Possibilities of the Renaissance Airship

Kirejara

King
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
859
Location
Northern Germany
I found this little gem in the download area:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=24572

But what to do with it?

I decided to add it to the tech Invention as early aerial scout, light transport and very light bomber. ;)

In my first attempt I added it only for the KI, but then I decided, that I too could use it nicely.

It has two movement points and treats all terrain as road (moving six fields in a turn). Since it is airborne it can explore both land and sea. As bonus and to my surprise, it can pop bonus huts and in most cases can flee, when it awakes some barbarians. ;)

It can not rebased as a normal aircraft, but has to fly to its new destination. So a human player has only a limited advantage in using them as transport for a single foot unit. Airdrop is disabled (and despite being possible to activated "Air transport" using Quintilus editor without airdrop, I choose to leave it as bomber and scout only for the KI, as they would airdrop despite the removed order).

The KI uses them only as bomber. As that it is mostly annoying only as it has a very low damage ratio and can not kill any other unit except other aircraft (which resulted to my surpise to several veteran and elite airships for the KI ;) ).

The massive use of them by the KI caused me in my first game with them to beeline as fast as possible to Flight. After that I turned them down somewhat. ;)





I have now also reactivated the Zeppelin by wyrmshadow (Combustion, Rubber) with similar abilities (Defence 1, no hitpoint penalty, three movement points and range 9). The Zeppelin is however only available to scientific civilisations.
 
Thanks for this information.

I have not encountered yet such a freeze (or at least I hope so).

Seaplanes and Flying Boats have also their immobility removed, so that they can "hover" some short distances (1 MP, all terrain as road). So a Flying Boat can transport Workers or Foot Units over small gaps of water. This has the advantage over transport ships, that the transported units do not use up their movement points while disembarking (and Workers on a cityless coastal island are able to embark back into civilisation without the need to send a ship ;) ).

But unlike the Airship the KI ignores both Flying Boats and Seaplanes nearly completly.

I will keep an eye on it. ;)
 
I was looking for an airborn transport. Maybe a medieval / steampunk kind creation like this.
I might try this. Thanks for the idea.
But I don't want it to become an exploit for human players vs the AI.
 
But I don't want it to become an exploit for human players vs the AI.
The Airship has an airdrop animiation, so you can use it as renaissance "transport helicopter". But I am afraid, that the KI will even less care about treaties, others properties and cities (mostly that of the human player). So it could be a fun killer.

I would suggest two ways:

Enable special order "Air Drop" and strategy box "Air Transport": Both KI and human player will be able to airdrop directly into the landing zone.

Enable only the strategy box "Air Transport", but leave the special order "Air Drop" disabled: The KI will still airdrop, while the human player has to move the Airship into the landing zone and then unload it.

Your Choice! ;)

EDIT: The KI actually bombs your scouting Airship with their Airships. :eek:

Also the KI rebase their Airships despite the disabled order: After my navy bombed all Airships out of an enemy city, there were four of them in the same city the following round. So the disadvantage is on the side of the human player.

When on automated Exploration, your Airship will not cross the land/sea border on its own (except sometimes to take a shortcut through your land, but then it will stop, because your land is allready explored. ;) ).

The early Biplane Fighters (2/1/5, no resources) with Combustion usually make short work with any bombing Airships. But then, they also shoot down sometimes late Jet Bombers. :crazyeye:

I have increased the chance of interception from 50% to 90%. While air combat is now much more in common (and finally making Interceptor more valuable), it seems that one third of the bombers still went unchallenged. ;)


Second EDIT: By now, the early airship (Invention, Range 4) is without defence value (this makes it immune to be destroyed on the ground by artillery, but the can now be captured and they will be shoot down allways if there is a single unit with any anti-air value at the target zone).

Steampower gives me the Steam Airship (Range 6) with minimum defence and hitpoints and Combustion brings in the Zeppelin (Range 9, Rubber) with minimum defence and normal hitpoints.

All have now only one movement point, all terrain as road and no rebase option for the human player. They became obsolete with Flight and are succeded by the light bombers (if one has oil ;) ).
 
''Second EDIT: By now, the early airship (Invention, Range 4) is without defence value (this makes it immune to be destroyed on the ground by artillery, but the can now be captured and they will be shoot down allways if there is a single unit with any anti-air value at the target zone). ''

How is this possible? My air units while on ground or sea are immune to bombardment. Is this a ground flying unit you got?
 
Ok, lets rephrase this: If the airship is in a city under siege, it is immun to bombardements by aircraft and artillery. If the city is taken, then it will be captured by the conqueror (assuming he has the required tech).

An armed air unit (with defence value) will take damage if bombed inside a city.

I have seen, that the KI sometimes bombard my armed airships and seaplanes if they are outside of a city on their own, but I must admit, that I really do not know if they take damage or not.

Currently my pre-flight airforce (sounds like an oximoron! :lol: ) looks like this:







All airships have the ability to transport foot units mainly to avoid them stuffed into an Aircraft Carrier.

Only the Zeppelin Bomber is able to sink enemy ships, the two earlier ones can only kill other air units.

The Zeppelin Bomber itself will became obsolete with Flight (with oil) or for some civs will never became available if they have oil and the ability to build an early light bomber (like the Hind seen as successor).

And yes, the Zeppelin itself can no longer upgraded, since the Light Bombers have an average price tag of 70 shields. So a player has to take the decision if he has to wait for Flight or build/upgrade the Zepplin with its larger range.
 
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