Jet Bombers are powerful!

[Warspite2]

Latest patch really spiced these up. I see they even have more range as well. My current game is on a seven seas random map. I figured I would end up at war with Germany. There was a sea which kind of separated us mostly. They attacked one of my city state allies. So I built an aircraft carrier with a couple jet bombers. Then I built up a modern armor army plus a mech infantry army. I also built a missile cruiser. I parked them off his coast as I made further preparations. Once my units were in place I declared war then landed the ground forces near one of his cities for visual. It started out with cruiser bombardment on an encampment then the jet bomber strikes from my carrier on the city. Just two bomber strikes and my armor was able to attack, roll in and take it.

Pre patch it used to take several strikes to drop the city defenses down. Plus range was limited some. Now these bombers were able to launch strikes on cities and ground targets much further inland operating just from my carrier. Then I would roll the mech infantry and armor in to capture. Germany was behind me some on tech so lucky no fighters or aa to counter my bombers. Anyway now these bombers can rain some serious hell! I haven't used fighters yet but I normally use more fighters then bombers especially like them for recon. Have fighters also changed any?

 

[Sostratus]

Fighters got the +20 strength boost across the board too.
So they are now 100/100 for fighters and 110/110 for jets.

Fighters are the strongest ranged units you can get; they attack regular units better than bombers (which have a -17 penalty). I find them pretty handy to keep 2-3 around the homeland in case the AI spy horde spawns some rebels- those darn tanks they spawn move around, but fighters have enough range to zap them in a turn. Fighters also have that "priority target" ability SpecOps units do, which you can indeed use to snipe enemy AA (since those are supports units.) I don't know if the AI really deploys AA anyways but a fun trick up your sleeve to clear the way for bombing runs.

Also, air units generally are one of the best answers to an enemy Giant Death Robot because they cost the same as any late game unit (650) but hit harder than modern armor armies!

 

[The Highwayman]

Bombers are god like late game siege units. Especially since you can move them to any occupied city and continue the assault as you 1 turn every enemy city. Easily obtained long before the Deity AI can build any defenses against them. Probably not necessary depending on certain map settings, but useful for continents maps where the terrain slows down army progression over time. Just walk in with your tank corps/armies and done.

 

[Patine]

Latest patch really spiced these up. I see they even have more range as well. My current game is on a seven seas random map. I figured I would end up at war with Germany. There was a sea which kind of separated us mostly. They attacked one of my city state allies. So I built an aircraft carrier with a couple jet bombers. Then I built up a modern armor army plus a mech infantry army. I also built a missile cruiser. I parked them off his coast as I made further preparations. Once my units were in place I declared war then landed the ground forces near one of his cities for visual. It started out with cruiser bombardment on an encampment then the jet bomber strikes from my carrier on the city. Just two bomber strikes and my armor was able to attack, roll in and take it.

Pre patch it used to take several strikes to drop the city defenses down. Plus range was limited some. Now these bombers were able to launch strikes on cities and ground targets much further inland operating just from my carrier. Then I would roll the mech infantry and armor in to capture. Germany was behind me some on tech so lucky no fighters or aa to counter my bombers. Anyway now these bombers can rain some serious hell! I haven't used fighters yet but I normally use more fighters then bombers especially like them for recon. Have fighters also changed any?

Have you ever seen footage of B-52's, B-1's, Tu-95's, Tu-160's, or the new Chinese J-40's (probably the five HEAVIEST jet bombers in the world - the B-2 is just stealth and the Vulcan just had ridiculous range without refuelling, but neither are as heavy) on test bombing runs.

 

[Victoria]

I am 100% fine with jet bomber mechanics and am not complaining, they do need to be there doing the job they do...but...
IRL bombing/artillery has been proven to be less effective in taking a city than in game.

 

[GimliLegolas]

Fighters got the +20 strength boost across the board too.
So they are now 100/100 for fighters and 110/110 for jets.

Fighters are the strongest ranged units you can get; they attack regular units better than bombers (which have a -17 penalty). I find them pretty handy to keep 2-3 around the homeland in case the AI spy horde spawns some rebels- those darn tanks they spawn move around, but fighters have enough range to zap them in a turn. Fighters also have that "priority target" ability SpecOps units do, which you can indeed use to snipe enemy AA (since those are supports units.) I don't know if the AI really deploys AA anyways but a fun trick up your sleeve to clear the way for bombing runs.

Also, air units generally are one of the best answers to an enemy Giant Death Robot because they cost the same as any late game unit (650) but hit harder than modern armor armies!

I try to keep the odd apostle with a convert heathens promotion to mop up spy-spawned rebels

 

[Sostratus]

IRL bombing/artillery has been proven to be less effective in taking a city than in game.

I imagine that if you set aside the insurgency tactics currently in vogue, our ww2 experience has shown that artillery can drop the fortification value but you still need infantry to slog down the city's green HP bar if they are dug in.

Although, I bet if the jet bombers of the USA/russia actually were allowed to lay the smack on a modern city, they would give up pretty quickly. Though that might qualify as razing instead of damaging...
@Boris Gudenuf does thy experience & wisdom include the metal flying contraptions?

 

[Kaan Boztepe]

also IRL the modern jet bombers always attack areas without proper defence or technology to stop them , leading to this wrong perception that they are the pinnacle of modern warfare.i imagine if russian bombers attacked the US bases in germany we would not see total destruction of said bases and total devastation of those structures.
The game does need some kind of counter against jet fighter/bombers though. at the moment , should the game continue long enough whoever gets there first automatically wins since there really is nothing you can do except build more than your opponent where are the cruise missiles in the game or missile infantry units?

 

[Buni0ns]

A world power's military used to bomb a city with impunity? Would utterly destroy it.

 

[Victoria]

our ww2 experience has shown that artillery can drop the fortification value but you still need infantry to slog down the city's green HP bar if they are dug in.

Interesting to compare Stalingrad with the battle for Berlin. A lot more factors are involved but yes I guess some reduction is there, especially interesting is like the Russians learnt from Stalingrad when they attacked Berlin.
I guess it is what the bombers are allowed to drop bearing in mind inaccuracy and occupational requirements.
@Buni0ns impunity is a tricky thing. One would have to be mad to poison the land one has to live near or in... at least we have no mad leaders.
Too much for our simple game.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I am 100% fine with jet bomber mechanics and am not complaining, they do need to be there doing the job they do...but...
IRL bombing/artillery has been proven to be less effective in taking a city than in game.

This is true for nearly every siege unit too. The window of history where walls were still viable defenses but siege weapons threatened them + cities more than a siege or the enemies just having no army relief expected is pretty small.

The game takes some reasonable liberties that way. If anything siege is mostly too gimpy, as it's allegedly a counter to cities and the #1 historical counter to cities by a wide margin is completely non-viable in Civ games.

 

[Buni0ns]

Interesting to compare Stalingrad with the battle for Berlin. A lot more factors are involved but yes I guess some reduction is there, especially interesting is like the Russians learnt from Stalingrad when they attacked Berlin.
I guess it is what the bombers are allowed to drop bearing in mind inaccuracy and occupational requirements.
@Buni0ns impunity is a tricky thing. One would have to be mad to poison the land one has to live near or in... at least we have no mad leaders.
Too much for our simple game.

Oh I agree, I am just saying that "less than effective" is a semi unfair assessment if one considers total war a viable strategy. Trust me as someone who has called in air that has dropped 1,000lb bombs on targets, our weapons of war are far too effective. Thank god they aren't used with impunity.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

Probably my favorite aspect of the bombers is the ability to attack tile features. It really helps grind down an enemy.