Need help with an invasion...

[PlutonianEmpire]

I created a scenario where my Empire either ultimately becomes ruler of the world and/or sends a spaceship to mars. It starts out with two cities, Denver and Minneapolis, but slowly develops techs, and so on. The Empire is locked in a war with the USA, meaning no negotiation between the 2, unless a human is playing the Empire. For this game, I'm playing as the communists, which is china and N. Korea. An event trigger caused a war between China and US, and I captured S. Korea with a nuke and a Mechanized Infantry. There are only 2 SDI in the world, both in the 2 starting Pluto cities. However, in this game, US got minneapolis, but was able to keep the SDI that came with it, and only PlutoEmp can build them. PlutoEmp developed urban shield techs just in time, so they wouldn't lose denver. For this game, I'm cheating, because I'm actually playtesting the scenario, to see how the AI handles the Plutonian Empire, so I cheated urbanshields and SDI's into all of my cities so I can stay alive and keep all of my communist cities. I began to notice that my Empire was having a hard time, even with 2 superunits (you all know that the AI isn't very good, as far as I know), so I figured that it would be a great opportunity to do a REAL invasion, with minimal or no cheating and ZERO super-units. I already cheated an alliance into existance between China (me) and PlutoEmp to avoid any sudden sneak attacks. Also, for this scenario, the paradrop range is unlimited, for the purpose of one of the plutonian superunits. The regular paratroopers unit is still available, as well as all the normal units, except for the catapult, which was turned into plutonian superunit. The purpose of the invasion I want to do is to help the Empire get Minneapolis back.

Got any tips, such as how large my invasion force should be, what units I should use, etc.?

 

[la fayette]

Got any tips, such as how large my invasion force should be, what units I should use, etc.?

The answer is: boatloads of vet spies, since SDI doesn't protect against a nuke planted by a spy (I used that method in the WW79 scenario and conquered the USA (23 cities IIRC) in one turn ).

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I forgot to mention that only the plutonian Empire can build spies. (To protect it's secrets.)

 

[Old n Slow]

A couple of additional questions before arriving at a definative answer --

1) Objective? If you're only looking at one interior city, then your force needs a) enough power to take and hold that city; enough power to punch through blocks along the way. b) transport/passage -- Partisans (spies, I know none available, perhaps dips can do) to move around ZOC & engineers to make roads & RR if necessary. The max I've seen for units in a city was 13 or so as I recall -- many more could be there of course due to a surprise event (cancellation of an alliance for instance) -- so two transports' worth of units might be a minimum -- you may want three or four for more confidence.

2) Timetable? With too few forces, you might spend a lot of time working through the countryside & get bogged down. If so, then your force mix should be adjusted -- perhaps a couple of engineers just to make forts along the way & more Jeeps for defense. With a faster goal and sufficient force mix, the Jeeps can be skipped by having a couple of Tanks as contingency -- defense if needed & mop up if not. I'd say at least half of the force pool should be Howies.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

The objective was to take minneapolis, and give it back to the Plutonian Empire. While I was waiting for an answer here, I went ahead. Using Paratroopers and nukes. For this scenario, the nukes have a movement rate of 42, and the paradropping range was maximized. Dips AND spies are only available to PlutoEmp (I'm fanatical when it comes to keeping PlutoEmp's secrets safe). I nuked and paradropped into chicago, with 2 of my other cities producing paratroopers each turn. I kept dropping in paratroopers into chicago, but lost the city. I reloaded the saved game, and this time, I cheated urbanshields and SDI into existence in chicago. I did do one of the things you said: I used howies to take back minneapolis, although I had to capture a second city so I could have howies take minneapolis in 2 turns. By then, I noticed that PlutoEmp has very little chances if I keep the negotiation restrictions in place, so i changed the scenario and started over.

But, now, I have an idea of what to do next time I play "fair" with the AI.

And thanks for your tips.

Others are still welcome to add their tips here.

 

[bigmeat]

how do you trigger an event?