Over 2000 Units and I'm Weak

[Pounder]

I'm the Vikings, I have over 2000 Units with 110 turns to go and I am getting ready to launch my next offensive and to my amazement I am considered weak by Germany.

Is there any way to find out how many units Germany has. If I plant a spy and steal plans, does that tell me anything. In all my years of playing, I have never stolen plans.

Started 31 civs on a hugh map with 1000 turns. Down to 4 civs, great game.

 

[Aabraxan]

Wow! What level is this?

If you plant a spy & steal plans, yes it will tell you something. It's been a while since I did any of this, but if I remember correctly, planting the spy will reveal their troop numbers to you, while stealing the plans will actually tell you where those troops are. If I remember incorrectly, I hope someone will correct me.

 

[Pounder]

I usually play monarch or emperor, I'm pretty sure I started this monarch.

When I say hugh map, it is only 164x164.

I will plant a spy and try and prove it one way or the other.

 

[Pounder]

The Germans have 2127 units and I currently have 2020, so its pretty close.

The steal plans function allows you to see their troops on the military advisors screen.

What's odd is they only have 10 workers.

 

[TheOverseer714]

Aabraxan is correct, planting a spy lets you know what troops there are. This is cheap and not very risky. Stealing military plans requires a spy being planted and reveals all enemy troops. It is very risky, failure almost always causes a war declation. The good news for you is that most of the enemy troops are likely to be defensive.

 

[Optional]

It looks like you've already answered your own question. You probably already knew about the 'investigate city' option that allows you a look into any opponant's city. I never use that, though, unless perhaps if I want to see how an opponant is doing with its spaceship.
What I nearly always do before attacking an opponant, is allying with him against somebody else. Especially if your intended opponant has to go through your territory with its units you will get an excellent picture. I don't know whether it's too late for that tactic in this game.

I hope you've got a lot of artillery. If you're going to be attacking hundreds and hundreds of units that are still healthy, Republic is a tricky government to be in.

 

[Pounder]

It looks like you've already answered your own question. You probably already knew about the 'investigate city' option that allows you a look into any opponant's city. I never use that, though, unless perhaps if I want to see how an opponant is doing with its spaceship.
What I nearly always do before attacking an opponant, is allying with him against somebody else. Especially if your intended opponant has to go through your territory with its units you will get an excellent picture. I don't know whether it's too late for that tactic in this game.

I hope you've got a lot of artillery. If you're going to be attacking hundreds and hundreds of units that are still healthy, Republic is a tricky government to be in.

I declared war and then allied with the next two largest civs, this will probably take a week to fight.

I hope to nuke and raze to create a neutral zone, then nuke there stacks as they come into the zone.

It won't be a complete conquering, just want to reduce them to a more managable size, so Republic won't be too much of a problem unless peace can't be achieved after above a dozen turns. I've been at peace for several turns (30 or 40), so war weariness won't be an immediate problem.

 

[vmxa]

As you now know, a spy lets you see the counts in F3. Steal Plans lets you see every unit on the map, even in towns.

I have taken down many nations of this size, but it was on Sid so they had at least infantry and often better.

One thing I use from time to time, is a trap. I will set up an approach that they have to use as armies block other access. Once they enter the trap, I close the door and let them sit inside the trap, until I kill off all their towns.

This means all those units go up in smoke. How many armies are needed, if function of the tightness of the trap. If you can get them all on one tile, it only takes 9 armies. Two tiles need 12. The largest number I remember for sure was over 900 infantry and mechs. My armies were MA armies, so they would not attack them.

If they have a natural choke, close it and cut off large numbers. It also tends to work best with armies that cannot be attacked. Cavs work, if they do not have tanks, tank armies always work, if they are full health.

 

[Pounder]

Aabraxan is correct, planting a spy lets you know what troops there are. This is cheap and not very risky. Stealing military plans requires a spy being planted and reveals all enemy troops. It is very risky, failure almost always causes a war declation. The good news for you is that most of the enemy troops are likely to be defensive.

