Digital's Water levels Strategy page

Digital's Water Strategies

Digital's Water levels Strategy page Last updated 4/22/96

Intro to water levels.

Water levels are pretty much the same as land levels except you have some extra units and a lot more strategy. There are those people out there that won't play water levels. So far everyone I've seen that doesn't want to play a water map does so because they can't play them. They don't know how to play water levels. They suck at them. I have not met one person that is any good at water levels and does not like them.

If a person refuses to play a water level this tells me they suck at it. The only reason people don't want to play them is because they lose. What does this say about that person? It says they are only 1/2 a War 2 player. War 2 is land and Sea. You are no good if you can't win both. What these players who avoid Sea discover is if they actually learned how to play them, they would like them. Water is fun!

The first thing you should know about water levels is that you have to treat them as a land level with more units. New players have this stupid idea that no one will ever invade them. So players who would normally be pretty good on land, suck on water. They build nothing to defend their town. I once took one guy out with 1 ogre. That's it. Whole town destroyed with 1 ogre. You have to pump out the grunts to fight off early invasions. You can wait until Ogres, but that is risky. You also have to upgrade your men early. Get that blacksmith up and upgrade your guys.

These are the main plans on water levels:

Early grunt invasion. You find the enemy's island and invade them with about 6 level 2 or 3 Grunts. This often destroys the enemy or hurts them severely. Sometimes, the player that gets invaded is good enough to fight the invasion off.
All sea. This is really risky and not recommended. You will have lot's of ships but if someone invades you, you are dead. If you can prevent them from invading you, it works great.
Mostly land and a little sea. You go all land. You get out that shipyard late and only build a transport and maybe 1 jugg. The second you have enough guys, you invade. This is really risky. If your invasion fails, you are dead. The enemy's ships should prevent future invasions.
Land and Sea. You have troops on your island to invade or defend AND you have the Juggs and Destroyers. This is usually the safest plan. If the enemy went all ships, you take your guys and invade them. If they went all land, your ships should take care of them. With this plan you are able to adjust your strategy either way. if they went all ships, you invade them and get more ships. If they went all land, you fight off their invasion, get rid of the transports and clean up.
On high seas there is also the no ship, sapper through the rock plan and the foundry hop plan.

Here are your goals on a Ship level:

Keep the enemy on their island. If you can keep them there, their resources will run out. When the enemy's resources run out it will be just clean up time. This is usually what happens when good players play crappy ones on water. You just keep them on their island and they can't do anything against you. They are forced to defend. All they can do is try to get another shipyard which rarely happens or go for Gryphons which doesn't work either.

Just invade them and take them out. This is often hard to do so you just keep invading them until their resources run out or you win.

Prevent the enemy from getting a second mine. This is how I lose it. The enemy keeps me from getting a second mine so I run out of money and die. This is the same thing you do on land levels. You get out the recon and the second they try for another island, you invade it.

Ships.

Juggernaught/Battleship. This should be the main ship of your fleet. You use these guys for almost all your ship to ship fighting. This should be what you use to take out oil rigs, shipyards and foundrys. Often this is the only attack ship you make.

Always use Juggernaughts as your main attack force on sea. Don't start making Destroyers until you know someone is going for Gryphons/Dragons, if you want to kill transports or flying machines. What you do is keep 2 or more destroyers as back up for your Juggernaughts. If any Dragons attack your Juggs then run and bring forward your Destroyers to attack the Gryphons. Don't use your Destroyers as an attack force unless you really need them because they are so weak. I keep about 2+ destroyers out of the way of possible enemy fire. Then if someone attacks my Juggs with Gryphons, then I surprise them with 4 or more Destroyers.

Destroyers. The main use of the Destroyer is to kill transports. Nothing works better for killing transports than Destroyers. Just click attack with 2 Destroyers on a transport. Unless a Battleship takes out your destroyers, that transport is dead. Just fire and forget. Occasionally you can get a good shot with a Jugg but by far, Destroyers are the way to go because of their speed. The other main use for Destroyers is killing Dragons/Gryphons and flying machines. Sometimes they are good for scouting and for killing oil tankers because of their speed.

