on invasion of other continents

[b00zy]

I've been waging to invade the other big continent, on which are 4 other civs. I am wonder what's the best way to do this, i just got to tanks and am making myself a nice bog stack. The problem is that they all got MPP's so when we go, we'll go together.

Any idea's to get this thing going?

 

[Lawrence]

Try to sign one or two MPPs with some distant civ of the four. Then land your troops(be sure to include some infantry, as I assume that you have no better defensive units). Declare war with your target civ. DON'T attack him in this turn! When he attacks you, everybody you have signed the MPP with will immediately declare war on him. And you would face much less opponents.

If you are finding yourself strong enough to defeat all of them, just amass your transports( defend them with battleships ), and arrange a D-Day. You can use your marines to attack from the sea. Choose a coastal city that is the weakest defended, and try to take it in one turn. Then your transport can sail to the city's harbor to land your tanks for a massive strike.

 

[ainwood]

Lawrence is spot-on with the MPP thing.

If you have lots of tanks though, I assume you also have (or are near) flight. In the first city you take, bild an airport and use that to bring more troops in. You can have unlimited transports in to a given airport per turn, but only one out of each airport per turn. It will mean you will need lots of airports on your 'home' continent, but its a good tactic.

 

[Chingis Khan]

Depends on your potential enemy(s) on how you should set about attacking. If the enemy is strong, has lots of tanks, and has railroads connecting all his cities, you should, IMHO, use a diversionary tactic. Land a boatload of defensive units on a hill, jungle or whatever. Then use BB's to bombard all the roads/railroads surrounding the square your units now occupy (note:this may take a few BB's, so bring plenty!). This way all the enemy counterattack units burn up their movement points trying to smash your (infantry?) stack, and won't be able to scramble back to handle your main attack which you can land at your leisure wherever you like the next turn. The enemy units will also still be sitting there next turn, and you remember all those BB's you just used to bombard the roads with? Hehehe.
If the enemy is weak, ie, only has cavalry for counterattack, fill each transport with 2 infantry and 6 tanks. Unload 1 of these transports near each city you can. Land from every direction you can and get into range of as many cities as possible. This confuses and frightens the poor AI. Laugh quietly to yourself as the AI scurries back and forth, workers dropping their tools, chaos in the cities, Muahahahahaa.. ahem.
Anyway, Lawrence's ideas about the MPP's is pretty spot on. But I would hesitate to use marines unless the AI doesn't have infantry. One possible use for marines is if you blast a city so badly with bombardment, the defenders are so weak your marines actually win!!! The nice thing about taking a city this way is that you can move your other transports into it and all the unloaded units keep their movement points, so you can attack with them on the same turn. Unfortunately, this is more of a surprise attack/blitzkrieg tactic and won't work with Lawrence's MPP strategy.
Whatever tactic you use, remember the overall keys to victory,
1. Intelligence (info about the enemy, not how smart you are!)
2. Specific Goal (Total conquest, take a resource, etc.)
3. Speed (Achieve your goal quickly)
4. Mass (Apply the appropriate force where it's needed)
Hope these tips help some and good luck with your conquest. I say take 'em all on, it's more fun!

 

[Sanaz]

Plant a spy and steal the military plans. Protect the seas so that your losses are limited to the foreign continent and your homeland is protected. Don't be greedy - just work on getting a presence. Count sea squares so that the shortest route possible can be used to send reinforcements - this may include building a new city and rushing a harbor on your main continent to save a move during transportation. Rush a harbor in the new continent, so if everyone is at war with you you can still get luxuries and resources there.

 

[Zachriel]

One problem is cultural reversion. This has been discussed in other threads, but it will tend to be worse on another continent. Ignore culture at your peril.

 

[Daaraa]

All of these are great thoughts and I use them all.
To quickly explain a solution to the culture delema you'll find youself in, garrison the city with a lot of troops. Get rid of the old population by either starving them or rushing workers. (I prefer workers) and then focus on growth to get your own native population up inthe city. I have hadly ever had any cities culturally revert using these tactics and I have had none revert since the latest patch.

 

[Catt]

Always depends on circumstances, of course , but speaking generally I tend to employ one of two approaches:

1. If, and only if, there is a very juicy looking resource that I simply must have located in a coastal tile and not directly next to an AI city (say, a luxury resource that I'm tired of paying through the nose for) unload my stack of doom (with lots of defenders!) and my "combat settler" directly on to the resource. Prepare for onslaught. Next turn build city. Rush temple; airport; barracks; marketplace; library. The combat settler approach lessens (slightly) the cultural reversion risk of which Zachriel wisely warns, and ensures that, upon completion of your airport, you will have access to the luxury (AI can't pillage roads leading to luxury).

2. Pick attractive coastal city. Bombard with my BBs and bombers from carrier. Use my transport full of marines to take city in an amphibous assault (with sufficient bombard, this works even against multiple defending mechanized infantry). Move my other transports into newly captured city and unload there, with full movement points available. Garrison a very strong force to fight cultural reversion. Start starving the foreign population (depending on relative cultural strength). Rush same buildings as above in #1. Move attacking forces towards next target (which you identified when you previously identified the attractive coastal city).

BTW, especially in the later game, a great way to rush buildings is through disbanding units in the city. Each unit disbanded is worth 25% of the shields it costs to produce the unit. Extremely helpful for 2 reasons: 1. you can rush improvements even while the city is in resitance or civil disorder; and 2. it eliminates the severe cash drain of rushing improvements before at least one shield is produced towards the improvement. In the very late game and playing as a religious civ, disbanding a single modern armor or radar artillery rushes a temple in one turn -- even with the city in resistance!

 

[Chingis Khan]

I don't worry about culture flips. I simply post tanks outside captured cities. Sometimes you can cover multiple cities with one unit. When the cities flip (and they will!) retake them. I won't post any units in captured cities for more then one turn after capturing them. I'd rather wait a few turns to let wounded heal outside cities then lose a stack to a city flip.

 

[joycem10]

i always use Chingis Khan's diversionary strategy when attacking a well developed continent.

something that some people overlook is the value of having a couple of defense oriented armies landed with your invasion force. an army of 4 infantry on a hill/mtn with supporting arty can survive alot of attacks. especially if the computer is constantly throwing infantry and riflemen at them. (which it seems to do much more often if 1.21)