navy or army?

[civcenturion]

wot do u think is more important: a large navy, a large army, or a good mix of both?
I always concentrate on building good cities with high production until I get 'steam engine' or 'electricity.' I don't think that having a huge army is as important as a navy. you can hold your own with a few decent defenders in each cities and some offensive units rampaging around the terrain. I can usually colonize with only a small number of land troops. my largest navy consisted of about 100 ships at one point but then I blew a load of them attacking the Spanish.

wot do u think?

 

[Ace]

Each game is different. No matter which you prefer, it depends on the individual game. A large navy will do you absolutely no good if you are on a massive land mass dealing with 6 hostile AI civs on the same land mass. Likewise, a big army will not help much if your on a small island land mass surrounded by AI battleships and your one trireme is not going anywhere.

The key is to structure your forces to meet the tasks at hand. Always keeping your objectives in mind, achieving world conquest or launching your spaceship.

 

[funxus]

In the beginning of the game, the ships aren't good enough for a navy, not until steam engine, forcing you to use an army instead. In the modern era I'd prefer a large airforce instead of a large navy. Five reasons:
1. They are easier to move around
2. Cheaper than ships (stealth fighters )
3. The airport has more uses than a port (and is needed anyway)
4. The AI more often has a coastal fortress than an SAM in their cities
5. You can attack all cities, not just coastal ones

As Ace said, it all depends and you have to adapt to the situation

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by funxus
In the beginning of the game, the ships aren't good enough for a navy, not until steam engine, forcing you to use an army instead. In the modern era I'd prefer a large airforce instead of a large navy. Five reasons:
1. They are easier to move around
2. Cheaper than ships (stealth fighters )
3. The airport has more uses than a port (and is needed anyway)
4. The AI more often has a coastal fortress than an SAM in their cities
5. You can attack all cities, not just coastal ones

As Ace said, it all depends and you have to adapt to the situation

Note: Using carriers to move your aircraft is safer than using airbases, hopping from island to island. using airbases mean that air units can be taken out piecemeal easily. A carrier offers better protection than only airbases. Carriers need escorts, that means a navy. Troops need escorts too, again a navy. A mixed force of land troops, ships and airforce is the best. Also, have size 1 cities and airbases scattered all around to serve as repair points for units.

 

[funxus]

You're right, the best i s a mixture.
I can't capture my cities with stealth fighters, so I need to get troops to the island/continent to capture and defend the cities. This either requires airports or transports. So all of them are needed
My favourite is to empty a city, paradrop/helicopter in the city, then agree on a treaty. They seldom break it, and if they do they usually only attack with a few units before it's my turn to counter.

Using carriers to move your aircraft is safer than using airbases, hopping from island to island

I use carriers sometimes, but moving them to an already existing city is the best I think. I seldom use airbases, since I'd rather build a new city when I need a place to refuel my aircrafts due to the long distance.

 

[thedirk]

I'm an army guy myself. Although I like to have a reasonably sized navy to transport my troops, I like to build a massive army and then simultaneously attack as many enemy cities as I can. The next turn I leave a good defensive unit behind in each conquered city and swarm the next bunch of cities, until I don't have enough army left to attack. I then make a peace treay and begin consolidation of my new territory.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by funxus
You're right, the best i s a mixture.
I can't capture my cities with stealth fighters, so I need to get troops to the island/continent to capture and defend the cities. This either requires airports or transports. So all of them are needed
My favourite is to empty a city, paradrop/helicopter in the city, then agree on a treaty. They seldom break it, and if they do they usually only attack with a few units before it's my turn to counter.

I use carriers sometimes, but moving them to an already existing city is the best I think. I seldom use airbases, since I'd rather build a new city when I need a place to refuel my aircrafts due to the long distance.

The problem that I have most with fighting a war at sea with ships is that speed is important. A crippled ship is as good as a dead ship because it can't out-run the enemy. I need little size one cities on islands with a port improvement or I can't have have an effective fleet.

 

[Ace]

Face it. A crippled ship is a dead ship. Unless you have a city within one or two turns away, your best bet is to just let the ship sit there and, with a little luck, it will slowly recover.

While damage is inevitable in combat, its a good idea to rotate slighly damaged ships out of action immediately, instead of letting them fight on until they are severly crippled, ie. they can only move one or two squares.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

All the more reason to establish ports between land masses. In land combat, injuried units travel by road to the nearest city, at sea there needs to be ports to go to, convinently placed. The other alternative is to control the seas with mass airpower and a few ships to fight AEGIS cruisers and BB's.

 

[MajorGeneral2]

I'm a big supporter of naval power. It's certainly true that the early ships aren't especially valuable, but they are needed to transport troops, and if you can gain control of the seas early, you'll probably hold it throughout the game. Also, early ships are cheap compared to later ones, and so through good financial policy, one can buy lots of ships and control the seas for more caravans, leading to more money for more ships, etc. This also ties in other game aspects, so through a gradual process you'll win easily.

 

[Old n Slow]

My army is usually too small, and my navy much smaller with the air force rarely in the game. I usually move to buy & conquer with the cavalry/alpine/artillery stage, thus using Sun Tsu & Leo’s with top units before they expire. When the ai’s get to rifles, then I shift focus to modernize the military -- may end up with a few boats for shore patrol & howies for city blasting where needed. But I often don’t get to this stage of the game -- it usually ends in my favor before these units appear on the table.

