Ok, finally moved up to emperor. I thought lets take it easy and take Huayna. Settled some good cities, found buddishm and got the other 2 on my continent to share my religion. Untill late there was still room to expand so I got a good core of 12 cities or something. Apparantly I blocked of Ramsess when he all of a sudden declares war on me. This guy was at friendly, damn you, but no worries I held him off. Sitting bull just looked at it and thought it was ok. Sitting bull became a little bigger then I was and had a power score of about 0,6. Ok scary so I started to crank out airships, cavalry and riflemen but with the intention to invade Ramsess. The pure insolence of attacking me, ME, MEEEEEEEE!!!! You will burn for that.

So I get my invasion force ready to invade Ramsess and when I declare war SB also declares on me. Somehow I missed the vassal message from Ramsess. Ok grrrr, this is going to be hard I thought. SB brought on 2 big stacks of doom to my land but at that time I had 16 air ships stationed in my 4 border cities and started bombing with these things right away. Airships have a way bigger range then I expected and I could almost hit both stacks with all airships. Now taking protective grenadiers down from 12 to 8,2 is damn fine and all of a sudden these things are cavalry food. Riflemen down to 9,2 or so is even cavalry food. I obliterated around 40-50 units from SB this way.

In the meanwhile I was invading Ramsess. Bombed away the culture with my siege and then I had 4 airships to attack the top defenders which made city conquest even easier.

In all my games I have never used this many airships. Maybe because the AI is more competitive at emperor, but damn I love these babies now. The way they can soften up stacks with the long range is incredible.

Any more thoughts on the subject?

When I played as Sid in PYL same start showdown, airship support was an integral part of my near constant tech-parity warfare. Cossacks were nothing to rifles once cut down by airships, and defending rifles were far less daunting for cannons. The nice thing about airships is that contemporary units can't even intercept them. Physics is a bit expensive, but worthwhile.

Too bad they can't bombard. They'd be too good then, eh?

well, when theyre being used against me by the AI, theyre only really targeting my few naval units randomly and are only a minor nuisance.

Bombers on the other hand made the lives of my troops miserable, I didn't even have flight yet. I was like attacking one of Huyana Capac's final cities on my continent, he would still live on some island's, there was this narrow stretch of land that was the only possible land route to that city, plains and grassland only. Then I just moved my infantry+arty+ tanks and stuff forward, but for every turn of movement I was pounded by some serious bomber armadas. It was so bad that the AI kept picking off my units with like pinch- cavalry every turn.

:D

They are solid units. Too bad the late game wars bog down to infuriatingly slow paces, otherwise I would love some warfare in the late era's.

Airships is what beelining to Physics worth it imho, not the free GS..
From the moment you can build them, keep on spamming... untill all your cities have 4 stationed.

A tip that might be enlightening to you : if you have a vassal, you can station any number of air units in their cities. In my last game, I had a vassal in the heart of my enemy's land and had 40 bombers stationed there..
Bombers & Cavalry made short work of his infantry...

Late game wars can be sped up by quick attack animations but I find it very hard to select my next unit in my SOD with that :p Right now I am looking at 1860 and I have tanks invading SB territories defended by riflemen and grenadiers. Damn protective is hard to beat then, even with siege and airships and CRIII tanks. I am going to finish this game even if it takes a long time because I want my first emperor win badly :) But first SB has to die. What a turtler. Even with non stop unit production with tanks, marines, infantry and artillery it almost took me over 20-30 turns or so to get a higher power rating. Incredible.

Airships is what beelining to Physics worth it imho, not the free GS..
From the moment you can build them, keep on spamming... untill all your cities have 4 stationed.

A tip that might be enlightening to you : if you have a vassal, you can station any number of air units in their cities. In my last game, I had a vassal in the heart of my enemy's land and had 40 bombers stationed there..
Bombers & Cavalry made short work of his infantry...Hey, my slow-day-at-the-office-buddy is here again as well! :lol:

40 bombers... :eek: Would you in recommend bombers over - say - artillery? I never really understood the added worth of flight-based units that much...

