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On the Utility and Use of Marines
The marine is a much-maligned unit. The game designers admittedly didn’t exactly make it a “go to” unit – the marine’s detractors will point out that: (1) marines become available only with an optional tech; (2) marines are expensive, costing as much as a tank; (3) speaking of tanks, marines become available around the same time as tanks (which means after tanks, since almost no one will research Amphibious Assault before Motorized Transportation), but the A/D/M is, in each instance, less than that of a tank; (4) the amphibious assault ability is rarely (if ever) actually needed, and only infrequently useful.
I contend that the marine is maligned unfairly, and that its true utility, especially after v1.21, is underutilized by most players.
When planning an invasion across the seas in the late industrial ages or later, the marine can often unleash tremendous, instantaneous pain on one’s enemy – given the proper circumstances, “marine pain” may actually reduce a strong AI into a simpering, permanently disabled vassal state as the result of a well-executed, one-turn blow. My suggested approach to more effective intercontinental invasion is:
1. Identify 2 or 3 attractive coastal cities -- attractive because they control luxury or strategic resources (ideally in the city tile itself), or contain a non-obsolete wonder.
2. For each identified target, load one transport full of marines, one transport full of infantry, and one transport with a mix of artillery and tanks / cavalry. This is my minimum, as a general rule of thumb – obviously employ more or less depending on the circumstances. Two battleships or a battleship and a destroyer should be a sufficient escort for each grouping of three transports (assuming you are not already at war against a strong naval power). If you have aircraft carriers and bombers, so much the better, but they are usually not required.
3. Position your attack parties outside the enemy's borders, but within 5 tiles of the target cities. Declare war. Bombard cities with battleships / destroyer (bomb city if air support available). Attack the cities directly from your transports with marines. When the marines take the cities (they will
), move your other transports into the city and unload. I have honestly never seen a transport full of marines fail to take a city guarded by no more than 3 infantry. If the enemy is defending with mechanized infantry, however, you will want to throw substantial bombardment at the defenders before you launch your marines at the city defenses.
There are several significant advantages to the amphibious assault as compared to a traditional beachhead invasion involving landing your forces in enemy territory:
You never have to unload units into enemy territory. Landing parties forced to come ashore at a beachhead will be subject to repeated attacks by huge stacks of AI units (especially now under v1.21) before they have a chance to fortify, let alone attack their primary objective. The first AI counterattack against your amphibious invasion will be against your fortified units, units which may be fortified in a city or metropolis, both of which factors mean substantially increased defensive power (i.e., that infantry defense of "10" goes up to "22" when fortified in a metropolis).
Your landing parties will effectively control 9 tiles, instead of just 1 tile. Because you have captured a city (instead of landed on a tile), you also control one tile around the city in all directions. Counterattacking AI infantry and other one-move units can enter "your" territory, but cannot attack in the same turn; AI tanks and other 2+ move attackers can enter and attack, but cannot attack twice in the same turn (except modern armor or panzers, of course). This represents a truly significant advantage over the traditional beachhead landing because the AI will furiously counterattack with its 2-move attackers, losing many in the process and leaving many others wounded, while its 1-move attackers slowly advance toward their objective. Should you have gotten lucky and taken the city with its barracks intact, you won’t even face the second-half of the AI attack (next turn) with any wounded units, and will probably face it with some newly promoted elite units. Furthermore, regardless of the presence of a barracks, your reserve artillery and 2-move invasion units (after having auto-bombarded the 2-move attackers in the case of artillery), together with your naval power offshore, will have an opportunity to damage and destroy more of the AI counter-attackers before many of them are even able to attack at all, and all from the safety of your city. Effectively forcing the break-up of the AI counter-attack stack into two different attacking forces that must attack over the course of two turns (and which are therefore subject to intervening pre-emptive strikes by you) greatly weakens the AI counter-attack potency. In a traditional beachhead landing by contrast, the AI will have the opportunity (and will generally take it) to throw everything at you in one turn, meaning lots of 2-attack tank battles followed by a bunch of 1-attack infantry / rifleman battles. Note that the amphibious strategy therefore allows the invading units to hold off the same counter-attack force with much smaller numbers of actual troops than does a traditional beachhead landing.
Because all of your units except the marines who actually attacked the city are unloaded within the city, they have preserved all of their movement points. Your invasion forces are therefore able to: (a) attack other AI units during the same turn, (b) pillage / bombard nearby improvements on the same turn (such as roads to a luxury / strategic resource just outside your new territory), or (c) take up a series of defensive positions on hills and mountains and fortify, creating effective kill zones, all as is appropriate to the given situation.
You have inflicted severe morale / resource damage on your enemy before he even has a chance to prepare. Assuming you have planned your invasion strike well, you have taken cities with luxury and/or strategic resources. Given the right circumstances, you may have deprived the AI of its sole type of the particular luxury and/or disrupted its trade of an excess luxury, causing much greater (and immediate) unhappiness in the AI population. If you have managed to take the AI’s only source of oil / rubber, then the AI’s furious conscription of units during its turn will produce underpowered units, and further add to its happiness woes. The combination of luxury denial and AI drafting results in an immediate and significant blow not only to morale (happiness) but also to production abilities as AI citizens are converted into entertainers.
In the age of railroads and therefore instant AI counter-attack mobility, and with the advent of v1.21’s proclivity to produce AI counter-attacking stacks of 50+ units, the ability to land one’s invasion force safely in one’s “own” city with the instant protection of one’s own cultural borders should give the marine a decisive role in all your intercontinental invasions.
You may begin the vociferous denunciation of marines now. Until NYE comes to the defense, that is.
