Quick questions: Upgrade All & Artillery How To?

I've read the manual and searched the forums but I couldn't find an answer to a couple of questions.

First, how do I upgrade all of my units at once. In Civ III I just pressed Shift + U. That doesn't seem to work in Civ IV. I see that it says hit CTRL (or is it ALT?) to upgrade all units, but this doesn't seem to work for me. I want to upgrade all units in all cities, not just one city. Also, I've noticed that I can upgrade units away from cities. Great! Now, how do I upgrade all musketment, everywhere, all at once?

Regarding siege weapons, how do I choose the target to bombard?

Last night was the first opportunity I've had to use arty. In Civ III I'd stack ten or twenty arty pieces together then attack whatever I chose within range. Last night I had about twenty arty stacked to bombard a city. I couldnt' seem to direct their bombardment. There was no "range" indicated, at least, not that I could see. I had to move the arty right next to the city to get it to do anything. Granted, there's a LOT of info on the screen at any time (which is good . . . but where to look for what I want?). There WAS a "bombard" button, but it seemed to appear randomly. Hard to describe, but it felt out of joint. When I hit the "bombard" button it bombed the city on it's own. I never directed it to do so. I never pointed anything at the city. Does it just know? Also, I never knew if all of my arty were targeting anything or just one. It seemed as though there were different numbers of arty pieces doing different things. One "group" in the same stack would be bombarding while the other seemed to be fortifying. I couldn't tell who was really doing what or when. I was/am thoroughly confused by this "group" thing. I want to select all my arty and have them all bomb a city all at once. How?

I'm used to the Civ III routine of stacking arty, selecting a target, bombing the target, rinse & repeat. Civ IV seems much more difficult. I'm sure once I figure it out I'll find it much more effective. Till then . . .

I'm very confused by the "select all" process, in general. The manual doesn't help much, but I'll read it again. Hopefully you guys will have a quick & easy answer for me. (If you can figure out what I'm trying to say, sorry.)

Thanks in advance.

TheBlackHand said:

Regarding siege weapons, how do I choose the target to bombard?

Last night was the first opportunity I've had to use arty. In Civ III I'd stack ten or twenty arty pieces together then attack whatever I chose within range. Last night I had about twenty arty stacked to bombard a city. I couldnt' seem to direct their bombardment. There was no "range" indicated, at least, not that I could see. I had to move the arty right next to the city to get it to do anything. Granted, there's a LOT of info on the screen at any time (which is good . . . but where to look for what I want?). There WAS a "bombard" button, but it seemed to appear randomly. Hard to describe, but it felt out of joint. When I hit the "bombard" button it bombed the city on it's own. I never directed it to do so. I never pointed anything at the city. Does it just know? Also, I never knew if all of my arty were targeting anything or just one. It seemed as though there were different numbers of arty pieces doing different things. One "group" in the same stack would be bombarding while the other seemed to be fortifying. I couldn't tell who was really doing what or when. I was/am thoroughly confused by this "group" thing. I want to select all my arty and have them all bomb a city all at once. How?

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Siege weapons' bombard only reduces defense rating of cities. Thus, when you're bombarding a city, it's pretty easy to tell what the target will be . The only way for siege engines to "bombard" the actual defenders of a city is to kamikaze them against the city.

Airplanes, however, have bombardment capabilities vaguely similar to those of Civ3 artillery weapons (i.e. damage without actual combat and removing improvements from terrain at a distance).

TheBlackHand said:

I'm used to the Civ III routine of stacking arty, selecting a target, bombing the target, rinse & repeat.

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That's exactly why it was taken out. There was one blatantly "best" way to fight in Civ3, so they changed it to where in Civ4, artillery is a tactical resource, not a borderline exploit.

To upgrade all units of a particular type, hold the ALT key, then mouseover the upgrade button. A tooltip will pops up will give you the price it will cost to upgrade all units of that type currently within your territory. If you can stomach the price, click away.

The rules of city-placement in Civ4 forbid the placement of cities within 2 squares of another city. Hence, it is impossible to have a situation where there are two cities next to a single siege weapon.

Siege weapons have the bombard button active only if they are right next to a city (and at war I think). There can only be one, so, there's no need to direct the bombardment.

Artillery is a lot different in CIV4. In Civ3, you built them and rarely lost them, if you kept them protected. In Civ4, when you use them (to weaken enemy stacks) you usually lose them. So you must keep building more.

Also, in Civ3, the AI rarely built them. In Civ4, it is one of the AI's favorite units and they will use them frequently to wear down your stacks.

Good answers. Stuff I didn't know. ALT + Mouseover, got it.

I can see why they changed the arty. I'm sure I'll miss the sure-fire tactic of blasting cities & armies into oblivion with huge stacks of arty but I always appreciate a change of pace, especially for the better. It's why I bought the game.

Now I understand why when my arty was next to a city I got the "bombard" button but not when I was next to an enemy unit. I assume that if I want to attack/bombard an adjacent enemy unit I have to actually move the arty into the enemy's space, as if it were a regular attack. I did this a few times last night with mixed results. I kinda figured this was the new method of use, but wasn't sure.

I'm missing a lot of things from Civ III, it seems the interface was much simpler, but eventually I'll get used to Civ IV. I wish there were a thread devoted to differences between Civ III & Civ IV. These questions of mine are just a couple of examples.

Wreck said:

The rules of city-placement in Civ4 forbid the placement of cities within 2 squares of another city. Hence, it is impossible to have a situation where there are two cities next to a single siege weapon.

Siege weapons have the bombard button active only if they are right next to a city (and at war I think). There can only be one, so, there's no need to direct the bombardment.

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Don't the rules change if the cities are on different land masses, and thus can be separated by only 1 space (city-water-city)? I've read that numerous places here (never actually seen it myself). IF so, then it would be possible to have two targets available for sea bombardment. It would be interesting to see what the result is, although its most likely just random (assuming you are at war with both cities).