Master of Stealth Demonstration

In some topic it was stated that newbies are having a hard time, because they often get destroyed by high ranked players and those don't want to share their tactics.
So in this topic I will demonstrate how I use my main strategy, Master of Stealth. It might take a while till you are able to play it the way I do, mainly because of all the upgrades I have, but you also might catch some tips. Also, I will try to explain how my opponents could have avoided what came over them.

I didn't come up with this idea until late into the casual game I'll now be using as a demonstration. So there's no screenshots of the beginning, which often is the most crucial part for MoS users. Just try to not lose too many marines to neutrals. Keep in mind that it's likely that two marines won't overcome three neutral militia, even two marines vs two militia aren't a given win. Expand with the help of your general and infantry at the beginning, go for the high income countries first. And for all of their cities. Don't jump from cap to cap, you won't get much out of that.
So in this game, I had some trouble in the beginning. Mainly due to me having no reinforcements when joining in round one, but with a lot of luck I managed to overcome everyone else that was joining in Europe.

Heres the situation of the start of round 24, when I was beginning to take screenshots:



When I finally managed to unite Europe, there was some guy sitting in Nigeria, expanding up north, green had full control over the Mid East and there were still two low levels fighting each other in Russia.
So there I was, having no direct enemy. The most obvious choice would have been to go for Asia, as a united Eurasia is close to unbeatable in this kind of game. But I decided to go for all of them, as that is more fun and a better demonstration for you of what potential lies in the MoS strategy.

There are some things to notice in the first screenshot:
First, I walled ALL my cities. The ones in Scandinavia, Northern Africa, the Balkans, every city in every country. Later on you will notice why I did that and hopefully always do so too.
Second, I quickly went for the African and Russian guys. People sitting in Africa tend to not expect an attack from a European power and are therefore not prepared. Also, the guys in Russia were fighting each other, so I only had to pick up the pieces.
Third, theres already marines in America. See that little red dot in Canada? I send them over in round 19, when I still didn't have full control over Europe and there are more of them crossing the ocean with every reinforcement round.
It's important that you send them over very early, even if you are still fighting in Europe. It will take an awfull lot of time to prepare a decisive attack on the Americas. Even more so because orange is a level 9 player. It will have to be carefully prepared. Also keep in mind, that he could have placed sentries in the Atlantic. So never take the direct route, either go far north or far south.

Next screen I zoomed in on the Mid Eastern battle. I was only having a small scale war there, as most of my money went into subs and marines destined for America and that Nigerian guy. But he didn't even get close to as much money as I did, so that was alright. Notice how I used many little stacks, rather than a single big one. Marines are very fragile and once your opponent discovers your stack they are dead for sure.
Also, while some stacks attack, two others already move ahead to Afghanistan. Besides that, there were marines closing in from North onto his capital, skipping Kazakhstan so that he feels more comfortable about his Northern flank and doesn't expect an attack from there.



Fast forward to round thirty:



I dominated green out of the map, only to now be in a full scale war with Asia, who's also had the whole of Oceania and already was landing in Qatar and Somalia. Also, notice Morocco. Some rounds before orange actually did to me what I was about to do to him. He was trying to attack France, Spain and the UK all at the same time. But, having walled all of my cities, it took him a turn to get past them. My chance to reinforce.
For such occasions I usually keep two transports in Hamburg, for they can easily bring reinforcements to London and Paris. Also, one plane in Vienna and Milan and another transport on the Western coast of Italy, to reinforce Paris and Madrid. Such small scale stealth invasions never end good, when your opponent is prepared for anything. If you go in, go in with a boom- as I will do.

I will now zoom in on the diffrent scenarios I was having at that time.

My struggle in Asia:



When defeating green, I already had Pakistan and India. But with the massive production rate Asia offers, black quickly pushed me out of there. I didn't want to confront him directly, as such a fight only drags on endlessly. So once again, I was only having a small scale war with him, defending here and there (26 infantry in Kabul), while my marines were leaking into his territory. I don't exactly know why he didn't wall all of his cities, as black is a rather good player, but yea well, he just didn't. But he had many infantry in his country capitals anyways, so that still wouldn't be easy at all.