Destroyers are good against flyers, get a bunch of them, surround your island with these and when you get in trouble with flyers fall back to your ships and let them take them out. If you get in trouble with dragons/gryphons then fall back to your destroyers. What usually happens is people don't really know that destroyers are way tougher than gryphons so they attack your destroyers. Then you totally destroy them. My plan is to always trick the dragons into attacking something of mine, then I bring in my destroyers and totally waste them.

Destroyers are pretty worthless against anything but flying machines and Gryphons and transports. At level 5 they are a little better but I really would not try to attack other ships with them if I didn't have to. Don't try to take on a Juggernaught with a destroyer. It is almost impossible to win with a destroyer. 2-35 damages for the destroyer is nothing compared to 50-130 for a Juggernaught. Don't even try to take a Jugg with 2 Destroyers. It takes about 4 destroyers to 1 Jugg to do any damage.

Subs. Subs are rarely useful. Here are the only times you should build them: Say you invade the enemy early. This puts them behind so they can't upgrade to keep/stronghold. You have already upgraded to stronghold/keep. They still have some Juggs. So you whip out about 2-4 subs. Then go in and take the Juggs. The Juggs can still use attack ground but against 2-4 subs, it's hard to do. This happens really rarely in games. Probably about 10 games I've been in so far.

Subs work against people that don't know what to do. Sometimes you play those players on water that don't upgrade to keep/stronghold at all. So you whip out the subs and kill them. Subs are cheap and if they kill Juggs that are worth more, then they are worth it. You have to look at the cost.

Subs are occasionally good for a surprise. If you see the enemy has no flyers around maybe make a sub. Only rarely does this work.

Subs can't shoot at land targets but they can hit ship buildings and other ships. They are also vulnerable to ships if flyers are above. Subs suck, they are a loser's weapon. I take great joy in destroying them with my Juggernaughts then I say "Are they still so cool?" hahahaha They are good early in the game if you beat everyone to the Gnomish inventor.

Subs can't hit anything on land besides oil refineries, Shipyards and Foundrys. So feel free to repair those things, because there is nothing the enemy subs can do against that.

Subs are really just a toy. Anything you can do with subs, you can do better with Juggs because they do much more damage. I build probably 1 a month. Thats about 4 subs since I got the game :)

Use the Eye of Killrog to spot subs. It is very useful when your juggs are attacked by subs and you got no fliers around. (everybody makes mistakes) It takes a lot of time to make flyer go somewhere, especially in lagged games, but the eye of Killrog can get there fast.
Knight

Oil tankers. Oil tankers are good for more than just hauling oil. I send my first or second one out scouting. You find their shipyard so you know where to attack. If you find the shipyard, check if they have an oil rig. If not, place your oil tanker over the oil patch and steal it. This is often all you need to win the sea. If you find them on the island but not having a shipyard, steal both of their oil patches or just one if they have one. Thats some awesome stuff and it works great.

Don't forget that oil tankers make good scouts for shipyards and oil spots because of their speed. Destroyers make better scouts but early in the game, all you can afford is oil tankers.
Thanks to SnapDragon for the stealing oil thing.

Here are some sure signs some one is a newbie to the sea. So what I'm saying is never do the following things on sea levels:

