Airships

[5tephen]

Does anyone use them? I've read some very old posts which suggest they're good but I'm sceptical given their attack value.

I struggle to know where to go if curraisiers and rifles/cannons have run their course but it's not yet time for bombers and tanks. Can airships supplement curraisiers once rifles/infantry are on the map? Communism and biology are so good on the tech tree at this point that physics never seems optimal and after this industrialism is close...

 

[rah]

Great for sentry duty.
Don't underestimate their ability to nick rifles in cities. That small nick can make quite impact only following ground assault odds. Every little bit helps.

 

[lymond]

I use em if I got em. Really helpful with curs.

 

[Qactus]

Airships are great in combination with Cavalry and Spies: City revolt, 1 or 2 aerial strikes on the top defenders, cavalry moves in. Allows an extremely quick campaign without siege. Airship recon missions in this case also really help for planning ahead and positioning spies in advance.

 

[dankok8]

Their biggest ability is recon. I find them tremendously useful because when I can see AI troop movements, defeating them becomes a piece of cake.

 

[drewisfat]

Their best feature, as others mentioned, is they don't obsolete even after the AI gets anti-air, as they're effective recon for the rest of the game.

 

[Orion Pax]

What folks said. Two adds:

1) When they first come on the scene they have no counter, unlike later stronger air units. So no risk.

2) Their range is quite good. Further than the Fighter planes they upgrade to, in fact.

 

[5tephen]

Thanks everyone. Seems I undervalued them. I'm fairly close to a domination/conquest victory in my current game on the verge of launching an overwhelming bomber/tank attack. I found myself in a situation where my curraisiers rush ended 50 turns ago with one big AI with vassals left who had rifles/cannons/machine guns. I'm going to try and win first but after that I'll reload to the point I abandoned my curraisiers campaign, research physics and try the spy/airship idea.

 

[SaintSaens_Op61]

1) When they first come on the scene they have no counter, unlike later stronger air units. So no risk.

Airships may not be that strong by themselves, but why not use them if you're the first to get them? Also, they are the only air unit that can see subs.

 

[Fish Man]

Thanks everyone. Seems I undervalued them. I'm fairly close to a domination/conquest victory in my current game on the verge of launching an overwhelming bomber/tank attack. I found myself in a situation where my curraisiers rush ended 50 turns ago with one big AI with vassals left who had rifles/cannons/machine guns. I'm going to try and win first but after that I'll reload to the point I abandoned my curraisiers campaign, research physics and try the spy/airship idea.

Please don’t. Even with airships, cuirs against rifles and machine guns is complete suicide. When we say airships are decent units, we don’t mean they’re a substitute for actual siege. Tech to steel and rifling at the very least...

 

[Qactus]

Not a big fan of combining siege and mounted, takes the whole speed out of them. Pinch Cavalry with spy revolts and airships can take on rifles successfully and would only really be stopped by infantry. Seraiel had some great games on deity using that combo, and also made a few detailed writeups - sadly all his images are lost.

 

[Pangaea]

Indeed, very sad those pictures by @Seraiel are gone. Excellent write-ups, and he wrote a story around them as well, and explained his thinking by using loads of pictures. Excellent learning resource.

 

[6K Man]

Aircraft in general are unbalancing in this game (you can insta-move them anywhere on the map, allowing you to concentrate forces quickly). And as noted above, there's no counter to them (no ground troops with anti-air capability, even!) when they become available, and knocking 10 or 20% off the top defender's strength is very, very useful.

 

[shakabrade]

I use them whenever I can. Great to soften the defenders and also a good way to prebuild fighters for fighter+marines combo, especially if you are low on production. Never did the math but I feel they can save you a lot of units and provide you the info of all enemies in vicinity (you get the recon when you attack) allowing you to split stacks and make that cavalry rush so much faster.

 

[pi-r8]

Everyone complains about airships but I feel like they're pretty well balanced, as much as anything in the late game. You have to choose between physics, assembly line, and railroad, which all offer crucial military advances. And then you have to actually build the airships, which can only damage one unit at a time, so it's often more cost effective to just build more regular units. Their best feature is probably the massive chunk of the map they reveal.

 

[5tephen]

Thank you again everybody for your comments - it's great that I still have so much to learn in a 15 year old game!

I went back to look at my save and in my case my cuirassiers attack had petered out, I had over 20 cities and vassals on a standard map but I hadn't progressed in tech since military tradition due to constant war. Therefore I was a long way from physics but the AI only needed steam power and railroad to get machine guns which could presumably take out my airships? I eventually won the map with tanks and bombers.

I guess I'm unfamiliar with the part of the tech tree after curaissiers. I've read all of the advice above and I'm keen to give airships a try but given the choices between physics, biology, communism or heading towards assembly line where do I prioritise to get optimal use of airships? At that point in the tech tree state property just seems so strong and biology really helps with that and by the time I have teched/traded for both of these and with my limited skills, the deity AI is far ahead in the tech tree. If they weren't so far ahead I would probably have abandoned teching all together and wiped the map with cuirassiers.

Almost everybody on this thread is a deity player whereas I only masquerade as such after reloading my early game tech path a few times so I'm not arguing that airships aren't good, I just can't quite work out how I should be fitting them into my tech path.

In case it helps contextualise my question I have attached the save - WARNING spoiler for NC246.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Pangaea]

I'd say that airships isn't something you target in the tech-tree, like cuirs or cannons. They're not a gamechanger, not really. But once you are there, you may as well get some use out of them, and they are pretty good units -- for the reasons stated above. They're not overpowered or anything like that (imo, ofc), but they're nice for taking down the health of top defenders in late-game mounted warfare and to get pretty much full overview of enemy stack movements and defenders in cities. You only need a few airships, and then scout the general area of the enemy AI every turn, and attack the top defenders in cities you target (ofc they need to be in range of that, which is 8 tiles I think).

 

[shakabrade]

If you are still in the phase of the game where State Property would be helpful then you are still far from conquest or domination. In that case, airships are really not a priority. Where they fall into nicely is a domquest game which starts with cuir rush and where you eventually tech maybe one or two more techs on your way to the Cavalry (as you are fully commited to the victory). I usually get Physics in trade from my vassal as AIs value Physics highly. In that case, why not build an Airship or two (usually 8) to help wrap things up. Sounds situational but in practice Cuir and Cav rushes make a significant portion of military victories and that is why Airships are frequently used in my games.

 

[5tephen]

@Pangaea @shakabrade
Thanks. I think I understand now: tech airships to speed up an already certain victory rather than as a key tech on the way to victory.

BTW Shakabrade thanks again for help on Sury NC map - never managed to win but your support got me to an eventual deity win .