Catt
The marine is a much-maligned unit. The game designers admittedly didn’t exactly make it a “go to” unit – the marine’s detractors will point out that: (1) marines become available only with an optional tech; (2) marines are expensive, costing as much as a tank; (3) speaking of tanks, marines become available around the same time as tanks (which means after tanks, since almost no one will research Amphibious Assault before Motorized Transportation), but the A/D/M is, in each instance, less than that of a tank; (4) the amphibious assault ability is rarely (if ever) actually needed, and only infrequently useful.
I contend that the marine is maligned unfairly, and that its true utility, especially after v1.21, is underutilized by most players.
When planning an invasion across the seas in the late industrial ages or later, the marine can often unleash tremendous, instantaneous pain on one’s enemy – given the proper circumstances, “marine pain” may actually reduce a strong AI into a simpering, permanently disabled vassal state as the result of a well-executed, one-turn blow. My suggested approach to more effective intercontinental invasion is:
1. Identify 2 or 3 attractive coastal cities -- attractive because they control luxury or strategic resources (ideally in the city tile itself), or contain a non-obsolete wonder.
2. For each identified target, load one transport full of marines, one transport full of infantry, and one transport with a mix of artillery and tanks / cavalry. This is my minimum, as a general rule of thumb – obviously employ more or less depending on the circumstances. Two battleships or a battleship and a destroyer should be a sufficient escort for each grouping of three transports (assuming you are not already at war against a strong naval power). If you have aircraft carriers and bombers, so much the better, but they are usually not required.
3. Position your attack parties outside the enemy's borders, but within 5 tiles of the target cities. Declare war. Bombard cities with battleships / destroyer (bomb city if air support available). Attack the cities directly from your transports with marines. When the marines take the cities (they will
), move your other transports into the city and unload. I have honestly never seen a transport full of marines fail to take a city guarded by no more than 3 infantry. If the enemy is defending with mechanized infantry, however, you will want to throw substantial bombardment at the defenders before you launch your marines at the city defenses. There are several significant advantages to the amphibious assault as compared to a traditional beachhead invasion involving landing your forces in enemy territory:
You never have to unload units into enemy territory. Landing parties forced to come ashore at a beachhead will be subject to repeated attacks by huge stacks of AI units (especially now under v1.21) before they have a chance to fortify, let alone attack their primary objective. The first AI counterattack against your amphibious invasion will be against your fortified units, units which may be fortified in a city or metropolis, both of which factors mean substantially increased defensive power (i.e., that infantry defense of "10" goes up to "22" when fortified in a metropolis).
Your landing parties will effectively control 9 tiles, instead of just 1 tile. Because you have captured a city (instead of landed on a tile), you also control one tile around the city in all directions. Counterattacking AI infantry and other one-move units can enter "your" territory, but cannot attack in the same turn; AI tanks and other 2+ move attackers can enter and attack, but cannot attack twice in the same turn (except modern armor or panzers, of course). This represents a truly significant advantage over the traditional beachhead landing because the AI will furiously counterattack with its 2-move attackers, losing many in the process and leaving many others wounded, while its 1-move attackers slowly advance toward their objective. Should you have gotten lucky and taken the city with its barracks intact, you won’t even face the second-half of the AI attack (next turn) with any wounded units, and will probably face it with some newly promoted elite units. Furthermore, regardless of the presence of a barracks, your reserve artillery and 2-move invasion units (after having auto-bombarded the 2-move attackers in the case of artillery), together with your naval power offshore, will have an opportunity to damage and destroy more of the AI counter-attackers before many of them are even able to attack at all, and all from the safety of your city. Effectively forcing the break-up of the AI counter-attack stack into two different attacking forces that must attack over the course of two turns (and which are therefore subject to intervening pre-emptive strikes by you) greatly weakens the AI counter-attack potency. In a traditional beachhead landing by contrast, the AI will have the opportunity (and will generally take it) to throw everything at you in one turn, meaning lots of 2-attack tank battles followed by a bunch of 1-attack infantry / rifleman battles. Note that the amphibious strategy therefore allows the invading units to hold off the same counter-attack force with much smaller numbers of actual troops than does a traditional beachhead landing.
Because all of your units except the marines who actually attacked the city are unloaded within the city, they have preserved all of their movement points. Your invasion forces are therefore able to: (a) attack other AI units during the same turn, (b) pillage / bombard nearby improvements on the same turn (such as roads to a luxury / strategic resource just outside your new territory), or (c) take up a series of defensive positions on hills and mountains and fortify, creating effective kill zones, all as is appropriate to the given situation.
You have inflicted severe morale / resource damage on your enemy before he even has a chance to prepare. Assuming you have planned your invasion strike well, you have taken cities with luxury and/or strategic resources. Given the right circumstances, you may have deprived the AI of its sole type of the particular luxury and/or disrupted its trade of an excess luxury, causing much greater (and immediate) unhappiness in the AI population. If you have managed to take the AI’s only source of oil / rubber, then the AI’s furious conscription of units during its turn will produce underpowered units, and further add to its happiness woes. The combination of luxury denial and AI drafting results in an immediate and significant blow not only to morale (happiness) but also to production abilities as AI citizens are converted into entertainers.
In the age of railroads and therefore instant AI counter-attack mobility, and with the advent of v1.21’s proclivity to produce AI counter-attacking stacks of 50+ units, the ability to land one’s invasion force safely in one’s “own” city with the instant protection of one’s own cultural borders should give the marine a decisive role in all your intercontinental invasions.
You may begin the vociferous denunciation of marines now. Until NYE comes to the defense, that is.
Catt
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