Build cannon or guard towers by the sea. That is a soooo wrong to do. One tower can be killed in 2 shots of a Jugg.
Starting building towers by the sea when you are being attacked by a Jugg. That tower will go down in one hit and you will have lost money and a peasant. Instead build Catapults if you are being attacked by ships.
Attack Juggernaughts with Footman! Believe me many have tried it on me. Bunch of idiots. Footman CANNOT attack ships except transports.
Attack Juggernaughts With Arrowmen I have played about 20+ people that try to attack my Juggernaught with 1 or 2 archers. It seems so absolutely ludicrous to take on a Juggernaught with an archer. Why do people keep doing it? It just makes them look stupid and gives me a laugh. If you want to attack ships then use ballistas and blizzards. The only time it pays off is you have like a bunch, like in 6 upgraded archers and you have no other choice but to attack. This situation doesn't happen much.
Build a destroyer as your first ship with plans to attack the enemy. Do not do it! Destroyers cannot destroy any Juggs or ship buildings. They do 2-35 worth of damage. That equals NO damage at all. You can't kill an 1100 hit point shipyard with that. It would take like 10+ minutes. You can't destroy an oil rig with it. Oil rigs have 650 hit points. So what does that leave you to destroy? Nothing, that's right. You first attack ships should be Juggernaughts unless your plan is go use Destroyers to kill transports. One day I used 1 level 2 Juggernaught to take out 3 Destroyers. That is how weak destroyers are. Only use destroyers for attacking transports, Gryphons and flying machines. That is about all they are good for if you enemy has good naval forces.
Repair the shipyards, foundrys, oil refineries while they are being attacked. You will just lose your peasants and give the attacking player a big laugh, like me. The only time you do that is if your ship is about to pop out and your shipyard is about to be destroyed.
Repair buildings being hit by Juggs/Battleships when there is no way you can stop the Juggs. You are just eating up valuable resources. Just give the building up for dead and build another some where else. There is no way you can just keep repairing those buildings forever. Just let them go. This includes town halls! I see this everyday even from the good players. If they thought about it, they would realize they are being stupid. The only reason to repair something is if a guy is about to pop out. After the guys pops out, let the building be destroyed.
Builds subs as your main attack force. Subs are a losers weapons. They are so easy to kill. You don't even have to have a flying machine, to kill them. Just hit attack ground. No sub anymore, hahaha. It is occasionally good to make some subs if you think the player will not be able to kill them. If one sub kills a Juggernaught then it will be worth building. But It is only against the absolute worst players that subs pay off. Tou played a game vs a newbie and took out the newbies shipyard, foundry, oil refinery, 3 battleships and 2 destroyers with only one sub. That would of course not work against a player that had a clue how to play.
Build oil refinerys with no plans to go all ships. Oil refinerys are usually useless. Usually all you need is more oil tankers.
If you do get in huge ship battles where 6+ tankers don't give you enough oil. And you have like 3+ shipyards, THEN I think it is ok to whip out an oil refinery if you have enough money. It's only really good to build an oil refinery IF you are getting in huge ship battles where you have lot's of shipyards, say 2+ and you find 6 tankers won't cut it. Other then that, Oil Refinerys are pretty much useless.

When people do one of these things, it's almost always true that they don't have a clue what they are doing. This is usually my sign to play with them :)

Basic things to remember.

