Tactics in Island type maps

[rul3]

On tougher
I've tried a few tactics but the most effective is to rule the sea with subs.....very effective against crossing land units...back it up wiith a carrier and you're the master..

Any other ideas??

[tetley]

I've built Coastal Fortresses behind Docks and the AI loves to waste away his ships on them. If a Bomb Ketch comes along, I've got Frigates garrisoned in the Dock waiting. Then I get Versailles and duke it out Artillery vs. Ships. Artillery wins cause they heal. Then with all my ships garrisoned the AI gets cocky and thinks he can stage D-Day. Wrong.

Eventually if I don't get a Wonder victory I have to stage a D-Day of my own, which I learned should be on the SIDE of his island--not the middle. A nice nuke for backup really helps. If I can grab just one city, usually that starts the Wonder timer. If worse comes to worse, I grab the Civic Super-Tech, which will give an instant Wonder victory (however you do it).

Also if you're somehow able to rid all his Docks, you rule the map.

[Out4Blood]

Sub packs work great - when you have 6-7 of them they take out anything only receiving at most 1 shot in return. 1-2 carriers behind them does indeed make you invincible.

The trick is usually getting to this stage - 've posted my strats for sea maps in the "winning on toughest" thread

[Lord Sun Ce]

Yeah, I posted a thread about carriers a while back. Carriers are, by far, the most versatile sae unit. They can attack every thing, even subs. Even against destroyers (which are AA), if you swarm with four carriers, those AA ships are toast, even if you do lose most of your planes. And here's a trick- select 5 carriers; then, press Ctrl+F- you'll select all fighters in all of the carriers, so you don't have to use that annoying mission button (i hate that about the air units). This way, you'll be able to destroy entire cities that are nearby. Of course, I agree whole-heartedly about subs- they rule! No. 1 reason I race for Modern Age.

[Azrikam]

I recently played a game on the "British Isles" map (I think), and I just got sick of building up navies only to have them crushed by huge groups of enemy boats. After a few such occurrences, I abandoned the sea and stopped building boats. The enemy AI (on Moderate), just left me alone, provided I didn't go too near the coast. (they didn't even attack my docks) I proceed to launch a ground-only invasion. Not only did I save resources by not upgrading any naval units, I saved the hassle of micromanaging naval battles. When a swarm of boats showed up, I'd just move some artillery in to dispose of them.

I'm not sure why the AI didn't bring in bomb ketches. I guess by the time they had advanced enough, it was too late for them.

The only problem was bringing my army across the channel, but some well placed artillery managed to cover them long enough to get across with minimal casualties.

[Signa]

That won't work on open ocean battles, like East V West.

[nihilocrat]

I'm usually too lazy to make a navy except on Atlantic Sea Power and other heavily navy-oriented maps. When that's the case, I usually just make equal amounts of heavy and light ships with an infinite queue, get the Porcelain tower (makes you build ships faster) and make sure to secure the citrus rare resource (healing for ships) which can be assisted by getting the Porcelain tower (get all rare resources in your territory).

The light ships are usually able to take care of fireships and transports while the heavy ships duke it out with the big guys. There's nothing special here, it's usually just mass tactics. Depending on whether I've got bomb ketches or not, I field only a small ground force of heavy inf/archers with a general and supply wagon, usually only to capture and hold cities rather than do any real fighting.

Bomb Ketches can be really fun, compared to a bombard they do more damage and have a greater range, while having the same cost. Also keep in mind that Bomb Ketches can't be rushed by light or heavy cavalry, and unless they don't have ample escorts, are generally much more durable, faster, and don't require set-up time. The catch is, of course, that they can only bombard coastal cities and probably have a lower rate of fire because ground artillery can be supported by supply wagons to increase the ROF. The coastal cities problem isn't very much of a problem on maps like Warring States or other archipelago maps, especially smaller ones. So in other words, if you have a strong navy, bomb ketches kick ass.

[Skanky Burns]

If you can blockade the enemy's dock before they have started producing ships, then you will rule the seas. I built 3 heavy, 3 light ships, sat them outside the enemy dock and no enemy ship saw the light of day for the rest of that game. Of course, there was not too much water, and the enemy only had a relatively small portion of coast, but they did not even try to build a second dock to produce more ships.

[trickey]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
If you can blockade the enemy's dock before they have started producing ships, then you will rule the seas. I built 3 heavy, 3 light ships, sat them outside the enemy dock and no enemy ship saw the light of day for the rest of that game. Of course, there was not too much water, and the enemy only had a relatively small portion of coast, but they did not even try to build a second dock to produce more ships.

Does this actually stop them from building ships? Or do you just mean that your ships were able to destroy anything that poped out?

[Skanky Burns]

I'm not 100% sure. I think it just killed any ships they built before it did too much damage to mine. My ships would then repair by themselves ready for the next ship to pop out.

That or the computer gave up. I wasn't paying much attention to their docks after my sucessful blockade.

[ShaKeZula]

lol....

Dude, a moderate human being will make a rally point for his ships to come tino the dock for garrisoning so it isnt killed by ships that may be lurking outside.

That strategy is totaly pointless unless you can quickly destroy the dock.

[trickey]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
I'm not 100% sure. I think it just killed any ships they built before it did too much damage to mine. My ships would then repair by themselves ready for the next ship to pop out.

That or the computer gave up. I wasn't paying much attention to their docks after my sucessful blockade.

K, thanks Skanky.