Air superiority

henyo10

Warlord
Joined
May 27, 2008
Messages
270
Why is it that it seems that having air power in the game is not extremely useful as compared to real life where it truly matters. Air power in the game was quite made pointless when a stack of 15 workers can instantly work on the destroyed tile fixing it in less than 3 turns, the fact you can't kill something with it but merely damaging it really doesn't make sense and why the hell can't I bomb roads?.
 
all good points, the big reason why I like to have air superiority is purely to bomb the stack of doom and really weaken the forces coming at me.
slo
 
From what I understand about real life war you can't really destroy a whole army with air power because they can dig in. I mean, you can kill many many troops and in Civ terms weakening a unit is sort of like what this represents.

However, I do think that with air power you should be able to bomb and destroy things like ships and tanks. Also, I think you should be able to bomb specific buildings in a city with air units. And as the first poster stated, being able to take out roads and railroads would make sense.
 
I'd have liked to been able to bomb the opposing sides population, have a real impact upon their GNP and MFG :)
 
if you bomb all of their improvements (farms, mines, towns, etc) you will starve out a lot of their population and drastically reduce their GNP. Air power in the game is still very useful. You can use it to diminish the enemy's economy without actually having to take over their cities. Is this better than taking cities? Usually no, but you can do it for 2 reasons that I see:
1) you're in a very close race for a space or culture win, thus aireal bombardment is faster than trying to launch an amphibious invasion
2) for fun ;)
 
But damn it's frustrating that they instantly have a stack of workers to work on improvements. Is there any mod that focuses on air power?
 
In my last game, while I was building my spaceship, Asoka was about to achieve Cultural victory. He was too far away to launch a full scale invasion, so I sent a carrier task force (and a couple of nukes :D).

I bombed him back into the stone age and even his fast workers could not repair all the damage. At the end, he capitulated.
 
Air power seems to function OK in game with a couple of caveats. Tanks can bunker/dig in so I'm satisfied that they can not be destroyed but modern fighters and stealth bombers could certainly take out ships. And if roads can not be destroyed bridges should be able to be taken out thus slowing enemy movements. Plus destroying food tiles to starve a city seems a reasonable balance to actually being able to bomb the population. Then again look at the fire bombing of Dresden in the Allies war of aggresion :rolleyes: (WWII) 60,000 people killed and a city 80% destroyed.
 
In my last game, while I was building my spaceship, Asoka was about to achieve Cultural victory. He was too far away to launch a full scale invasion, so I sent a carrier task force (and a couple of nukes :D).

I bombed him back into the stone age and even his fast workers could not repair all the damage. At the end, he capitulated.
Really? he capitulated just from being bombed? I didn't know AIs would do that.

Anyway, they can still win a cultural victory after capitulating, unfortunately.
 
Really? he capitulated just from being bombed? I didn't know AIs would do that.
I did raze one city at the beginning of the war, but then withdraw and continue with air and nuclear strikes ,which eventually led to capitulation. :D

Anyway, they can still win a cultural victory after capitulating, unfortunately.
That's true, but the bombarding considerably slowed his cultural development, delaying his victory until I could achieve mine.
 
air is overpowered in civ as in real life. The combination bomber/blitzbattleship or bomber/tank is unstoppable
 
that's why the AI has SAM infantry and anti-tank. Those units are there to slow you down.
 
that's why the AI has SAM infantry and anti-tank. Those units are there to slow you down.

They don't do a very good job...

I'm currently winning my third emperor game (i admit i lost a couple of times too, especially 2 in which i got stone in the capital and went for a GW/EE gambit), and this is the second time i tried domination. My wars last about 5-10 turns on average, and I take 5-10 cities per war, I didn't lose a lot of units either. I actually gained about 40 more panzers in the process :S. It's so annoying to get to that point in the game where you have 50 cities that need new builds every 3-5 turns.

The best defense vs. airpower is, just as in real life, more airpower. The only cities I have trouble with are the ones that are under a screen of fighters. I have to sacrifice about 10 fighters before being able to safely send the bombers. But once the bombers make airstrikes the defenders are so soft all my panzers get >95 odds.
 
In Civ, the AI often cannot defend against an attack you make on it, at least not without much superior technology. Usually the only thing the AI can do is make the war so costly, and slow you down to such an extent, that another AI manages to get too far ahead for you to catch up to them.
 
Air power in the game was quite made pointless when a stack of 15 workers can instantly work on the destroyed tile fixing it in less than 3 turns,
Have you considered bombing an (ideally wooded) hill on the coast? A chance to snarfle 15 workers with an amphibious attack is not to be sniffed at, and the terrain bonuses should protect you from the inevitable counterattack.
 
Top Bottom