Unique Combined Arms Gambits

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Has anyone used helicopters to any great extent? I ask this b/c at first glance they seem to offer little benefit (only carry 1 unit and limited range).

Then I started thinking of ways to incorporate their use for purposes of blitzkrieg style warfare and may have a legitimate use other than dropping units behind enemy lines to pillage strategic resources (a given).

Take a settler and load him onto the helicopter and insert and him just beyond the enemy civs rail heads (i.e 2 squares deep). Form settlement city. This should carve out enough territory to allow your fast and/or slow moving elements the ability to capitalize on rail lines and move up closer to the unsuspecting civ and if lucky allow a tidal wave attack akin to the CIV2 howitzer rushes of old.

The only purpose of the settlement is to allow a bridgehead of friendly land to expedite the movement of your own troops.

Thoughts?


Og

[Velociryx]

Oh! That rocks man! I've not even build a helicopter before in this game (TALK about a switch! In SMAX that was the heart and soul of my army!).

I wonder tho....when you drop the settler off, can he build that turn, or is there a 1-turn delay? If he can build straightaway, I'd say it's an absolutely stellar idea! muck up the enemy's rail network by using it against him....YIKES! You vicious barbarian, Og! I love it!

-=Vel=-

[Aeson]

I hadn't thought of using Helicopters for this, good thinking! Like Vel, I must admit, I haven't even built one in a game yet...like so many other units. I have employed a ground based strategy much like it though, even preparing the way for horsemen armies in the ancient era sometimes. The AI will never delcare war for just a settler or worker in it's territory, so you can move in, build the city at an advantageous spot in much the same way as you described. Also it makes for fast and easy beachheads (as many people have pointed out), as you can unload your troops from transports in a city, and they retain their movement points for that turn.

Also this could be used to cut off the AI's valuable resources in some cases, before they have a chance to react and change builds to military units that would have used that resource when war is declared (from building the city). Of course dropping in a few units for defense would be required as well.

[Thoth]

It's a great idea, unfortunately it doesn't work. You can't airlift settlers or workers under the default rules.

I did build a helicopter in my current test game to try out a few things with it.

Things you can do:

Airlift 1 footsoldier between any two of your cities. (load the unit into the helicopter, then re-base the helicopter. The loaded unit goes allong for the ride). Handy for those overseas cities you don't have airports in yet.


Things you cannot do:

Land the helicopter on an aircraft carrier (with or without a unit).
I haven't been able to find anything in the editor that will allow this, but if it could be done it would open up some interesting possibilities.


It may be possible to over-ride the 8 square range restriction by using the ICBM flag, I'll test this and let you know.

Edit: The range cannot be overriden this way, nor can you rebase any air unit with holds greater than zero to an aircraft carrier.

[Aeson]

I still could see using helicopters in a resource denial situation. It is possible to get the settler into position, but to build the city, will cause war. If it is inside of enemy territory too far (3-whatever the helicopters range is), then helicopters would be the only way of getting some defenders there soon enough. The AI will most likely attack the newly founded city, depleting its borders of troops. Also, the AI will be denied that resource, hampering its war effort. Finally, your troops will have a base of operations deep in enemy territory, and you could have a hurried barracks waiting for them by the time they get there.

Other variations on this could be to block off road access, culturally slowing down enemy troop movement, denying luxuries, cutting off trade routes in some cases, or just being a pain in the neck

[Navyman]

But wouldn't the new city try to defect? I guess the player has to be quick and try to take out as many close enemy cities as possible so the bridgehead city doesn't defect.

[Aeson]

Certainly is best to strike quickly and drive the AI's borders back beyond any newly founded cities. I've used different variations on this, even building a city right next to the AI's capitol, and never had one defect yet. This is just a way to delay retaliation from the AI for a couple of turns while the invasion forces do their thing. If it did happen to defect after a few turns it isnt much of a loss anyways.