Whether you are a warmonger seaking to destroy the world, or a pacifist builder (like me) who simply wishes to defend yourself from Boudica, then flight is the most important tech in the game. It is the most unbalancing tech regarding warfare.
Flight permits you to kill enemy units without taking any losses. With flight, you can win every single naval and land battle. It is the single military tech that an opposing side in a war cannot counter against without actually having flight themselves. If a human can achieve air superiority (or be the only one with flight) than the AI can do nothing but die.
Specifically, what makes Flight the single most unbalancing factor in warfare?
1. It removes the need for relying upon suicide siege units (thus freeing hammer production for military units rather than kamikazes), bcz fighters can do everything that siege units can do but without dying. Flight can remove city defenses and weaken city defenders. It can decimate an attacking stack. It stops those pesky airships from weakening your units. It can weaken enemy ships so that your own ships are guarranteed to win every fight. Flight stops tanks in their tracks.
2. Flight enables airports which provide an extra route that can fund your expanding military, and it enables airlifting.
3. The ability to airlift might actually be its most powerful bonus. If you have airports in all of your cities, then you now possess the ability to airlift 10 units into any border city that might suddenly come under attack. It therefore gives you superior mobility, and the ability to immediately respond to any move the AI makes. Or, if after conquering an enemy city halfway across the world, after you build an airport in that city you can airlift 10 units into that city each turn (which beats shipping them, or waiting for railroads) that can either defend the city, or simply press the attack further into enemy territory. This ability, therefore, makes intercontinental warfare moot, and makes navies unimportant and unnecessary (except for resource defense if the sea patrol function actually worked ).
With flight, a stack of riflemen can defeat a stack of tanks. With flight, MG's become canon fodder to Curassiers.
Flight makes the game boring.
Flight permits you to kill enemy units without taking any losses. With flight, you can win every single naval and land battle. It is the single military tech that an opposing side in a war cannot counter against without actually having flight themselves. If a human can achieve air superiority (or be the only one with flight) than the AI can do nothing but die.
Specifically, what makes Flight the single most unbalancing factor in warfare?
1. It removes the need for relying upon suicide siege units (thus freeing hammer production for military units rather than kamikazes), bcz fighters can do everything that siege units can do but without dying. Flight can remove city defenses and weaken city defenders. It can decimate an attacking stack. It stops those pesky airships from weakening your units. It can weaken enemy ships so that your own ships are guarranteed to win every fight. Flight stops tanks in their tracks.
2. Flight enables airports which provide an extra route that can fund your expanding military, and it enables airlifting.
3. The ability to airlift might actually be its most powerful bonus. If you have airports in all of your cities, then you now possess the ability to airlift 10 units into any border city that might suddenly come under attack. It therefore gives you superior mobility, and the ability to immediately respond to any move the AI makes. Or, if after conquering an enemy city halfway across the world, after you build an airport in that city you can airlift 10 units into that city each turn (which beats shipping them, or waiting for railroads) that can either defend the city, or simply press the attack further into enemy territory. This ability, therefore, makes intercontinental warfare moot, and makes navies unimportant and unnecessary (except for resource defense if the sea patrol function actually worked ).
With flight, a stack of riflemen can defeat a stack of tanks. With flight, MG's become canon fodder to Curassiers.
Flight makes the game boring.