Overseas war tactics?
- Thread starter dominatr
- Start date
ChaosArbiter
King
Basically get as many units as you can over in a short enough time that you can't be pushed back from the beaches. Once you get an established foothold and can start pumping out troops over there, it's really not much different from regular warfare.
Step 1: Figure out the weakest inhabitant of other continent.
Step 2: Pick landing spot.
Step 3: Engineer necessary wars to send units scurrying & weaken your target.
Step 4: Land waaaaay more units than you think you really need.
Step 5: Found a city, cash rush walls, rax, harbor, etc (not necessarily in that order).
Here's an article from the War Academy: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/conquering_abroad.php
Step 2: Pick landing spot.
Step 3: Engineer necessary wars to send units scurrying & weaken your target.
Step 4: Land waaaaay more units than you think you really need.
Step 5: Found a city, cash rush walls, rax, harbor, etc (not necessarily in that order).
Here's an article from the War Academy: http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3/strategy/conquering_abroad.php
scratchthepitch
King
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2010
- Messages
- 798
One trick I use is land where their resources are and take those cities first. That way their new builds for reinforcements will be outdated units.
Fiddlin Nero
Prince
The best method I've found is to declare war, wait until they will accept communication, land a settler with enough defense or bomb roads so it will survive 1 turn, build a town and immeadiately get that peace agreement. Then you can take your time getting all your units ready for the big push.
Bugfatty300
Buddha Squirrel
-Build tons of artillery and bombers and aircraft carriers
-Land your stacks on mountains for added defense
-Bomb all the roads around your stack so that the AI cannot counter attack the next turn.
The AI will move in all of their available units but of course without their roads they will run out of MPs and stall before reaching your stacks.
-Red line as many of them as possible with artillery, battleships, etc then finish them off with the bombers.
-Then use your tanks and fast units to mop up any survivors.
The cities will then be easy pickings.
-Land your stacks on mountains for added defense
-Bomb all the roads around your stack so that the AI cannot counter attack the next turn.
The AI will move in all of their available units but of course without their roads they will run out of MPs and stall before reaching your stacks.
-Red line as many of them as possible with artillery, battleships, etc then finish them off with the bombers.
-Then use your tanks and fast units to mop up any survivors.
The cities will then be easy pickings.
Late in the medieval age, overseas combat is a bit harder (depending upon how far away your enemy is). It gets much easier in late industrial age, with transports and airlifts.
Plan to use overwhelming force, since you can't bring in reinforcements as easily. Your enemy can reinforce a battered city faster than you can bring a second wave to finish it off, so you want to bring enough forces so that there is no doubt you can take that first city in one turn, and hold it against a counterstrike.
Don't forget to bring some workers over in that first wave, so they can immediately improve that first city. Even if you don't want that overseas city to be a productive city, you do want some population there (for the defensive bonuses of having a city and eventually metropolis), and roads make your subsequent attacks out from your newly captured city all the more quicker.
One strategy is to plan your attack in two steps, dividing your forces. The first force is a small force of defensive units to make a diversion, the second force is your invading force. Strike with the diversionary force first, your ideal target being a mountain or hill on your enemy's coast, away from your planned main staging area. Hopefully your enemy takes the bait, masses its forces against your diversionary unit, and takes heavy losses. The very next turn, land your main invasion force. Even if your enemy destroyed your diversionary unit, they are out of position and can't get back to your invasion force before you can attack your first city.
You will need plenty of ships. The rate at which you can reinforce is limited by the ships you have available. You need them not only as transports, but to defend against enemy ships who will come and harass your new city.
Plan to use overwhelming force, since you can't bring in reinforcements as easily. Your enemy can reinforce a battered city faster than you can bring a second wave to finish it off, so you want to bring enough forces so that there is no doubt you can take that first city in one turn, and hold it against a counterstrike.
Don't forget to bring some workers over in that first wave, so they can immediately improve that first city. Even if you don't want that overseas city to be a productive city, you do want some population there (for the defensive bonuses of having a city and eventually metropolis), and roads make your subsequent attacks out from your newly captured city all the more quicker.