Africa:



Pretty much a low scale war once again. I was only sending as many marines as I really needed. There wasn't much money left, after defending Europe from an invasion, fighting and leaking into Asia and also, filling up more subs for America.
Notice the attack in Congo, always do such stuff prior to the reinforcement round. Also, taking Somalia black entered Africa too. Took me pretty long to throw him out again.

And America:



Here you can see that it payed off to send marines as early as possible. They marched the whole way from East to West coast and were now sitting in the forests, having barbecue, waiting for the strike. It's really important that you are patient for this. I send them in round 19, now it was round 30 and the attack still was some rounds away. The last marines only arrived on the East coast and were now to be placed in attacking positions.

Now, let's focus on my attack on America. This is the next round, 31:



What you see here is the toggled view range. You can do that below your mini map, just click on the little button there and you will be able to see this. Notice the green ring? It indicates invisibility detection. So, when theres only little space, toggle this option and place your marines exactly so that the green ring doesn't touch any enemy units. This way you can operate as close to your enemies units as possible without him noticing.
I of course had to do this to get to Washington. Notice how he didn't wall it and also, left it unprotected. But why did he do that, when he's rank 9? He should know better?
Well, heres what he saw: I was having two wars, in Africa and Asia. Africa was looking good for me, but he must have thought that it was still a money draw. And Asia, well, only fighting a low scale war there, black was pushing me back pretty good. He was landing around Saudi Arabia, pushed me out of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan and marching towards Iran. Also, orange himself invaded Europe and even manged to take Spain. So, it's safe to say that he felt pretty comfortable about his situation. I was being sandwiched and on top of that complained to him about my bad money situation.
Another thing: the 0 defense in Washington is temping to only attack it with only a single marine. But my experience told me that there could very well be some stealthed units inside too. And indeed, there were 2 subs and 4 marines or so. Luckily, I attacked with more than 1 unit.

Let's skip to the next round.



Round 32. 13 rounds after the first subs left Europe, I'm finally ready to attack. Everything is set, everything is ready. I'm covering nearly every city in North America with my attacks, dismanteling their walls. Not to take all of them at once the next turn, no. Theres by far not enough marines in the US to do so, I only did that so that he would have to assume I could and would attack all of them. This way I could focus on his capitals, while he would also reinforce the peripheral cities. So what he would do was force dissociation, while I was about to do some force concentration onto his capitals. In Germany, we call that Schwerpunkt. I love that.
For example, I'm only tearing down the walls around Los Angeles and San Diego. Theres no units standing by to take them over the next round. He will still feel the need to reinforce.

What I would have done in his position: I'd have sacrificed states that were not so important to me. I would have focused on holding the East coast, as that is easily reinforced by Europe. It's by far easier to hold only one part of the country and then retake the West coast. After all, I was still struggeling in Asia and there were no more subs coming from Europe, as orange himself was invading there.
This attack had to be a success.

So, this is how it went:



Manged to take US Atlantic, instantly reinforced it with infantry. Then I went for my Schwerpunkte and send all troops standing by into his capitals, leaving out Los Angeles.

Next round:



As you can see it all went pretty well. The next thing I do is instantly move my marines out of all cities. Doesn't matter where to, maybe close to your next target. But for now I want to see what he does the next round. Also, marines are a terrible defense. He actually managed to retake New York with 30 Militia vs my 25 Marines, 2 Subs and 8 Militia.
From there on, it was pretty much a low scale war once again. He would retake some of his states, then I'd take them back, and so on. The game isn't even over yet and I still didn't manage to take all of the US, but he never recovered from that blow and it's a nice SP gain. So let's focus on other things. What was going on in Asia all the time?

He was moving rather slowly onto Europe. Frankly I didn't have very much money to fight him back, so I only focused on the defense. Went pretty good, as he was only standing in Iraq after all the time that passed. It's all about slowing your opponent down. Make walls, walls everywhere. Let him move into your territory, give him the feeling he actually can win this. And then, repeat what you did to America.

Here we go:



This time the caps are walled, except for Korea. The peripheral cities are free to take and so I'm doing that this time. Notice how I attack his cities, defended by 8 militia, with 7 marines. I do that to make sure they actually overtake the cities. As it's not a given, that 6 marines can overcome 8 militia. It's likely, not more.

