What would be a good way to get at least 4 Lightning multi-fighters by turn 250 on normal speed?

[CoconutTank]

It feels the devs are making an in-joke here; the Lightnings are stealth, b/c they never show up in-game when it matters

I did get a single Lightning in a previous session to go for a test drive, but that was around turn 450 or so, after capturing enough Alum and Oil to do so. I don't think it was particularly impressive for its hurdles.

For anyone that wants to seriously propose ideas, I also have the following requirements:
- This needs to work on Nation difficulty or higher and other standard settings.
- This needs to work w/out trading. I need to be able to build the Lightnings during peace time and in war time against anyone after all!

I'm doing this to try and learn more about the air model in HK, but also I'm trying to find the value in adopting the American culture. Their LT seems to be at odds with their Expansionist affinity, and also does not seem to scale well at all. The Defense Agency is poop; it's Garrison-like but it doesn't take on Garrison bonuses, and if I want lots of Influence, Grand Teahouses about 2 eras back do a way better job. This leaves Lightnings, but if I can't get any meaningful use out of Lightnings before the session ends, then I'm just going to pretend that the Americans don't exist as a culture choice.

So far I think I like Civ6's air model more than HK's, which is funny b/c I lament the way air units currently work in Civ games. In case y'all aren't familiar, I tend to gripe over the air models in Civ6 and Civ5. I got into Civ b/c of Airships from Empires of the Smoky Skies, I really like hover units in CivBE, and I like Civ2's air model just fine. The Civ5 air model is super boring; air units are low interaction and just point-and-click, no tactics and no meaningful positioning. This improved a bit in Civ6; positioning for Air Fighters mattered, even though I wish they would at least exert ZoC. From what I've experienced, the HK air model is basically Civ5's point-and-click snorefest, and I'm hoping to see something more interesting soon.

 

[Taefin]

Most games I’ve played have stopped for pollution before the AI could build past monowing fighters. But I’d venture a guess that the way to consistently get them while you can still use them is to spend all of early modern or industrial investing in science with Joseon and/or French. By getting 1-2 cities into a good production-to-districts ratio where you can build districts in 1-2 turns (maybe 2-3 on slow) and then tiling RQ while keeping food at 70+. When you get the industrial infrastructure and science luxuries, a new RQ Is worth 50+ without any science EQ. If none of your cities are like this, founding a new city with the industrial infrastructure model with 15-15 or better plot works well. Build 4-5 makers to get 250+ production and then start tiling RQ, adding harbors and FQ as needed.

 

[Cakeathon]

Conquer more cities/territories, pretty much the only way to secure all the resources without trade and this game really wants you to go as wide as possible, science starts to really pile up when you have a ton of cities working on it. Also joseon is pretty good to give you a boost coming into the late game.

Anyways, got curious, tried them out on HK diff around T190, can't even figure out what aerial stealth does. The wiki says it won't trigger grievances if you aren't at war with the target but from what I can tell you cannot fire on somebody without being at war with them anyway.

Maybe it doesn't trigger grievances if you blow up a trade route(like ransacking does).

edit: Apparently America has a secret gold-making abiliity. I'm not sure the devs(or anyone) ever even played america actually, the upkeep for a 8 planes squadron is -79.3k however the upkeep for 7 is +1228(yes, you read that right, they pay you), so for the price of 1 aerodrome and 7 planes you get 1228 gold per turn, not bad.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

pretty cool, playing america is like discovering uncharted territory.

 

[CoconutTank]

That's amazing, I want to try this out. I'm assuming there's some funny business happening with how army cost reductions are calculated here, but in any case lol and thanks for sharing your experiences Cakeathon.

 

[Taefin]

Lol, mind hovering over the upkeep to see the breakdown? Looks like Contemporary is so broken they didn’t even bother

 

[Cakeathon]

Lol, mind hovering over the upkeep to see the breakdown? Looks like Contemporary is so broken they didn’t even bother

Plane squadrons don't have a breakdown like armies do, you only get the explanatory text in the tooltip.

edit: it works with nukes too, all "squadrons" are broken. 7 thermonuclear warheads = 1365 gold per turn