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Heliodorus
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Colorado
Nov 2001
time: 22:16
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There are many ways to fight effectively, but I finally found a good use for extremely outdated units (warriors, bowmen, and especially the hordes of Legionaries that I have lying around in the industrial era as I play the Romans). Maybe others have noticed it, too, but if no one has yet taken credit for it, then I'd like to call it Heliodorus' Tank-Fishing.
In ages where your tanks are fighting enemy tanks, you may encounter some noteworthy difficulties with your lack of mobility in your enemy's territory, and his extreme mobility defending in it. The enemy AI can visciously counterattack vulnerable wounded units, or nearby cities in your own Civ. Tank-fishing is a modestly successful decoying tactic that can be used to lure the enemy's strongest attacking units into vulnerable positions, thus limiting their effectiveness in protecting themselves or attacking you.
It is based around my observation that the enemy likes to fight first in places where he is likely to win a combat engagement. The enemy AI seems extremely concerned with his own force protection, and with reducing your total number of units, especially offensive units.
The enemy will target tanks that are damaged, cavalry stacked alone, and other potent offensive weapons that defend poorly. The AI will also attempt first to destroy them in his territory, and then in no-man's land, and then possibly within a square or two of his border within your territory.
In experimenting, I kept several longbowmen and legionaries around into the tank age - austencibly to use against older AI swordsmen and such when I encountered them, rather than using tanks to dispatch them (and I also use older units as garrisons on occasion - plus I have a general problem disbanding my loyal legionaries, even if they are virtually worthless - they are the Roman UU after all).
What I noticed was that the AI visciously targeted these older units BEFORE he targeted my tanks (but not wounded tanks, which were always highest priority, seemingly, for the AI). Often the AI would move one of HIS tanks to engage one of my bowmen or legions. Using this prioritization against the AI, I started leaving a good number of these obsolete units near the rear of my attacking forces, especially near my border (either one square away, or in no man's land), and especially near places where artillery would be able to engage the square after the AI attacked it.
By doing this, I lured strong enemy AI units (always tanks, it seemed, never bombers or cruise missiles, which he had) out of positions that suited him, and into positions that suited me. He squandered his mobility in his own territory to attack far away from my lead element (far being a relative term), and he granted me mobility to counterattack by moving into or close to areas where I gained railroad benefits to counterattack.
I invariably lost my obsolete unit (I don't seem to get those screwy combat results some mention), but the enemy tank was left without movement capabilities to withdraw, and on the following turn, my reserve tanks, or tanks moving toward the front, would eliminate the enemy tank and continue on it's way (often I would soften it up first with artillery, which is slow on the offensive in enemy territory: MOD NOTE - Self-Propelled Arty, movement 2, requires oil, rubber). Also, this preserved the momentum of my offensive force, keeping them from being harassed by enemy tanks.
Note that damaged offensive tanks still are a priority for the enemy AI, and one should protect them (and all tank stacks) with Infantry or better yet Mechanized Infantry. But if the AI is faced with a choice of attacking a strong defender and a weak one, it seems to always favor the weak one.
I see a negative to this being the financial waste of keeping obsolete units in one's pool. Personally, that wasn't too much of an issue for me, as I never had all that many (30-40 obsolete legions and bowmen, and a warrior or three). I hope you find this useful in your late-game tank wars!
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21-12-2001 00:05
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