Flight-based units can keep up with tanks and paratroopers, which is otherwise impossible until mobile arty.

With the 3.17 amphibious siege removal it's also the only way to inflict collateral from the ocean...well not collateral more like direct fighter damage, but still.

Bombers are definitely better then artillery if you ask me. You can have a 2 move unit army and still remove cultural defenses and bomb the defenders with them. As long as the enemy does not have flight and/or sam infantry Bombers will kick ass. Bombers always stay out of trouble so they are more save then for instance canons who get flanked to pieces. Artillery is a bit different though since they can take a punch.

P.s. it seems that more people have slow days at the office ;)

But bombers need to end their turn in a city so they cannot travel with you in stacks, correct? There is a limit to the amount of bombers that can be present in a single city, right? Or does that only work for fighters?

Edit: well good, the more slow days at the office the nicer it is in here! :D

Yes, bombers must end their move in a city BUT you can get the range promotions to increase their operating area, use forts to station them, station them in vassal's cities OR forts. It's actually easier than it sounds to have a good airforce.
Airports with barracks give 7xp to new air units. That's combat 1&2. You are now 10 xp away from Range 2 air units. Throw in the West Point, 6xp left. Vassalage+Theocracy+Pentagon. You can actually get the 1GG needed for a lvl 6 unit even from Facism if you have run a peacefull game up untill that time.
As for interception (something that many players whine) :
Build some CombatIII & Ace (25% chance to avoid interception) Fighters and have them run recon missions first. Enemy fighters and SAM will try to intercept them and they will not have the strenght needed to intercept your bombing missions later on.
Have some fighters on Range II to intercept the enemy airforce (if any)
This way you can have a very early (cavalry) mobile army and blitz your enemies.

Yes, bombers must end their move in a city BUT you can get the range promotions to increase their operating area, use forts to station them, station them in vassal's cities OR forts. It's actually easier than it sounds to have a good airforce.
Airports with barracks give 7xp to new air units. That's combat 1&2. You are now 10 xp away from Range 2 air units. Throw in the West Point, 6xp left. Vassalage+Theocracy+Pentagon. You can actually get the 1GG needed for a lvl 6 unit even from Facism if you have run a peacefull game up untill that time.
As for interception (something that many players whine) :
Build some CombatIII & Ace (25% chance to avoid interception) Fighters and have them run recon missions first. Enemy fighters and SAM will try to intercept them and they will not have the strenght needed to intercept your bombing missions later on.
Have some fighters on Range II to intercept the enemy airforce (if any)
This way you can have a very early (cavalry) mobile army and blitz your enemies.
Two small mistakes there:
1. Barracks do not add exp to any aircraft. Only an airport does that.
2. Recon missions can never be intercepted. Instead you need to attack either a unit near the city, or a destroy a tile improvement, or try to bombard the defences of the city. All the enemy fighters on intercept missions and in range will try to intercept and can be shot down or damaged.

can you stack attack with bombers/fighters? or do you have to click and attack with each one separately.

Ho wait, this is the second time I read something about this. Airships can be moved in stacks? Oops, never knew that. And how many airships can you put in a stack? That makes them even better, wooot.

Two small mistakes there:
1. Barracks do not add exp to any aircraft. Only an airport does that.

You are right. My bad, always thought they gave to any units...

2. Recon missions can never be intercepted. Instead you need to attack either a unit near the city, or a destroy a tile improvement, or try to bombard the defences of the city. All the enemy fighters on intercept missions and in range will try to intercept and can be shot down or damaged.

I think I had my recon missions intercepted once or twice but I might be wrong, they could be Fighters destroying resources...

Late game wars can be sped up by quick attack animations but I find it very hard to select my next unit in my SOD with that :p Right now I am looking at 1860 and I have tanks invading SB territories defended by riflemen and grenadiers. Damn protective is hard to beat then, even with siege and airships and CRIII tanks. I am going to finish this game even if it takes a long time because I want my first emperor win badly :) But first SB has to die. What a turtler. Even with non stop unit production with tanks, marines, infantry and artillery it almost took me over 20-30 turns or so to get a higher power rating. Incredible.

