Why can't stealth bombers use aircraft carriers?

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hardcore_gamer

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How does it come that only ww1 and ww2 era bombers can be on aircraft carriers but not stealth bombers? Doesn't it make the aircraft carriers kind of useless once you are in the modern era?

I mean sure you can still use modern fighters on them but I like most players mostly just build bombers instead.

Is there some good reason for why this is the case?
 
Well they are gigantic aircraft that in real life cannot use an aircraft carrier. In terms of gameplay, their range is so large anyways that you should be able to hit anything on the map. If you play on huge maps you could always drop a city closer to your enemy and just use it as a forward military base to station aircraft at.
 
The real question should be : why can bombers (of any vintage) use carriers?
 
This question has been debated many a time before, and the general consensus was that it's totally unrealistic to expect an aircraft that needs thousands of feet of runway to take off and land, has a wingspan wider than an entire carrier (and which would destroy its wing on the bridge superstructure if it did try to take off), and couldn't possibly go up and down the carriers' elevators, to work from a carrier. WW2 era bombers work fine for any city bombardments you need to do from a carrier, and I can think of only 1 instance in all my games where I couldn't manage to get stealth bombers to where I needed them, via shuttling between cities. Once, I even built a throwaway city on a 1-tile island out in the middle of a huge ocean, just for shuttling them. Worked a charm.
 
Stealth bombers are just too big.

Aircraft carriers are just about as useless as every other unit from several eras prior in the information era. They come at the same time as machine guns and landships on the tech tree for heaven's sake.
 
Rooftrellen said:
Stealth bombers are just too big.

Aircraft carriers are just about as useless as every other unit from several eras prior in the information era. They come at the same time as machine guns and landships on the tech tree for heaven's sake.
Click to expand...

They are still quite useful for fleet air defense and bombing target cities in long-range amphibious operations on water-centric maps, throughout endgame. Not useless, just not 'huge' by that point.
 
Plus, IRL Stealth is still considered somewhat of a secret as to details. The B2s are based inside the US so that enemy eyes cannot easily get pics or close to them. They will often fly from Missouri for 24+ hrs for missions elsewhere like Kosovo. I think in Desert Storm a few flew from England - or perhaps just as a stop over - but with special considerations (like a large cordoned off area).

One of the unrealistic things in Civ is the lack of specialty mil units, especially air units. In reality, there are a wide variety of special use (and often recycled) air units like the AC-130 gunship, the A10 Warthog or sub hunting helos. It was very easy to add these in C3, though the AI tended to not know how to use them effectively.
 
Smokeybear said:
This question has been debated many a time before, and the general consensus was that it's totally unrealistic to expect an aircraft that needs thousands of feet of runway to take off and land, has a wingspan wider than an entire carrier (and which would destroy its wing on the bridge superstructure if it did try to take off), and couldn't possibly go up and down the carriers' elevators, to work from a carrier. WW2 era bombers work fine for any city bombardments you need to do from a carrier, and I can think of only 1 instance in all my games where I couldn't manage to get stealth bombers to where I needed them, via shuttling between cities. Once, I even built a throwaway city on a 1-tile island out in the middle of a huge ocean, just for shuttling them. Worked a charm.
Click to expand...

I try and do that in any game where I use a lot of stealth bombers and there is more than one continent. If you can get 3 or 4 islands at various spots around the other continent, you can exert total control on any invasion area. Place an artillery or rocket artillery for defense on the island cities and keep a few naval units in the area that can also attack the targeted content as needed. Works like a charm.
 
Smokeybear said:
They are still quite useful for fleet air defense and bombing target cities in long-range amphibious operations on water-centric maps, throughout endgame. Not useless, just not 'huge' by that point.
Click to expand...

True, they aren't quite worthless, but with the ability to build nuclear missiles instead of bombs and the insane range of stealth bombers, as well as the relative strength of more modern units (nuclear subs), they lose virtually all of their shine.

