Invasion tactics

[Barfus]

specifically, i would like a tactic someone has for invading a neighboring country. see, ive seen many tactics for "d-day", but not one for when you inhabit the same landmass, and have a border equivalent to the US Canada border. also consider that you may be sandwiched between two civs, with looooooooooooong continuous borders. i was thinking something along the lines of having a stalwart defense, let the civ bash his head on it a few times, then rush out and taske cities. but im guessing hell switch to unit production too fast and just end up swallowing me. the only other solution i can think of is piece meal conquest over several centuries in separate wars. suggestions?

[geofelt]

If you have the tech and strategic resources to build a unit with retreat capabilities that has enough strength to damage defenders, then build up an army of vet units. Don't attack until you have enough fast units to take several cities. Hopefully your core cities can keep up with replacements and defenders so that you can take the whole civ.

[Theseus]

Helluva topic.

Quick answer: Judo.

Welcome enemy forces into your territory, but make sure they are funneled into killzones. Keep the high ground.

Soften with Bounce (i.e., arty). Kill them.

Say goodnight to the women and children... let the games begin.

[Nakar Gabab]

I like to take one city intact (i.e. still a metropolis) if at all possible, and dump MASSIVE quantities of defensive troops into it. I mean enough to prevent a flip no matter what. Then fortify and watch them toss everything at you, whilst they annihilate their own terrain improvements. Then attack using that city as a base.

EDIT: This works best for overseas invasions, since they'll often attack other cities if you share borders. Best advice: Fortify that entire front. If they use fast troops, fortify lots of defenders. Slow troops, use lots of attackers when they're one square away - usually it works out in your favor.

And for the love of God, KEEP WORKERS OUT OF THE AREA. They'll be captured and disbanded if the AI even thinks it has a prayer of getting them.

[spy14]

1) Fortify extra defensive units in your current front line

2) Build as many fast offensive units as is possible in the circumstances

3) Attack the front line of cities, hold as many as poss, reassess the situation

4) If the resources are available advance further, if not hold what you have for a few turns and sue for peace. Dont overstretch your forces.

5) Build up forces again, repeat

[Harovan]

You need lots of forces if you have a long border. Place defenders along your border, if possible at high ground. Place stacks of attackers in the direction of enemy cities to capture, big enough to take the city. About 6-8 tanks should be fine. Declare war, soften the cities with bombers and artillery and and attack the cities, one by one. Quickly take the war on enemy territory. After you took the cities, move the defenders forth and form a new line. Try to hide injured units on a defended square. Repeat while you are strong enough. Then make peace for 20 turns. Repeat.

[zulu9812]

try and attack in mass at one point of the border - that way you can punch through easily and then swing round to take the rest of the cities. It's a tactic referred to as the Oblique Line

[planetfall]

Re: Invasion tactics

Originally posted by Barfus
specifically, i would like a tactic someone has for invading a neighboring country. see, ive seen many tactics for "d-day", but not one for when you inhabit the same landmass, and have a border equivalent to the US Canada border. also consider that you may be sandwiched between two civs, with looooooooooooong continuous borders. suggestions?

Post your SAV file as THMicroGame, ala DDay challenge. For more info see:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53996

[Arrian]

It totally depends on the tech level. In other words, are Cavalry available yet? If so, are riflemen? Are infantry? Are Tanks?

Example 1: You have Cavalry, no one has riflemen yet. My proposal: build a ton of Cavalry, and blitz the enemy with everything you've got. They won't last long.

Example 2: You have Cav, so do they and everyone has Riflemen too. Hmm. Well, in this case you're gonna need to bring along stacks of troops and move more deliberately. Use cannon to soften troops in the field and kill civilians (err, knock off pop points to lower the defensive bonus of cities). Bring lots of riflemen along with your Cav (still a 2 to 1 ratio, Cav to Rifle) to protect them and hold captured cities.

Example 3: Cavalry vs. Infantry. Avoid war. If you end up in one, use your infantry to funnel the AI onto flat ground, where you pummel them with artillery and finish with Cavalry. Remain in defensive posture until you can get your hands on Tanks.

