Tank_Guy#3
Lion of Lehistan
I am looking to find other people opinions on the "floating cities" in Civ 3. How do you use them, what do you use them for and do you prefer them over the other naval vessels?
Do You Actually Use Aircraft Carriers?
- Thread starter Tank_Guy#3
- Start date
Goldflash
Civ III Modder, Civ VII Player
Aircraft Carriers are Vital! I usally load half the carrier with bombing aircraft to and the other half with fighter aircraft to protect my usually very large fleet.
denyd
Emperor
I have actually found very few usages for them except on large or huge worlds as land based bombers can usually reach a coastal AI city to prepare for an invasion (then you rebase the bombers to the AI island) on smaller maps. On those larger maps bringing along 2-3 carriers loaded with bombers can disarm a coastal city for a marine to take without needing to fight, then the transport lands and the tanks/modern armor can roll out and begin the invasion. The only other usage is to bring along a carrier of jets to defend against the AI bombers (usually not a threat). In general though, they aren't worth the shields.
budweiser
King of the Beers
I wish there were a separate carrier based aircraft unit. I dont like putting those heavy bombers on my aircraft carriers. I also do not think its right that the bombers have such a great range when based on carriers. They should only be allowed to hit coastal tiles. I also think that only sea-based aircraft should have lethal sea bombardment and vise-versa.
planetfall
Emperor
They are not vital, but are very useful. It all depends on the difficulty level you are playing at and how close the Killer AI is to you in techs and production by the time you reach AC's. It also depends on the type of map you are using.
Using a connected world, they are not needed. Using an all island world, they might be useful but are probably not necessary. I play 2 continent, std world and they are useful IF
-- AI is close in techs
-- 2nd continent is not settled by me
-- 2nd continent is RRed
-- 2nd continent is full of cities and controlled land
-- I need to stage a DDay invasion.
A multi-carrier task force is only needed during the first 5 turns from DDay to DDay+4. It is extremely rare the AI will be ready with both a land counterattack and a sea attack on supporting battle group. After these turns, and you have spread your area of influence, then carriers are just for variety and not needed.
PF
Using a connected world, they are not needed. Using an all island world, they might be useful but are probably not necessary. I play 2 continent, std world and they are useful IF
-- AI is close in techs
-- 2nd continent is not settled by me
-- 2nd continent is RRed
-- 2nd continent is full of cities and controlled land
-- I need to stage a DDay invasion.
A multi-carrier task force is only needed during the first 5 turns from DDay to DDay+4. It is extremely rare the AI will be ready with both a land counterattack and a sea attack on supporting battle group. After these turns, and you have spread your area of influence, then carriers are just for variety and not needed.
PF
shadow2k
Emperor
I use them just for variety's sake. Having a huge air force sitting idly by on my home continent just doesn't seem quite right. And there's no way I'm sticking them all in a city that's a flip risk. I'm bad about bringing along settlers to raze and replace overseas. So if I want air support overseas deep into enemy territory, I'll usually bring 3 or 4 loaded Carriers along.
They are also useful to load up with Jet Fighters to keep your navy alive.
Overall though, they are just toys, and not really necessary. But if the game has made it that far, and I have some production to waste, then I'll build a few.
They need to give them a bigger load to carry, and give us a bit more incentive to use them. Getting a carrier sunk by a stealth attack unit that your destroyer didn't see under the fog...sucks.
They are also useful to load up with Jet Fighters to keep your navy alive.
Overall though, they are just toys, and not really necessary. But if the game has made it that far, and I have some production to waste, then I'll build a few.
They need to give them a bigger load to carry, and give us a bit more incentive to use them. Getting a carrier sunk by a stealth attack unit that your destroyer didn't see under the fog...sucks.
Blackbird_SR-71
Spying from 85,000 ft
They are awesome units. With a fleet of these i can control the seas and it makes invasions and capturing coastals cities very easy 
klopolov
WarBug
Tried to use them once, but since I have PTW (I understand they are much more efficient in C3C) it was pretty useless... Ten carriers full of bombers and jets pretty much just sat there while the land units took over everything...
colontos
King
The best use is when you are fighting a huge enemy that is going to take some time to conquer. Have the carriers sail on ahead of the main attack force and bomb resources(take away rubber and oil especially), luxuries, cities (hoping to kill population). Even if I have a considerable tech lead, I always bomb metros and cities down to towns before I attack. And once you start using tanks, artillery moves too slow to be effective for most city assaults, so a fleet of carriers with bombers is perfect. Especially because the carrier can move and the bombers can all run sorties in the same turn...no lost turns for rebasing.
yocoolpineapple
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2005
- Messages
- 1
good if enemy likes to go crazy with ships and stuff.....other than that i never had to use them
Masquerouge
Deity
Aircraft carriers would be a lot more useful if bombers did not have such a silly large operationnal range...
