Bombardment Failed

[PolarisXP]

Does anyone feel that this message pops up a little too often?

I launched a 20 Bomber raid on a city and only 5 out of 20 bombers managed to hit anything!! Ships and catapult/cannon/artillary are the same. Even the B2's have a high miss ratio with smart weapons Once more I have very rarely seen an F117 or a Jet/fighter have a sucessful run.

 

[Stormbull]

Wow... you had 5 of out of 20 actually get hits? That's a good hit ratio. I am not sure exactly how bombardment works, but I suspect it often keys off of the defense value of the best unit in the city, so if it's Mech Inf, your bombs are going to do squat most of the time.

Combat is so unpredictable in Civ3 that, to me, it just isn't fun. Maybe it's just it's my perception, but it sure seems like my 80-90% chance of winning battles based on the expected odds (Attack vs. Defense) is more like 50%. Three Swordsman attacking a Spearman in the field? Flip a coin...

I think I may have to resort to some modding to avoid shelving the game, but I don't even know if that will fix combat so that you can at least make reasonable predictions of the outcome...

 

[PolarisXP]

The defenders were riflemen and/or muskets - nothing special. The city was on grassland.

 

[Proteus]

In my current war against the Chinese I´ve attacked a City with 6 Artillery-Units and 2 Cavalry.
The Defender of the City was a lone Spearman.

2 of my Artillery-Units had their Bombardment failed (and cause I triple the Hiptoints and Firerates, each Artillery-Unit had 6 Attacks to make).

But I´ve thougth about it.
Isn´t it possible, that all Units in the City already had 1 HP and that was the Reason, the Attack failed?
Yes, there are still Inhabitants to kill and Buildings to destroy, but what, if the thing which is attacked (Buildings/Population/Units) is defined prior to the Attack?
If the Target is "Units" and all Units in the city have already 1 HP the Artillery isn´t able to inflict any damage and therefore the Attack fails.

Maybe an explanation for great numbers of failed attacks (especially if your initial attacks are successful and only the later attacks tend to fail)

 

[Sonic747]

It depends on country you are bombing. First, I attacked Britain with 4 bombers each turn. Ussualy, only one missed target. Later, I started bombing USA. I was happy if at least one of four hit the target.

 

[Anvil63]

I've been very disappointed at the effectiveness of bombardment in civ 3. Some very powerful units have been rendered nearly useless (except artillery in my opinion). The best use of bombardment I have found is the use of battleships or bombers to break up enemy supply lines. Thus slowing reinforcement and sometimes causing disorder for a turn much slowing the cities production.


In the fields the bodies burning...
As the war machine starts turning.

-O.O.

 

[PolarisXP]

but how often have you done this and the failed message appears? Would a ship really have so much trouble attacking a patch of land?

As the British Admiral at the battle of Jutland said "There appears to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"

 

[Dalixam]

I find that Jets are completely useless against both cities or units. When I use bombers they probably hit 40 % of the time, but with Jet Fighters it's around 10 %

 

[PolarisXP]

Which has the best chance of hitting a target?

a WWII era Bomber Vs a modern Jet

They say a single RAF Tornado aircraft has the same destructive power as an entire squadron on Lancasters from WWII

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

I agree Bombardment is simply not consistent enough. There is no reason that we should miss so often - point, fire

I have an inkling that the low rate of success is meant to represent a 'defense' that our opponents have against them. Screw that! If they want to defend, make them do it with units, no hidden numbers! Just my suspicion though...

 

[PolarisXP]

I can understand if you could targeted something - you select a sqaure and a list of targets came up, but I have been firing at the ground - roads and irrigation. How can you miss or defend against the ground getting damaged???

Unless the bombardment Failed means the gun misfired or bombs failed to detonate but still it is a huge failure rate.

 

[Zachriel]

I blast the heck outa 'em!

