Almost a Thousand Hours and No Airforce?

[Zaimejs]

I just realized that I have not played a game yet where my airforce was a part of my victory strategy. I was actually attacked via air for the first time in the last game I played where Napoleon actually had a couple of bombers or triplanes.

Other than that... not much.

I've had plenty of space age victories, but I haven't needed any sort of airforce. Is this typical? Does Civ V just not lend itself to using airpower? Is this a flaw?

Was it Civ IV where you could auto send your fighters to places quickly and easily to stock up your carriers?

To me, the whole airforce thing seems like an afterthought in Civ V. I can't stand that when you have a plane stationed in a city, you don't see the icon. You have to go searching to find your planes.

 

[sufficiency]

Looks like you need to play on higher difficulties.

 

[fuzzatron717]

I play with lots of airforce mainly bombers but sometimes fighters if I notice an enemy airforce.

 

[Murrica]

I play with lots of airforce mainly bombers but sometimes fighters if I notice an enemy airforce.

Bombers and interceptors are all anyone ever uses really. Use like two fighters to sweep the area and then use your stack of doom to bomb your opponents city from full health to zero.

I wish I would use more helicopters, their animation is awesome but by the time I have bombers I just can't have animations on since the stack of doom would take an hour to finish.

 

[Smokeybear]

Bombers and interceptors are all anyone ever uses really. Use like two fighters to sweep the area and then use your stack of doom to bomb your opponents city from full health to zero.

I wish I would use more helicopters, their animation is awesome but by the time I have bombers I just can't have animations on since the stack of doom would take an hour to finish.

The main problem with helicopters, is that their primary bonus is against armor, and the AI almost never builds tanks. And unfortunately mechanized infantry aren't considered armor, so they are pretty lame anyway for most things other than scouting and recon.

To the OP- no, you don't necessarily need an air force to win in CiV, but if you are playing a domination game during the latter parts when airpower comes in, if you stock up on bombers, you can conquer large swaths of enemy territory 2 or 3 times as fast as you can with just artillery and ground troops.

Trick is to build all the barracks-class buildings in one city, then build the Brandenburg Gate wonder there too. That way, when you build or cash-buy a bomber (or any unit) there, you'll get 3 instant promotions- this allows you to give them 2 anti-city bonus promotions and the 'automatically heal every turn' promotion- which greatly reduces or even removes the downtime from being damaged while doing repeated bombing runs.

I usually give several bombers all anti-ground-unit promotions too, just so they can wipe out whatever foolish infantry or artillery units the AI tries to defend their cities with. Then you just need a couple tanks and mech infantry to capture the demolished cities as you rush along. Keep a few fighters up front to provide anti-AA sweeps and post them in your most forward captured cities, for the long-range visibility into enemy territory they provide. Once you go air force, it's hard to play late game domination without it.

 

[ahawk]

If you adopt a defensive posture in the late game, it's entirely possible to defend yourself with Mobile SAMs, Rocket Artillery, and Mechanized Infantry (or their equivalents one step down, the AA Gun, Artillery, and Infantry, if you have enough of them or depending on difficulty level). Realistically, on defense, I rarely build more than a couple air units.

Offense is totally different. Stealth Bombers are among the best offensive units in the game, with a huge range, high damage, and the ability to stack a bunch in a single place. Only nuclear weapons (Atomic Bomb, Nuclear Missiles) do more damage with the same or slightly lesser range. Even regular old bombers can take down city defenses fairly well and do reasonable damage in the right situations. On offense, air units are great because there isn't always ideal terrain to fit artillery, anti-air, and infantry units together in a ring around the target.

But on defense, and when going for a peaceful victory (i.e.: Space Race), it's not overly important to have a decent airforce.

 

[soprof]

As soon as it's impossible, in most cases, to keep up with science of the AI's at Diety and, in many cases, Immortal - you often have no choice other than loading up dozens of carriers, 'cos they are the only solid protection against bombers.

Last game America i played versus had 40(forty) B-17, and my 8-carrier fleet with mostly fighters got crushed resulting a science victory to him. Well played =D

 

[Vamphaery]

Bombers are especially useful I find when playing against an opponent with a large, deep continent under their control. Especially if they're capable of mounting a rapid counteroffensive. In those cases, short of simply overwhelming them with sheer numbers, bombers seem to be the most efficient and rapid means of destroying their ability to launch a counteroffensive once you attack their cities. I mean sure, you can land dozens of rocket artillery, but there's always the change they'd be destroyed if your opponent has enough units to counter your push.

