Airlift Strat

[Ashmantious]

In Civ 3 one of my common strategies was to avoid going onto another continent until I had flight. I would build a new city on the continent and rush an airport. I found this a much better way to get troops accros the sea. Is this still a viable strategy in Civ IV? (Don't have the game yet) If not this puts a much higher focus on naval power. In Civ 3 you could get away with a "coast guard" if you will because you could ship the troops via air. If you have to go y sea, the need for navy becomes greater.

 

[Stevenpfo]

I haven't played with it yet but I noticed the one city I built an airport in had an airlift capability. I only built one airport just to see cause it was a pangea map.

Navy is a bit more important in Civ 4. I found out the hard way when a marauding english galleon came in and destroyed all of my fishing ventures and my cities went to hell health wise.

 

[fastspawn]

airport is too late in the game for such tactics isn't it? You should be settling new islands when you get coal or even earlier. or the enemy would have taken up all the space.

 

[Kolyana]

Last night I had a few airports on my main continent and I was waging war against several civilizations on another one ... ferrying my troops across in 4 troop carriers

So - with *NO* airports on the other continent, I wondered if I could airlift a troop clear across and to the front line ... AND YOU CAN.

Apparently you only need an airport to take off from and the destination can be any city; airport NOT required.