I've just read a few threads today that mention the value and strength of fighters and bombers. I like bombers and fighters and think they have thier place in this game, but often feel like as though by the time I have a couple of them, the AI seems to have SAM infantry units which quickly eat up my bombers. I've therefore, had to rely more heavily on artillary, which I don't care for nearly as much, to reduce city defenses or cause collateral damange. I still use bombers to destroy improvements rather than risk sacrificing units to pillage, but then you're not getting the little bit of gold from pillaging when using bombers instead.

This made me wonder, am I waiting too long to get/build bombers? Maybe there is something in my strategy that is making them less effective for me. I don't ever bee-line to get the techs needed for bombers. Perhaps my mistake lies there.

What does everyone else think? Am I likely waiting too long, or just not using them properly? How much does everyone rely on bombers or artiliery? I'm playing on Noble. Not sure what else would be useful to judge my use of units here. I appreciate any feedback.

Sounds like your problem is your using just a few bombers.

You need overwhelming numbers of bombers. It's not uncommon for me to have a fleet of 10-15 bombers for attacking a specific city, with replacements being built to replace my loses from bombing missions.

SAM infantry seem to only intercept once each per turn, so basically you overwhelm them with numbers. And it's great because you don't have to worry about protecting your bombers like you do artillery because they always end the turn back in your cities/carriers/forts. It's also easy to switch targets with your fleet of bombers so long as it's in range. Losing a turn rebasing them sucks, but it's still easier then trying to move artillery in enemy lands 1 square at a time.

That said, if it's a coastal city with fighters and/or SAMs, I'll almost always bombard it with battleships/destroyers to reduce the defenses to 0% and then just use bombers to strike and soften up defenders. Helps reduce bomber loses/damages.

Yeah, zergling rush them. Use brute numbers. I almost never use bombers, I like artillery. :>

I find it is really a pain for the artillery to keep up with the tanks. My scientists didn't do all that research for thousands of years just so I could have the catapult/horse archer problem all over again!

Just build more artillery and don't worry about tanks. Promote them to CR2. You will lose a few attacking each city, but who cares. I will trade 2 or 3 artillery units for a city any day. After you lose the first 2-3 artillery, you will find yourself attacking with 80+% odds from there on out due to the fact that you just flattened all the remaining units with your first 2-3 artillery attacks. Tanks are pure overkill as city attackers as you should be attacking defensive units with 1 or 2 strength left by the time you are fininshed with your artillery barrage. Keep 4 or 5 accuracy artillery with your stack and bring the defenses down before you. Defensive infantry work just fine to mop up the cities and then to defend them after you take them. Tanks are more appropriate as a mobile counterattacking/defensive force in your homeland.

I like to use both. Artillery to take down city defenses, bombers/fighters for softening up defenders. And if you encounter a really tough city, you can attack with artillery too for extra punch.

i only use bombers to suport my stack which is usually heavy in tanks and artilery by that time

I agree. An overwhelming bomber fleet always does the trick for me. Even if my opponent has fighters and SAM, they can be overwhelmed. My bombers might take damage, but I just send them back home to heal and bring up fresh ones, since they are so mobile. Then the healed ones are ready to replace the new guys who took damage, etc. I keep a fleet of maybe 16 bombers, 8 of which might be healing at a time.
I do just the opposite of the earlier poster though. I send my bombers out to take down the defensed of my next target, while my artillery and infantry stack so slowly move into place.
Once, playing as the French, I even used musketeers to capture a city that my bomber fleet had undefensed and collateralized. Of course, they were CRIII musketeers...:p

I like bombers because they can more than keep up with tanks. Artillary is slow, slow, slow.

I also agree with the huge numbers theory. Lots and lots and lots of bombers.

bombers until mobile artillery if the game goes that far and a mix after.

bombers are the best lolz
tank + bombers is the best city take combo
who care if they even mass anti tank , just bomb them near dead first