him as opposed to picking up elements in the country dissatisfied with Richard III. But there were actual troop invasions from Louis XIV (Ireland) & Monmouth (illegitimate son of Charles II) in the 17th century, for example.

I doubt that England could actually be considered "massively strong" until the 18th century, in any case. Or so is the import of my current reading about the fiscal underpinning of the British rise to power from 1688-1788.

kk

 

[gmaharriet]

Technically, England & the British Isles generally were invaded, repeatedly. But the only invasion that could be considered successful would be Bolingbroke's--you may know him better as Henry VII.

I'd say the invasion from Normandy in 1066 by William the Conqueror was more sucessful. His descendents continued to rule from then until Bolingbroke's army killed Richard III in 1485. That's over 400 years of success.

 

[Snarkhunter]

I'd say the invasion from Normandy in 1066 by William the Conqueror was more sucessful. His descendents continued to rule from then until Bolingbroke's army killed Richard III in 1485. That's over 400 years of success.

Then by that measure, HVII's invasion was more successful: 2007-1485 = 522 yrs. But since HVII could claim descent--however dubiously--from William, it would be moot. And even more moot, since I was responding to the original claim that England hadn't been invaded since the Normans. Which isn't really true. I'm fairly sure, though, that all of the other invasions were either lesser affairs than William's, or else were unsuccessful, or both.

Ah--1 correction. I think I inadvertently mixed up the naming: Bolingbroke was actually HIV--another usurper--& HVII was Henry Tudor. And I don't know how many troops either Henry brought with him when he invaded England. William had ~8000 IIRC & I doubt either Henry matched that. Basically, they invaded with an MGL & made up an army on the spot

kk

 

[mr_lewington]

i should have rephrased. no FOREIGN army has every take over England since 1066 (all the lords of ireland, scotland, and wales had conenctions to the royal family and thus not "foreign", every country has struggles for power: its one thing 2 invade and another 2 rebel

 

[Quintillus]

Well, it sounds like you've finally turned the tide, but I was going to suggest invading with gazillions of your best defensive unit and letting them charge against your halberds/pikes/etc. Then bring in your Sipahi and finish them off. A Halberd on a Mountain will still give you good odds against a 7 attack unit, and probably cost less, whereas if they attack your Sipahi right away with 2 or 3 defense, you're taking some very heavy losses before you even get a chance to use the Sipahi attack.

I recently did this with a huge Infantry invasion and it worked quite well. The AI sent gazillions of units at me, but with a 100% bonus to the 10 defence, the AI's 6 attack units weren't enough even when they outnumbered me significantly.

 

[Dezzilisk]

I did manage to take the bulgarian island eventually, but only because my production power was about 20x more than theirs and i swamped them with units (Both offensive and defensive).

Its now time to take the other main continent, home to three civs stronger than myself.

 

[LordJacky]

My strategy to invading any islands is, build about 12 helicopters, load them with paratroopers. Build 2 transports, load them with modern armor. Build 2 carriers, load them with stealth bombers. Build 12 battleships, or AEGIS Cruisers. Build ICBMs, the number depends on how much cities the enemy have. Separate your invasion party into 3 battalions. Battle group 1 will consist of 1 transport, 1 carrier, and 6 battle ships. Battle group 2 will also consist of 1 transport, 1 carrier, and 6 battle ships. Battle group 3 is the 12 helicopters which is currently holding the 12 paratroopers. Now position Battle group 1 on either the right or left side of the island you are planning to invade. Battle group 2 would be directly parallel to Battle group 1. Now put Battle group 3 on top of below the continent. Once they reached their destinations, send 1 nuke to each one of the cities, then land paratroops on their strategic resources and luxuries, then pillage those resources, next land your modern armor which is in your transports to the closest coastal city. Put the 6 battleships in each Battle group 1 and 2 to the coastal city your modern armor plan to invade. Bombard the city. Then move the carriers as close as possible, and begin bombarding the city that your modern armor plan to invade. Then after you moved all possible land units, ask every other civilizations to trade embargo on the civilization you plan on invading. Do NOT ask other civilizations to declare war on your enemy so you could collect all the bounty yourself. Now Your enemy is bruised from the lack of resources, crippled by your nukes, now you must destroy your enemy. This strategy only works for industrial age and modern age wars. This strategy could be used in late industrial age the same, but using units that are downgraded from their modern age cousins. But if this doesn't work, nuke every single part of his island

 

[vmxa]

What do you need with all that stuff? I have never built a Heli. Stealth is so late and ICBM? 4 or 5 DD is all you need in a game for any invasion fleet. The rest of the shields are better used on troops.