Opinion Changed: Plane are not OP but some changes are needed

[civfan_999]

My boyfriend and I typically play civ together on a team against the AI. This weekend we played a game against each other. It gave us a new appreciation for naval and aerial warfare in civ 6 as we had never truly experienced it against the AIs in past games.

I no longer believe that planes are OP, which had been the subject of a previous thread I had started. In fact, the combination of missile cruisers, jet fighters, and mobile SAMs is quite effective.

Suggestions regarding units:

1. Missile Cruiser anti-air strength shouldn't scale with fleet/armada - I assume this was the issue. When my jet fighter attacked into his rocket artillery supported by a mobile SAM with a deployed fighter jet, I could do damage while taking damage equal to about 1/3 of my jet fighter health. When my jet fighter looked to attack a missile cruiser armada or anything within one tile of a missile cruiser armada it could do some damage but would certainty die in the attempt. Mobile SAM anti-air strength is 100 and missile cruiser is 110, so I assume the major difference is that the armada anti-air strength is scaling. I think it is a bit too much for planes to not even be able to attack without dying. Maybe it can scale but less? Or maybe it shouldn't scale? Obviously, the other missile cruiser stats should continue to scale - I'm only talking about the anti-air stat.
2. Jet fighters should take damage when attacking support units - I'm actually not sure if this one was just a bug. In our game, I could attack his rocket artillery with a Mobile SAM and take damage or I could priority target his Mobile SAM. When using priority target, it showed that I would take damage, but then I didn't. So I was able to eliminate all his support units (drones, mobile SAMs, and supply convoys) without taking any fighter jet damage. Meanwhile, he could only eliminate some of my support, because he was attacking into me and some of mine was in cities and encampments, which don't allow priority target. The latter is fair, that is the defenders advantage. But I think I should take as much damage when priority targeting a mobile SAM as I would when attacking within range of a mobile SAM.

Suggestions regarding AI:

1. Prioritize Mobile SAMs and locate them strategically - The AI needs to build anti-air units. Right now they simply don't. Which makes it easy to destroy them with planes. The AI should be programed to prioritize anti-air units as soon as they get that tech. The AI should then be programed to place anti-air in high value cities and in spaceports. Especially in spaceports. We defend against the AI getting a tech victory by bombing spaceports wherever they pop up.
2. Prioritize jet fighters and put them on patrol - The AI should be building planes based on their aluminum per turn availability, i.e. max them out. They should focus on jet fighters.
   • When defending, they should have jet fighters patrolling whichever city is actively under attack or high value cities when nothing is actively being attacked at the time. They should use the jet fighter on patrol to attack high value ground units, such as artillery and support units, or other planes each turn.
   • When attacking, they should have the jet fighters patrolling over their ground units and should be using the jet fighters each turn to attack ground units.