Civ Air/Naval - it'll never be the same!!

One of the biggest areas of focus on the core game was the dynamics of Naval and Air Forces. Both weren't being utilized as much as they could have been, so we decided to have some fun!

Here are the changes to the existing Epic Game air units:

• Helicopter – Op Range: 6, Capacity: 3, Defense: 2
• Fighter – Op Range: 6, Bombard: 3, Lethal Sea
• Bomber – Op Range: 10, Bombard: 10, Lethal Sea/Land
• Jet Fighter – Op Range: 9, Bombard: 3, Lethal Sea
• Stealth Fighter – Op Range: 12, Defense: 6, Bombard: 6, Lethal Sea/Land
• Stealth Bomber – Op Range: 16, Defense: 5, Bombard: 18, Lethal Sea/Land

Op Range now plays a critical role in that aircraft can only rebase up to 6X their Op Range. This helps with forcing the use of Carriers on certain maps.

With the balance shifted to modern aircraft being very powerful (lethal bombardment was the missing link!) units that would allow a player to counter a powerful airforce were a must! But it was also vital that these units also be mobile so that you could protect key land units as they advanced (or retreated!).

Thus enters the Flak & Mobile SAM units. (I tried to attach a shot but failed miserably!! I'll figure it out one of these days...)

These units make a check vs the attacking Air Units Defense rating (add additional algorithm here!) to see if the attacking craft is shot down. There is only 1 check on whether the attacking craft is hit or not regardless of the # of A-A units on the tile, BUT more A-A units increases the chances of a successful A-A defense.


What about Naval vs Air?

Several things were changed with Naval units that interconnect with the changes to Air.

Transports are now pathetically weak and can be easily eliminated by air forces!! No more "load all tanks, send solo transports to other continent". Protect them or lose your valuable units! Recon missions are also very important now to track naval movements of your enemies to hit these lone transports and other units.

Here are the changes to modern Naval:

• Transport – Move: 6, Defense: 2, Capacity: 6
• Destroyer – Move: 8, Air Defense: 1, Detect Invisible
• Battleship – Move: 5, Air Defense: 2
• AEGIS Cruiser – Move: 7, Air Defense: 3, Detect Invisible, Radar
• Carrier – Move: 7, Air Defense: 1

New Unit: Cruiser Naval 160 15.10.6 7.1.2 A-A:1 Combustion

Increased movement makes naval units more adaptable to new recon. Detect Invisible is VITAL to preventing subs with their new Stealth Attack (pick the unit in a tile that you want to attack) from sneaking in and destroying key units. Use subs effectively with air to destroy Cruisers and let your air hordes sink the enemy fleets!

This is just scratching at the surface (haven't even brought earlier era naval, airdropping, Seafaring into the equation!) at the new dynamics and roles that Air and Naval play during the modern era in Civilization III: Conquests.

Please be aware that our goal was to get players to use combinations of different units to gain the best results! Try new strategies and use your combined forces to crush opposing nations or to force their eternal respect and awe!

Thank you for all of your support!

Jesse
Firaxis Games
Producer, C3C

I love all these changes!

I might have to build more helicopters and submarines.

No longer are the days of controling the oceans with battleships.

Will the AI still just build a billion bombers to bomb our infrastructure back to the stone age? Or will it be capable of combined arms attacks and defense?

this is awesome! air/sea forces will be as useful as they should be now, especially in modern times!
aaaaaaaaaaaaaah i can't wait for conquests, haha

Other than the Enslavement ability, this is the best news on C3C I've heard yet!
If you'd announced a new Air Mission for retrieving units I'd be wiping my screen down right now, but all involved anyway; the Modern Era looks like it'll be worth waiting for now!

Op Range now plays a critical role in that aircraft can only rebase up to 6X their Op Range. This helps with forcing the use of Carriers on certain maps.

Click to expand...

SIX times their op range??
Seems (more than) a bit high. Two or Three would seem more like it to me.

What about American F-15 fighter, was anything changed to make it more useful?

F-15: lethal land/sea bombardment

SIX times their op range??
Seems (more than) a bit high. Two or Three would seem more like it to me.

Click to expand...

I think it's meant to allow what is realistic, but to force you to use carriers in conquests like WWII pacific, and on huge maps.

Carriers have always been quiet useless, in my opinion, because of the infinite range, so they are now MUCH more usefull. If you think it's a bit high, remember, in real life you can strap on extra fuel tanks for the one-way trip, becuase it is not a combat mission, and you can go slower. Also, you don't want it to small, when you have a huge map... trust me.

For playing on large maps (I usually play 180x180), the ship movement is still way too slow. Looks like I know what I'll be modding first.

Other than that, the changes look VERY cool.

I think 6X operation range is cool because they added a limit.

I wonder if this can be changed in the editor.

Lethal and air and sea for bombers . I think I am going to have a lot of fun with bombers. I see that the bombard strength has also been increased

Bombers scare me

I guess that's the point of AA guns and Fighters (I hope I actually notice my fighters doing something, I've had the AI shoot down stealth bombers, while I coudn't do anything about their regular bombers)

Let's see how good Port is!!!

Originally posted by Louis XXIV
Bombers scare me

I guess that's the point of AA guns and Fighters (I hope I actually notice my fighters doing something, I've had the AI shoot down stealth bombers, while I coudn't do anything about their regular bombers)

Click to expand...

I hope that the AA guns will be fun. I can't wait to shoot down some AI planes. Are you sure you had them on air superiortiy?

@Portugese- The portugese look pretty good. The only thing I don't like is that they have a boat UU(I hate boat UU *cough*Dromon*cough*) DOes anyone remember what Seafaring trait gives you?

Stealth Aircraft have a defense rating now, so even if you're lucky enough to intercept them, you still might not shoot them down.

I wonder if they got the ground based AA algorithm to factor in stealth, or if its literally only:

'These units make a check vs the attacking Air Units Defense rating (add additional algorithm here!) to see if the attacking craft is shot down.'

This is the first real expansion pack!!!All of these changes make me believe that this time,they realy wanted to make the game better.It was about time,because PTW was not something special.So...

All those changes and additions sound very cool I look forward to trying them out when Conquests reaches the UK in a couple of weeks

I am really glad that air and naval have had work done to them, they were a bit lacking.

Lethal bombard for bumbers I am very happy with, as also the stealth attack for Nuclear Submarine

Has there been any attempt to re-create the ability of ships to carry cruise missiles?

Originally posted by Black Waltz
Has there been any attempt to re-create the ability of ships to carry cruise missiles?

Click to expand...

If you mean officially, I don't know. But it's not hard to do yourself. I can tell you how if you want to give it a try.