So in the past one could bomb a tile to destroy improvements (particularly resource connections), but unless I'm mistaken, you can't bombard a tile with a resource, no?

Also, what's with spies? They can only target certain tiles, but can't destroy resource connections either?

Am I doing something wrong here?

honestly your best bet for removing access to resources is either to pay for the pillage with spy or when you are at war with someone.

usually what I do (taken from sisuistil's advice) is to split off a couple of 3 man stacks from your main army.

you want a spearman, axemen, and horse archer.. it can pillage the same turn it moves

you move over the tile in question.. the axemen and spearman have used up their move so cant do anything else. the horse has 1 move left.. there should be an icon at the bottom of the screen that looks like 2 axes crossed and on fire... click on that and you will pillage the tile in question.. the other 2 are just counter units to protect the horse.

it takes 2 pillages to get rid of the improvement and the road connecting it. cottages take a few pillages to get rid of, but in most situations you dont want to pillage them.

for parts of another person's empire that you think you cannot capture this campaign, send those stacks across the cities and pillage everything in sight. the ai or another player will rebuild but you will hurt them in the meantime. you must target copper, iron, coal, etc and go for happiness resources as well.

if you are sure you cant capture the city, go ahead and pillage the cottage. if you think you can take it, you are better off not pillaging the cottage because they take so long to mature.

for example.. a heavily farmed city you cannot capture.. wipe out its production tiles then its farms.

a cottage based town should be a primary target.
also whatever city is using its cultural borders to secure military based resources.

also.. if you are roughly at stalemate with an ai, going on a pillaging campaign will not only draw units away from your main army, but force them into asking for peace. if they will not give you tech as part of the deal then keep pillaging even if your army cannot capture more cities.. the few extra turns at war will still substantially damage their econ


hope that helps

NaZ

Right, but how does one 'pillage' by bombers? It appears you can only bomb tiles without resources, is this true?

Can't naval ships bombard anymore either? Seems they only can attack cities?

Also, how does one 'buy' espionage now? Right-click?

i hate to say I rarely use flying units in civ4 while I loved them in civ3 by the time I get them I'm either close to domination win or choosing to go space race. the spy's options should appear at the bottom of the screen like any units.

if you're in the modern era you should be striking with a pile of artillery and sam infantry.. or tanks if it gets that far. if you are going for a war based victory you will need to use stacks of ATLEAST 10 artillery and 10 sams.. preferably several stacks of that nature.

but I could be wrong.. like I said I dont really use flying units.

NaZ

For air attacks you have two choices...one is 'air strike', which attacks units on the chosen tile (and bombers cause collateral damage to stacks).

The other choice is 'air bombardment', which will bombard down city defenses (like a cat or cannon or artillery), or...if you select a non-city tile, it will destroy improvements (roads, mines, farms, pastures, etc). That is how you pillage with air units. Bombers seem to have a higher chance of success than fighters, but both can pillage improvements with the 'air bombardment' order.

A campaign of pillaging by air can be very effective if your opponent doesn't have proper and adequate defenses (fighters on intercept, SAM infantry, etc) in place.

This is why you will often see AI civs place SAM Infantry units on important resource tiles.

Naval units can bombard down city defenses, but cannot attack (or bombard) ground units on a land square. You need siege units or aircraft to bombard land units.