Defence against amphibious attack

[Quillan]

Build some naval units with the Sentry promotion, so they see 3 squares over water instead of 2, and scatter them around so you see the enemy fleet coming several turns in advance. If you see it coming, you can preempt it. Park destroyers in all the water squares adjacent to your legendary cities, so the enemy must attack them to get next to the city.

The enemy basically has two things he can do: 1) land next to your city on one turn then attack the following, or 2) attempt an amphibious assault directly from the boats. The first gives you a turn of advance notice. You can also station some infantry in the land squares around your cities, so if he tries to land there he'll also have to fight. If he does land, you can move all the others into the city to defend it. You'll want to keep a few artillery pieces or planes nearby so that if he does land you can whittle down the stack strength before he has a chance to do anything.

My recommendation is to be proactive with it. Scout aggressively for any fleets, and if you see a fleet coming with any transport ships at all, don't wait. Declare war and destroy it. You may well be able to make peace before he can get another fleet over to you.

[Supr49er]

It has been my experience that the AI will attempt a suicidal amphibious attack against your city. Use subs to scout their approach. Have City Garrison Infantry and Drill Machineguns defending their target city. Hit their fleet with bombers (and Missiles if you have them). Gather your counterattack fleet and destroy them. If they do land any units, use artillery to damage them, then attack with Cavalry.

Drill IV Machineguns and CGIII Infantry can defeat a large number of units, especially with the amphibious penalty they will incur.

[johnmcd]

I think you'll be OK, the AI is rubbish at spotting cultural wins in my experience, even at higher difficulty levels (Emperor).

I agree though that the only way to stop an amphibious assault is either massive stacks in your key cities or large outlying fleets of subs/ air recon. It's a shame you can give a recon order to air craft that they'll perform turn after turn to do away with all the clicking.

[snoopy369]

Don't forget to drop units on the islands also - especially HA's with the scouting promotion(s) to expand visibility. Drop them on islands scattered such that you have no invisible tiles, and you'll see it coming from a mile away

[The Priest]

Well, thanks for all the advice.

The prize goes to .... Brommer and Johnmcd. The AI did nothing. I just cruised to victory without anyone trying to stop me. (Research radio at the time I think.)

Interestingly, for most of the game I was eighth in power, and even in the closing century I was fifth. Which only goes to show that you don't have to be dominating on the power game to avoid being attacked. (And it was aggressive AI.)

How did I get away with it? I think it was probably the balance of power at the end. There were about six nations all of a similar size and score, and so nobody wanted war because even if they did well against one opponent, they would meanwhile be falling behind against the other four. It was just hard to see how war was going to really delivery benefits, so everyone just keep trying to climb the tech ladder. Some suitable trade give-aways seemed to do the trick too.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Don't forget to drop units on the islands also - especially HA's with the scouting promotion(s) to expand visibility. Drop them on islands scattered such that you have no invisible tiles, and you'll see it coming from a mile away

Helps against barbarians too.

I'd love to have radar equipped units... It seems silly, that a Napoleonic Frigate, or a Trireme, for that matter, can see as far as a Destroyer... Ground radar would be usefull, aswell. Can the AI use Sentry-units properly? I'd imagine Radar-promotion would work, then. Perhaps after electronics... And something after optics, too!