Cheat or Tactic?

[Older than Dirt]

OP, what you suggest is a brilliant tactic. You are to be congratulated for your acumen. I have not seen anyone else suggest this. I have been using it in every game now for the past month, even against the hordes of barbarians on terra maps. I now build many marines (at least 16). Using this tactic my jarheads (oops I mean leathernecks) can get up to level 27 rather easily. Combined with a few carriers loaded with figthers they are unstoppable.

Another thing I have noticed is that it is often more effective to attack the units defending a city rather than reduce the overall city defense, especially if you can get all the defenders down to half strength - even against cities with defenses of 60 %.

I think this is a fitting tactic to counter the hordes of AI sticks and stones units.

[Rook]

Originally posted by Older than Dirt
OP, what you suggest is a brilliant tactic. You are to be congratulated for your acumen. I have not seen anyone else suggest this. I have been using it in every game now for the past month, even against the hordes of barbarians on terra maps. I now build many marines (at least 16). Using this tactic my jarheads (oops I mean leathernecks) can get up to level 27 rather easily. Combined with a few carriers loaded with figthers they are unstoppable.

Another thing I have noticed is that it is often more effective to attack the units defending a city rather than reduce the overall city defense, especially if you can get all the defenders down to half strength - even against cities with defenses of 60 %.

I think this is a fitting tactic to counter the hordes of AI sticks and stones units.

Well thanks This strategy needs a name like chop-rushing settlers. I suggest the Semper Fi tactic SFT.

[Urban Ranger]

Eh, how is it possible to get to level 27?

[Rook]

I wonder if he meant xp level 27?

[Theseus]

I don;t think this is an exploit at all...

Heck, I've lost a gazillion units defending a key city against AI SODs, and struggled to develop and implement an effective counter-attack. As noted, in this case the AI needs tweaks for better naval defenses (no surprise there).

Anyway, I'd like to hear about this concept some more, in two parts:

1) Specific to Rook's example, what could be / should be done to optimize the tactic? I haven't done exactly the same thing, but I have certainly engaged in numerous amphib smackdowns (GO MARINES!!)... in mine, I've mixed in good XP Infantry and actually landed if in a defensible spot, taken some abuse at a ridiculously beneficial risk/reward ratio (i.e., major AI losses in exchange for maybe a few units of mine, but with great XPs for my survivors). What combo of offshore and onshore tactics works best? How much softening is optimal in either case? How and where should land routes be cut? What accelerates healing the best? When is it time to raze (or not) and move on? Etc etc.

2) This brings up a more general topic: What are the various and best ways to "XP farm"?

Good one, Rook.

[Solomwi]

Not a cheat at all. It's one of my favorite tactics for harassment or just farming XP. Try it with Navy SEALs. The march promotion makes it significantly quicker, and thus more powerful and more fun. I tend to stick to the Combat promotions, though. If the enemy is sufficiently advanced, some of my Marines will get Pinch (+25% vs. gunpowder), but generally I'm trying to create commando units. Marines that can use enemy roads are a LOT of fun to play with.

One aspect I haven't seen addressed in this thread is fleet coonfiguration. The key here, I think, is that out of the box, battleships have one more movement point than transports. Five battleships will reduce a city's defense to zero in a single turn. Drydocks plus Pentgon/Theocracy/Vassalage give you two promotions to start. What I generally do is stack a transport (or multiple transports, as needed) full of Marines with five battleships, one of which has Medic I and the others of which have various combat promotions (still experimenting to find the most effective ones). The transports all get Navigation I, matching their speed to that of the battleships. I top it off with a couple of destroyers or submarines loosely attached to the group to scout for enemy ships and subs. Destroyers, especially, make for good pickets and can pillage resources and get back to the safety of the stack. Nav I battleships are also useful in this role. With the AI's naval ineptness, this typically gives me enough protection to hit cities with near impunity. Once I discover flight, a carrier devoted to interception joins the mix.

It sounds like a lot of resources to bring to bear, but my games typically involve large navies, and I make it a point to have multiple shipyards working on both coasts. Finding the ships is rarely a problem.

[Rook]

Theseus and Solomwi,

You bring up some good points. The tactic worked pretty well, but it surely could be optomized. If planned correctly, one could build a unit bleeding stack of death complete with hospital ships, shore bombardment, air defense etc. It took me a long time when i did it, but I play on marathon. this tactic would probably kick butt optimised as you guys suggest on the quicker games.

[Paddy]

Originally posted by joncnunn
Sounds like a fair tactic to me.

Myself, I'd have sugested cuting the road network to the target city and then if you capture it , don't put units there but instead raize it to the ground.

Raizing a city to the ground is a powerful tool when you have enough units to capture a city but can't really hold it and he won't talk.

(If he will talk, you can keep the city and sign a ceasefire and massively reinforce it with apporative units during that ceasation of hostilities.)

Yeah leave their cities in ruins