If there are riflemen in a city, they are going to be very, very tough, being doubled, forted, across a river or whatever. So I bombard them with 10-20 units, their rail/road support lines, and anyone coming to relieve the weakened defenders. Usually, I make sure to destroy the barracks too, or they will rejuvenate by the following turn.

And I will keep bombarding turn after turn, as required.

I have noticed that once they all get down to 1hp, then the bombard will fail everytime (unless you hit a building or civilian). That's my cue to enter the city.

 

[Peteus]

Um...I definitely don't have the same problems that y'all seem to have. Or at least the way it works seems about right to me. There's nothing like 10 (Artillery + Bombers) to soften up a big enemy city full of infantry in advance of my panzers or modern armour!

 

[Hurricane]

I think (can´t remember where I read it, though), that they lowered the effectiveness of bombardments in the patch. So you will miss more often now.

And to Proteus: firerate has nothing to do with the to hit-chance. So only if you manage to hit, will firepower kick in. So actually, the 2x6 attacks were in fact only 2 rolls. So that´s only slightly bad luck.

 

[eyrei]

I have absolutely no problem bombarding the **** out of my opponents with artillery. About every other shot destroys something or wounds a unit. I am completely satisfied with this, especially since the AI doesn't seem to use artillery on offense. THe AI will use bombers though. I watched the Indians and CHinese bomb literally EVERY terrain improvement in the Roman empire as their ground troops advanced.

 

[Jaxom]

Bombers appear to be most effective against terrain improvements and units in the field. I have sent waves of bombers against large cities to only have one or two kill population. Funny, you would think with such a huge city(15 or higher) it would be hard not hit something.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Jaxom
Bombers appear to be most effective against terrain improvements and units in the field. I have sent waves of bombers against large cities to only have one or two kill population. Funny, you would think with such a huge city(15 or higher) it would be hard not hit something.

When the Germans blitzed London, they killed thousands, but that was in a city of millions. Most of the time the game does not show a result; I believe that means it hit a unit.

 

[Proteus]

Originally posted by Hurricane

And to Proteus: firerate has nothing to do with the to hit-chance. So only if you manage to hit, will firepower kick in. So actually, the 2x6 attacks were in fact only 2 rolls. So that´s only slightly bad luck.

You mean, first it is checked, if the Artillery hits and then per RandomNumberGenerator determined, how many HPs (from 1 to Firerate) the enemy Unit does lose?

What a pity.
I hoped, they had made Artillery-Attacks a little bit more "realistic", i.e. the Firerate determines how many ToHitRolls there are.

 

[zeeter]

I don't have as much of a problem with this as some of you. I did notice that bombers are better against buildings and improvements than against units. I also noticed that artillery is better against units.
This may be by design, or just the luck of the draw. If you think about it, though, it makes sense. A bomber is going to have a difficult time hitting a unit from a thousand feet up or so. They are moving and have more difficulty seeing the enemy from way up there. Plus the enemy can duck for cover. On the other hand, the barracks doesn't move and they probably have a pretty good idea where it is before they start their mission.
The artillery is in the field. They are not moving and are usually more precise than bombers. But how many artillery units have you ever heard of used against city improvements like a factory? We have seen them in countless movies being used against units.
Our history in WWII shows that we used our bombers against german industry almost exclusively. In fact, the Army Air Corps said before D-Day - "Good luck with your little invasion. We're busy winning the war here." They knew that air power isn't as effective against units as against industry.

 

[etj4Eagle]

I have also seen at times a high miss rate with my bombers/artillery/battleships. I have gone from doing massive damage with my bombers to a major city to them being utterly useless. I think the cause is the elimination of one of the target categories. Ie if I knock out all the buildings or fully damage all the defenders I will suddenly start having failed bombing missions. What is happening is that there are three options for my bombs to destroy: population, buildings, and units, but the computer does not eliminate a target if it becomes invalid. So if I have already destroyed all the buildings, it may still come up with a building target, and well that is now a given failure.