Darth Caine
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2005
- Messages
- 5
Pretty quick reminder here that Marines and Paratroopers are your friends! Not useless units. Here's why;
Marines:
I generally start an invasion of another country by striking at the heart of their civ, ie. the capital city or the strategic center. I rarely make logistical mistakes on whom to attack, but every so often civs wind up being more tenacious then I gave them credit for. To solve this problem, before any invasion, I always build a stack (or many) of oceanic offensive units that look something like this;
2 Battleships
2 Cruisers (replaced by AEGIS cruisers when possible)
4 Destroyers (Or a mix of destroyer/submarines/nuclear submarines)
2 Carriers
4 Transports
On the transports I put my Marines. I use these guys to sail around the far side of the civ I'm attacking and I have them wait within striking distance of coastal cities. The carriers always contain 3 bombers and a fighter, so they can be useful in pounding any ocean going units my enemy has outbound towards my shores, while simultaneously being strong enough defensively to protect against enemy bombers, should they spot them. By the time they come within a few tiles of my stacks, the bombers have damaged them heavily, and then the destroyers or subs finish them off. Beyond that, their orders are to wait in position while my land based invaders (tanks, heavy armor, infantry and artillery) push towards their intended goal.
Now here's where the Marines come in handy. If my main stack of infantry gets bogged down in the mountains, or comes up against exceptional resistance, then I'll send orders out the carrier groups to send in the Marines. By now, most coastal cities of small size have already sent their extra reserve units out to the main battleground to meet my invading forces and protect the capital. So you'll often see coastal towns being protected by just one or two units. No problem for a transport or three full of salty Marines, reinforced by a half dozen bombers and naval bombardment.
I've found that the AI, when realizing that they have either are about to lose, or have already lost a city far away from the main battle, tend to split apart their forces to counter the new attack front. Once they do this, it's all over. Because I have about a dozen units now occupying the taken city, and whatever they send is bound to be ineffectual. Also, now that they have split their forces, my main invading infantry and tank force can obliterate the now reduced stacks attempting to protect the capital. Why the Marines are so successful in this instance is because the city (or cities) are lost so quickly. The AI always notices when they lose a bunch of coastal towns in a single turn, especially when you might have taken their only harbor(s). By the time the AI realizes the counter attack is useless, their capital is usually destroyed and I've dug in deep enough to give them a sound thrashing as they swing back around AGAIN to try and recapture their beloved capital city. The idea is to keep them disorganized by opening up a new front.
Paratroopers:
A little more difficult to use in the first stages of the attack, but once you've captured a city with an airport (or built an airstrip outside of your newly captured city -- you DID remember to bring extra workers didn't you?), then they can pretty much hop to within decent distance to sit on top of resources, and if given the chance cut that tile off if your own forces can't capture it within a reasonable amount of time. The diffence of the worth of Paratroopers being that the AI can pick off three or four Paratroopers easier than a city full of Marines, and so your troopers might wind up being sacrifical lambs for the greater good. But the point is it gives you a chance to focus on your mail goal while the AI fumbles around trying to put out smaller fires all around their country. This method works, I assure you. I use it nearly every time I am planning an invasion of a civ I sense to be of equal or greater strength.
Of course, for those of you who have such an unbalanced share of military power versus the civ you want to destroy, then this method may be pointless. Just send in the main attack force and kill, kill, kill, SIR!
But I like to use a little finesse when pounding my neighbors into rubble. And there's nothing more satisfying as changing a huge swath of productive coastline from a rival color to your own color in a single turn. Imagine you live in England and one day are looking at towards mainland Europe. It's all a variety of cultural personae, the french, the germans, the spanish...
Then you wake up the next morning, look out across the channel and suddenly it's all controlled by Americans. Yeah, uh.. HI! We're you're new neighbors... got any SUGAR?
Marines:
I generally start an invasion of another country by striking at the heart of their civ, ie. the capital city or the strategic center. I rarely make logistical mistakes on whom to attack, but every so often civs wind up being more tenacious then I gave them credit for. To solve this problem, before any invasion, I always build a stack (or many) of oceanic offensive units that look something like this;
2 Battleships
2 Cruisers (replaced by AEGIS cruisers when possible)
4 Destroyers (Or a mix of destroyer/submarines/nuclear submarines)
2 Carriers
4 Transports
On the transports I put my Marines. I use these guys to sail around the far side of the civ I'm attacking and I have them wait within striking distance of coastal cities. The carriers always contain 3 bombers and a fighter, so they can be useful in pounding any ocean going units my enemy has outbound towards my shores, while simultaneously being strong enough defensively to protect against enemy bombers, should they spot them. By the time they come within a few tiles of my stacks, the bombers have damaged them heavily, and then the destroyers or subs finish them off. Beyond that, their orders are to wait in position while my land based invaders (tanks, heavy armor, infantry and artillery) push towards their intended goal.
Now here's where the Marines come in handy. If my main stack of infantry gets bogged down in the mountains, or comes up against exceptional resistance, then I'll send orders out the carrier groups to send in the Marines. By now, most coastal cities of small size have already sent their extra reserve units out to the main battleground to meet my invading forces and protect the capital. So you'll often see coastal towns being protected by just one or two units. No problem for a transport or three full of salty Marines, reinforced by a half dozen bombers and naval bombardment.
I've found that the AI, when realizing that they have either are about to lose, or have already lost a city far away from the main battle, tend to split apart their forces to counter the new attack front. Once they do this, it's all over. Because I have about a dozen units now occupying the taken city, and whatever they send is bound to be ineffectual. Also, now that they have split their forces, my main invading infantry and tank force can obliterate the now reduced stacks attempting to protect the capital. Why the Marines are so successful in this instance is because the city (or cities) are lost so quickly. The AI always notices when they lose a bunch of coastal towns in a single turn, especially when you might have taken their only harbor(s). By the time the AI realizes the counter attack is useless, their capital is usually destroyed and I've dug in deep enough to give them a sound thrashing as they swing back around AGAIN to try and recapture their beloved capital city. The idea is to keep them disorganized by opening up a new front.
Paratroopers:
A little more difficult to use in the first stages of the attack, but once you've captured a city with an airport (or built an airstrip outside of your newly captured city -- you DID remember to bring extra workers didn't you?), then they can pretty much hop to within decent distance to sit on top of resources, and if given the chance cut that tile off if your own forces can't capture it within a reasonable amount of time. The diffence of the worth of Paratroopers being that the AI can pick off three or four Paratroopers easier than a city full of Marines, and so your troopers might wind up being sacrifical lambs for the greater good. But the point is it gives you a chance to focus on your mail goal while the AI fumbles around trying to put out smaller fires all around their country. This method works, I assure you. I use it nearly every time I am planning an invasion of a civ I sense to be of equal or greater strength.
Of course, for those of you who have such an unbalanced share of military power versus the civ you want to destroy, then this method may be pointless. Just send in the main attack force and kill, kill, kill, SIR!
But I like to use a little finesse when pounding my neighbors into rubble. And there's nothing more satisfying as changing a huge swath of productive coastline from a rival color to your own color in a single turn. Imagine you live in England and one day are looking at towards mainland Europe. It's all a variety of cultural personae, the french, the germans, the spanish...
Then you wake up the next morning, look out across the channel and suddenly it's all controlled by Americans. Yeah, uh.. HI! We're you're new neighbors... got any SUGAR?
