Warfare in the Modern Age in BTS

[Flying Pig]

If you have an island with mountains you can get Windmills to get - and I think that Sushi Co. will give you even without any resources. The problem is how to get in; a factory, yes: you need to hope that you have a river going into the ice (is this possible?). I presume that Ice blocks trade, so this has potential without doubt. If we can refine it a bit; I'll add it in.

For , you can still work sea resources, so what we need it something with them on the other side of a land tile. I'll try to WorldBuilder what I mean and post it soon

 

[Ghpstage]

If you have an island with mountains you can get Windmills to get - and I think that Sushi Co. will give you even without any resources. The problem is how to get in; a factory, yes: you need to hope that you have a river going into the ice (is this possible?). I presume that Ice blocks trade, so this has potential without doubt. If we can refine it a bit; I'll add it in.

For , you can still work sea resources, so what we need it something with them on the other side of a land tile. I'll try to WorldBuilder what I mean and post it soon

It doesn't have to be an actual island, in fact the bottom and top tips of continents would likely make this easier due to having potentially workable land while still being disconnected from trade without roads.

Rivers can run through land ice tiles like in my pic, Sid's will only give you food if the city has access to fish etc in its trade network, most likely this will max out with 1-2 resources if your getting more your connected to the trade network.
I guess you could build a second city to help supply the main privateer city with extra food and metal supplies, but connecting both these without connecting to the main network will be tricky. I doubt that would be worth it though.

Impassable ice cannot have rivers run through it as it counts as a sea/ocean/coast tile. With rivers youd also need ot be careful they won't connect your city.
Impassable sea ice blocks trade full stop so its tehnically possible for a city to have a full BFC of ocean/coast/land tiles and still not be connected, this is however unlikely in practice.

One method of generating hammers would be to directly buy everything using Universal Sufferage, I can't see privateers being too expensive once you have a modern era economy in place. My pic did show a few ways of gaining an acceptable hammer count though using windmills, mines, engineers, some cases may allow a levee, the dutch dike would be ridiculous, if you don't have mass media then AP religion temples.

I think hammers are much less of a problem than food. Although on continent maps a city site this can be done in may well contain tundra/river, forests and or deer tiles which would certainly be very handy.

 

[Flying Pig]

I have a picture of a city which I put in (the land is natural) which is happy and has copper+iron but is not connected up to the capital, and (not running SP) has -6.49maintenance.

Here it is:



Your point about running Universal Suffrage is interesting; if you have a booming financial city you will have surplus to spend here; Corporation HQ, Holy City + shrine, Spiral Minaret, Courthouse, Bank and as many Merchants as possible/ settled GMs - it could work.

 

[Ghpstage]

That would be one epic fluke of a city site , mining inc would scavenge you another 2 base and a workshop on that empty river/tundra tile and your away, the high food may make mines better than windmills there though.

If I did get a city like the one you made I don't thing I would bother with US buying after the infrastructure was built, it should be able to give a pretty high hammer output, especially with the forge/drydock/factory/power giving + 125% on what would already be a decent hammer yield.

I can't see any realistic way of building this type of city up from the ground without US buying the initial forges/lighthouse/factory etc in an acceptable timeframe though.

 

[Flying Pig]

We could happily remove one fish and the Copper mine and a lot of the buildngs; it doesn't need to grow so fast.

 

[Ghpstage]

We could happily remove one fish and the Copper mine and a lot of the buildngs; it doesn't need to grow so fast.

This is true, in fact the city I posted on the previous page had 1 iron, 1 un-improvable fish resource and a fishing boat crab, all other tiles were either worthless (just ice) or not gonna help the cities function (coast/ocean) and the city was still something of a success. Copper allows privateers to be built itself, doesn't allow frigates or SoL though, I found that out the hard way


You do need to consider how useful this city will be to you.

Airships, if made here are easy to use and are very good at finding subs while being relatively difficult to kill as they're stationed in your cities/forts. However, airship cities could be made in more productive regions.

Privateers on the other hand will be attacked by everything and lose almost every fight while the AI has destroyers, so this limits the usefulness to either harassing backwards civs, or using privateers in more inventive ways, such as blockading your own cities (only useful if your not in SP).

Unless your at a ridiculous tech advantage, or know how privateers work really well then privateers in the modern era are questionable at best... definitely would be fun if you were playing way below your level though

 

[Flying Pig]

I may add it - they are, properly used, the best units ever in my opinion. Used as scout ships they are awesome, as the enemy has no idea that you are coming.

 

[popejubal]

Attacking civs on a different landmass is much more difficult than attacking civs that are on your continent. Even on religion fueled lovefests, though, you can usually declare war against one or more civs without declaring on one of the civs on that continent.