One strategy is to plan your attack in two steps, dividing your forces. The first force is a small force of defensive units to make a diversion, the second force is your invading force. Strike with the diversionary force first, your ideal target being a mountain or hill on your enemy's coast, away from your planned main staging area. Hopefully your enemy takes the bait, masses its forces against your diversionary unit, and takes heavy losses. The very next turn, land your main invasion force. Even if your enemy destroyed your diversionary unit, they are out of position and can't get back to your invasion force before you can attack your first city.
You will need plenty of ships. The rate at which you can reinforce is limited by the ships you have available. You need them not only as transports, but to defend against enemy ships who will come and harass your new city.
Here's an article from the War Academy, with some more details about how to execute ideas like MysteryX's. It's set in the modern age, but you can use the two site strategy in any age, just as MysteryX suggests.
Brainiac18
Warlord
make them regreat they share a world with you
P.S. there are very useful comments here already
Skullsplitter
Warlord
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2010
- Messages
- 108
Seen lots of references to this, but no good explanation. Is that just where you unload guys from one ship to another, or is there something else? So isn't it something that has to wait until you get, um, magnetism, I think, so you don't sink on ocean tiles?
ChaosArbiter
King
Essentially it's loading units onto a ship in harbor so they keep their movement points*, then move the ship they're on to another ship waiting at the end of the first ship's movement; since the two ships are sharing the same tile, you can load the units from the first ship to the second ship directly and not waste movement points. You can then keep it up as long as you have free ships until you get your units where you want to go.
*: Technically not necessary, but given that the whole point of ship-chaining is to get units across the water ASAP, having them keep their movement lets them land that same turn (if you haven't conquered anything) or lets you dock the ship in a coastal city and unload them with their movement points intact.
scratchthepitch
King
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2010
- Messages
- 798
It's like a bucket brigade, only using ships. And yes, it's not a good idea to use if you cant cross oceans safely. What ChaosArbiter wrote.
Actually, ship chaining lets your troops cross oceans safely with galleys. The galleys aren't safe, because they have to spend turns in sea or ocean tiles, but the troops don't. Galleys are fairly cheap, so you overbuild them, and let them sink. You check each turn to see how many galleys you have before loading your troops, so that you don't end up with any land units stuck at sea and likely to sink.
It can be useful if you have an isolated start. It is probably less frustrating if your crossing is short and you are seafaring. I've seen people carry out wars this way, but I'd be more likely to use it to get settlers onto a new landmass - if I can get there a hundred turns before anyone else, that is worth a few lost galleys.
CommandoBob
AbstractArt
Ship Chaining
It helps if your ships are named. Nothing fancy is needed, just something to identify each one. When you load units into a ship and there is more than one to chose from you might find out that the ship you loaded has no more movement left this turn. That pop up screen only shows the name of the ship and how much space is left for units.
It helps if your ships are named. Nothing fancy is needed, just something to identify each one. When you load units into a ship and there is more than one to chose from you might find out that the ship you loaded has no more movement left this turn. That pop up screen only shows the name of the ship and how much space is left for units.
Don't forget to have gold in the treasury. Overseas cities produce nothing so all necessary improvements need to be rushed. Also reinforcement may be rushed until the second wave arrives. If in modern era one may rush an airport in the first turn (if no gold sacrifice units) and lift as many units as there are airports in the home continent each turn.
Strategy for overseas invasions really depend on the age you're in.
If you're in the Modern or late Industrial Age, one of my favorite techniques is to have airports on my main land mass, and include at least 1 worker in my invasion landing party. That worker is used to build an airstrip once I capture a city. Then I just airlift tanks/MA/MI after every turn. Unfortunately, you can't airlift artillery or settlers.
If you're in the Modern or late Industrial Age, one of my favorite techniques is to have airports on my main land mass, and include at least 1 worker in my invasion landing party. That worker is used to build an airstrip once I capture a city. Then I just airlift tanks/MA/MI after every turn. Unfortunately, you can't airlift artillery or settlers.
