My attack plans...

[PrinceBimz]

Ok, I have a fairly interesting game going on right now on the Regent level. If you look at this screenshot, Russia is brown. I am the small orange nation just above them. Currently in the game it is 1280AD. Don't remember the date but several turns ago prior to the current date above, Russia was moving troops within my territory. I had warned them several times to withdraw their troops, many of times they did not. This went on for a while and after one time I warned them, they declared war. We were both similar sized nations and alot of our levels were nearly equal. This war lasted for a short period, maybe like 15 turns or more. We were going back and forth and there was not necessarily anyone winning it. I did feel they had a slight advantage over me though. I felt in the long run I could not keep up with them in economy and resources. Which in turn made me believe my nation could not fight a long term war, I just could not afford it. So I ran to the diplomacy screen and negociated a cease fire, it worked.

Now several years had went by and it is 1280AD. Russia has made a small demand for something they wanted. I gave them what they asked for, but I did not like it. I did not like their threat towards my nation Furthermore my nation is becoming resource hungry. Russia has valueble natural resources that I need. I am payng too much for iron, horses and some luxuries to be imported when Russia has many of these on their land. Time has come to start planning for a full scale offensive.

Preparations have begun... I have ordered three of my cities near the border to start production on barracks, walls, and military units. In the city York, just north of Odessa I have build up a strong army of knights and pikemen. I could get muskets if Greece will give me a good deal on saltpeter overseas. Needless to say Greece has been hardheaded with giving me a good deal on that saltpeter. I will keep trying though because I will need those muskets! York is where my main offensive is going to launch from. First target is the city south of York which is Odessa. I have been exercising espionage investigations every few turns into Odessa. They have a strong defense garrison there. It won't go down without a fight and this is not going to be easy.

As you can see from the screenshot, those are my attack plans. My army will assemble and launch from York. It will press on from there, hopefully capturing at least 2 of Russia's major cities. Once reinforcements arrive, I should be able to continue on, conquering Russia completely. As far as I know, Russia don't have any allies yet.

At last here I go and darn I hope this works as planned...

[Arrian]

It looks fairly strategically sound, but I'd say bring some settlers along so you can raze and rebuild their most cultured cities (Moscow for sure, unless it has a key wonder you want).

If things don't go your way quickly, beware the AI seeking alliances against you. If you bog down at all, I would recommend paying off Russia's NE neighbor (China?) to ally with you. They are fairly small and weak, thus their gains are likely to be small. If you bring in France or Germany, you run the risk of creating a monster.

Good luck.

-Arrian

[Bella Hella]

watch out for troops coming up from st. petersburg and attacking hastings. the AI has a special way of sending troops in from unexpected locations. make sure all your cities near russia are extremely well protected. also i'm not sure if building walls will make any difference in a city above size 6. you might want to check that out. i'd get an MPP with light pink (china?) and pink (france?) beforehand so russia will be attacked from all directions. also if you have bombarding units, use them. i like to harrass the AI into declaring war on me first, by having troops wander in their territory and offering them horrible deals. OH YEAH, and do you have any trade deals with russia? let them expire before going to war. you probably know all this, though. good luck!!!

[PrinceBimz]

Now this has been crazy...where do I start..hmmm...Ok, did not work as I planned. Well I managed to get the saltpeter from Rome overseas, but at a high price! Yeah they practically robbed me but I needed it. So first off I moved my armies into position and declared war. Investigated the target city just before the declaration and it appeared I should be able to take it. Well not only did half of my knights end up 90% damaged, the other half were attacked from the east and were destroyed. Did not take the city. So I started sending up reinforcements and retreated the damaged knights back to York.

The war carried on a little longer and omg did it get ugly! Off the western coast I spotted 2-3 russian ships heading north. I did not think russia had any naval ships, wrong they did! Then I realized where they were headed, it was to my city at far northwest corner. I never had hardly any defense there and another nearby city in the northeast was similar and lightly defended. I did not have time to send up troops and by the time I got there it was too late. The city was taken over. Then another ship appeared off coast of my northeast city, troops arrived too late and that one was taken over too.

What a mess this was. I never took a single russian city and lost two of my own that were level 6 or higher! A few turns later things started to go downhill on me and I was about to lose hastings. So I talked my way into a cease fire. In my mind it was a temporary cease fire for sure.

[PrinceBimz]

Wait not finished yet...

After turns, I was rebuilding many destroyed improvements and so was russia. Several turns went by then out of nowhere my city north of York, Yakutsk turned over to russia because of culture! I was really mad now! So I managed to buildup a line of musketmen on the boarder, it got fairly large and formed a wall across nearly the entire boarder. Maybe 8-10 muskets.

So a few turns after here comes a russian troop, slips by the ONLY open I have on this boarder. It was heading towards that city Yakutsk which turned on me. This was a musketman too and I did NOT want the reinforcing that city with this. So I block off all of the possible routes so that troop could not make it there. So it did not make it. I contacted russia nearl 3 times about moving troops into my boards and here they were doing it again. So I contacted France and signed a mutal protection pact.

Then I contacted russia (who had a mutal protection pact with france as well) just after this. I once again told them to get the freaking troops out of my territory. They said no and declared war. So I said...I am going to sit back and let them attack me first. They did and all hell broke lose. France declared war on russia.