Huzzamaster
Chieftain
The carriers are great in a sea war! However, sea wars don't seem to happen much with me. They are ok at bombing areas, but the metropolis you go up against need a huge hit, and it's hard to get. You can also use these for taking out resources!
Jaded_Feriluce
Dark Lord of the Regents
When I was playing Vanilla Civ, carriers really didnt help out much. Because of their stupid movement rate, but in C3C they are awesome. Really aircraft in general has been much improved (I love the leathal air and sea bombardment, I always thought it should be this way and even mod'ed it in before I had the expansion!) Anyway, carriers arent the MOST important thing, but they definatly help out in the beggining of any massive invasion.
zerksees
in remission
I have used them in selected situations on PTW, though typically they are very situational. I have not yet played a C3C game where carriers would be a benefit.
Since bombers now have lethal bombard - has anyone tried this:
Build a lot of carriers, say 20. Fill them with bombers. Give them a complement of destroyers and battleships for escort, and a couple transports with infantry, a few marines and a few fast units. Declare war on enemy on another continent and lethal bombard away all the enemy units in a city. Move in with small landing force to take and hold (or raze) the cities.
This would work best in a continents (or maybe archipelago) game - assuming you owned your own continent. I like not having to lose a turn to rebase.
Since bombers now have lethal bombard - has anyone tried this:
Build a lot of carriers, say 20. Fill them with bombers. Give them a complement of destroyers and battleships for escort, and a couple transports with infantry, a few marines and a few fast units. Declare war on enemy on another continent and lethal bombard away all the enemy units in a city. Move in with small landing force to take and hold (or raze) the cities.
This would work best in a continents (or maybe archipelago) game - assuming you owned your own continent. I like not having to lose a turn to rebase.
planetfall
Emperor
Zerksees,
Caution against human player. By the time you build 100 bombers, a combo of Nukes, subs and counter bombers would devastate your fleet.
Against RRed AI, you'll need to remove all roads from target cities if only a small invasion force. Even against an average AI city, 4 defenders, 1 AA, 1 jet, 3 bombers, tons of improvements you'll have your work cut out for you.
PF
Caution against human player. By the time you build 100 bombers, a combo of Nukes, subs and counter bombers would devastate your fleet.
Against RRed AI, you'll need to remove all roads from target cities if only a small invasion force. Even against an average AI city, 4 defenders, 1 AA, 1 jet, 3 bombers, tons of improvements you'll have your work cut out for you.
PF
Huzzamaster
Chieftain
I only have Play the World, what's Lethal bombard do?
Hunter Noventa
Overlord
Huzzamaster said:
A unit with Lethal Lan dBombard can reduce a land unit to 0hp and kill it. Same thing for Lethal Sea Bombard.
Tman65
Warlord
I tend to use them quite a bit, for one reason "mobility". I find that airports that are rushed in newly conquered/built (vanilla civ, haven't played C3C yet) are fairly quickly out of range from the front. I tend to play on continents and have discovered that carriers, destroyers and battleships (sort of like zerksees mentioned above) are useful for nuisance/deep interdiction strikes to take attention from my main invasion effort. This is especially true when you have a couple of transports of marines to raise cities as you go. My biggest gripe with carriers and their load out is that if I lead a bomber strike with fighters, the interceptors in the target city always let the fighters go by then pounce on my bombers...this sort of limits the effectiveness.
elpadrino87
Warlord
I too still have vanillia civ; like most people have said, d-day invasions as well as mobility are what I use carriers for. I protect them with at least a battleship (definitely more if the AI has a ridiculously large navy) and use them to go after resources or close in on one city that I need to take.
They aren't vital (not many units are), but they would be a lot better if you could load helicopters in them (again, don't know if this has changed in C3C or PTW); that way, you could drop off an infantry or two on a mountain (w/ resource if possible) to distract the AI.
They aren't vital (not many units are), but they would be a lot better if you could load helicopters in them (again, don't know if this has changed in C3C or PTW); that way, you could drop off an infantry or two on a mountain (w/ resource if possible) to distract the AI.
I use Aircraft Carriers all the time. They are a vital part of my attack. It was already mentioned by Colontos that they are very good at taking out resources, luxury, ..., and they can also follow your troops as air support. You will thank your lucky stars you have that air support once you come up against an AI's army.
