You'll have to forgive me if this is an issue brought up before, but here's one of the things I'd really like to see improved in the next Civ: a more realistic air war. As it is now, airplanes, fighters, bombers, are all small fraction of what they should be. I say this mostly regarding the fact that they are bombarding weapons and pretty limited in what they can do. Granted, in Civ4 there are some nice improvements to the way they function, but they still fall very short of their real life counterparts.
In the real world, historically and in the modern setting, a squadron of fighters and bombers can take out an entire fleet of ships through dive-bombing, torpedo drops, and long range anti-ship missles. Carpet bombing and incendiary bombs have been used for a while to completely eradicate infantry. Laser-guided bombs and missles are a well known bane of tanks.
In Civ, however, planes can do little more than 'soften' all these enemies up and make them easier for land units to take out. Now, granted, airplanes can't take over a city and shouldn't be able to, either. But they should be able to effectively destroy most unit types. As it is now, they're only realistic in their city bombing, which can and does destroy buildings within a city. Though the ability to pick specific targets within the city should be a key factor, rarely are planes sent to just 'bomb the place' and bombing an enemy's statue or temple is hardly a success. Being able to direct a bombing run on enemy barracks, harbors, factories, on the other hand...
Yes, I do realize this brings a bit of a balance issue, but I think a matter of making an 'air control' system in place would fix this. A system where air power in a given region is labeled as 'contested' when the range of two different civilization's air forces overlap, preventing air strikes in that area(except for an attack ON the enemy air forces, which would be a dangerous move and have a fair risk of failure) until the opposing air forces are destroyed. In addition, the presence of anti-air power on the ground(missle infantry, mobile SAMs, anti-aircraft guns) within a fixed area of the target, say 2 squares, would either prevent a strike from being launched or provide a high risk of failure and loss of air unit and/or bombardment result similar to the current way planes work, just softening up the target a bit before being forced to flee. This would also include a revamping of some units to give them AA power additions, such as the Destroyer having AA guns, etc.
I'd just like to see air power given it's rightful signifigance in warfare. Historically, Pearl Harbor is decent example, and in more modern times in the Middle East, air superiority has been a major factor in most conflicts and in some cases been the deciding factor. I'd like to see that the case in Civ, as well. And thus ends my slightly alcohol-induced rant!
In the real world, historically and in the modern setting, a squadron of fighters and bombers can take out an entire fleet of ships through dive-bombing, torpedo drops, and long range anti-ship missles. Carpet bombing and incendiary bombs have been used for a while to completely eradicate infantry. Laser-guided bombs and missles are a well known bane of tanks.
In Civ, however, planes can do little more than 'soften' all these enemies up and make them easier for land units to take out. Now, granted, airplanes can't take over a city and shouldn't be able to, either. But they should be able to effectively destroy most unit types. As it is now, they're only realistic in their city bombing, which can and does destroy buildings within a city. Though the ability to pick specific targets within the city should be a key factor, rarely are planes sent to just 'bomb the place' and bombing an enemy's statue or temple is hardly a success. Being able to direct a bombing run on enemy barracks, harbors, factories, on the other hand...
Yes, I do realize this brings a bit of a balance issue, but I think a matter of making an 'air control' system in place would fix this. A system where air power in a given region is labeled as 'contested' when the range of two different civilization's air forces overlap, preventing air strikes in that area(except for an attack ON the enemy air forces, which would be a dangerous move and have a fair risk of failure) until the opposing air forces are destroyed. In addition, the presence of anti-air power on the ground(missle infantry, mobile SAMs, anti-aircraft guns) within a fixed area of the target, say 2 squares, would either prevent a strike from being launched or provide a high risk of failure and loss of air unit and/or bombardment result similar to the current way planes work, just softening up the target a bit before being forced to flee. This would also include a revamping of some units to give them AA power additions, such as the Destroyer having AA guns, etc.
I'd just like to see air power given it's rightful signifigance in warfare. Historically, Pearl Harbor is decent example, and in more modern times in the Middle East, air superiority has been a major factor in most conflicts and in some cases been the deciding factor. I'd like to see that the case in Civ, as well. And thus ends my slightly alcohol-induced rant!