Their range makes them particularly important - especially once promoted for greater movement - if the continent is VERY deep and you have no beach head. Usually if you can get their largest and most well defended cities down to half health or below with your first strikes, you will take enough cities to win the war after landing your troops, or at least force peace.

 

[Civking5]

In multiplayer games, Air Force is a game changer. If you can manage to have an Air Force sooner than your main enemy in the game ( like 10 or 20 turns sooner), you can bring the hammer down with great efficiency and speed.

 

[Ajuga]

I rarely use airplanes because of their long animations. But otherwise they are pretty slick.

 

[ahawk]

I rarely use airplanes because of their long animations. But otherwise they are pretty slick.

Turn on Quick Combat if animation length is getting to you. I think it can now be toggled in-game, so once you get to the late game, maybe switch it on. This exact issue is why I now play with Quick Combat on indefinitely (it saves quite a lot of time per game, especially in the late game when your 8 bombers each take ~10 seconds to fly, drop bombs, fly back).

 

[Ajuga]

Turn on Quick Combat if animation length is getting to you. I think it can now be toggled in-game, so once you get to the late game, maybe switch it on. This exact issue is why I now play with Quick Combat on indefinitely (it saves quite a lot of time per game, especially in the late game when your 8 bombers each take ~10 seconds to fly, drop bombs, fly back).

I might actually start using it, it's fun seeing animations but I'd prefer faster gameplay.

 

[Rooftrellen]

Air power is only really noticeable if someone else has it and you don't, but you can normally get along without it if you're going to space. If you are doing domination, assuming a decent size map and a suitable difficulty level for yourself, you'll probably have a hard time without some sort of air force. When the AI can drop atomic bombs on you virtually at will (fighters have the range to defend from enough different points as to not be in mortal danger from a nuke, ground based interception does not), or has the ability to drop a truckload of bombs on you every turn while your artillery tries to get into range, or an enemy runaway has taken over his continent and you have to go in Normandy style...that's when you notice a lack of air superiority.

If you aren't feeling it late game, it may be time to move up a level.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

In multiplayer games, Air Force is a game changer. If you can manage to have an Air Force sooner than your main enemy in the game ( like 10 or 20 turns sooner), you can bring the hammer down with great efficiency and speed.

Bingo^

First player to get 6 Great War Bombers wins... or at least takes out enough of their neighbors to dominate the rest of the game.

 

[Matthew.]

In response to the animations, it would be nice if they could overlap. I don't know if it is easy to implement in regards to the actual coding, but it would speed things up without needing to turn off animations. Plus, watching 8 bombers all fly towards a city one right after another would be awesome. Carpet bomb destruction.

 

[whyidie]

I love the tension of having to choose between artillery or Air Force in a tight game. I've had games where artillery gave me enough to control my continent and others where I was a handful of cities away before the AI Air Force showed up and blew my proud artillery to bits.

 

[soprof]

I love the tension of having to choose between artillery or Air Force in a tight game. I've had games where artillery gave me enough to control my continent and others where I was a handful of cities away before the AI Air Force showed up and blew my proud artillery to bits.

Feels like airForce is much more universal, while art is "just to survive" thing at that point?

I think it generally matters from the map, if you'll have to "swim" to other leading civ i would be very greedy to build art. Oil availability could be another factor.

 

[King_Course]

On Deity, and to some degree Immortal, you better get fighters out in a hurry. When someone starts building bombers, and untill you have fighters, your whole solid empire is in danger.

 

[Mesix]

I agree with the OP. I rarely every use airforce in the game. If I am playing for a Cultural or Domination victory then the game is over before air power becomes a factor. If I am playing for a Science or Diplomacy victory, then my tech path and late game bulbing strategy do not lend to ever using an Airforce because after flight is researched I am building spaceship parts or the UN. Perhaps it is the near obsession with having the earliest possible finish date which drives this. I do remember using bombers and such in Vanilla when I was learning the mechanics of how to play the game, but recently no need to ever build an aircraft.

 

[Camikaze]

The problem with things late in the game is that a lot of the time you won't use them at all, but then sometimes they'll be quite central. It's not that there's some consistent level of importance that airforces hold. But if your strategy involves a late game war, then you airforce is certainly going to be important.