Intensely Annoying AI Navies

[Jason]

Isn't bombardment just the pits? Even feeble AI navies can run around your coast blowing up your precious improvements. If you play an islands map with narrow isthmuses, the AI's demolition forces can occasionally sever very important railway links at unfortunate times.

I'm used to not having to worry too much about navies, since the AI couldn't coordinate navies anyway and I kept my cities tolerably well garrisoned. Anyone developed good approaches to deal with swarms of low quality ships (Man-o-wars, ironclads especially) buzzing around the coast wrecking improvements?

I hate wasting effort on a navy. Are there "good value" ships to protect coasts with? Perhaps ironclads?

[Growler]

Naval war

Defensive:
bombard the AI ships with catapults/canons/artillery/ships
protect your own cities with ships in the nearby water squares
form blocking squadrons to control sections of ocean

Offensive:
destroy his ships
blockade his port cities
bombard his port cities until the harbors are destroyed

[Auwi]

Or you could try to not build too many costal cities.

[Dominator_Jones]

After a few failure's on regent level I quickly learned that in most situations it is imperitive to have naval superiority to the AI. Even though I had the most powerful army in the world I had neglected my navy and the AI was able to wipe out all my coastal resources and park aircraft carriers off my coast putting me quickly into a defensive and losing position. After dominating my coastlines the AI effectively was able to just plop down transports at will.

Since then I have built larger navies and the AI stopped with those tactics now that I can defend my coastline.

[Jason]

Or you could try to not build too many costal cities.

Oh no. Cities aren't the problem. It's bombarding terrain improvements that's giving me trouble. I've lost one temple to naval bombardment in my current game, after many, many, many tries.

[Harm]

No Navy eh...couldn't imagine not having a navy. I just swarm them with Battleships.

I would suggest building a navy =)

This game thrives on support units, much like real world strategies. When the US wages war right now, we don't just send in tank after tank in hopes of destroying the enemy. We bombard with our battleships, bombs, missiles and generally hit them with everything BUT the "tank" until they are all mostly half dead. Then we roll over them.

If you don't have Land, Air and Sea based forces your going to be much weaker than those that do.

Remember, this is NOT Civ2; adjust strategies accordingly.

[Dis]

yes build navies. especially if you are isolated on a continent and need to defend that continent or island (U.S. and U.K. being prime examples of this). They can be expensive compared to land units, but I feel they are worth it. If you are war with an adjacent neighbor on same continent I wouldn't bother with a navy. But in the other case I said, build ironclad until you get battleships.

like I said though, it all depends on your map and game situation

[Kc7mxo]

I love my battleship armadas. In one of my most recent game's i was using a fleet of 12 and a couple transport loads of marines to burn down every port city the ai had.

That'll stop them from building those invincible triremes!

bwah hah hah

[Monoriu]

Yes the only sure way in this situation is to build a navy, and a big one. Actually the AI don't build too many ships, they just use the same ships over and over again. If you keep sinking his ships, you'll find that he won't bother you as much in the future.

[kimmygibler]

My problem is that the ai sends swarms of boats to circle around my borders every turn. If they would just stop I could have finished a full game by now! The english built 3 caravels very early one game and sent them into a lake just outside my borders. Every turn they would circle around in this lake. They couldn't go anywhere but the ai kept these units the whole game. This is bad ai. Very bad and very annoying.

[Dom Pedro II]

History's a b****, ain't it?

Don't want to build a navy, eh? Fine. But then you will wind up like the Germans. All land and no sea = defeat. This has been true throughout history. ALMOST every single great war was one by a sea power. The main reason is that control of the sea means control of trade, and it also means that you can do things like... bombard cities and developed countryside. The AI is just using a little gunboat diplomacy. If you're not hip to the lessons of history, then you deserve to have your civ knocked out. It's a harsh lesson history teaches.

[napalm010]

Maybe that king was just protecting his favorite fishing spot. 3 units of caravells to protect it, sounds about right if I was the king. Damn its good to be king

[ranald]

Build a navy.

Bombardment works against ships, so keep some artillery
around to shoot up any intruding ships, and have a ship or
two of your own handy to sink 'em.

I tend to always have a few destroyers around. They sink
lousy stuff like galleys and caravels just as easily as
battleships, and take only around half the effort to build.

[karlmarx9001]

Make sure you have at least one artillery unit in every city. They're surprisingly useful, as they both improve land defense (free shot against attackers, bombarding approaching units) and sea defense. You can get away with a much smaller defensive-only navy than normal if you always soften up the opposition with land-based bombardment.

[Allemand]

You need a decent navy to finish off his ships, but airpower and artillery can bombard them down to one point. Makes the navy's job much easier.