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 Post subject: Amphians. The forgotten unit.
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:55 am 
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Tough Nut

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I don't run into a lot of players who use amphibians. I've used them to good effect a number of times. Most recently, I used them to destroy an enemy battleship and prevent an enemy from capturing a Large territory in one move. He had a battleship harrassing my guerrillas. I managed to damage it down to 4HP with a guerrilla tower, but my tower was destroyed. I'm down to one LAV. I wanted to move it toward the coast to make it take longer for the enemy to get it, but the battleship was there. I built a naval transport and two amphibians, moved in and killed the battleship (after it damaged my transport). Then I landed the amphibians to help hold the territory longer even longer. Without reinforcements, my opponent may never capture this territory now.

In another case, I built amphibians thinking I'd need them for a naval battle, but I ended up using them to siege an enemy city/airbase and forced him to move his bombers further back.

I tend to build 1 naval Transport, 3 Amphibians and a land transport per one battleship. I build the amphibians and transports in rear areas and the battleships (or destroyers) further forward. That way, the amphibians and transports can catch up to the main fleet. Building destroyers in a rear area on a larger map is useless.

The 3 amphibians:1 Land transport:1 naval tranport ratio is necessary (as I discovered) because the land transport is the only way to get your amphibians through the woods should the need arise.

The point of this is that this serves an extremely flexible and manueverable force. It has a reach of 10 (6 move + 3 move + 1 range on sea and up to 15 (6 move + 5 move + 3 move + 1 range) on combined land and sea. This is NOT meant to go toe to toe with a similar force of less manueverable units. It is the MA equivalent of Marines or airbourne assaults....attack a weak expensive unit, then get out or assault an enemy weak point and hold it for just a turn or two until heavier units can reach it.

I'm about to use this tactic on New Paradise. I am fighting for the southwestern continent and I have that island in the very south western corner. I built an amphibian force as described above there and it is now moving toward a battle area where the enemy is bringing troops in from the north via naval transports. I can use my marines to attack his transports or land and attack the rear of his ground units. If I built any other kind of units, it would have taken too long to get to the battle and they would have been less flexible.

I think the best counter for this is large forces of cheaper units, particularly tanks (on land) and destroyers backed up by battleships at sea. But those have to be together and able to catch the marines...

Does anyone else use this tactic?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:05 am 
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Sea Wolf

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amphibs are a must for sea fights, they are the best units on the game for naval fights. They are very good a pushing the enemy back using the old naval transport links tactic. (have a naval transport back from the enemy with 4 amphibs on board, then build a lone naval transport near the enemy fleet but within 6 spaces of ur 1st naval transport, then the enemy has to either attack ur empty naval ransport letting u attack them 1st with ur amphibs or the enemy has to retreat.) These chains also don't show up using the shift button so can be very dangerous to an opponent who isn't careful enough.

I'm also trying using mainly amphibs on trinity is working quite well giving me a quick force that can ignore the problem of a very twisty sea passage.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:14 am 
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Developer

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Amphs are a must in any naval-intensive game and could be really helpfull in lot's of other circumstances. If someone doesn't account for them with his strategy then he is very vunerable for experienced player.
The match when both players do use them is another story... in this case you have to plan several turns ahead both tactically and strategically.
You usually need to be ready to sacrifice a lot every turn to maintain initiative and lure your opponent into a trap.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:47 pm 
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P.L. Marshal
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http://massiveassault.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=278
why make new theme if there is old one where it all throughly discussed

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:54 pm 
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Tough Nut

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I guess I must play "second tier" players (mostly Majors and Colonels) since I'm a Major. I haven't seen another player utilize amphibians combined with tranports yet.

The only time I used them in a major naval battle (10+ ships on each side) I lost. They don't serve that well as a battle line because destroyers can line up two deep and take more damage. I has forced to attack a line of destroyers backed up by a carrier and rocket launchers on the coasts so things went badly. But if I could have got around those destroyers (and I tried) I could have taken out his expensive rear units...


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:15 pm 
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Sea Wolf
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For front line use, they are totally useless. I use them as raiders, slip a transport carrying two or three amphs in behind the enemy line and start taking out naval transports, loaded or not, just to slow him down. Fun stuff.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:16 am 
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Tough Nut

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Enforcer wrote:
amphibs are a must for sea fights, they are the best units on the game for naval fights. They are very good a pushing the enemy back using the old naval transport links tactic.


Hehe...I just pulled this one off to kill an enemy BS. I've been leap frogging my amphibs and tanks through the southern continent on Anubis and I noticed my opponent had built a BS and a Naval Transport near the front. So I loaded a tranport with ground troops to make it look like it was going to carry them to a nearby battle and placed it just out of range of the battleship to lure it closer. I positioned a NT with amphibs in range of a second NT and that one in range of the one near the enemy BS. He moved it up to threaten my transport just as I had hoped. I dropped the ground troops off and then sprung my trap. I moved 3 amphibs 15 hexes to attack the BS. Unforunately, I only had 3 amphibs available (I had two others, but I need them to take down a RL in a nearby land battle) so the battleship will get a shot off and will destroy one amphib (it's damaged already). But then I'll still have enough to take out the transport if it doesn't bug out. By the time the smoke clears, I'll have two more battleships and a few more amphibs in the area so I think the sea belongs to me now...


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