War Academy

[temurleng]

While reviewing the War Academy here, I found some interesting things I didn't know about:
1- After talking about the advantage of building airbases all around your city, the guide says this: "An interesting side effect of surrounding a city with several airbases is that attacking enemy air units will have a hard time finding a way in." I assume that, if there's a wall of airbases between your city and their nation that don't share the squares with any of your units, their bombers would be forced to land, and then you could pick off the parked bombers. Has anyone actually tried what this says?

2- While reading about using Diplomats to bribe barbarians, I suddenly remembered this: I once opened a hut, but had a diplomat standing a distance away. After a few barbs attacked (and lost to) my phalanx, their leader ran away, but I bribed him, then used him to bribe the two nearest horsies, who then turned on their former fellows. Raging Horde Vanquished!

 

[Stardimple]

You still need to use fighters to shoot the bombers down, you can't attack them with ground units. Dunno if you've read the one about using a bomber to protect a stack of ground units?

 

[Prof. Garfield]

You can if they are landed in an airbase.

 

[Terrapin]

@Star: I know people call the bomber-protected stack an X-Pack. It involves using a bunch on engineers to build airbases under the planes each turn so that they can be in the air between all your turns. I consider it a cheat, but frankly, people are all over the map on what counts as a cheat. For instance, almost everyone considers partial rush buying ok, even though it is totally irrational (My caravan[5 shields built], turns into a warrior [10 s], then into a horseman [20], then into a diplomat, then into a settler, then back into a caravan and look, it's finished!) and has a huge effect on the game. By contrast most people consider building an airport on a hill cheating because the hill becomes mined and irrigated at the same time. The rationalization is that it does not make sense, but, hey, does it really make less sense than the magically transforming caravan? And as far as game balance, it allows you to squeeze 1 extra food out of a hill space... and it will need at least 10 turns to pay back the food the engineer ate while building it!.. But I digress. A nuke in an adjecent space will kill an x-pack.

 

[Terrapin]

Oh, I forgot, before I went off on a tangent. One way to use the X-Pack effect without (what I consider) cheating is to use a bomber while attacking a city for your wounded attackers to hide under, assuming that they exhausted their movement while attacking and cannot move into the city after it is taken. More generally, you can use this method to put an umbrella over your forces whenever they are in enemy territory, but only for one turn.

 

[ElephantU]

If you have two bombers you can relay them and keep one over the stack at all times. The XPack idea is to build an airbase under them, then destroy it by building a fort. Requires sequencing of Engineers, which is a major pain.

A Barb Leader is really a Diplomat, so when you bribe him rather than "capturing" you get a Dip with full movement allowance. I'd rather have the gold from "capture", especially in the BC years when it can really accelerate building settlers.

 

[temurleng]

Now that I've read the article about airbases around cities, I'm gonna use it as a defensive tactic: put airbases between my cities and their's, forcing their bombers to park, then pick them off. Would've helped me so much in the last game.

A Barb Leader is really a Diplomat, so when you bribe him rather than "capturing" you get a Dip with full movement allowance. I'd rather have the gold from "capture", especially in the BC years when it can really accelerate building settlers.

Generally, that's true for me too, but in that game I'd opened so many huts, finding cities and gold, that I could afford the money. Plus, I was the strongest civ, so I kept demanding (and getting) money from civs.

And, just to add mine to all those other opinions out there, I think the rush-buying described here is cheating, but the X-Packs and use of airbaes isnt.

 

[sethos]

Airbases have several effects:
- airplanes on an airbase can be attacked by ground units
- airbases work as fortresses, too
- airbases on hills and mountains increase food production
- airbase field have the railroad flag - no need to build railroads on airbase fields
- no pollution skulls appear on airbases

 

[temurleng]

no pollution skulls appear on airbases

WOW!!! There hardly seems a reason to do other than build airbases everywhere! With them, you can wave all those costly pollution-killers goodbye!

 

[Prof. Garfield]

Airbases have several effects:
- airbases work as fortresses,
-

Not exactly. Fortresses double the defence of the unit defending in it (exept against air), only allow one unit to dye per attack and prevent unhappiness under republic and democracy. Airbases alow air units to land, gives improvements to the tile and prevnets more than one unit from being killed at a time. It does not double the defence, or prevent republic and democratic unhappiness.