It seems as if airpower has been grossly mistreated in Civ III. The fact is, airpower is the most flexible and potentially powerful aspect of modern warfare and it has been castrated in Civ III. Maybe it is a little unreasonable to ask for more airpower missions like offensive counter air, or fighter escort for bombing missions. Maybe some folks would think it complicate things, but there must be some way of knocking out enemy airpower offensively. In the game, fighters are merely weak bombers with recon ability, they have no ability to destroy enemy airpower in an offensive mission. This situation might be rectified by adding a Counter-Air mission in which fighters can fly within their radius and exert their influence against any airpower within one square (two for modern fighters). This would fulfill an OCA mission, and also an escort mission if you bombed any of the surrounding squares that same turn.
Another of my major gripes with airpower in the game is the restriction of its offensive capability to merely "bombarding." This severly limits it's usefulness, because units can only be weakened and never destroyed. Unlike previous Civ games, it is now impossible for airpower alone to destroy any units. Jimmy Doolittle would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that Civ IIIs airplanes could never sink a single ship (particularly a wooden one). The current treatment of airpower reduces it to long range artillery. Fighters, bombers, helicopters, and cruise missiles are next to impotent in this game, and it is severly disappointing. In the case of city attacks, this works fairly well. I like what has been done with city bombardment and precision strikes. Additionally it is very difficult for airpower to totally destroy military units not in the open. But something must be done to allow air units to destroy naval units and ground units in the open. Conversely, ground and naval units (preferably something with an "air attack" ability) should have their own inherent ability to shoot back, and this has not been included in the current treatment of airpower. Air defense is one of the greatest strengths of aircraft carriers and AEGIS cruisers.
Finally, the air superiority mission and city air defense doesn't seem to work at all, and I have seen countless enemy WWII era bombers sneak through the radius of my jet fighters imperviously. Fortified fighters should have a zone of control equal to their operational radius versus other air units. The more fighters you have, the better, such that eventually no enemy airpower can sneak through. SAM sites should work in conjunction with defending fighters, ie. their defenses should contribute to each other (sort of like ground controlled intercepts). I don't think the air superiority mission properly simulates any of that.
I'd be glad to hear anyones thoughts, and I hope that there will be a patch to fix these problems, because the unit editor really doesn't have the capability to change how airpower behaves fundamentally.
Another of my major gripes with airpower in the game is the restriction of its offensive capability to merely "bombarding." This severly limits it's usefulness, because units can only be weakened and never destroyed. Unlike previous Civ games, it is now impossible for airpower alone to destroy any units. Jimmy Doolittle would be rolling over in his grave if he knew that Civ IIIs airplanes could never sink a single ship (particularly a wooden one). The current treatment of airpower reduces it to long range artillery. Fighters, bombers, helicopters, and cruise missiles are next to impotent in this game, and it is severly disappointing. In the case of city attacks, this works fairly well. I like what has been done with city bombardment and precision strikes. Additionally it is very difficult for airpower to totally destroy military units not in the open. But something must be done to allow air units to destroy naval units and ground units in the open. Conversely, ground and naval units (preferably something with an "air attack" ability) should have their own inherent ability to shoot back, and this has not been included in the current treatment of airpower. Air defense is one of the greatest strengths of aircraft carriers and AEGIS cruisers.
Finally, the air superiority mission and city air defense doesn't seem to work at all, and I have seen countless enemy WWII era bombers sneak through the radius of my jet fighters imperviously. Fortified fighters should have a zone of control equal to their operational radius versus other air units. The more fighters you have, the better, such that eventually no enemy airpower can sneak through. SAM sites should work in conjunction with defending fighters, ie. their defenses should contribute to each other (sort of like ground controlled intercepts). I don't think the air superiority mission properly simulates any of that.
I'd be glad to hear anyones thoughts, and I hope that there will be a patch to fix these problems, because the unit editor really doesn't have the capability to change how airpower behaves fundamentally.