Howitzers

[RedWolf]

I was playing a game today and my armies were steam rolling across the AI's continent.

Suddenly I sarted thinking about Howitzers.

Does anybody else think that they are WAY to powerfull. For some reason the use of howitzers seems to be unreal. You cn build and army of howitzers and using rail and some armor units in support roll over an enemy empire.

That's not real. I mean a REAL army is made up of fast moving armor units and mechanized infantry. Artillery is absolutely important... but used more in a supporting role. You'd never destroy a tank division with a howitzer battalion for instance. But in the game you can do just that...

And to clear a city.. you couldn't just rain high explosive shells down upon the city.. dug in troops would weather out the storm.. you'd need close in infantry units to dig them out.

I know that the nature of civ limits the reality of warfare in the game.. i just don't think that a supporting military weapon should let you conquer the world...

(This could be in the civ3 suggestions forum I guess. But i think i wanted to iscuss more how it is NOW... and not how I want to see it in the future...)

[This message has been edited by RedWolf (edited June 01, 2001).]

 

[DBSD13]

Yes its abit unreal but then again its only a game and its only Civ2. I bet they will have it balanced in Civ3

 

[Kefka]

Yea they are a little too powerfull but that problem could be solved by using ranged attacks!

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Why Create things when you know they must be destroyed!
I will Create A monument to nothingness!

 

[SunTzu]

Artillery can be used to defeat a city, it all depends on how prepared the defenders are and how much resistance they'll put up(Soviets in WW2 at Stalingrad)


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[Kefka]

Yea but to take over the city you dont JUST sent Artillery do ya!
I mean you send in some other units ta hold that city those artillery would be smashed ta bits if they had no ground troops ta back em up!

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Why Create things when you know they must be destroyed!
I will Create A monument to nothingness!

 

[shadowdale]

That's right the howitzers are a bit to powerful as the are really nothing more than a backup/helping weapon in wars. They are used for long ranged bombing of enemy sites before the infantry and tanks move in to conquer it.

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[Mongol Horde]

I think that you are right RedWolf Howies are too powerful, great fun but too powerful. What could you do to solve it, give them 1.5 movemement points rather than two although that wouldn't matter a great deal where railroads are involved. You could make them unable to occupy enemy cities but then youd just take a couple of tanks along to do do the job. So basically I'm talking rubbish aren't I? Anyone think of any good suggestions to take a little bit of power away from Howies?

 

[Supernaut]

I think the new ranged attack idea will make howies more sensible. We're still not sure how it will work, but it seems artillery will now be used to soften up targets, not destroy them. The way I would like it to be would be that an artillery unit can't kill another unit (unless it is really beaten up already or way outdated) but can do damage to every unit in the square, even if it's a city or fort. That represents the way artillery damage tends to be pretty indiscriminate against everyone in the target zone. So you wouldn't bother using artillery much against single units in the field, but would want to have them as part of your invading army - but whatever happens you would still need footsloggers to actually go in and take the target area (just like real life - even in Desert Storm, troops on the ground had to go and take all those Iraqi prisoners)

 

[RedWolf]

Originally posted by Kefka:
Yea but to take over the city you dont JUST sent Artillery do ya!
I mean you send in some other units ta hold that city those artillery would be smashed ta bits if they had no ground troops ta back em up!

If you're invading the enemy continent you can bring howitzers over on a boat.. unload them into your already captured cities.

Then on your next turn a long as the enemy has rails you can pretty much use exclusively howitzers to destroy every single unit in the enemy city. They work better than tanks, bombers, everything. And they're relatively cheap to build. try throwing tanks at a city wall? it sometimes takes two armor units to destroy one rifleman. One howitzer will get em almost every time.

Then once the city is yours you THEN move the other units into it (to defend). It just seems that the other military weapons serve no purpose to me... which is HIGHLY unrealistic. Armor and infantry is the backbone of major armies. Artillery is used for softening up targets or as infantry supoort to supress the enemy when friendly troops are pinned down or defending.

 

[Kefka]

In Civ I do sometimes take over cities with Howiz but I always have a moble Infantry or some armor to defend the city!

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Why Create things when you know they must be destroyed!
I will Create A monument to nothingness!

 

[Andu Indorin]

Howitzers Rule!!!

Therefore, they are way to powerful ... especially with unlimited Rail Movement.

(Hope they do something to redress this imbalance in Civ3.)

 

[Az]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubbcount.cgi?expath1=Forum2&expath2=&topic=000094&type=&number=2

A good discussion about Howies

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