If you are surrounded by water or there is a lot of water you MUST dominate the seas. If you dominate the seas you can almost guarantee a win. There are some keys to owning the sea. You have to build a foundry and flying ships. If you have a flying ship above your ships you really don't have to worry about subs. You then have to start putting out those Battleships/Juggernaughts and build them up in the foundry. Destroy the oil rig, then foundry, then shipyard and any other buildings you can hit with your ships. Next invade. The enemy will be screwed. Especially if they are stuck on an island. If you can keep them on their island then they are limited to the resources on their island. Then they might go for dragons/gryphons which you have to counter with lots of destroyers powered up all the way, axemen powered up and death and decay, polymorph or death coil. If they are smart they will get some blizzard and try to rebuild their shipyard. What they usually do is build lots of towers and land forces.
Taking out the enemy's oil supply is SO important. I played a few games where the enemy couldn't upgrade even to stronghold/keep because of oil. They also couldn't make a blacksmith. They were stuck with level 1 grunts for defense. Does that sound scary to you? Well then do it to the enemy. I often try to take out the oil supply first. If the enemy doesn't watch their oil, then they can't upgrade to Stronghold or Fortress, or even build a blacksmith.
Upgrade Your Ships. Upgrade Your Guys In The Blacksmith! If some one starts making Gryphons then start upgrading your axemen too. Almost every game I win decisively is because no one upgrades their guys. WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? What do I have to do to convince everyone? I can't tell you how many times I've invaded with level 5 guys and the people only had level 1 guys. What is the point of even building knights or guys in general if you are not going to upgrade them? level 5 grunts can kill level 1 knights. Upgrade your ships and upgrade your men. From the second you build the blacksmith upgrade your guys! Same with the foundry! This alone will win you games. Do not upgrade your axemen unless you are going to have trouble with Gryphons. Then start upgrading them.
Make sure you get your barracks and blacksmith early. After ships of course. Because you must prevent invasions. But don't be like those idiots that build only land troops and 0 ships. Ships come first, but don't neglect the land forces. Ships alone can't usually win it for you. You can totally own the sea, but if one transport gets by with some Ogres, then that is all the enemy needs to win. You will be stuck with lot's of ships and nowhere to return to. Now I've seen that happen to other people and to myself. Don't let it happen to you.
You don't need to dominate the sea to win. Just transports. You enemy can survive the whole game with only transports. Seek out and destroy any transports. If you can't stop the transports then controlling the sea is not going to help you.
If you accidently build your shipyard no where near oil, build another shipyard rather than a refinery. Instead of building an oil refinery, so that your oil tankers won't have so far to go, build another shipyard. The shipyard only costs 100 more lumber than an oil refinery. Do you really need that +25 oil? A second shipyard can help you a lot. A refinery is next to useless.
You Can Repair Transports!!! Thats right you can repair transports. You just have them move up onto the shore and you tell your peasant to repair them! That is so cool. To repair the transport, hit R and click on the transport. Right clicking will not work.
( Special Thanks to Cpl Will & Btkicker for this! Visit their International Warcraft 2 League )
You must get flying machines as soon as possible in ship levels to protect against subs.
Cannon and Guard Towers suck for defense against Ships. If you don't believe me then listen to this: I ran some tests. I built 4 cannon towers. Then I attacked them with 3 level 5 Juggernaughts. ALL, thats right, ALL of the Juggernaughts survived while ALL of the cannon towers where destroyed! I can't tell you how many cannon towers I've destroyed with my juggernaughts. Out of maybe 70 more towers I've destroyed, I've only lost maybe 5-10 ship! Cannon towers blow. A level 5 Juggernaught can kill a cannon tower, for sure, in only two hits. If you have two Juggernaughts then that is instant death for the tower, often before it even hits anyone. Think of all the money and lumber you spent for that tower to lose it instantly in only two hits!
(550 Gold and 200 Lumber) + ( 1000 Gold 300 Lumber ) = ( A lot of waste to be killed in 2 hits!) Towers suck. Towers are absolutely worthless against ships! If you are down to having cannon towers to protect you from ships, then you have already lost. Unless you can get Blizzard or Death and Decay to drive the ships off.
Attack the foundry before attacking the shipyard simply because it has 350 less hit points than a shipyard. Especially if the foundry is still being built. The shipyard has 1100 hit points. The foundry only has 750. If it is still being built it has even less. You have much greater chance of quickly destroying the foundry then going for the shipyard. Also you want to get rid of the foundry before it is built so you don't have to worry about Transports, and Battleships. If that foundry has just been completed then chances are, if the player is any good, the next ship that pops out will be a battleship. If you only have one Juggernaught and it is your first one then you want to stay on the side of the foundry that is furthest from the shipyard. That way when that Battleship pops out, it won't be able to hit your juggernaught until it chases it. Then when you see that Battleship then run until you have another Jugg.
Do not build your Foundry next to your Shipyard. Instead, try to hide it elsewhere. That way when the enemy comes, they will think you do not have a foundry. If you can, put it on the opposite side of your island, as in the SPIRAL map. Also, people will attack your shipyard instead of the foundry. The foundry is only 750 hit points, and the shipyard is 1100! If they attack the shipyard, it will give you time to build a battleship. If they attack your foundry first, you will have a whole lot less time to make that battleship. Only 750 hit points worth of time, haha.
If someone beats you to Gnomish Inventor and attacks your Juggernaughts with subs then run! Hide any ships you have. If the sub attacks your shipyard then get a bunch of peons repairing it. They will not get attacked because subs can't shoot land targets. If you do see any enemy ships run! Don't let ships take out your peons. It's not worth it. Get upgraded to stronghold as soon as possible. Then when you have the stronghold get like 8 guys on making that Gnomish Inventor!!! This is crucial for your survival. Get out that zepplin and those subs will be toast against your Juggernaughts! You can also go for the attack ground plan. Find that plan on my control your guys page.