If the AI were better at naval combat, you'd probably never want to use carriers to take care of your fighters, due to how much you'd lose the moment you don't see that nuclear sub just out of a destroyer's sight range.
 
Rooftrellen said:
If the AI were better at naval combat, you'd probably never want to use carriers to take care of your fighters, due to how much you'd lose the moment you don't see that nuclear sub just out of a destroyer's sight range.
Click to expand...

I want to - because with their recon ability, I can see six tiles of stuff around them (and my fleet). And if the AI thinks it can bomb my fleet into oblivion, it has another thing coming for it with my own subs!
 
hardcore_gamer said:
How does it come that only ww1 and ww2 era bombers can be on aircraft carriers but not stealth bombers? Doesn't it make the aircraft carriers kind of useless once you are in the modern era?

I mean sure you can still use modern fighters on them but I like most players mostly just build bombers instead.

Is there some good reason for why this is the case?
Click to expand...

It`s hard to say because it`s `realistic` because CIv 5 seems to do whatever. But I like using realism as a yard stick for anything.

Far as I know Stealth bombers are simply not used on carriers at all. Probably because they`re too big and would need a longer take off runway.

Now the WW2 bomber is an interesting one. Most WW2 bombers cannot be used on WW2 carriers, but some can if they are lightened and flown by experts as in the bomber raid on Japan in WW2. So SOME bombers can be used from carriers, though in reality you`d probably lose most in the sea.

Civ5 is playing fast and loose with reality in the game, but I guess that`s no surprise. I advise never using Civ5 for your real world history\military exams.
 
Since carrier aircraft have always been multi-role, I don't understand what all the hubbub is about.
What's more annoying is having to put aircraft on the carrier, rather than already having them on board (like in Rise of Nations).
 
I think Carriers should have better bonuses.

Perhaps they should provide healing to adjecent ships when outside friendly territory?
 
Socratatus said:
It`s hard to say because it`s `realistic` because CIv 5 seems to do whatever. But I like using realism as a yard stick for anything.

Far as I know Stealth bombers are simply not used on carriers at all. Probably because they`re too big and would need a longer take off runway.

Now the WW2 bomber is an interesting one. Most WW2 bombers cannot be used on WW2 carriers, but some can if they are lightened and flown by experts as in the bomber raid on Japan in WW2. So SOME bombers can be used from carriers, though in reality you`d probably lose most in the sea.

Civ5 is playing fast and loose with reality in the game, but I guess that`s no surprise. I advise never using Civ5 for your real world history\military exams.
Click to expand...

Not that they're too big, its Just that they only take off and land from tenesse, in real life
 
Socratatus said:
It`s hard to say because it`s `realistic` because CIv 5 seems to do whatever. But I like using realism as a yard stick for anything.

Far as I know Stealth bombers are simply not used on carriers at all. Probably because they`re too big and would need a longer take off runway.

Now the WW2 bomber is an interesting one. Most WW2 bombers cannot be used on WW2 carriers, but some can if they are lightened and flown by experts as in the bomber raid on Japan in WW2. So SOME bombers can be used from carriers, though in reality you`d probably lose most in the sea.

Civ5 is playing fast and loose with reality in the game, but I guess that`s no surprise. I advise never using Civ5 for your real world history\military exams.
Click to expand...

REALITY?? Look at Giant Death Robot!
 
Imho you should have two seperate unit types to make it more realistic:

Tactical Bomber - cheap, able to land on aircraft carrier, moderate range
(representing a WW2 dive bomber or a modern fighter-bomber)

Strategic Bomber - expensive, stronger, very long range, not being able to land on aircraft carrier
(representing Flying Fortress and Successors)

If you want you could make the great war bomber upgrade into Tactical Bombers and Strategic Bomber upgrading into Stealth Bomber.
Question is though if unit diversity for such a late game period is really needed in normal games.
 
For god sake, we don't need yet another air unit! There are already soo many that I rarely build one of each. If you want to have more specialised units, use promotions. That is literally what they are there for.
 
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