What's the best way to attack cities I have no land path to?

[BlackFlame]

Should I just load up a fleet of my ships with the most cargo space full of as many strong units as they can hold, land near the city, and unload? Or would it be better to try and put a "foothold" city nearby, if there's room?

It seems like most ships don't have much cargo space, so I'm guessing I'd need quite a few ships to transport a decent sized invasion force.

Is there some better tactic I'm not seeing here?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Build a big navy and load it up with lots of troops, including at least 1 powerful offensive spellcaster.

Sail it halfway to 2/3rds of the way to the target.

Move a small fraction of the transport ships ahead to the target to have them unload. The rest, including the transports with your powerful mage(s), stay put.

A large enemy army will show up to crush your sacrificial stack and reinforce the coastal cites. While this enemy army is still on the coast, pulverize it with magic, then land the rest of your troops. Be sure to land the spellcasters too, your navy will probably be outnumbered and you don't want them to be on a ship that gets sunk. A guardaman is a smart investment to stop assassin mobs.

If the army runs away, start sacking cities. If it holes up in a nearby city, destroy it piece by piece then start sacking cites.

 

[popejubal]

...and if you land a spellcaster with Body 1, you can have the spellcaster cast Haste so that all of your units get a movement point. That means you can land enough of your forces on a decent tile, cast Haste, take a city and then disembark the rest of your forces in the city where you won't lose your movement points. Go ahead and take another city or two at that point.

 

[cIV_khanh93]

...and if you land a spellcaster with Body 1, you can have the spellcaster cast Haste so that all of your units get a movement point. That means you can land enough of your forces on a decent tile, cast Haste, take a city and then disembark the rest of your forces in the city where you won't lose your movement points. Go ahead and take another city or two at that point.

they've started to count negative movement, so this trick wont work anymore

 

[PanzerWolf]

My recipe (often late game): Use the ships' bombardment to lower the defences. A ship called Arcane Barage can cast fireballs. This is excellent for soften up defenders as the fireballs do collateral damage. If you also have some mages/ archmages that can cast spell like tsunami, maelstorm and maybe even snowfall, you can quite easy reduce the defenders a lot (actually, use the mages first as their spells often have a damage cap while the fireballs don't).

If you have at least one city with CoE, go for Guilds and build some Shadows to prepare for the attack. My "friends" the Hippus didn't have any horsies left when my invading force stroke them....

 

[JonathanStrange]

Man, those flying monkeys would have come in handy right now!

However, as the flying monkeys were outlawed in the treaty of Kael 1420 C.F., I like using frigates/men-at-war to reduce coastal city defenses to zero before landing troops.

The A.I. frequently builds fortifications that it doesn't garrison, so I say thank you very much and use it as a beachhead, if it's close enough.

However, it's usually better to get that city captured in one turn and use it as the base; the AI reinforces threatened cities rapidly.

It helps to bring more troops than you think you'll need 'cause the tedious nature of a naval expeditionary force might have to be repeated.

In MP, I sometimes try to be more devious and bombard one city and land to attack another.

 

[BlackFlame]

Thanks, I'll keep that advice in mind. I think one of my biggest issues here seems to be that I haven't really adjusted to just how useful or even necessary magic can be yet. I've just sort of played around with it so far, not really figuring out how to work it into strategy.

 

[JonathanStrange]

You mean for bombarding a city with fireballs - that sort of magic? The beauty of frigates is they can reduce a city's defenses so as to make less necessary the use of magic to capturing a coastal city.

But if I'm needing magic for city taking, I usually look at what mana my palaces provide and see if the spells associated with it do some sort of collateral damage and ignore city fortifications.

As the Ljosalfar, I might see Air mana being provided by the royal palace, I'd research the magic tech enabling Air spells leading to Maelstrom which provide lightnings that rain down on the city. I'd likely have my adepts transform raw mana nodes into Air nodes for additional mana and spell strength.

Fireball spells seem to be the most popular; I can't recall if they also reduce city defences or "merely" damage garrisoned troops. Anyone recall? Have any other good anti-city spells?

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Bombarding city defenses isn't the point of doing this. Directly damaging enemy units is. Tsunami's the best one for this purpose. Greater Snowfall, Crush and Pillar of Fire are not too far behind. After that there's a bunch of "eh" ones... Wither, Maelstrom, Fireball, Ring of Flames, Crown of Brilliance, regular snowfall.

In general, religious units and civ uniques are better for attack magic than actual mages, and attacking coasts is no exception.

 

[Dougal]

If you can afford the it, go Amphibious. It's only worth it on maps with lots of naval assalts, but when it work it works. The ability to take a ship offshore, bring it to the coast, bombard, attack and retreat to ship, then move the ship back out to safe range.

Do this with a couple extra beefy ships in the stack on top of your unit carriers, and you're aremy cannot be killed.

 

[JonathanStrange]

Bombarding city defenses isn't the point of doing this. Directly damaging enemy units is.

Obviously, but the point of reducing city defenses by frigates against coastal cities, for example, is to make damaging garrisoned units easier when the attack begins. I never said that bombarding city defenses was the point in itself; I didn't think anyone would think it was. I was wrong.

 

[WarKirby]

Arcane barges are AWESOMELY more powerful in FF. Probably a bit too much so

In addition to fireball, they can cast Fair Winds, Floating Eye, Maelstrom, and Repair. they also get the ability to cast two spells per turn.

they're a 4-limit national unit though. but very useful for bombarding city defenders on the coast, and weakening enemy fleets.

 

[Lemminkäinen]

Also, if you have a very powerful hero unit you can use that to defend against a ridiculous amount of enemies. I had Basium kill ~30-40 Clan Chariots, a couple of Catapults and Rosier on defense when I landed on their shores. If your Strength is ridiculously higher than theirs they won't damage you at all. Free Strikes helps here as well.

Another trick is to convert to Cult of Esus. If you have Open Borders with your target, you can move your army at your leisure to his continent and then (if you have CoE) when you declare war you won't be flung outside of his cultural borders.

Octopus Overlords OTOH allows access to all sorts of critters with water walking thus making you need less transport capacity.

 

[hbar]

Also, if you have a very powerful hero unit you can use that to defend against a ridiculous amount of enemies. I had Basium kill ~30-40 Clan Chariots, a couple of Catapults and Rosier on defense when I landed on their shores. If your Strength is ridiculously higher than theirs they won't damage you at all. Free Strikes helps here as well.

Another trick is to convert to Cult of Esus. If you have Open Borders with your target, you can move your army at your leisure to his continent and then (if you have CoE) when you declare war you won't be flung outside of his cultural borders.

Octopus Overlords OTOH allows access to all sorts of critters with water walking thus making you need less transport capacity.

Be careful with the hero trick - heroes are like mages in that they won't defend if the odds are lower than ~95%. That can be a big newb trap, but it saves your heroes for attacking.