Can't Shoot a City 3 Tiles Away?

[bcaiko]

Hey folks,

Playing last night, I was taking on India and had a few Frigates that had +Range promotions. I sailed into a very fortified Delhi, and prepped to fire. The red ring of range covered the city, and the arrow targetted the city. I clicked, and...nothing happened. Tried again, nothing. There was a land unit under my ship, and I figured that might be the problem. Moved it, still no good. I ended up having to move my ship into 2 range to bombard (causing one of them to get bombarded and die).

Does anyone have an explanation as to why this would have happened? There was nothing in the way...the space between the ship and Delhi was all ocean. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if there's some gamerule I'm unaware of that won't let you tag a city using the +Range promotion on ships. Made me mad, since my Frigate also had the double attack promotion.

I've also had situations where my unit inside a city couldn't melee attack the units surrounding the city. I'd press attack, select the unit to hit...and nothing. I really wish the game would give explanations sometimes why you're not allowed to do an action.

 

[Supr49er]

Did you have +1 visibility? I think you need to be able to see the city/target, even if you have enough range to hit it.

 

[bcaiko]

Did you have +1 visibility? I think you need to be able to see the city/target, even if you have enough range to hit it.

I did, since my GW Infantry were right next to the city. Like I said, it was very wierd, because the city was a valid target (as far as I could tell). The red ring said the city was within my target range and when I hit the bombard button, a red arrow tracked from my unit to the city.

 

[Veneke]

If the red arrow tracked to the city and it was simply the case that nothing happened when you left-clicked I'm inclined to say that it was just a bug. There are a lot of buggy things with range, and especially 3 range, but if the red arrow tracks then you should be able to hit it - no questions asked.

Are you able to actually bombard the city from 3 tiles distant from a different tile? I'd also check to see if your other 3 range units (hopefully you have another!) can bombard the city from that tile.

Edit:

Actually, rereading your post I think there could be something buggy with your game. Nothing I've ever seen will prevent a unit from attacking another that's right next to them (unless it's land on water or something obvious like that). Have you tried verifying the game cache files through Steam?

Also, any chance of a screenshot? You're pretty clear but it would remove all doubt if we could see the attack that won't happen in action.

 

[bcaiko]

Unfortunately no screenshot or gamesave; it was late and I was frustrated. I just rushed in, sacrificed some units and utterly destroyed Ghandi for being so darned annoying.

Remind me how do I verify cache files?

 

[Clammo]

Open Steam, go to Library, right click on Civ 5, select Properties, then Local Files, then Verify Integrity of Cache.

 

[Vatras]

If you cannot fire from 3 tiles, but were able to from 2, while your unit's range is 3 hexes, it has to be a bug. I cannot see how it could be a visibility problem across ocean tiles.
I have to admit, I am weak on unit promotions. Is there maybe one which affects bombarding ranges (like "go to the trenches")?

 

[Harv72b]

Only thing I can think of (aside from it being a bug) is that it might have been a line of sight issue; that still leaves the red attack arrow thing up to user error, though, and while I know it's happened to me before you sound like you tried pretty much everything. I have noticed that sometimes the LOS is just goofy, especially with 3 range...things like a single hill being one hex off of your fire path but still blocking the shot, etc.

 

[docbud]

I have that problem here and there. Usually, if I select a different unit, then go back to my original unit and then fire it works. Sometimes I have to click three or four times so my unit will fire.

 

[bcaiko]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Sounds like a mod might want to move this thread into the Bugs forum, then.