Tweet
Hi everyone,
These are my ideas on the use of naval power throught the different eras in Civ 3. I thought i might let the community, espically those with expirence writing strategy threads like Vel, to take a look at them and throw in any ideas or comments they might have.
1. In the ancient era and during most of the middle ages naval power is only really suited for two tasks, exploration and expansion.
This is simply because during the ancient era every civilization is racing to acquire as much land as possible, and investestment in naval reasources merely subtracts from the reasources you could be putting into settlers to build more cities, into buildings to make your cites more valuable, and into land uints that could be used to protect and expand your empire. However what naval units can do during this time is allow you to expand to additional areas if your hemmed in by other civs or if you are isolated on a single island/continent. In addition naval units will allow you to explore and find any additional civs thus enabling you to trade and acquire technologies quicker. Finally naval power in this period will enable you to find and and secure reasources and luxuries that may not be available on the landmass that you initially begin on.
2. During the the late Middle Ages onward naval power comes into its owned as a force to be reckoned with. Naval Bombardment can make a signifigant difference in land battles, offensive naval units allow the control of the sea lanes between continents, and perhaps most importantly naval units can interupt the flow of trade and reasources through blockades. This last ability is perhaps the most important ability of naval forces in this era. By blockading an enemy you manage to not only limit their unit selection by restricting their strategic reasources but you also decrease the total efficiency of their empire. This is because every luxury that your opponent imports allows him to devote people and income towards productive work and reasearch that would otherwise be engaged in the production of luxuries. This, incidentaly, is why the privateer is so valuable even though it has such weak military stats, you can signifiagantly weaken another civilization without ever going to war with them. Off the top of my head I cant think of another way that you can limit another civs unit production options, reasearch speed, and income without starting a war.
3. The modern era is when the ability to blockade is finally made obsolete. This is because of three developments that render square to square naval forces less important. These developments are
a. Naval Avaition
b. Airports
c. Precision bombing
Naval Aviation, and Aviation in general allows you to reach farther inland and bombard improvements that are out of the range of regular naval units, thus limiting an enemy civs access to a reasources without the iniation of a blockade. Furthermore arial bombardment, if continued long enough will allow you to undue centuries of improvements on a civilization's countryside.
If an enemy is able to maintain air superiority, then a naval blockade might seem to be the logical solution to your problem, however this is no longer feasible in the late industrial and modern eras because of the airport. Airports allow civilizations to avoid naval blockade by simply flying the reasources. This is quite a signifigant problem and in my option the best counter to it is presented in the modern era, namely precision bombing. Precision bombing allows you to take out trade facillitating improvements such as the naval port and air port. By eliminating these facilities you eliminate the need for a blockade, simply because you opponent will be unable to conduct any shipping with areas it is not connected to by land routes.
On a side note I think blockades are only worthwhile if you are either unable or unwilling to directly attack and conquer the cities of an opposing civ. By taking the cities you permenantly expand your empire while decreasing theirs, which is much better then decreasing their efficiency temporarily. Blockades are also a good idea when the other civs have more culture then you and any cities that you take/found would be retaken through cultural.
On a final note naval power can provide the ultimate fall back in the modern era in MP. Humans players are much more sneaky then AI is capable of being at this point, and it is entirely possible that they might start a nuclear war and destray all your counter nuking abilities with a massive first strike before you begin your turn. Even if this happens, Naval power provides the ultimate insurance policty! ICBMs cost 500 shields and are immobile, forcing them to remain in cities making them easy to destroy if the other human player/s attempt a nuclear first strike against you. Tactical Nukes are not only much cheaper (300 shields each and 140 shields for every nuclear sub, saving you a total of 260 shields per 2 useable nukes built) but are also mobile. While ICBMS cannot be hidden, you can hide nuclear subs on any accessible water tile on the entire planet, making it entirely possible to retain the ability to completely obliterate your opponent if they ever decide to innitate a nuclear war against you.