This is how it went:



What you want to do is instantly wall all the cities. Next round, the reinforcement round, you will build massive loads of marines there. They will need to be covered by walls. Also, I directly go for Japan for that cuts a huge part of his income.

The result:



I didn't manage to take it all, but then there was reinforcement rounds and I was able to pour out a shit ton of marines.
So in the end, this is how the world looks like in round 39:


From now on I pretty much won the game. My unit count only rose, while Americas and Asias was cut by 100 every round. Before my invasion, they had ~1000 and ~1200 units, now only a few rounds later, they were left with ~500. And that is how you play MoS. You pull the enemy into your territory, you lure them into believing they have the upper hand. They will become careless. And then the careless die.

Last screenshot, round 44. Isn't that beautiful?



So, as you can see, Master of Stealth is a very potent strategy when it comes to big maps. But it isn't as easy as it might have come across now. There are many things which can go wrong. Always watch your enemy and how he's moving his troops. If you are leaking into his territory and your marines randomly end up next to some of his units, which he was about to move to your borders, the whole thing is fucked. The most important thing is patience. Be patient with your attacks and you will be able to take over the whole world in a mere 20 rounds.

These were seemingly terrible players, also MoS is 100% reliant on the fact you have the upgrades to make it decent.

The fact that they might have been bad players doesn't change alot for the purpose of this thread. It's a guideline.

This feels SO GOOD.

Afterwind needs more AARs like in Paradox games--After-Action Reports!
SO BLOODY GOOD.

Also,
>defeating most of Asia as Europe/Africa (and Africa tends to have a small role!)
Yep, this just proves that this strategy fucking rules even in its current nerfed state when you know how to play it/are learster.

Very good thread and well described. You might have revealed too many of your tricks learster lol. Keep up the great playing

What are upgrades that you would recommend?

Faster Marines, 20700 SP.
Expendable Marines, 21600 SP. (cheaper)
Submarine capacity, 15300 SP.
Faster Submarines, 8100 SP.
Sentry plane, 360 SP. (stealth detection)
General: defense, 45 SP.
General: Infantry attack, 5850 SP. (early game expansion)

Thanks YOBA and TopHats.

I like this, now I can figure out how to place my marines where the enemy won't see em.

YGMG (Young Generation Music Group)

Escrito por Deray YG, 04.12.2011 at 13:05

I like this, now I can figure out how to place my marines where the enemy won't see em.

Just have in mind that those circles showed in learster's SSs are from his units view range and stealth detection, not from his enemy. Actually, the default stealth detection on cities is way worse than that, which will give you even more space to plan attacks.

Really?
YGMG (Young Generation Music Group)

Yeah marines have extra detection radius.

I don't mean to be a pain but, what are the most essential upgrades, I can't afford much right now, and I don't have much play time, could you please tell me?

Escrito por Tunmannen, 04.12.2011 at 17:28

I don't mean to be a pain but, what are the most essential upgrades, I can't afford much right now, and I don't have much play time, could you please tell me?

• Ability to purchase Militia, most essential. Particularly useful in creating defence lines, though fairly useless if playing Iron Fist.
  
• [Ship] Transport Capacity
  
• Air Transport Capacity, most essential for playing my favourite strategy which is Sky Menace.
  
• Guerilla Warfare if you want to play Africa games. It's also a very good strategy overall. Note that purchasing Militia is allowed when playing this strategy if you haven't bought the upgrade.
  
• Marines, though using them effectively is difficult and takes quite a bit of practice.

Escrito por YOBA, 04.12.2011 at 18:15

Escrito por Tunmannen, 04.12.2011 at 17:28

I don't mean to be a pain but, what are the most essential upgrades, I can't afford much right now, and I don't have much play time, could you please tell me?

• Ability to purchase Militia, most essential. Particularly useful in creating defence lines, though fairly useless if playing Iron Fist.
  
• [Ship] Transport Capacity
  
• Air Transport Capacity, most essential for playing my favourite strategy which is Sky Menace.
  
• Guerilla Warfare if you want to play Africa games. It's also a very good strategy overall. Note that purchasing Militia is allowed when playing this strategy if you haven't bought the upgrade.
  