Example 4: Tanks vs. Infantry. Build lots of Tanks, some arty, some infantry. Attack and capture a line of AI cities with the Tanks, move the arty and infantry in to defend. Weather the AI counterattack and then finish them with an all-out Tank blitz.

The keys:

If you have a superior offensive unit (Cavalry vs. Musketmen or even Riflemen if you have many, Tanks vs. Infantry), keep the initiative! Attack, take cities, force the AI to respond to that. Slaughter their counterattack and proceed. If you DO NOT have a superior offensive unit (the lull between infantry and tanks, or between mech inf. and modern armor), go heavy on the footsloggers and artillery, and concentrate on killing lots of AI units while losing very few of your own. Basically, a war of atrition that you will win handily.... while waiting for that superior offensive unit to come around.

-Arrian

[jshelr]

Sound advice from all concerned.

One more thing. Depending on what you want to accomplish and your relative troop strength, it's a good idea to bribe for alliances. For one thing, once other civs are locked onto your side, your target civ can't bargain to bring them in against you. For another, you can sometimes pounce, get that strategic resource you need, and then sit back while other civs pound on each other. The game is set up to favour defense, with the exception of windows of opportunity when you have a tech edge bringing you new fast troops. So, use diplomacy to avoid depending solely on firepower.

[Velociryx]

The single biggest and best thing you can do when faced with an enemy who wants to go a few rounds with you is to play terrain games.

Regardless of your situation, you KNOW (at least in general terms, and wise is the player who knows in *specific* terms) where your enemy is, you KNOW where he'll be coming from, and you KNOW what cities you have that are prime targets thanks to their proximity.

If your enemy is significantly stronger in terms of total combat units available, then defending at the city gates is touch and go (this, due to the simplified nature of combat in the game, which puts an undue emphasis on QUANTITY of units, rather than their quality), and generally NOT a good idea, even with city defense bonuses, therefore, the next best thing is to use every trick in the terrain-lover's handbook to make it work to your favor.

Fortify thorny bits of terrain, preferably ones that force your opponent to attack you from the far side of a river. Camp out there with the best defenders you've got, and keep them (the forts) staffed!).

When facing superior numbers, make use of your own terrain as a staging area and killing ground, as has been mentioned. You can do this, even with a significantly smaller army if you have built a good Military Road Network. Your best defenders holed up on terrain that is *entirely* favorable to you, backed up by your attack-troops killing the bad guys as they flail around hopelessly in your territory (while your troops move like greased lightning in comparison), will deliver a one-two punch that'll knock out an army several times larger than your own force.

-=Vel=-

[Theseus]

Vel Tzu

[Barfus]

good suggestions. however, i have found that 3-6 mod armor WILL NOT do the trick against a city full of mech inf. as a matter of fact, i saved my gamne and attacked to see what would happen. i, as well as the ai (india) have total railroad coverage, so movement is very quick. i had every inch of terrain fortified by mech infantry that shares border with india. grand total of mech inf on the border and in cities is 300+. i had about 89 modern armor or something like that, and basically wasnt able to take more than one or two cities first turn. and i even did it the sneaky way: beginning of turn create a RoP with them, move in for free, then start attacking with bombers arty and armor. i even have spies to tell me there troops amounts and so forth. those mech inf just dont give up. in any event, the war bogged down to my mechs creating a funnel of my allies troops into india, which is decimated quite well now, but it wasnt the way i wanted to win. almost every stinking one of my units was defeated, the modern armor that is. 89 units blasted by mech inf holding cities. crazy.....

btw, ALL my mech inf fortified at the border are fortified in fortresses, and yes...that took FOOOORRREEEVVVEEERRR to do.

[Barfus]

addendum to last post

im thinking the best way might be to lay some sort of impenetrable piece of bait in the center of their empire, and let them keep hitting it until they kill a good chunk of their armies, then begin my assault.

[Tim_Hobbit]

My last game I had a lot of success with modern armor against mechinfantry! Then it was supported by several stacks of 50+ radar artillery and the about half the modern armor was in the 14 (4 unit) Armies I was fielding at the time. It was a fun modern age!