gobbledydook
Warlord
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
- Messages
- 149
Would you rather use triplanes/fighters, or anti air gun/mobile sams?
FWIW, I almost always build 2 Fighters when I hit Flight just to not be taken by surprise.
Two triplanes with 2 interceptor promos is all you ever need. The promos are what makes them effective intercepters and two is enough to handle whatever the AI builds for planes.
I think some of the newer players may need elaboration on this.Am I on offense or defense?
I think some of the newer players may need elaboration on this.
Planes are much, much more proficient at interception than AA land units (through my experience, but it seems others agree.) However, when you're bulldozing from city to city through another civ's territory and/or are attacking a civ that's far from your own territory, the battlegrounds may take place outside of the interception range of any of the places where you're allowed to station aircraft. Carriers can be a fix to this dilemma, but they're a lot of hammers and maintenance for this purpose, and they aren't always able to reach the site of battle (heart of a pangaea, for example.) In these cases, AA land units are a better option for coverage. Additionally, AA land units may be a better option if the opponent has aerial dominance.
Agree with all of the above.
Further elaboration: When you first take a city, you can then rebase a fighter there, but you still have an entire turn with no air cover unless you have AA's. This can be devastating.
I've gone entire games without building fighters, but don't think I'd even consider trying to do so without land AA.
Further, further elaboration: while you can rebase to recently captured cities, be cautious if you're razing it. There are several instances in the game when a unit can no longer occupy the tile it is in, when it's fortified in a tile that an AI without open borders acquires, for example. Or a civilian in a city when a great person spawns. In either and all of these cases, the unit is simply moved to the nearest tile it can occupy. The sole exception (that I know of) is an air unit in a city that burns down. If any fighters or bombers finish their turn in a city that is removed the next turn, that unit is destroyed.Further elaboration: When you first take a city, you can then rebase a fighter there, but you still have an entire turn with no air cover unless you have AA's. This can be devastating.
It depends on how many bombers AI have. If all they have are damaged bombers, you can go without land AA, even when your fighters are changing bases. You can tell it happens when all their bombers are in the bases healing instead of attacking. Usually if I started domination with bomber/fighter combo, I won't even build ground based Mobile SAM or AA guns. Promoted Atomic era ground units can take a few bomber hits without interception anyway.
I agree with this as my experience with anti-air is:First off, Triplanes only have a 50% chance of interception. That's pityful. It means that it's essentially a coinflip whether your Triplane will Intercept accordingly or just do absolutely nothing for the entire turn. That's already pretty bad.
One of the main benefits of AA and Mobile SAM is that you can get the Medic promotions for those units. Park them next to the city they are defending and they will intercept enemy aircraft and also repair any planes based in that city (particularly useful once the planes have the Air Repair promotion).
I find triplanes (and subsequent fighter units) most useful for air sweeps, forcing the enemy to expend their intercept capabilities (other fighters and AA/SAMs) before sending in the bombers.