• Marines, though using them effectively is difficult and takes quite a bit of practice.

I think he wants to know which ones are most important of learster's list for MoS

Escrito por Runway1R, 04.12.2011 at 19:59

Escrito por YOBA, 04.12.2011 at 18:15

Escrito por Tunmannen, 04.12.2011 at 17:28

I don't mean to be a pain but, what are the most essential upgrades, I can't afford much right now, and I don't have much play time, could you please tell me?

• Ability to purchase Militia, most essential. Particularly useful in creating defence lines, though fairly useless if playing Iron Fist.
  
• [Ship] Transport Capacity
  
• Air Transport Capacity, most essential for playing my favourite strategy which is Sky Menace.
  
• Guerilla Warfare if you want to play Africa games. It's also a very good strategy overall. Note that purchasing Militia is allowed when playing this strategy if you haven't bought the upgrade.
  
• Marines, though using them effectively is difficult and takes quite a bit of practice.

I think he wants to know which ones are most important of learster's list for MoS

That would be correct.

That would be faster and expendable marines.

Indo used this exact strategy on one of my allies in a casual game Im playing. Suddenly, Im scared of indo.. D:

We got learstered. :c

This was used on me too...... 1 question though. How does europe make 300 units in 5 turns? it doesn't mave the income or popultion for that.

YGMG (Young Generation Music Group)

Escrito por Deray YG, 08.12.2011 at 14:43

This was used on me too...... 1 question though. How does europe make 300 units in 5 turns? it doesn't mave the income or popultion for that.

YGMG (Young Generation Music Group)

Im pretty sure europe has the production for that, but Im not sure about funds. Maybe they were being funded by someone else.

Escrito por Runway1R, 08.12.2011 at 14:49

Im pretty sure europe has the production for that, but Im not sure about funds. Maybe they were being funded by someone else.

I don't think it does. Everytime I play as europe the units I can create is 215 or somewhere close to that.

YGMG (Young Generation Music Group)

We need more people like Learster oh and can you use GW instead of MoS and still do this? or will it fail epicly?

You don't get extra range, capacity and discount on subs, marines also have less range and attack. Defending is harder. I didn't try it yet with GW, but it sure doesn't sound close to as effective as it is with MoS.

I just realized... I was in that game.

I wanted to respond to the people asking about GW, GW subbing is very possible however I haven't done it since the nerf (you used to want to generate as much militia where you hit, but they are kind of garbage now so whatever)

recently I've been using imperialist to sub, It's quite nice since you can make a bomber stack for cheap to go with it and use your inland production with coastal. (also later game you have about 10k+ money no matter what. P.S this is completely reliant on upgrades as well)

I must find a way to counter this.

Escrito por Runway1R, 12.12.2011 at 20:21

I must find a way to counter this.

if you were in that Casual game, what country were you? oh and best way to counter this is spam Sentrys

Escrito por FaLLenXH3R0ESx, 12.12.2011 at 20:48

Escrito por Runway1R, 12.12.2011 at 20:21

I must find a way to counter this.

if you were in that Casual game, what country were you? oh and best way to counter this is spam Sentrys

It was pick two total elimination. Great lakes was my cap, russia central was my other country. I got pummeled in america and later, learster killed me in russia.

Also question Learster, who was America and Asia?

Escrito por FaLLenXH3R0ESx, 12.12.2011 at 20:48

Escrito por Runway1R, 12.12.2011 at 20:21

I must find a way to counter this.

if you were in that Casual game, what country were you? oh and best way to counter this is spam Sentrys

Not really, just auto build in your main backup capitals and it will be way more effective and also cheaper. Another thing: pay attention to walls being broken, so if you still have reinforcements in nearby cities, just send them to the potential targets.

I did dis. 75 turn game, i did it on turn 75, just to show them I could. I controlled Europe, Northern Africa, and Asia, one of them had north america, the other had south. Most of the war was fought in the pacific, while I expanded into europe and they didnt notice. But then I "learstered" him at the end of the game, and he totally wasnt expecting it. I only lost in Montreal, Washington, and Charlotte, but those were easily taken the next turn, but his nearest backup was in LA, with his cap in chigago.