Ship Upgrades.

When I talk about ship upgrades, I mean what level your ship is. Level 1-5 which you upgrade in the foundry.

You don't really start seeing the power of being a level or two above other ships until you have more than one ship in a battle vs ships a level or two below you.. What I mean is if you have a level 2 ship and your enemy has a level 1 then you won't have that much of an advantage. I really would not attack a level 1 Jugg with a level 2 Jugg 1 on 1. Wait until you have two Juggs before you attack the level 1 jug. Then you will start to see the real power of being a level ahead. In a game, I had 5 level 5 Juggernaughts and I took on 5 level 4 Juggernaughts of the enemy. I only lost 1 Jugg! He lost all 5 of his! That is where the power is. The more Juggs you have, the more you will see that higher ship level pay off.

You don't have to upgrade your ships to level 5 every game. Most games I only go to level 3. 1 cannon upgrade and 1 defensive upgrade. If you get into games where you build lots of ships as in more than 4, that is when I go to level 4 and 5 ships. No need to upgrade your ships unless you plan on fighting a bunch of other ships. Level 3 is usually the minimum I go in most games.

Stealing Oil.

Thanks to SnapDragon, Stealing oil is now the thing to do :) If you can pull it off, it is often all you need to do to either win the sea, delay the enemy or keep them off the sea.

If you beat your opponent to the sea early enough. Build your first ship which should be a tanker. Set up your Oil rig and build a 2nd tanker. Send that tanker and use it to scout out the enemy. If you are not worried about losing your oil, send your first tanker out. Find their shipyard. Then check the oil spot by their shipyard. If they do not have a rig there yet, build one of your own. That way if they want oil, they will have to destroy your Oil rig first, THEN make one of their own. That takes a lot of time and often that is all the time you need to get ahead and take them off the sea. You don't have to build the rig. Just place a tanker on the spot and get your Jugg's over there. If they do manage to sink your jugg, or attack your tanker, then do throw up the oil rig.

For this to pay off, they have to build their shipyard by that oil spot. If they don't then there really isn't any point for you do that. I suggest you find the shipyard first. Then you know what oil spot to take.

This works great on Medium resources. They can only make 1 battleship. If you kill it, then they are out of the sea race. They won't be able to have enough oil to make any more Battleships. This doesn't work too good on High resources. But unless you are a newbie, you won't be playing high resources :)
( Thanks to SnapDragon, (Derek Kisman) for this )

What do I do if my shipyard is destroyed?

If you are a total loser you quit the game, hahaha. But you aren't losers so here is what you do:

If your shipyard has been destroyed, don't be like those idiots who just run around on the same island, and build another, that only works on really stupid people. Don't be those idiots who start building towers with nothing to protect them. Here is what you do:

If you have a transport left when your shipyard gets destroyed, send a peasant off and build a shipyard on another island if you can. Try to hide the shipyard and make sure it's near some oil. Before you let the enemy know you are back on the sea, get a huge naval force. Go in with like 4 or more Juggs.

If you don't have a transport, make a choice. Get a bunch of catapults and try to either save your shipyard or build a new shipyard on your island somewhere else, OR wait until you get Blizzard to rebuild the shipyard. For most players, the last choice is the best.