These are my ideas on the use of naval power throught the different eras in Civ 3. I thought i might let the community, espically those with expirence writing strategy threads like Vel, to take a look at them and throw in any ideas or comments they might have.
1. In the ancient era and during most of the middle ages naval power is only really suited for two tasks, exploration and expansion.
This is simply because during the ancient era every civilization is racing to acquire as much land as possible, and investestment in naval reasources merely subtracts from the reasources you could be putting into settlers to build more cities, into buildings to make your cites more valuable, and into land uints that could be used to protect and expand your empire. However what naval units can do during this time is allow you to expand to additional areas if your hemmed in by other civs or if you are isolated on a single island/continent. In addition naval units will allow you to explore and find any additional civs thus enabling you to trade and acquire technologies quicker. Finally naval power in this period will enable you to find and and secure reasources and luxuries that may not be available on the landmass that you initially begin on.
2. During the the late Middle Ages onward naval power comes into its owned as a force to be reckoned with. Naval Bombardment can make a signifigant difference in land battles, offensive naval units allow the control of the sea lanes between continents, and perhaps most importantly naval units can interupt the flow of trade and reasources through blockades. This last ability is perhaps the most important ability of naval forces in this era. By blockading an enemy you manage to not only limit their unit selection by restricting their strategic reasources but you also decrease the total efficiency of their empire. This is because every luxury that your opponent imports allows him to devote people and income towards productive work and reasearch that would otherwise be engaged in the production of luxuries. This, incidentaly, is why the privateer is so valuable even though it has such weak military stats, you can signifiagantly weaken another civilization without ever going to war with them. Off the top of my head I cant think of another way that you can limit another civs unit production options, reasearch speed, and income without starting a war.
3. The modern era is when the ability to blockade is finally made obsolete. This is because of three developments that render square to square naval forces less important. These developments are
a. Naval Avaition
b. Airports
c. Precision bombing
Naval Aviation, and Aviation in general allows you to reach farther inland and bombard improvements that are out of the range of regular naval units, thus limiting an enemy civs access to a reasources without the iniation of a blockade. Furthermore arial bombardment, if continued long enough will allow you to undue centuries of improvements on a civilization's countryside.
If an enemy is able to maintain air superiority, then a naval blockade might seem to be the logical solution to your problem, however this is no longer feasible in the late industrial and modern eras because of the airport. Airports allow civilizations to avoid naval blockade by simply flying the reasources. This is quite a signifigant problem and in my option the best counter to it is presented in the modern era, namely precision bombing. Precision bombing allows you to take out trade facillitating improvements such as the naval port and air port. By eliminating these facilities you eliminate the need for a blockade, simply because you opponent will be unable to conduct any shipping with areas it is not connected to by land routes.
On a side note I think blockades are only worthwhile if you are either unable or unwilling to directly attack and conquer the cities of an opposing civ. By taking the cities you permenantly expand your empire while decreasing theirs, which is much better then decreasing their efficiency temporarily. Blockades are also a good idea when the other civs have more culture then you and any cities that you take/found would be retaken through cultural.
On a final note naval power can provide the ultimate fall back in the modern era in MP. Humans players are much more sneaky then AI is capable of being at this point, and it is entirely possible that they might start a nuclear war and destray all your counter nuking abilities with a massive first strike before you begin your turn. Even if this happens, Naval power provides the ultimate insurance policty! ICBMs cost 500 shields and are immobile, forcing them to remain in cities making them easy to destroy if the other human player/s attempt a nuclear first strike against you. Tactical Nukes are not only much cheaper (300 shields each and 140 shields for every nuclear sub, saving you a total of 260 shields per 2 useable nukes built) but are also mobile. While ICBMS cannot be hidden, you can hide nuclear subs on any accessible water tile on the entire planet, making it entirely possible to retain the ability to completely obliterate your opponent if they ever decide to innitate a nuclear war against you.
.
Comment