coastal defense

[My Wife Hates CIV]

i've never used the spy against ships. attacking with spies appears to cut a units power in half. So two spies can put any ship deep into the red that's hanging along your coast. and at this point even a piston bomber can destroy a AEGIS or battleship.

and i got every one of my spies returned to the nearest city.

taking this step further... i placed spies onboard transports which can leave a port and attack ships within the transports range. the spies return to the nearest city so they are never lost.

it did make coastal defense a bunch easier.

[Rasputin]

hmm good tactic wil ltry that ...

[duke o' york]

Since noticing that the ability to use spies to sabotage enemy units was possible, I have hardly ever used it. I've used it when I only had one defender who was damaged and would have been unable to defeat a full-strength AI unit, but these occurences are few and far between. I'd be more tempted to just bribe a decent AI ship and then use that to destroy all of the others around it.
Can spies see subs? I can't remember using them for this, but it could be useful if you only have a transport and a BB to hand.

[Scouse Gits]

Yes, bringing the AI down to 50% or 25% striking force was one of SG(2)'s favourites -- don't recall using it on ships however ...

Stu

[rah]

Doesn't stacked ships defeat this simple ploy?

[My Wife Hates CIV]

yes, but against the AI there are always lots of single targets. its big plus is the cost. To re-use a spy this way is a lot cheaper than a cruise missile... which might not do any damge and may cause a happy problem in the city. BB ships don't seem so tough anymore.

and if you're in MP than stacking ships puts you at risk of having more than one ship sunk by my lucky lower class vessel. I've never liked how stacked ships suffer when one piss ass worthless boat gets lucky.

[Hydey]

Originally posted by My Wife Hates CIV
I've never liked how stacked ships suffer when one piss ass worthless boat gets lucky.

/me hopes the Aussies navy builds a piss ass boat that can sink 50 ships with one attack

[duke o' york]

First the Australian navy would have to design missiles that didn't come back once they'd been fired.

If the ships are stacked (as you said, very unlikely with the AI) then you'll just have to bribe one of these fantastic piss ass boats to take out the whole lot.
Or just nuke 'em!

[Old n Slow]

I use spies this way all the time -- helps soften the blows & decrease the corresponding counter damage -- also means that I don't need as much fleet hanging around as targets.

[La Fayette]

Don't ask me
My vet spies do that all the time, except against air units
(because the trick doesn't work against air units ).

[Straybow]

MWHC, if one CM is going to cause you happiness problems you're probably overextended. Unless you mean loss of celebration growth rather than risk of disorder?

I guess one can fall to kamikazi Fighters or Stealth if desperate to avoid red faces. If he's got AEGIS in the stack it will be expensive, but the stack value may make the exchange worthwhile.

Did I read somewhere that the defense multiplier for AEGIS vs CM higher than AEGIS vs aircraft? D×5 instead of D×2?

[POTUS]

it's D*4 for CM, I believe.

[Old n Slow]

In the Cfc GOTM 35, I sent a vet Aegis stacked with a Carrier (in a lame attempt to bring down the Babylonian capital AFTER the spaceship launch).

14 Spanish (thanks for the help guys) CMs later, steel settled to the bottom.

So yeah, D+2 looks to be a little too small.

[Sparrowhawk]

On a related matter of coastal defence...

Obviously when a naval unit attacks a city with a coastal fortress the defender gets the defence bonus.
Similarly if a land unit attacks a city with walls the defender gets the defence bonus.
What happens when Marines attack from a transport?
Does the defender get the bonus from the City Walls or the Coastal Fortress? (or both??)

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Sparrowhawk
What happens when Marines attack from a transport?
Does the defender get the bonus from the City Walls or the Coastal Fortress? (or both??)

Bonus from the City Walls.