Their ratio seems to be about 3:1 offensive to defensive units, that's why I have decided to strike first.

The game I am playing goes from 9992BC to 2258AD (currently 2150AD), you only see the top on the units list, there are many more advanced units that are more offensive at the bottom of the list.

As you now know, a spy lets you see the counts in F3. Steal Plans lets you see every unit on the map, even in towns.

Thanks, I didn't check the military advisor until after I stole the plans, good to know I don't have to steal the plans.

 

[Spoonwood]

Pounder,

Can you give us a screenshot or save of what your military looks like? Seems like an epic game of sorts.

VMXA,

Do you have any pictures/saves of such traps? I'd like to see an example to get a better of idea on how such a tactic works. It sounds fun and potentially useful.

 

[vmxa]

I may have posted one at the time, but none in right now. One I recall had 3 or 4 hills starting 2 tiles over from the beach head. I actually marched a bunch of armies to attack it, rather than land near it.

I block a lot of tile in a line from sea to sea, maybe 9 tiles. I then moved in and took the town. Then I positioned armies around the three sides of the town. I block two tiles deep on all three sides and opened a large hole so they would move to the hills.

I opened a complete path to the town, but thye had to circle around from south to north passing to the east (hills). After a large number, iiirc about 700 units, go to the hills, I closed the hole by the town.

This time I actually killed all the units over time. Once I chopped them down to maybe 300, I open a line so they could move to the town, passing between armies to take ZoC shoots.

These were all infantry, so it took then several turns to get there and they would send damaged units back to the hills and would pick those off.

The 900 stack was in an area that had been towns of theirs and they just happen to keep sending units, but doing nothing and I finally realize I could trap them all. The first trap was cover a large area I think. I eventually got them to move to one tile and I needed only 9 armies.

I had run into that before on defense, where I could trap groups from time to time, while keeping large numbers out of the fray, till I could either kill them or the towns.

It is not something I am able to pull off all the time. You need the right game, right numbers and for me it only happen when I am going for conquest. I need about 25 armies or more to do it.

Next time I see one developing I will try to remember to shoot some screens. I have been playing out AoI I and II and the Great War scenarios for weeks, so not getting standard games.

 

[vmxa]

Pounder I posted a screen I still have of F3 where I had 313 modern armor units and was told I am weak. They had 579 cavs iirc and on and on and on. I had nearly 800 units at the time.

 

[Pounder]

@vxma

This is my basic strategy when I have no choke points.

My strategy is to strike first, then make alliances with anybody with nukes who will ally with me, so that I don't get any more enemies nuking me.

Then I raze all enemy towns isolated within my territory. Then I nuke the towns across the battle front and will occupy the first row of towns if they are more than 2 tiles from my existing towns, then I nuke and raze the next row of towns and will nuke/bombard the ground between the towns so there no are roads into my territory.

I will not enter this zone yet, hopefully I will still have a few nukes left, I'll move my offensive units out of the towns to areas that don't usually get nuked.

The enemy will nuke many of my towns and move large stacks into the dead zone. I will on my next turn nuke those stacks and finish them off. Then I fight until the first opportunity to make peace. I let my allies continue the job while I rebuild.

Here is a screen shot, so far I have razed the towns that were isolated inside of my territory and have occupied some of the border towns.

 

[vmxa]

I try to avoid nukes and rarely use them as it can lead to massive msgs about global warming.

 

[del62]

Using Nukes means other Civs are likely to declare on you

 

[dexters]

Do you have any other rule changes that allows for the support of so many units?

And why not go communism?

 

[vmxa]

Support is not an issue late in the game as you will have hundreds of towns. The AI can support massive numbers at levels above emperor, even with small numbers of towns. I have seen many island nations with 10-12 towns having 700 or more all the way up to nearly 2000.

It just cost them all their money.

 

[dexters]

I'm just curious as I've never seen so many units on my emperor games, albeit I don't go beyond the default large maps and usually play on standard.

maybe thats why.