Airship: the moost ridiculous unit in the game?

[Dida]

Which unit do you think is the most ridiculous, unrealistic and unfun?

I would have to give my vote to the airship. Before you get a sizable air force going, this thing totally dominates not only the sky but also land and sea. The AI regularly decimates my SoD with his numberless airships. Even my battleship and destroyer gets severely damaged by these things. This is so ridiculous. They should play no more than a reconnaissance role. It is a joke that slow moving airships can even get close to a destroyer, which is supposed to have some AA capability.

The Germans, French and Italians all operated airships in scouting and tactical bombing roles early in WWI, and all learned that the airship was too vulnerable for operations over the front. The decision to end operations in direct support of armies was made by all in 1917.

 

[Mesix]

I agree. The airship is pretty stupid.

They were never very good historically.

Remember the Hindenberg?

 

[Party]

I have to disagree, the airship was an extreamly powerful bombardment and propaganda tool up until incindiary bullets were invented. They completly demoralised the population of London in the early years of WW1, for example.

 

[Dida]

they should be restricted to reconnaissance or similar roles. airship was never an effective weapon and all parties ceased to use it after a brief experiment in WW1.

Regarding the German use of airships in WW1, I offer the following excerpt from Wiki:

Navigation, target selection and bomb-aiming proved to be difficult under the best of conditions. The darkness, high altitudes and clouds that were frequently encountered by zeppelin missions reduced accuracy even further. The physical damage done by the zeppelins over the course of the war was trivial, and the deaths that they caused (though visible) amounted to a few hundred at most. The zeppelins also proved to be vulnerable to attack by aircraft and antiaircraft guns, especially those armed with incendiary bullets. Several were shot down in flames by British defenders, and others crashed 'en route'. In retrospect, advocates of the naval scouting role of the airship proved to be correct, and the land bombing campaign proved to be disastrous in terms of morale, men and material. Many pioneers of the German airship service died in what was the first strategic bombing campaign in history.

 

[kazapp]

Okay, so how to constructively "salvage" the unit?

Would the best change be to simply delay the Airship to, say, one tech ahead of fighter?

 

[kazapp]

Regarding the German use of airships in WW1, I offer the following excerpt from Wiki:

That quote doesn't make sense to me. If it was so disastrous, wouldn't it be the detractors and not the advocates that were right?

 

[Dida]

Okay, so how to constructively "salvage" the unit?

Would the best change be to simply delay the Airship to, say, one tech ahead of fighter?

The unit is more disruptive than useful in the game. I don't see why it is there in the first place. It should be removed completely, or reduced to only a recon role.

 

[Dida]

That quote doesn't make sense to me. If it was so disastrous, wouldn't it be the detractors and not the advocates that were right?

advocates of the naval scouting role of the airship proved to be correct

Airship was a relatively new weapon at the time and there were debates as to how to best use it. Those advocating naval recon role were proven correct. Tactical use of the ship (bombing enemy troops) as well as strategic use proved to be disastrous.

 

[MrFrodo]

Bombardment tool, no
Propoganda/Fear tool, yes, at least at first.

I think it is fun from a gameplay point of view to have an early air unit. Capped at 4/city, no collateral damage, no bombardment, it isn't all that overpowered IMO. Maybe I'm just not playing the right kind of game to have it effect me a lot. I certainly don't try to use it heavily myself - mostly just support for attacking land stacks and weakening naval convoys.

 

[peter450]

It just needs some kind of counter unit, to even it up a bit, no one likes being hit by units that they have no way of hitting back

Secondly it needs to come later, grenadiers an cannons being hit by airships, is not really historically accurate although being civ little in the game is historically accurate, however most things are historically plausable, airships running around in the timeframe they are running around in is not really historically plausable they have'nt even invented combustion engines yet, which are crucial to an airships operation

 

[DigitalBoy]

What sense does it make that has the same range as a bomber? How bogus is that? And you can't defend yourself from them until fighters are available. Yea, that makes perfect sense.

 

[Popcornlord]

I agree: Airships are'nt that great now. One question though, should't this be a poll?

 

[Dida]

exactly, not to mention airships pretty much render your navy useless until carriers come around. The AI will first decimate your battleship fleet with airships and then destroy it with its far, far inferior navy! (airship has +100% attack against ships, if I remember correctly)

 

[St. Augustine]

so it sounds as if everyone is upset since the AI can counter a human opponent
OH NO the world is going up in helium flames

come on everyone! perhaps instead of ferrying over SoD to wipe out the inferior AI maybe another military strategy is in order?

i love the airship, it's a great recon / long distance weapon and talk about a forward base juggernaut - try using the airship and i bet you'll be surprised as well

and for all of you crying for a counter how about getting some techs ahead and shooting the blasted things down!

 

[Dennis_Moore]

I agree. The airship is pretty stupid.

They were never very good historically.

Remember the Hindenberg?

Stupid Airships!

 

[Tirse]

The problem with airships is IMO the fact that when they appear - and for quite long time afterwards - there's no real counter to them. One can only endure their attacks. Plus, they become available a bit too early.

They need a fix, but are fun as a unit concept.

 

[Kissamies]

Remember the Hindenberg?

Everyone always remembers Hindenburg, but what about Graf Zeppelin, the Globetrotter? It seems people are keener to remember failures than successes. Yes, I like airships, but they come a bit too early. Physics? OK for buoyancy, but what about propulsion?

 

[troytheface]

lol , airships are indeed a strange unit. I like the graphic of them tho and they do add that bit of "what the hell kinda unit?..." which reminds me of a civ1 or 2 player that spoke of alpine ski infantry or something. A quirky game specific unit is not a bad idea- but i would still like to see biplanes for the graphic of them shooting those early zepplins down.

 

[nemt]

Didn't Napoleon (I) want to invade Britain with some kind of airship, in addition to tunneling there from France?

 

[AfterShafter]

so it sounds as if everyone is upset since the AI can counter a human opponent
OH NO the world is going up in helium flames

come on everyone! perhaps instead of ferrying over SoD to wipe out the inferior AI maybe another military strategy is in order?

i love the airship, it's a great recon / long distance weapon and talk about a forward base juggernaut - try using the airship and i bet you'll be surprised as well

and for all of you crying for a counter how about getting some techs ahead and shooting the blasted things down!

I largely agree with this guy. They are not insurmountable, and most of the complaints I'm seeing largely amount to "But, but, I send my giant stack in straight forward and the airships hurt it before it can easily wipe out the enemy city!"... Oh, and historical arguments, which as we all know have little bearing on Civ

I don't mind airships. They're very effective, but not ridiculous.