coastal rail artillery

bigvic · October 28, 2002, 16:12

here's a nifty little ai busting trick i like to pull......

industrial age, got railways all over my now island continent, want to rest comfortably but harried from time to time by enemy ships.....what to do?

set aside 3-5+ artillery and an infantry to guard them, and then dare any stupid ai to stop his/her ships within 2 tiles of your coast. suprising how often it happens. then, after a good old fashioned pounding, rush out that sub or destroyer, or hell, burn off a few of those antique ironclads or frigatres you just hate to disband, and enjoy the show!

all hail the coastal rail artilerry! hoozah!

dac · October 28, 2002, 16:53

Actually, this is where I like cruise missiles. Use the coastal artillery to knock the offending ship down to 1 HP, then drop a cruise missile on it. Much easier and more cost effective than keeping a spare ship around in every port.

ChrisiusMaximus · October 28, 2002, 20:45

I will definitely give this a try, sounds great.

bbaws · October 29, 2002, 16:08

There isn't any absolute need to destroy enemy ships in your waters. Obviously troop carriers and aircraft carriers are well worth a cruise missile. Anything else I just pound into the red, the AI will always (as far as I have seen) hightail it home for repairs. Cruise missiles are pretty expensive if you stop to think about it. They cost as much to maintain as any other unit but you can only use them to destroy one other unit maximum. Seems odd to begrudge the upkeep of a coastguard but to blithely pay the same upkeep for cruise missiles?

Inverse Icarus · October 29, 2002, 16:16

humans may not hightail it home bbaws

TO THE LAST MAN STANDING

dac · October 29, 2002, 16:40

bbaws, True, cruise missiles cost the same upkeep per unit but if I have 20 ports, I may have to keep a ship in each port, making for 20 ships I'm paying upkeep for. And, if the computer sends an escort and a transport, just one ship might not cut it. Whereas, if I have 5 Cruise missiles on a rail system, they can defend any of my 20 ports for 1/4 the cost, and I've rarely seen a stack of more than 5 ships sneak up on me.

Yes, the AI will hightail it home, repair, and come back. I want to make the AI pay the shields to create another ship, so I've cost the AI time and shields, rather than just time.

vmxa1 · October 29, 2002, 17:21

Usually you can have just a few ships as the AI will tend to use the same path all the time. If they change up, you can get by with arty to drive them off or bombers until a ship can be relocated. Tru it is better to sink them.

bbaws · October 30, 2002, 03:53

Thanks vxma1. That was my next point. The ships also come in very handy when the time comes to punish the AI for its transgressions.
Is it really better to sink them? The AI seems to have targets for how many of each type of unit it should have. Not destroying his units gives the AI more production slots to build infrastructure (or frequently just wealth) which you can steal and/or con him out of when the peace comes. Destroying units means the shields are gone forever.
Given a stack of five or more naval units I'd argue for destroying any transport units but simply damaging offensive units. Further I wouldn't damage them all on the same turn. Thus if and when they come back they will return in a staggered wave.
Naval choke points are best policed with a combination of arty, navy and cruise IMHO. Just a question of style and unit availability though.

vmxa1 · October 30, 2002, 04:51

Well I guess it depends on how the game is playing out. If you are under a bit of pressure, I would say sink them. If you are just playing with them, do what ever you like. The problem with trying to sink only transports is how do you do that. I mean unless it is unescorted you will need to defeat the guards before you can attack it. You can bombard each one in the group, but not sink, unless you have a mod to allow leathal bombardment. I always figure that any unit I kill, hurts them a little. My only exception to the transports is, when I know the units they land are not a real threat. In that case a may let them land (shinking as they leave) so I can try to get a leader from whacking them.

Tattila the Hun · October 30, 2002, 09:04

I've noticed, that if I pound batleship to red, the accompanying transport is suddenly the best defender, thus enebling me to sink it with nearby ship, or with any luck, cruise missile.

bbaws · October 30, 2002, 16:10

Tattilla saved me the typing.