Don't forget to send in some collatral damage tanks first. If A city can only create level 1 or two tanks, I normaly just give them collatral one and two.

can you stack attack with bombers/fighters? or do you have to click and attack with each one separately.

You have to group them (hold down shift key) but you can attack with all the aircraft in a stack at once. It can be problem if you have a big stack as it will only use the aircraft needed for the mission. That can mean some aircraft aren't used that turn unless you check and alter the grouping. I seldom have groups of more then 4 aircraft, with only 2 or 3 being more usual.

or just CTRL+Left clivk to pick all of them up, attack. After the animation takes place, CTRL+Lclick again on the "green" aircraft, rinse and repeat to next target/inc SOD

Don't forget to send in some collatral damage tanks first. If A city can only create level 1 or two tanks, I normaly just give them collatral one and two.

Colleteral damage tanks doesn't work in 3.17 do not promote to colleteral there...

@Draco: I already removed cultural defenses and bombed them to bits with the air ships. I didn't have enough tanks yet to send also in barrage tanks, but CRIII tanks should normally do the trick against low tech defenders but damn, SB puts up a fight for sure and I even had 2 tanks go down against a 8 str grenadier (fully promoted of course grmblll).

Airships provide excellent recon abilities. I don't usually use them for air strikes, although I really should. The fact that at tech parity noone can shoot them down makes them pretty valuable.

Rusten came up with the idea of attacking with a cav/airship combo. Grens in culturally defended cities get weakened enough as to fall to cavs outright. You can quickly take over lots of land this way. I'ts a bit situational of course, you need fast research because i don't think it would work against rifles. But hey, SM and physics can both be bulbed.

Yeah Airships are pretty awesome before the AI gets MGs. A small difference in strength makes a world of difference in combat and the Airship can knock the strength of the unit just enough - and the Airship will never take any damage (until the MG comes along). Great against ships too. They are also super cheap to upgrade to Fighters.

Rusten came up with the idea of attacking with a cav/airship combo. Grens in culturally defended cities get weakened enough as to fall to cavs outright. You can quickly take over lots of land this way. I'ts a bit situational of course, you need fast research because i don't think it would work against rifles. But hey, SM and physics can both be bulbed.

On MOST difficulties the human trade whoring with one set of AIs and not with another can lead to wide enough tech disparities to use this approach even if research isn't great. This is especially true in games where there aren't a lot of tech whore AIs, but even the tech whores won't trade with the backwards guy unless he has something to offer ---> the AIs tend to just fall back.

I can't speak for deity yet because my research rates are too poor to contend (now that I have the general strategy for fast research down I'm 100% sure this is a micro limitation on my part), but at least to me it appears that if you took someone like you, ABCF, Rusten, or U Sun etc's tech speed and applied it to deity it'd work there too.

Big fan of the airforce. I prefer bombers > artillery, only after you've taken at least one key tactical city.

I love a navy probably better, too bad it's not as fun as it should be.

Really wish BS's had the ability to bombard from a a distance, or attack using collateral dmg like artillery at distance. It almost makes no sense why they don't, since this is the main use of their guns IRL troop support anyway. Probably it's for balancing issues I'm sure. :P But get around it with special city defenses vs navy, or airforce. Seems like cities in A&A had anit-air guns. Could do sea mines or something. :) :)

Oh, and is it just me or would it be cool as h* that tomahawk missiles could be stationed on missile cruisers! :goodjob:

The thing I really like about Airships is that the AI usually has nothing I to counter them when I get it ( I play Noble/Prince)

You can station air units in any friendly civ's city with open borders, not just your vassals. Just make sure they don't sign open borders with your enemy or you lose your bombers as soon as any enemy unit rolls in

You can station air units in any friendly civ's city with open borders, not just your vassals. Just make sure they don't sign open borders with your enemy or you lose your bombers as soon as any enemy unit rolls in

Or, just toss some spare rifles/machine guns into those friendly border cities. As your army rolls along, these units will do double duty of garrisoning captured cities and protecting your airships.