Close air support
- Thread starter Tellos
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carl corey
Deity
If I reach that era and prepare to war I'm much more likely to research Flight than Artillery and build Bombers & Fighters like you. Their advantages include: the low probability of their being damaged - provided that the enemy has the troops to do it! - and their range. Add reconnaissance to that and yeah, they're a really useful way to fight late wars. I've had stacks of tens of bombers in late wars and they prove extremely useful. Keep in my that that late in the game the enemy is likely to have railroads, so taking a city is only the first step, holding it is pretty darned hard. So I use my bombers to soften almost anything that can attack the newly captured city too.
I also use fighters and close air support a lot in preference to artillery. My fighters are usually based on carriers to enhance their mobility as long as there is coastline (no need to rebase after taking cities means more strikes and potentally faster attacks). Amphibious troops make taking coastal cities a dream and then a stack of ordinary troops can hold the city.
It is possible to beeline research to Flight long before bombers and tanks can be researched and I've started to do this. Then there is a period when I can fight with infantry, fighters and gunships that races through the opposition. I use Destroyers to reduce defences on coastal cities and my old catapults and cannons for inland ones. Fighters halve the defenders hitpoints and strength and then the gunships and infantry get an easy win. A powerful stack of infantry can defend any city I take and fighters weaken any stacks threatening to counter attack (although that gets a lot harder if the enemy has railways). Fighters are great if you get them early enough.
Edit: Forgot to add that Flight also gives Airports that allow frontline cities to recieve an air lifted reinforcement every turn. That really speeds up inter continental warfare.
It is possible to beeline research to Flight long before bombers and tanks can be researched and I've started to do this. Then there is a period when I can fight with infantry, fighters and gunships that races through the opposition. I use Destroyers to reduce defences on coastal cities and my old catapults and cannons for inland ones. Fighters halve the defenders hitpoints and strength and then the gunships and infantry get an easy win. A powerful stack of infantry can defend any city I take and fighters weaken any stacks threatening to counter attack (although that gets a lot harder if the enemy has railways). Fighters are great if you get them early enough.
Edit: Forgot to add that Flight also gives Airports that allow frontline cities to recieve an air lifted reinforcement every turn. That really speeds up inter continental warfare.
I just find that I can move them up to the front faster than my artilery and sure SAM infantry are a hassle and such I can always attack the city until I have weakened my foes AA defense usualy so when the actual invasion begins they sufferterribly at the hands of my bombers. Far as none city battles go I tend to find them great for softening up targets before they reach my forces.
50_dollar_bag
Imitation Louis Vuitton
I find flight a lot more useful than Artillery. It allows for Airports(like UnlceJJ said) and later with rocketry, Gunships. But i usually research Radio before flight to get the Eiffel tower, might try a beeline next time.
With Warlords expansion and settled Great Generals in my Heroic Epic city I can usually get my Tanks up to 'Commando' right off the bat(mostly with Charismatic leaders), these combined with bombers to soften defenders up makes taking cities easy.
Re: Airports, I usually build them in my two best unit producing cities for the airlift options.
With Warlords expansion and settled Great Generals in my Heroic Epic city I can usually get my Tanks up to 'Commando' right off the bat(mostly with Charismatic leaders), these combined with bombers to soften defenders up makes taking cities easy.
Re: Airports, I usually build them in my two best unit producing cities for the airlift options.
Bierp
Chieftain
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2005
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- 60
UncleJJ said:Forgot to add that Flight also gives Airports that allow frontline cities to recieve an air lifted reinforcement every turn. That really speeds up inter continental warfare.
Elaborating on this a bit, any city can receive one air lifted unit per turn, but a city with it's own airport can receive multiple units per turn (but only one per sending city.)
How is this significant? Well, one strategy I love to use when invading a new continent is to send a Great Artist along with my strike force. On the same turn that I capture the city I move the GA in and drop a culture bomb. This immediatly ends the revolt and gives you a defensive bonus. If you're not too near high culture enemy cities you also get a nice cultural border which eliminates the benefits of any rails that might lead to your new city.
Having the revolt ended also allows you to rush an airport. Thus, one turn after you take the city you can airlift in reinforcements from every airported city you have. This can be a very significant boost and makes pressing the attack a lot easier.
B
Bierp said:
Good point about the GA and I do that if one's available.
