Anyone else think that airships show up way too early? With no air defense they are invincible at sea.

this has ben said many time before.....

this has ben said many time before.....

sorry, geez

there are some mods that push them to combustion.

there are some mods that push them to combustion.

well, that would be better

Dont see the issue of Airships....by the time you have build sufficent numbers of them to actually do some real damage, your opponent will have invented flight and has some fighters...

Also, the hammers wasted on airships could have been spend on cannons who atleast deal collateral damage. Airships only deal a little amount of damage to one unit. While annoying that there is no counter, I hardly loose sleep over them, even if my stack gets hit by 10+ of them, which rarely happens.

Airships are good for scouting, lil else :D

there are some mods that push them to combustion.

well, that would be better

But rather unrealistic.

I recently finished an Earth game where I was Washington, and Hannibal landed in north South-America, where he had 6 AirShips, and I had a carrier with planes in it. What pissed me off was that the planes on my carrier never intercepted the AirShips when they attacked. To me this is unlikely ballon vs air plane ...hrmmmm

To me AirShips should be like Tatical nukes, they have only one striking opportunity.

... To me AirShips should be like Tatical nukes, they have only one striking opportunity.

Oh, the humanity.

the planes on my carrier never intercepted the AirShips when they attacked.
You didn't have one of your fighters on intercept duty, did you?

DID YOU?!?!?!? :mad:


:D

You didn't have one of your fighters on intercept duty, did you?

DID YOU?!?!?!? :mad:


:D

:lol:
Seems like a Longbowman or any gunpowder unit should be able to defend against airships, they're just a big ol' bag of gas lol

<Pop!>
<Airship Pilot: "Dang.">

:lol:
Seems like a Longbowman or any gunpowder unit should be able to defend against airships, they're just a big ol' bag of gas lol

<Pop!>
<Airship Pilot: "Dang.">

Archers with flaming arrows. :D

Airships weren't really as flimsy as all that. Their skins were strong enough to resist the rifle bullets of the day, they contained multiple gasbags within a rigid frame, and even when punctured they took several hours to lose lifting power due to the low pressures involved. The hydrogen was obviously a problem if they were facing AA or enemy aircraft with incendiary rounds, true. A WWII aircraft could obviously take them out without much trouble...which is why they weren't generally used in areas where enemy aircraft were operating.

The most important thing to consider in our history is that they were more or less invincible at sea during their era. Their most successful use was against U-boat wolfpacks preying on shipping. Even at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, not a single ship was lost under an airship escort.

Of course, they were never very effective bombers, since maintaining a safe altitude versus AA emplacements meant your accuracy was for crap, and damage remained low. But up until the latter days of WWI, they retained a tremendous psychological power simply because they had no easy counter.

In a Civ context, I think they're represented pretty well. They're a fairly expensive low-level irritant which excels at recon and harassing ships close to the homeland and becomes obsolete as soon as fixed-wing aircraft appear on the battlefield.

Hmm. I guess they're not so bad after all. Thanks man!

("Airships weren't really as flimsy as all that.")

(Clears throat politely)
That was a JOKE lol

I've been able to use them to some success, but on lower levels.

The most important thing to consider in our history is that they were more or less invincible at sea during their era. Their most successful use was against U-boat wolfpacks preying on shipping. Even at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, not a single ship was lost under an airship escort.


ROFL who cares? They can be as invincible as they like floating up in the air at sea, doesn't mean any ships at all were vulnerable to an airship attack! How exactly does an airship damage a destroyer, empty it's chamber pot on their unfortunate heads? Did they used to go around dealing out 18% damage to rifle divisions lol? Why don't you just admit the airship is a crap and ridiculous unit, that used in reasonable numbers can do quite stupid amounts of damage for no rational reason at all. Glad I deleted that stupidity from the game, I recommend it to everyone!

there are some mods that push them to combustion.well, that would be betterBut rather unrealistic.
Wow Catan_Settler... you don't know much about airships, propulsion systems or history to make a statement like that.

Exactly what kind of engine do you think propels an airship through the sky? Steam? Nuclear? Or do you think Airships have no engines at all? Then of-course, they'd be balloons, not airships or zeppelins.

Pushing Airships to require physics + combustion is about the only logical thing one can do... and it's the most realistic thing too!

Then of-course, they'd be balloons, not airships or zeppelins.
Aw, now I want balloons as well!

After a lot of playing, I've decided that airship really don't do much. On offence, you can use them to weaken a single tough defender like a machine gun... but you can do that with seige anyway. And to defend against them, just keep a medic 3 warlord around. He'll heal the damage away instantly, so you don't even notice it.

Aw, now I want balloons as well!

Great Scientists - the Montgolfier Brothers! :D

Yeah! Let's have balloons as well as airships, we can load Bowmen and Crossbowmen on them and have war in the air in the middle ages!

Zeppelins bombed the English seaports to reasonable effect for nearly all of WWI - they bombed London too, and would have become much more powerful and sophisticated except the German High Command acquiesced to the nascent Luftwaffe in it's concentration on airplane R&D.

In BTS you have a window of not-too-long to build and exploit the airship. I don't think it's overpowered or anachronistic.

Course, that's just me.

Zeppelins bombed the English seaports to reasonable effect for nearly all of WWI - they bombed London too, and would have become much more powerful and sophisticated except the German High Command acquiesced to the nascent Luftwaffe in it's concentration on airplane R&D.


Well the Luftwaffe was right, the future was in heavier-than-air aircraft anyway. I highly doubt even much more advanced airships would do so well against the WW2 fighters, let alone modern jets. Not to mention people complain about 10-12 hour flights; they'd go into air rage on 2 or 3 day flights.

But I do agree airships had value at one time and serve their purpose in the game.

Historical accuracy, the lynchpin of this game, isn't always the prettiest. Let's respect and honor what our forefathers may have done, and go on into the twenty-first century as ourselves, shall we?
Just my thoughts... ;)

("Airships weren't really as flimsy as all that.")

(Clears throat politely)
That was a JOKE lol

Until incendiary ammo came into use you could shoot holes in a zeppelin without hurting it much. Also, I believe they could fly higher than early fighters. They were excellent scouts, but lousy bombers (except as someone said for psychological effect), and the idea of them accurately hitting ships at sea is absurd.

well, that would be better

If you don't want to use a mod you can edit the setting in the file Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Units\CIV4UnitInfos.xml . I would advise though that you don't edit the original file and instead copy it to your My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\xml\units folder. Open the copied file in notepad and search for Airship. Once you've found the unit change <PrereqTech>TECH_PHYSICS</PrereqTech> to <PrereqTech>TECH_COMBUSTION</PrereqTech>

Will work for all single player unmodded games.

If you don't want to use a mod you can edit the setting in the file Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Assets\XML\Units\CIV4UnitInfos.xml . I would advise though that you don't edit the original file and instead copy it to your My Documents\My Games\Beyond the Sword\CustomAssets\xml\units folder. Open the copied file in notepad and search for Airship. Once you've found the unit change <PrereqTech>TECH_PHYSICS</PrereqTech> to <PrereqTech>TECH_COMBUSTION</PrereqTech>

Will work for all single player unmodded games.

Thank you Gravity. I was beginning to think I couldn't get no relief.


Another suggestion to limit airships to a more historical role: Break their upgrade path. Are my zeppelin crews really all going to become fighter pilots? If airships were a dead end, it would naturally be less efficient to build an un-historical armada of them.