Bombard - Hey, what is it good for?

[d'Anconia]

Absolutely nothing?

So I guess I would be considered pretty much a newbie to Civ3. I had the game a couple of years ago, had lots of fun with it and then my disk managed to break. So, I walked into the store a few weeks ago, and saw Civ3 - Complete, and decided it was time to try it again.

So here's the question - I have never used to build any "bombarding" units (catapault etc) in my games. Maybe I just don't know how to use them, or don't see the benefit, or both. Are they a defensive, or offensive unit? What strategies would you recommend?

 

[JoeBas]

Give me a stack of 40 artillery and I'll give you the world...

You'll get a lot of answers on this... personally, I find their use limited until the advent of Artillery... but once those "Big guns" come out, an undersized army with artillery can defend and conquer better than an army twice it's size with none.

 

[Tomoyo]

They are an defensive unit early on, then used for attack as you go up the tech tree. Catapults are great for damaging units in the open, like attackers, and artillery is when the range is enough to use for fast warmongering, and the artillery can wear down metropolises that would be really hard to take otherwise.

 

[WackenOpenAir]

The higher the difficulty level, the earlier they get efficient.
On sid, i think it is a decent option to start mass bombardment right away with catapults.

 

[IbnSina]

... What they said ...

I would only add that even cannons are worthwhile when they show up, for knocking those cities down to a smaller, less defensible size, and for an artillery upgrade rush when it is available.

Welcome to CFC!

 

[oilfan]

There is nothing quite as satisfyings as reducing a well defended metropolis to ruble as your troops look on. Artillery is great for taking those well defended cities. Just make sure you have enough and that they are well defended.

I also like to use them against enemy navies. Even if my navy is well developed, lobing a few shells at your opponents battleship (or better yet, a transport full of enemy troops) is effective at softening it, and making it easier on my own ships. I love playing on maps with a few naval choke points, when this really gets fun.

 

[citizen001]

Artillery in general is used for redlining enemy units and works great in a SoD to lessen your casualties.

 

[MikeH]

In GOTM 37 I had great fun destroying Bismark's invading panzers with only artilllery and cavalry, as citizen001 says, I used the arty to redline the panzers and the cavalry to finish them off, after a few turns of that Bismark was more than happy to pay for peace ,

I went on to lose of course, but at least I had fun getting there .

 

[The Last Conformist]

If you use Swordsmen and Medievals rather than Horsemen and Knights, Catapults and Trebuchets are quite effective on offense too.

 

[Strato]

Good to soften a city's defenses, then just walk on in. It greatly minimises casualties on my side too, so that way a smaller army can be used to cripple a mighty empire.

 

[Alexsy]

also: consider that artillery can help reduce the chance of a city culture flipping. how? well when you bombard a city down from, say, 15 to 3, it makes it easier to crush resistances. and i'm pretty sure that city size does have something to do with how easily it will flip. not that i'm advocating war crimes ...

 

[satchel]

In addition to everything else already said on this thread (I use bombarding units for all these reasons), bombarding can be useful for leader fishing with obsolete elite units. For example, if you have a handful of elite swordsman lying around in the early industrial ages, they might not be too useful against fortified rifles. But if you bombard the rifles down to 1HP first, your elite sword has a pretty good chance of winning.

 

[searcheagle]

If you got bombardment, you can do anything. I had a number of games where bombardment was the ONLY thing that kept me in it.

As an answer to first question: Offensive or defensive tactics: Both

Defensively it will weaken up attacking units as they attack, sometimes this weakens them up enough, that their units is guaranteed defeat. It can also be used as a "counterattack" to soften up the opposition, and weaken many of thier units so that they are easy prey for your conqueoring units. Even calvary can take out a Modern Armor if it was redlined by constant bombardment.

Bombardment by ships and aircraft and other bombardment tools can weaken up enemy cities to allow them to take enemy cities. In the modern era, some cities are so well defended that no single unit will take them- UNLESS, that cities is weakened up by constant bombardment.

None of this is not that the bombardment system can't be improved- it can. But the current system is useful, too.

 

[Tomoyo]

Actually, since I tend to build so many LBM, I occasionally use them to take out Modern Armours. One LBM, whom I named "Hikaru - RNG ace" actually killed four Modern Armours with the help of artillery.

 

[searcheagle]

Another note: The bombardment system in Conquests, which i have been playing recently, has been improved.

Numerous units now have now have lethal bombardment including aircraft, cruise missiles.

 

[Bartleby]

Actually, since I tend to build so many LBM, I occasionally use them to take out Modern Armours. One LBM, whom I named "Hikaru - RNG ace" actually killed four Modern Armours with the help of artillery.

What!? Longbowman beats Modern Armour!? That shouldn't be allowed! Fix the pRNG Now!!

 

[dgfred]

... What they said ...

I would only add that even cannons are worthwhile when they show up, for knocking those cities down to a smaller, less defensible size, and for an artillery upgrade rush when it is available.

Welcome to CFC!

Same here! I find cats/arty a necessity for my war-mongering.

 

[Tomoyo]

What!? Longbowman beats Modern Armour!? That shouldn't be allowed! Fix the pRNG Now!!

It was always a red-lined MA... Think of it as the artillery destroying the armour and the LBM going in to actually kill the guys.

 

[Bartleby]

was joking

 

[man o' war]

The fool-proof arguement for the use of artillary:

Why charge into them causing sevene casualties on both sides when you can just smite them from 3 miles away with a rifleman and a couple of artys on a hill?? YOU DON'T LOOSE ANY MEN!!