Getting creamed by fighters

[garael]

Hi all, looong time Civ player, but new to Civ 5. Going for a dom victory at Prince level with one Civ left to subdue (Siam... grr.). I staged a huge force for a naval invasion -- lots of rocket artillery and tanks, a few anti-aircraft guns. When my units hit land they're being decimated by fighters. I loaded up 3 jet fighters on a carrier and have done air sweeps, but these don't seem to be reducing the array of fighters that are taking out my units.

What's the strategy to neuter an enemy's fighters? TIA for any help/advice!

 

[Monthar]

Capturing or nuking the city that the fighters and bombers are based at destroys them all.

 

[garael]

Thanks, Monthar. I'm getting tons of 1-damage hits... is it safe to assume these are coming from nearby cities?

Sounds like the approach has to be to nibble at the edges and conquer from the periphery to the capital. Just plopping down ten units near the capital, within 10 hexes of several cities is just futile. Thoughts?

 

[Glieze]

1-damage hits? I assume you are playing without the expansion then (units have 100 hp there), but still, if you only take 1-damage hits, I don't see how that can pose any threat to your army?

 

[garael]

Thanks, Glieze. Ya, I'm on Civ 5... vanilla? Whatever the original release is. I get damage in the single/double digits. For the fighters I get like 6 hits in a row of -1. Hard to follow all the damage notifications that come up for all the fighters. I don't have combat animation on so I don't see it unit by unit, just a loooong list of damage from their units that kills off most of my army in 3 turns.

 

[Maxym]

Ok don't do air sweeps with your fighters on carriers but set them to intercept. That will get you at least three fighters shot down or disabled per turn. Keep plenty of SAM or AA around your units, and go for city where the fighters are stationed.

Air sweep looks for enemy interceptors and AI rarely uses their fighters to intercept instead they go for this sort of trying to kill ur units.

 

[Big J Money]

Just to reiterate:

Yes, use intercept for unit protection.

Air sweep is for when you want to bomb a location that has interceptor fighters and you need to draw out their fighters so your bombers won't get killed. I've never needed to use it with Stealth Bombers, though, and rarely use it at all!

 

[garael]

Maxym & Big J, many thanks! Just understanding the air dynamics and orders is very helpful!

G