I then immediately started moving all of my muskets into russia territory, swamping them. I pillaged every last improvement I could. This started to chop down the population in several of their cities. It slowed down their production tremedously. I then signed a trade embargo with Rome against russia, no more saltpeter for russia! In the middle of all of this I managed to take back all of my original cities. On the southern front, I watched and laughed as mighty france just trampled city after city. I was pillaging and france was conquering. Russia was falling...slowly but surely. Then I finally had them at my mercy...talk about felt good.

This game has a long way to go though, but russia is now down to 3 maybe 4 cities. France took many of them over and russia's biggest city is only like a size 6 now. So far, I am victorious, but mainly france was the conqueror here. I could not have done it alone. Anyway, my pillaging continues on...

[Tuberski]

Just looking at the overall map in the corner, you will be hard pressed to win this game.

[PrinceBimz]

LOL...yeah thats pretty obvious there with my tiny nation in the center. I know I am not going to win this one, not even close. I have been dead last on the score card the whole time since it started. I had hoped that all of russia would have belonged to me by now, but its all part of france instead. At least russia has been given their punishment and is nearly no more. I need more land and may have to fight again for it. I need the resources in russia!

[Arrian]

You should probably have waited for Cavalry. Did Russia have musketmen? If so, it's no wonder your knights got slaughered. Cavalry would do a lot better. Additionally, you may have done better if you had waited a turn or two before attacking, after you declared war. Russia would probably attempt to attack you, moving their units onto your territory. You could then hit them with everything you had, hopefully killing most of their offensive force. That would really hamper their ability to counterattack once you starting taking cities.

I didn't want to say it but, yeah, you were in a pretty bad situation anyway. England is a tough civ to do well as... they are pretty weak.

-Arrian

[Bella Hella]

oh, dude, here's what you should do next time - pillage every single road leading to their capital. you may have heard about this strategy. you take some fast units (cheap horsies are good) and just ruthlessly destroy every single road leading in or out of their capital. i like to first do the roads directly next to the capital, then the next squares out to be thorough. first of all, this means that NO resources will get anywhere in their empire, even through trade. so no more modern units. they're stuck with what they have. second, NO luxuries anywhere in their empire. this means MASSIVE unhappiness and rioting. on top of war weariness, the AI is screwed. they're forced to turn everybody into an entertainer, which means food squares won't be worked. which means starvation. which means less people. which means less production. and so on. this is one of the most evil and satisfying ways to get revenge on a bastard neighbor. you HAVE to also make sure to bring bombarding units if they have a harbor or airport, in addition to taking out the roads. you must make sure your army is pretty good before attempting this, too.

it's a good idea to use out-of-date cavalry for pillaging (what else are you going to use them for?), and i also recommend tanks, which can attack twice in a single turn (double your pillaging pleasure).

just don't take their capital or they'll relocate it.

try this sometime - you won't be disappointed.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Bella Hella
... First of all, this means that NO resources will get anywhere in their empire, even through trade. so no more modern units. they're stuck with what they have. second, NO luxuries anywhere in their empire. ...

It is often stated that cutting off the capital means no resources, but it only cuts off TRADED resources.

Native resources can be used domestically if connected to the particular city by road/harbor/air.

[Catt]

Bella Hella - be careful with the "Capitol Isolation" tactic - it can be very powerful in certain circumstances, but less powerful in others. It actually does not prevent the distribution of resources within an empire -- it only prevents trading for resources from another civ. If a foe has a rubber resource somewhere in his territory, pillaging roads to the capitol will deny the capitol use of the rubber, but will not deny any other enemy city the use of the rubber so long as some sort of connection exists to the rubber (road, harbors, airports, etc.) On the other hand, if the foe is importing its rubber, the isolation will deny the benefits of imported rubber to all cities.

The Capitol Isolation tactic can work wonders when an enemy of large cities depends on imported luxuries to keep its citizens happy.

Catt

EDIT: Jaybe beat me to it!

[Jaybe]

... but Catt expounded so much better!

[PrinceBimz]

Oh guys I forgot to mention a MAJOR and I mean MAJOR thing that happened to me. Those cities that I said were taking during the start of the war by russia from naval invasions...guess what? Well they were my ONLY and I mean ONLY way I was getting all my luxury resources from over seas. You see, it all comes down to those cities were the only ones I had which were connected to germany's nearby coastal city. I was using germany's harbor in their city for my overseas trading. When those cities were captured by russia it cutoff my ability to trade with every last nation but china and russia. This is what I get for not building at least one harbor in my nation...oops...LOL major mistake there. I did not figure out what had happened to several turns later. Then I realised why every one of my cities were rioting and this was at 80% entertainment!! One of the worst things that had ever happened to me. My nation had really relied on luxuries, then next thing ZERO, none at all coming in.

[Catt]

Originally posted by PrinceBimz
You see, it all comes down to those cities were the only ones I had which were connected to germany's nearby coastal city. I was using germany's harbor in their city for my overseas trading. When those cities were captured by russia it cutoff my ability to trade with every last nation but china and russia. This is what I get for not building at least one harbor in my nation...oops...LOL major mistake there. I did not figure out what had happened to several turns later. Then I realised why every one of my cities were rioting and this was at 80% entertainment!! One of the worst things that had ever happened to me. My nation had really relied on luxuries, then next thing ZERO, none at all coming in.

Well, at least you got to see firsthand the effects a successfully-employed Capitol Isolation tactic can have on a civ that depends on foreign luxuries for citizen contentedness.

Catt

[Kingof the Apes]

Looking at your map, I would suggest you be more agressive in the early game; pump settlers, get your core cities out, and do a archer/ horseman push. You should not let yourself be that small, you will be begging for luxuries and resources the entire game.