Bombers Don't Work

[RedRover57]

I have to disagree somewhat. Cavalry are useless in combat, they just get killed. I'll never send a cav into harm's way again. You say to use Cav to spot for bombers? I've tried that, every time a cav is far in the advance, by itself, it just gets wiped out. Besides, by the time you have bombers, you will have upgraded Cavs into tanks. Also, upgrading cav to tanks costs you 1 oil and gives you back 1 horse. Interesting how Cav went from one of the most devastating weapons in Civ 3, to a useless weapon in Civ 5. Although building 15 or so for upgrade to tank is a cheap way to get tanks.

Cavs and the earlier horse units are far from useless, and I'm not even talking about the overpowered keshiks and Mandekalu cavs (both of which are extremely OPed if used correctly - domination VC by T150 on a standard pangaea anyone?). Regular horse units are useful in almost every game in one of the following roles: (1) City capper - take over a city of any strength as long as it has been reduced down to one hit point, i.e. by ranged units (horses can stay out of harms way until ready to cap), (2) Pillager - Horse units can get in and out after pillaging important resources like iron, horses, uranium, etc., or farms to starve down a high pop city before conquest to reduce your happiness hit, and (3) Ranged unit destroyer - use horse units to flank and take out enemy siege and archers. The biggest limitation to horses is terrain - they are less effective on maps with a lot of rough terrain.

 

[Monthar]

@Tiber4321, what these guys said.

Use it to spot any threats to it, which you take out with the bombers, and then retreat if necessary.

Cavs and the earlier horse units are far from useless, and I'm not even talking about the overpowered keshiks and Mandekalu cavs (both of which are extremely OPed if used correctly - domination VC by T150 on a standard pangaea anyone?). Regular horse units are useful in almost every game in one of the following roles: (1) City capper - take over a city of any strength as long as it has been reduced down to one hit point, i.e. by ranged units (horses can stay out of harms way until ready to cap), (2) Pillager - Horse units can get in and out after pillaging important resources like iron, horses, uranium, etc., or farms to starve down a high pop city before conquest to reduce your happiness hit, and (3) Ranged unit destroyer - use horse units to flank and take out enemy siege and archers. The biggest limitation to horses is terrain - they are less effective on maps with a lot of rough terrain.

If you're losing your cavalry before you can upgrade them to tanks, you're moving them too far in and don't have enough bombers to clear anything they spot. With 4 movement points you shouldn't be running them in any further that 2 tiles so they can retreat back to where the were. You should only move them 1 tile at a time. As you clear enemy units and you've used up all your bombers' attacks, if the enemy can't reach the cavalry leave them in place even though they still have 2 moves left.

The main reason for building lots of cavalry is to save the oil for bombers. Once you unlock stealth, only upgrade as many cavalry to tanks as you upgrade bombers to stealth. Unless you have very little aluminum, in which case, you'll still need a lot of bombers.

 

[Tiber4321]

@steave

I think building a bomber to protect a cav unit is a waste of resources. By the time I reseach Biology and start to develop my oil fields, I usually find I don't have as much as I'd like. I'm always going to use my first 20 or so oil units to build tanks. Tank and Modern Armor are by far the best way to take cities and control of more resources. If I'm lucky enough to have abundant oil, I will build some bombers (to attack units rather than bomb cities, where they have little effect and can get shot down).

Later in the game, I will build Stealth Bombers which actually help take out cities. I'm still trying to figure what purpose cavalry has in Civ 5 (other than build up for upgrade to tank), Is it meant for light recon? Wouldn't a Lancer be better for this?

 

[Tiber4321]

@ Monthar
Any time I use Cavalry at all in action, they get killed, so I always hold them behind the lines for upgrade. Upgrading a cavalry to tank uses 1 oil and gives back one horse, at least in my game. So, if oil is scarce, I'm only going to build tanks. Also, I didn't mean so say all Horse units are weak, I've used Horsemen and Knights with some success.

 

[Monthar]

If you build a barracks, armory and military academy then build bombers they'll all be 15 xp short of taking either logistics or air repair, unless you're playing as America. With America, if you take a 2nd siege with those B17s, those 3 buildings are enough to get logistics or air repair right away and only 15 xp from taking the other.

If you also manage to get the Brandenburg Gate, then with those 3 buildings in the same city, all your bombers can start with either logistics or air repair and American B17's can start with both.

Using your oil, even when scarce for bombers that start with these promotions, especially if you go with siege, they can drop cities fairly quickly without dying. Then those cavalry can just take the 1hp cities as well as tanks. This also lets you get the bombers ranked up a bit more while teching to stealth.

Lastly, the American B17 also has the 50% evasion promotion, so it won't take much damage.

 

[steave435]

@steave

I think building a bomber to protect a cav unit is a waste of resources. By the time I reseach Biology and start to develop my oil fields, I usually find I don't have as much as I'd like. I'm always going to use my first 20 or so oil units to build tanks. Tank and Modern Armor are by far the best way to take cities and control of more resources. If I'm lucky enough to have abundant oil, I will build some bombers (to attack units rather than bomb cities, where they have little effect and can get shot down).

Later in the game, I will build Stealth Bombers which actually help take out cities. I'm still trying to figure what purpose cavalry has in Civ 5 (other than build up for upgrade to tank), Is it meant for light recon? Wouldn't a Lancer be better for this?

You don't build bombers to protect the cavalry, you use the cavalry to spot for your bombers and, as was mentioned above, it also takes the cities when they get down to 1 hp from the bombs. Killing stuff threatening the cav is just meant to reduce the enemy army size and make sure their spotter doesn't die.

 

[Tiber4321]

Thanks for the info guys.

 

[Tiber4321]

@ Mothar
I used your bombing statagy, only I spotted with tanks and modern armor, and wow, it really works like a charm, approach highly defended city with 2 or 3 tanks, attack with one if them (I guess this sights to bomber onto critical target in the city, then bomb it four of five times, then your second tank mops up. I used this to take sout a 95 defense city in two turns. In this sense, bobmers can replace artillery, which I find to be cumbersome until gets really advanced. The only problem is that even with a lot of aluminum, you will use it all up, and you will be fighting with regular tanks in the late game, but that's ok if you have a dozen stealth bombers. Anyhow thanks for the advice, I'm amazed at how much more complex Civ 5 is than 3. After those countless hours playing 3, it seems like child's play. Also, I was wondering if you could build bomber with the three standard military buildings + Brandenburg Gate +Heroic Epic, it would be freaking awesome. Anyhow , thanks for the stategy, I don't know where else I would have found it.

 

[Monthar]

IIRC Heroic Epic's bonus is not given to aircraft. However, it is helpful for all your land and sea units.