Ranged Bombardment

[ichbinsehselber]

Archers can ranged bombard enemies in neighbouring tiles. But do they ever do any damage? They either miss or even if they "hit" the enemy is still full.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

I have lost units, especially boats on auto hunt to ranged attack.

 

[Thunderbrd]

Archers can ranged bombard enemies in neighbouring tiles. But do they ever do any damage? They either miss or even if they "hit" the enemy is still full.

Assuming we're talking about Ranged Assault rather than the Archer Bombard Bug option which should really be left off, it's possible that city defenses can be reducing the amount of damage received to the point of it being very little to none. And with archers, the damage is enough to help when preparing to move in but the units can often heal over the next round if you're assaulting a city. There are really numerous factors but if no damage at all is being inflicted I should take a look at the save that shows that taking place.

 

[MacCoise]

On this subject sort of.....

I find it a little "off" that an arsonist or archer can gain huge amount of experience just standing outside or inside a city firing. Considering how strong Arsonists are already these promotions can really knock things out of balance. For example I had two arsonist who after a number of rounds bombarding a city has experience of over 50..

 

[Hale_9204]

I have the same feeling regarding naval units using ranged bombing (especially in the renaissance)
Using a few promotions you can literally wipe clean entire stacks of units from enemy cities, then you can easily attack the few remaining ones with amphibious troops and conquer/raze the city

 

[BlueGenie]

For a lot of units gaining experience is a matter of going out to fight. Archers, and other ranged attack/bombard units, usually lack this option.
Then this can be, at times, the only way to get them to level up.
Granted it is not perfect, and is something the AI does not really use so it becomes a sort of exploit for the player (though once the AI is a lot better we might need every little edge we can get).

A different way would be better, like the "Training in City" part T-brd mentioned some time ago. Then each increase in city defence building might even add to the experience an archer or other ranged attacker might gain when fortified, defending the city, even if no units are attacking it.
For bombard city defence units though I do not know if that would work, but gain experience when reducing city defences then.
Other bombard units would need something too, but I am sure the great C2C team can figure something out for them too.

Cheers

 

[ichbinsehselber]

Assuming we're talking about Ranged Assault rather than the Archer Bombard Bug option which should really be left off, it's possible that city defenses can be reducing the amount of damage received to the point of it being very little to none. And with archers, the damage is enough to help when preparing to move in but the units can often heal over the next round if you're assaulting a city. There are really numerous factors but if no damage at all is being inflicted I should take a look at the save that shows that taking place.

Yes, you are right, I mean ranged assault.
I used ranged assault from 3 or 4 archers firing on a 3 strength enemy in my territory on a hill (no city).
in 18 of 20 cases the archer misses.
in the remaining 2 cases the archer does damage but the amount is neglectible. The enemy has 3.00/3 strength after my "hit"

 

[Thunderbrd]

Are those archers promoted for this style of attack? They get much much stronger. Also, some terrains can reduce the amount of damage or accuracy. As the game goes on, these attacks obviously get much more powerful. I wouldn't mind evaluating the numbers though in a game that can show this immediately upon load. That does seem a little light on the damage at least... the # of hits sounds about right for archers if I recall. I'd have to look at the charts again.

RE comments above... I suppose we should probably bring down the xp gain amount a bit for this action. Additionally, the stronger ranges may need to be brought down a peg.

 

[ichbinsehselber]

Could this be the problem?
<iBombRate>0</iBombRate>
<iBombardRate>0</iBombardRate>

 

[Thunderbrd]

No. Bombard Rate refers to the amount the unit can attack the city defenses from a distance. The Bomb Rate means basically the same thing but for air units.

Take note that the primary defining xml for ranged assault takes place in the combat classes of the unit.

 

[ichbinsehselber]

Take note that the primary defining xml for ranged assault takes place in the combat classes of the unit.

Sorry, I do not understand. Can you please explain?

 

[ichbinsehselber]

I have noticed that ranged assault appears to be weak in general. Created a few modern battleships via world builder. They don't do much damage to those ancient units

 

[Hale_9204]

Have you promoted them?
I found that giving them promotions that improve ranged bombard really im proves the damage done (sorry, I don't remember at the moment the name of the prmotions)

 

[ichbinsehselber]

for archers the promotion is arrow barrage 1-3
I did not do real testing how much these promotions help

 

[Hale_9204]

Try using this save
there is a group of 8 ships, pre-deadnoughts and early destroyers, near the ethiopian city of Adwa (in the eastern side of the map, more or less in the equatorial zone).
Bomb the city of Adwa and you can see that the defenders get completely destroyed (out of 3 enemies, there remains only 1 half-healthed unit); I noticed that ranged bombard works better when you lower the city defences with the "normal" bombing, so it's more efficient to destroy city defences first.

 

[ichbinsehselber]

Thank you for the save game Hale. It demonstrates well, that with high ranged assault promotions the ranged assault will really get useful.