Strategic Bombing

I'm basically a noob so I don't know about balance but I think bombers (and perhaps artillery units) should have the ability to target roads and bridges.

This would be extremely useful for cutting off reinforcements; especially when railroads are involved.

What do you guys think?

This has been discussed several times before, and the consensus is that the idea is ok, but that it would be hugely overpowered. Don't forget that the AI would be able to do it to you too!

The irony of the situation being that in the version of the game that screams for strategic bombing with proper roads(spamming roads on every tile is not a good strategy) so roads are important and strategic resources being limited, is the time they decide to remove it.

Strategic bombing in 4 was pretty pointless but could be used to great effect in 5 and i can't see it be hard to code for the AI to use in at least a reasonable way. You need to add the option and add strategic targets to the list of preferences.

The only real issue would it would actually require a decent update of the fighter mechanics but then it would make fighters more useful. One of the the main reasons they are getting away with not really making decent air combat updates is because they kept the mechanics so basic. The AI would need to be encouraged to use them defensively...don't remember ever being intercepted by an AI fight...

To stop it being over powered you could put in simple chance mechanic. Off the top of my head you could give WW1 bombers a 20% chance to succeed, WW2 bombers a 50% chance to succeed and stealth bomber a 90% chance to succeed to represent the increasing accuracy and power.
Interception could also reduce the chance to succeed with WW1 bombers failing if intercepted, WW2 bombers having a 25% chance to still succeed which is representative of the fact they used to bomb in huge formations and some bombers would usually make it to the target and stealth bombers should fail if intercepted due to the fact they would usually strike as single aircraft thus an interception will generally ruin a mission even if the aircraft survives.

I was just thinking about this the other day in a game...

Civ3 allowed you to bomb and target arty to enemy (and your own) tiles which allowed for some interesting tactics. First there is the obvious resource denial - take out their access to aluminum, rubber, oil etc. You could also starve large cities by taking out tile improvements, or simply hamper the AI's ability to reinforce a city by removing roads leading to it. It was nice, but since it was all ranged, it was pretty one sided...plus the AI did a much worse job of it than humans.

At first I missed it, but with all things considered, it doesnt really have a place in C5. To do something similar in C5 take strong troops with the pillage ability, send them in to pillage key improvements then withdraw to heal if necessary. This entails more risk than ranged pillaging since the city and nearby troops could overwhelm some of the pillagers.

Fluffball said:

don't remember ever being intercepted by an AI fight...

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I have been, several times, but more often than not, the AI uses Fighters in the same way as it uses Bombers. Also, it is common that after an interception, they will use the fighter against a unit or city the following turn, so they are not left on interception.

I agree with the thought that it would be overpowered to allow bombing of roads, railways, mines, strategic resources, etc...

For the player, it would make it too easy... and Bombers are powerful enough as it is, no need to make them overpowered!

For the AI, it would annoy the player to the nth degree, such that the commonest thread here would be moans about being bombed.

Crow_T_Robot said:

It was nice, but since it was all ranged, it was pretty one sided...plus the AI did a much worse job of it than humans.

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This is the problem, it upsets the balance big time.

You could counter balance issues by introducing a terrain improvement like Air Defense. Such a tile would make all tile improvements within two hexes immune to tactical bombing. One could still bomb/attack units with air power though. To further balance, make tactical improvement bombing a promotion path that modifies the above posters percentage chance. Failure at tactical bombing could result in some damage to the bomber.

In my games, the AI has been good at using anti air units against my bomber happy forces. More attack and defense options would make air battles more interesting.

i don't think it is any more overpowered than how air support is handled in the game as it is now. if you are bombarding improvements with your air force, you're taking away opportunities to heal on the ground. basically you're just retaining warfare as it is pre-patch

Maybe there could be a mechanic where a city's building or road/railroad maintenance costs could be increased for a certain number of turns depending on some game factor (city defense, city production capacity, etc.). This would represent having to pour more money into relief/repairs that would otherwise be used elsewhere, hence strategic bombing. It wouldn't be impressive in terms of combat, no, but more realistic on how far wars can be carried on, yes.

Otherwise destroying buildings or pillaging, which is what land units do, would be much much too powerful for an air unit even if bombers are given a roll-of-the-dice chance.

Jatta Pake said:

You could counter balance issues by introducing a terrain improvement like Air Defense. Such a tile would make all tile improvements within two hexes immune to tactical bombing. ...

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Isnt this already in the game somewhat? Roll an Anti Aircraft unit next to the city to counter bombers. Or post fighters in the city set to intercept. The ability of a city to shoot back would/could also protect tile improvements.

It does seem like it would be nice to be able to take out at least certain tile improvements related to resources (even nukes no longer do that). In the old game, when you could do so, one defense was to place a stack of units on key tiles (like your incense or aluminum mine). Since bombers still stack in a city, it would be way too lopsided now. Even with an air defense improvement, you's just have to take that out first (the old game had SAMs and it wasnt much of an impediment).

It seems more in keeping with the 1UPT paradigm, to force you to have to risk something when you want to pillage an improvement.

I think the old limit of 4 airplanes per city needs to return.