Is this a bug or does France just suck?

[JoeCivFan]

I'm playing a game now, as France. The difficulty level is not high, infact is only set to the second one up (the name ofi t has totally slipped my mind!). Its in the modern times, and I decided to wipe out Germany because they were all that was left on my continent. I have spent most of the previous time taking out other countries, which prooved to be a slow process. But now I'm getting fed up.

I have 22 bombers attacking the same city, and all but 6 of them always fail to do any damage. I'm having to use 15 or 20 modern armors to take a city with 3 mech infantries. The cities dont have a civil defense, or any radar towers aiding the defense. Why are my bombers so ineffective and why are my tanks always dieing? I know that the defenders of a city do recieve a slight increase in defense, but this is getting rediculous! I had 50 modern armours and i used each and every one of them to take 3 cities!

 

[Diviner]

that slight defense is ridicolously big when it comes to MA vs Mechinf. bombers are less useful vs MI-s, because the bombing method is similar to the normal combat, try to build stealth bombers, those are much better.

well modern age warfare is not the most smooth one. cavalry wars are much more enjoyable.

 

[Bllasae]

I vote for "France just sucks".

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I have 22 bombers attacking the same city, and all but 6 of them always fail to do any damage. I'm having to use 15 or 20 modern armors to take a city with 3 mech infantries. The cities dont have a civil defense, or any radar towers aiding the defense. Why are my bombers so ineffective and why are my tanks always dieing? I know that the defenders of a city do recieve a slight increase in defense, but this is getting rediculous! I had 50 modern armours and i used each and every one of them to take 3 cities!

Your units always die because you are up against Metro's (cities over size 12) which get a defense bonus of 100%. Add 25% fortify bonus and the German MechInf defend at 40.5 (18*2.25).

 

[JoeCivFan]

Your units always die because you are up against Metro's (cities over size 12) which get a defense bonus of 100%. Add 25% fortify bonus and the German MechInf defend at 40.5 (18*2.25).

I see now. Thanks, I didnt know that there was an added bonus for the city being a metropolis. Learn something new everyday! I defeated them none the less though.

 

[Aabraxan]

In addition to the city, I'd start hitting farmland and food bonus tiles to see if I could get starvation to set in.

 

[Bllasae]

Yah, because then the population size goes down by 1 right? Also: Try and plant jungles(if you can) because they sometimes give cities diseases.

 

[Quintillus]

The Mech Inf is actually at least a 2.35 modifier - 1 + 1 for metropolis + .25 for fortify + .1 for terrain (or .5 if the city is on a hill. That creates a grand total of 42.3, or 49.5 if the city is on a hill.

Starvation reduces population; if you can starve the city below size 12, a 0.5 modifier on defence will be lost for Germany; a 1.00 modifier will be lost if you can reduce it below size 6. You can't plant jungles. Planting forests in Germany would reduce their food supply, but it would be more effective to just flood Germany's lands with Mech Infantry or Modern Armor and block their food supply that way.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

The Mech Inf is actually at least a 2.35 modifier - 1 + 1 for metropolis + .25 for fortify + .1 for terrain (or .5 if the city is on a hill. That creates a grand total of 42.3, or 49.5 if the city is on a hill.

Correct, I forgot about the terrain.

 

[lucashp]

I vote for "France just sucks".

Ditto.




lol, joking. No, the industrios and commercial are a profitible build up civ.
Look, if its over 6 i belive they have a 50% defence. so lets say an attacker has 3 attack and the defender has 2 but it is in a 7 populated city. that 50% is going to make the defender... (Argh i hate math ) 3 or 4 defence, now thats just not much of an attack.

Also, it turns out TOW's suck against normal tanks no matter what city.

 

[TheOverseer714]

France is not the problem, they can be very powerful if played correctly. As seen above, MI's are very tough in Metros. You also never mentioned artillery, which works very well at reducing defenders and also kills citizens as collateral damage. Radar artillery is even better, especially in Conquests, where it can move 2 or fire once and move once.

 

[pol1]

just try to use arti
it may take some turns to reduce metro to town status depending how many units of artillery You have.
also it depends what You want to do with conquered city - raze and found another or capture it. redlined MIs have to win four/five rounds in a row to defeat Your MA no matter what the bonuses are.
[i believe You can also add terrain bonus - so in best situation You have another 0.1 to add for grassland]

 

[ecuwins]

LOL, flame me now. The RNG has nothing to do with your civ. BTW, played correctly France is one of the most powerful civs -- any industrial trait civ for that matter. The thing with commercial trait -- it must be exploited a certain way to see its full potential. In defense of the commercial trait look at England, very powerful seafarer.

 

[cjamblues]

just try to use arti
it may take some turns to reduce metro to town status depending how many units of artillery You have.
also it depends what You want to do with conquered city - raze and found another or capture it. redlined MIs have to win four/five rounds in a row to defeat Your MA no matter what the bonuses are.
[i believe You can also add terrain bonus - so in best situation You have another 0.1 to add for grassland]

yes, artillery is very effective, if you have enough of it and can get close enough. Then, when the mechs are in the red, just normal tanks, or even cavalry, can take them out. I have won many wars against (on paper) superior military forces, by use of large stacks of artillery (minimum 20 per stack). If you play at higher levels, like Emperor, that may be the only way of winning any wars at all since you are often much smaller than the dominating civs through most of the game.
Also, bombers are not so effective when you attack units in cities, since they will also automatically attack population or improvements instead of the units.

 

[pol1]

i have to admit that in my lately games i hardly built any bombers.
just lot of artillery.
bombers are useful, but i found arti with combat settlers and other units for defense/attack, building rails faster in conquering cities on one piece of land.
and You can have them earlier and probably more of them since You can upgrade cannons and others.

 

[Nergal]

I find France really strong at times .. Not a weak civ ... its just the defensive bonuses ... I dont think the Civ itself matters in combat, its ability to produce troops perhaps but not its attack strength.

 

[Nightfire]

The difficulty level is not high, infact is only set to the second one up (the name of it has totally slipped my mind!)

The second difficulty level is warlord. I don't think that this has anything to do with the civ you have chosen, the RNG is just screwing you over.

 

[Marsden]

It's a very poor musician that blames his instrument. There are no modern armor UUs so everyone's are equal.

This has got to be about the only occasion in history I've stuck up for France.

 

[AznWarlord]

Remember, the Civ3 combat system is completely random, I remember that thread about Spearmen defeating Tanks and how that needed to be fixed.

 

[Nergal]

Nooooo ...... is good .. It wouldnt be CivIII without it ...