Choice 1, The catapult route. (not recommended).
For those of you that don't know how to control catapults vs Juggs pick the second Choice. Let me tell you that rarely do I see anyone pull off This one. Here it is: Start making catapults. Upgrade them if you can in the blacksmith. Only to level 2! Not level 3! Only idiots spend 4000 gold on catapults. The when you start to get attacked use the hit and run catapult strategy. Hit the ships then run for it. If the ships start getting closer to you then run. To hear more about this, check out my controlling your guys page. This choice is all about controlling the catapults. If you have never tried it before, you will have no chance. Catapults vs Juggs is an art. It's difficult to do even for the experienced players. Read the controlling your guys page for the whole story. Do not neglect the land forces. Don't build all catapults. Keep building land troops. I see people only build catapults. So I just invade and kill the catapults. Catapults are expensive so you better be ready to protect them. Keep using catapults until you can to get Blizzard and Death and Decay. only way you can ever truly protect your shipyard.

Choice 2, The Blizzard/D & D route. (recommended).
You quickly get up to Fortress/Castle and whip out the mages. Once you get them and Blizzard/D&D THEN rebuild your shipyard. Anyone that is stupid enough to attack the shipyard, blizzard them. This is the only way I've ever seen anyone get back on the sea successfully.

Hit and Run Strategies.

If you are a human player and you are having problems with Death Knights, then get at transport. You could make it invisible if you want. Place a few Paladins in it with Exorcism. Make sure you know where the enemy's Death Knights are with you flying machine. Pop out of the Transport. Run in Cast Exorcism. Then run back to the transport, get in and leave quick! Should work pretty good especially with an invisible Transport.
You can do the same thing with Mages and Gryphons. Put some mages in a Transport. Pop out, Cast Polymorph on the Gryphons/Dragons. Then quickly get back in the transport and run.
Use the hit and run deal with Mages. Put them in a transport, have them hop out. Cast a blizzard, then quickly get back into the transport and RUN! This works good. You can also use this with other troops. Pop out some knights kill some people then get back into the transport and run. That is soooo cool :)

Archers & Axethrowers.
Don't build any axemen/arrowmen at all until you are know someone is building Gryphons/Dragons or unless you wanna kill a flying machine.
Most water games I play, I never build any Axethrowers at all. For the Orcs, I think Axethrowers are really only good for killing flying machines and Gryphons. For the Humans, Archers work great for invasions if you know how to use them right. So far, I've only seen Gotcha use them right. But it is possible. The key is to protect them.
So, Like I said, I would only recommend making archers when the enemy makes Gryphons/Dragons. How will you know when you should start making them? When, using your flying machine, you see a Gryphon Avariary or Dragon Roost.
I always get the 300 300 axe/arrow upgrade whether I make Axethrowers or not. I use this as a preventative measure. 300 Gold and 300 Lumber is nothing. That is just pocket change. If the enemy does go for Dragons, you will already have that first upgrade, and you can for for the second one. When I see the Dragons, I get the 2 axe upgrades and the 1500 Berzerker training. That is all I get. If I were human, I would go for the 3000 +3 damage upgrade. The 1500 Berzerker/Ranger training is really good to get because of the extra 10 hit points that are added to your guys. That can help you a whole lot. Usually I only go for the 2000 Range, 1500 sight, and Regeneration if I got so much money, I can't spend it and are messing around. I would NOT go for any of those upgrades at all if you are having any money problems or unless you plan on making a bunch of archers.
If you are Orc, you really don't need any upgrades at all to fight Gryphons. I would say at least get the 300 300 upgrade. But you don't have to. See the Orcs have Bloodlust. Bloodlust all your Berzerkers. That's usually all you need to kill Gryphons. Just because you don't need it, doesn't mean don't get it. What happens is someone makes some Gryphons, I make Berzerkers and upgrade them. After I kill the Gryphons, I use them in invasions. No need to waste them. Bloodlusted Berzerkers! I'm proud to be Orc :)