My point was really about the advantages of beelining for Flight and having fighters, carriers and airports well ahead of other technologies. It is the perfect tech for invading another continent, especially as you pick up combustion (destroyers, transports) on the way.bluedevil99
Warlord
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2006
- Messages
- 139
Bierp said:
!!!!
Assuming this is right, THANK YOU for pointing this out!! I had no idea, and this could make a huge difference in my late game war strategy.
If the game isn't over at that point I always beeline for flight. Since your best production cities will typically be deep in your homeland (often across an ocean), airports and fighters that can rebase to any city means reinforcements are exponentially faster in arriving. Also, in addition to the great points of air power listed above, if you put a good regiment of fighters/bombers in your border cities you can not only soften up city defenders, but destroy every resource within range in a single turn and not have to divert your slower ground forces to far flung spaces. Since you'll have ground forces moving directly to their cities, the workers will retreat to their cities and they'll be stuck without those all-important resources. An enemy who can't build their best units will be severely crippled once you knock out his existing troops.
bassist2119
Warlord
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2006
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- 218
They're great on the defense too...
By the time they come around, you're industrialized and should be able to make at least 2-3 empire wide every turn. To get to this point, I often neglect having enough defenders in my own cities
Simply putting a fighter (preferrably a bomber) in every fourth or fifth city around your empire more than compensates for this - When you see a massive stack approach your borders, after you change your underpants, hit em' w/ the fighters that are in range. If they're dumb enough to continue towards your cities, you should get at least a second round, possibly a third. By the time they reach your cities, they have less than half their power left!
By the time they come around, you're industrialized and should be able to make at least 2-3 empire wide every turn. To get to this point, I often neglect having enough defenders in my own cities
Simply putting a fighter (preferrably a bomber) in every fourth or fifth city around your empire more than compensates for this - When you see a massive stack approach your borders, after you change your underpants, hit em' w/ the fighters that are in range. If they're dumb enough to continue towards your cities, you should get at least a second round, possibly a third. By the time they reach your cities, they have less than half their power left!aircraft are much MUCH cheaper to build, fighters cost 100 hammers, yet artillery costs 150 and infantry 140.
do remember to build aircraft before making carriers. and keep some aircraft in reserve, not to be used, so that when you capture a city (and know it will not be lost in the next turns' counter attack) you can immediately rebase them there.
do remember to build aircraft before making carriers. and keep some aircraft in reserve, not to be used, so that when you capture a city (and know it will not be lost in the next turns' counter attack) you can immediately rebase them there.
i pretty much everytime beeline for flight and radio, when i get the occasion (meaning the game isn't over!).
Fighters are ok, and bombers are great
Think of it this way :
before artillery, you have cannons, able to bombard the cities' defense, then to suicide for collateral damage. They won't do much to the top defender, if it's a high tech troop.
2 options :
1) go to artillery, so your suicidal units will hurt the top defender
2) go for flight, so you fighters can hurt badly the top defender, + recon + bombarding from range + hurting navy + airports (did i forget something?)
I always go for flight, if i'm underdog.
I often go for flight even if i'm the top guy, but when you can have really better/more troops than the enemy, you remember than fighters don't kill units
Fighters are ok, and bombers are great
Think of it this way :
before artillery, you have cannons, able to bombard the cities' defense, then to suicide for collateral damage. They won't do much to the top defender, if it's a high tech troop.
2 options :
1) go to artillery, so your suicidal units will hurt the top defender
2) go for flight, so you fighters can hurt badly the top defender, + recon + bombarding from range + hurting navy + airports (did i forget something?)
I always go for flight, if i'm underdog.
I often go for flight even if i'm the top guy, but when you can have really better/more troops than the enemy, you remember than fighters don't kill units
i acidently moded the core XML files for warlords. so ive forgoten all the origonal values, 9hp being half of 18 that i thought infantry have. id re-install warlords, but on my pc that takes too long, and its only units and civics that are edited.
I think you have made a mistake and also mixed up strength and hit points. Infantry have a strength of 20 in vanilla and warlords. When they are bombed to half strength by fighter attacks (about 3 fighters are needed IIRC) they will then have a strenght of 10 and 50 / 100 hit points. Which is why they are so easy to beat after the bombing... they are easier to hit and only require half as many hits to kill.
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