If you have a neutral or allied civ on the continent, you can base Bombers in his cities and go nuts on the defending units without needing to drag expensive Aircraft Carriers across the sea. Bombers are much more efficient and effective once the air defenses are used up, so I've become a huge fan of basing my Bombers in a neutral city.

-Just be sure to station at least a few defensive troops in the city since an enemy unit moving into the neutral city will automatically destroy all of your naval ships and aircraft!

Also, for your Land Combat section, there is an additional advantage to promoting Tanks up the Combat series of promotions. Tanks can get Commando (and I usually end up with at least 1-2 Tanks with Commando after my first modern campaign). Once you have a Tank with Commando, you can destroy an enemy's resource tiles from very far away and your Commando Tank even sometimes survives the next turn!

 

[Flying Pig]

See my sig for attacking over the sea

The rest is good; I may add it here or in my other article. The Tank thing is good.

 

[Pigspanker]

nice thread, the sea battle part was very helpful

 

[UncleJJ]

Tanks can get Commando (and I usually end up with at least 1-2 Tanks with Commando after my first modern campaign). Once you have a Tank with Commando, you can destroy an enemy's resource tiles from very far away and your Commando Tank even sometimes survives the next turn!

Why is this neccessary? It seems a waste of a valuable and difficult to replace unit. I use a fighter based on an aircraft carrier to destroy resources. At least 90% of tiles are reachable by fighters on most maps, pangea being a notable exception but then you're unlikely to have carriers anyway. Alternatively, use a spy if you have an espionage advantage.

 

[Flying Pig]

The advantage to tanks (hard infantrymen even more) is that they can 'take and hold' the objective; tying up masses of enemy military power to take a small oil well because its their only one, and you're on top of it! Infantry (or Paratroopers, but they're tactically not so good) and AT units stacked work great.

 

[UncleJJ]

The advantage to tanks (hard infantrymen even more) is that they can 'take and hold' the objective; tying up masses of enemy military power to take a small oil well because its their only one, and you're on top of it! Infantry (or Paratroopers, but they're tactically not so good) and AT units stacked work great.

I doubt it. A lone commando tank behind the lines will be destroyed next turn and the workers moved onto the oil well immediately after. There is no point in trying to "hold" the resource with such a weak force. As I pointed out you're sacrificing a useful unit when there are at least two other ways to do the job without wasting 300 odd hammers

 

[Flying Pig]

Who said one tank. going in unsupported? You pull in a division while you tie up the enemy with an advance in conventional mode

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Tanks do not get defensive bonuses. You're just asking to get mauled by some combination of minimal artillery, anti-tanks, and possibly just combat infantry, for a investment that is FAVORABLE to an empire that already enjoys discounts most likely. I'll pass on that and just steamroll them from the front regardless of what they have after massacre of any relevant stack.

 

[Flying Pig]

That's why I don't use Tanks for that job.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

Great article thanks!

The one thing I've been unable to find is how to take out opposing fighters? I'm finding that I can't bombard a huge attacking stack from the opponent in my territory, because the other guy's nearby fighters just over the border on his side are kicking my Air Force's butt. How do I take them out? It seems like just sending fighters to attack units on the city title with his fighters is kind of random, in terms of the fighters actually locking horns. Is there anything I can do here? Also, do destroyers still intercept air units in BTS 3.19? I don't think I've seen one of my destroyers do it yet.

Thanks for the help. I'm playing Monarch level, marathon, huge map, if that helps.

 

[Flying Pig]

The only way to attack fighters is to send in your own, but you can use mechanised infantry and the like to make it easier to protect yourself

 

[Mike III]

I admire your great strategy for modern warfare! it is very good. i have adopted many of your strategies, but i have some tweaks for it, as well as some additional aspects to be considered. Some are also inside since i play the next war mod on bts. My requirements for an ideal armed force are simple. 2 or 3 mechanized armies, and 3 indantry armies. The mechanized armies should have 50 modern armors, 40 cyborgs (next war) , 10 mobile artillery, 6 sams, and 3 medical explorers. Gunships may be added. Mandatory is 1 dreadnought since only 2 are allowed at a time. its is a national unit and its in next war. One assault mech should be in as well. One city should have red cross, and one should have west point. For infantry, there should be 50 mechanized infantry, 40 paratroopers, 40 SEALS Or marines, 6 sams, 15 artillery, and 3 or 4 medic explorers. A force to attack abroad MUST HAVE missile cruisers with nukes and lots of marines and spies! escorts also needed. hope the strategy is good