Sea Deadly Sapper Strategy.
Just because it's a Sea level, doesn't mean you can't pull the sapper strategy. Feel free to make like 4 Alchemists. That way you can regularly send over boatloads of Sappers. It's lots of fun and is quite effective. Of course you don't have to settle for 4 Taco Bells, 10+ will do just fine :) Just make sure you don't lose a transport full of sappers. That would really suck.
Cool Strategy For The Humans. Get 6 Demolition Squads. Put them in a transport and then make it invisible! Then invade, sending them all in to wreak some major havoc. Most people can't do anything against 6 Demolition Squads running in. I usually can't. Make sure you invade in a safe spot, maybe a spot that is unexpected. This is a good way to break an enemy.
( Thanks to Frank Sander for this idea )
Here is a variation on the above strategy. Instead of unloading all 6 Demolition squads at a time, unload them one at a time. Then move the invisible transport to a different location so the enemy does not know where the next squad is coming from or if there will be any more. That way you can guide each Demolition squad in. It's a lot harder to guide in all six at a time.
( Thanks to Brian for this strategy. )

The move in Invasion.
Here is another really cool thing that we do now. Once you own the sea. Send a transport over with some peons. Build a barracks right on the enemy's shore. Try if possible to keep it hidden. Use your ships to protect the Barracks. The barracks has to be close enough to the shore that the Juggs can attack anyone attacking your barracks. After the barracks is completed, throw up some towers. If they are not at Castle/Fortress yet, make them a bunch of cannon towers. If they have a castle, make a few guard towers because last time, I made a bunch of Cannon towers and they got Gryphoned. DOH. You really do not want to do this if they have Mages with Blizzard. This is only good up till the point they get Mages.
Take look at this picture. Now you don't need that many Juggs, 3 or more will do. Notice the catapult and transport. I can catapult anyone attacking the towers. If anyone is dumb enough to attack the catapult, I put it back in the transport and the Juggs fire and kill them all. The peon is there to repair or build anything. I have the transport for him to run to and hide in. Notice that this whole thing is blizzard city. That is why you don't do this if they have Mages. You can build 1 barracks but I wouldn't build towers. This is only really good on less experienced people. It always works on people that don't expect it. This is really only good up until the fortress/castle stage of the enemy. You should have them killed a long time before they get the Fortress, Castle. This is the standard plan on Spiral. It works good on High seas too. This really doesn't work on Fierce Ocean.
If the person really sucks, you might be able to build your whole town on their island. Muzzy and I played some guys and we built our entire town on their island. I built my Ogre mound, Barracks like 4 Goblin Alchemists. I put up farms and everything. The guy never even noticed that I was living on his Island. Muzzy did it to the other guy Worse. He build like 10 Alchemists on the guys island and blew up his whole town. Because of this stuff, make sure no one is building on your island.