But those few times where I’ve had to slug it out, most of the units where in the army, and maybe the military funding looked to be 70% army, 25% navy, 5% air force.

 

[Ace]

Is a transport with a few spies onboard!! that combination can beat any other unit.

 

[randyripoff]

I usually play an island-based game, but I tend to be and isolationist/perfectionist. I'll generally build one trireme to start with (along with Lighthouse, of course) for exploration, then I won't build anything else until Ironclads are available. By the end of the game (spaceship conquest), at most I'll have a few destroyers running around looking for barbarians.

For fighting wars, I generally just let the spies handle it. Or, I just try to avoid wars.

If I do decide to go fundy at the end of the game and wipe out the other civs, then I'll build a ton of battleships, but I also use a combination of howitzers, armor, fanatics and paratroopers to get the job done.

Of course, this entirely depends on your playing style. Others may use many naval vessels and very few land-based units, or some other people like lots of air units. Whatever works, I guess.

 

[Strikefang]

My idea of a good mixture (and said before) is a huge air force. 70% air force, 30% army. You don't need a huge army...take some bombers, bomb the city, capture it (only thing you need army for), station defensive units, strike next city with staggering power. Fighters would be essential to protect bombers. Go Air Units!

 

[planetfall]

Strikefang,

70% air?

How?

At what level?

Problems I find when trying goobs of air:

1. range is limited
2. some cities flip and take air with them
3. air can't keep up with armor
4. jets destroy too many bombers
5. bombers destroy too many improvements I want
6. fighters do not supply any AS for bombing missions
7. I get much better results with 70% armor and 30% other.

Interested in hearing your solutions to the above problems.

== PF

 

[.:KNAS:.]

Originally posted by planetfall
Strikefang,

70% air?

How?

At what level?

Problems I find when trying goobs of air:

1. range is limited
2. some cities flip and take air with them
3. air can't keep up with armor
4. jets destroy too many bombers
5. bombers destroy too many improvements I want
6. fighters do not supply any AS for bombing missions
7. I get much better results with 70% armor and 30% other.

Interested in hearing your solutions to the above problems.

== PF

eeh... cities don't flip in Civ2. IIRC, bombers don't destroy improvements either.

 

[Strikefang]

Originally posted by planetfall
Strikefang,

70% air?

How?

At what level?

Problems I find when trying goobs of air:

1. range is limited
2. some cities flip and take air with them
3. air can't keep up with armor
4. jets destroy too many bombers
5. bombers destroy too many improvements I want
6. fighters do not supply any AS for bombing missions
7. I get much better results with 70% armor and 30% other.

Interested in hearing your solutions to the above problems.

== PF

Of course there are major drawbacks. But so does every strategy. The figures I gave probably were exagerated abit, but the point was I like air units more for attacking than ground units. You wouldn't believe how fast I've gone down with no air force. I often play at Deity/Emperor and sometimes King. Maybe thats why I'm always so far behind in tech, hehe.

1. Yes range is limited, unless you can keep the war close to your borders.
2. Citys flipping are you referring to Civ3 culture flips?
3. Of course not, which is why if your going deep into enemy territory to capture a capital, it won't work, theres no way around that.
4. This is one drawback and fighters don't help because they run out of fuel on the first turn, but every strategy has its drawbacks
5. They do? I never noticed bombers destroying anything in Civ2 other than defense.
6. AS? Sorry... I don't know all of Civs acronyms.
7. To each his own, what may work for you might not work for me, and visa versa.

My strategy is often to make sure I can overwhelm the enemy Civ, this often means bombers get the first shot at attacking the enemy city, the armor mops up whatever survived, so my ground units will be ready to capture and defend the citys once my bombing run is done. This ensures my armor/whatever is there to defend isn't already badly damaged, making defense easier.

Of course, I haven't gotten to thourghly (spelled wrong probably) test this strategy in many a game, but it did seem to work quite well in the WWII scenario. My aircraft were doing what my battle ships and ground units could not, which is how I took London and half of Britian. However it would never work all the time, different strategys are called for in different times, sometimes I may very well use a large ground force if need be. Hope that clears it up.

 

[Andu Indorin]

Decidedly, my style of play emphasizes land units; its rare when I have more than a dozen naval units other than transports. I always rely heavily on Howitzers and railroad-building Engineers, supported by Armor, Mech. Inf., NON Cavalry, Spies, and -- of course -- my "black market" Freight units. To be sure, those AI Musketeers and Dragoons rely don't put up much of a fight against my Howies.

 

[Andu Indorin]

Decidedly, my style of play emphasizes land units; its rare when I have more than a dozen naval units other than transports. I always rely heavily on Howitzers and railroad-building Engineers, supported by Armor, Mech. Inf., NON Cavalry, Spies, and -- of course -- my "black market" Freight units. To be sure, those AI Musketeers and Dragoons really don't put up much of a fight against my Howies.

 

[Hattawa]

I much prefere to use the stealth fighters even in a kamikaze way.
1- Easy to move, supported with some carriers if needed.
2- Multiple attacks a turn
3- Not dedicated like ground or sea.
4- If heavily damaged, can fly away for healing.
5- Long range moving, not long delay to jump in the battle.

Ground units for holding cities (Mech Inf) and engineer.
Navy for transports Mech Inf.
Big fat canons are great but definitely a fighter eat a few for breakfast.
Maybe it will be less efficient with AA units.