Hit and Run Invasion.
I came up with this plan. I'm sure probably other people have thought of it, but I have never seen anyone else do it but Gotcha and I. Here is the plan:
If you have control of the sea and you really can't invade or don't want to invade, here is the ultimate Dirty Trick. You get a load of six guys, Ogres, Axeman, Grunts, whatever, and put them in a transport. Put your Juggernaughts by the shore where you are going to land. Then unload your guys. Have your ogres attack the enemy or some building by the sea. Then, when they come to attack you, run back, and get in your transport! The Juggs will kill anyone that gets near the transport. When the enemy runs, and they will, hop right out of the transport and attack the building or the enemy's guys again. Repeat until you destroy the building, units, or until your opponent is so mad that they quit. if the enemy is smart, they will stop chasing you. But I play other people that keep chasing you :) This is so funny. I really enjoy it.
I did this against Vermeer. I had 3 level 2 Juggs. He had level 6 bloodlusted Ogres. I had just level 5 ogres, no bloodlust. So I would hop out and take a few hits on his blacksmith with just 6 Ogres, then run back to my transport. My juggs would kill any Bloodlusted Ogres that got close. This allowed me to destroy his blacksmith. After that I was able to stop his Ogre production. Then it was only a matter of time before I could get enough Ogres in to take out his bloodlusted Ogres. Another thing that helped out was I sent in two sappers and killed 5 farms. He built his farms in my favorite layout. The dreaded L formation. When I destroyed that, He lost his ability to make 15 guys. I then used another sapper to take out two farms. Two sappers taking the farms along with my dirty Transport trick broke him. That is why you should spread your farms out.
If someone does this to you then you should get a catapult to hit the transport, or guys attacking. What I really recommend is getting Blizzard/D&D. That is the only real way to stop this from going on. But usually the people that do this, me, are smart enough not to do this if you have Mages or Death Knights. haha. This strategy is usually just a clean up maneuver.
Juggernaught Support.
Use your Juggs as support for your invasions. Try to do your fighting by the shore, or lead the enemy to the shore. You Juggs will shoot at the enemy often helping you kill a whole lot of them. What I have seen work well is make a bunch of Archers and maybe a catapult. Then keep your archers and catapult by the transport and your Juggs. You can move your Archers inland to hit buildings that your ships can't. If anyone tries to attack the Archers, run back into the transport. Have the transport move off shore. The Juggs will fire at the enemy that tries to attack the transport. Then move the transport back and unload again. Repeat until the enemy dies or gets mad.

Misc. Water Strategies.
When you invade, don't go in with just one transport. You wouldn't send in only 6 guys on a land level. Send in 2+ transports. Why send in 6 guys vs a whole bunch of the enemy? Instead send in huge groups. D-Day man!
Playing sea levels, you sometimes know when the enemy's transport is coming. What you do if you can't get it with ships, is get sappers near the shoreline where the transport is going to unload. Then when it's near the shore click right mouse button on it and your sappers will sink the transport and whatever was on it.
( Thanks to Knight for this )
I find multiple shipyards are useful. I've never really built more than 3 at a time. As with barracks, only build multiple shipyards if you can support them. Do not build like 3 of them and only use one the whole time. That is just plain stupid.
I have a very practical use of flame shield. When an enemy transport is heading towards your shore, wait until it gets close then cast a flameshield on it. When it unloads it will do a large amount of damage to ALL the units it unloads. This can also work while your enemy is loading the transports but is much harder to implement.
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Collision
Kill any transport you see! Most people know this but there are a few people out there that don't. If you sink a transport with 6 guys in it, you will severely hurt them. Use 2 destroyers on a transport. They can't escape, hahaha.
Build a transport as soon as you can and hide it. That way if your shipyard goes down you can still get guys off your island. This worked really good against me, because I could not ever find or stop the other guy's transport.
Once the enemy gets Death and Decay, do not get anywhere near their shores unless you are sure all the Death Knights or Mages are dead, or you are sending in a transport.

Tricks

Here are some things you might try. They are not the most practical things to do or damaging but they are cool or funny.

A hasted Juggernaught is as fast as a transport. The haste does not make ships fire faster but It does make them move faster. So if you cast Haste on a Juggernaught, It is possible to chase a transport with a Jugg!!. Imagine the look on the enemy's face when their transport is being chased be a Jugg!
Make your own transport invisible and flameshielded. You can run it through the enemy blockades damaging all the ships including the subs. You suffer no damage as long as they don't use attack ground on it.
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Collision
About maybe 2 or so months ago, someone sent me email telling me to use Eye of Killrog to make ships shoot at themselves. Well I didn't think it would do any good till the other day. Marshall used his flying machine to get rid of a few of my ships. It sure didn't win him the game but it did kill some of my ships. Here is what you do. There must be enemy destroyers. The destroyers must be right next to other enemy Juggs or destroyers. You place the Eye or Flying Machine over the ship and all the other destroyers automatically fire at the flying machine or eye but the end up hitting the ship the flying machine is sitting over. If the enemy doesn't figure out what you are doing, then they might lose a ship or two and not even notice it. Now this isn't any trick that can win you the game but it can maybe kill a few ships.

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