What would be more crippling?
- Thread starter Globex
- Start date
Taras Bulba
gone
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- Jan 31, 2007
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depends on what you want to cripple
if you want to cripple production faster, mines
if you want to cripple population faster, irrigation
although that seems obvious... personally, I'd go with mines, because population doesn't matter unless its producing shields
if you want to cripple production faster, mines
if you want to cripple population faster, irrigation
although that seems obvious... personally, I'd go with mines, because population doesn't matter unless its producing shields
Sashie VII
Balance of Power
Depends on what I want to accomplish.
Just DOW'd and busy dealing with the first wave of counter-attacks? Bomb troops and key roads.
First wave fended off & I'm ready to invade, or I'm in the middle of the invasion? Bomb cities & troops.
Had my war and I'm almost ready to make peace for a while? Bomb resources and luxuries.
I'm slightly partial to bombing luxuries when my opponent is in a government with WW. The AI likes to hire clowns and I want to encourage this behavior.
Just DOW'd and busy dealing with the first wave of counter-attacks? Bomb troops and key roads.
First wave fended off & I'm ready to invade, or I'm in the middle of the invasion? Bomb cities & troops.
Had my war and I'm almost ready to make peace for a while? Bomb resources and luxuries.
I'm slightly partial to bombing luxuries when my opponent is in a government with WW. The AI likes to hire clowns and I want to encourage this behavior.
Sashie VII
Balance of Power
I still say you bombard both both 
But seriously, if you have enough cats/trebs/arties and you're about to assault the city, bombard the defenders. Can't work the tiles without a city.
If you're sitting tight, waiting for new attackers to reinforce your troops, then bombard tiles according to necessity. Calculate the food requirement for the city and which tiles (if any) is providing a major portion of that food. Can you make the city starve down to a town? Would bombarding mines hurt the production? Is there only a single road that connects their core towards your units? IOW, it depends
But seriously, if you have enough cats/trebs/arties and you're about to assault the city, bombard the defenders. Can't work the tiles without a city.
If you're sitting tight, waiting for new attackers to reinforce your troops, then bombard tiles according to necessity. Calculate the food requirement for the city and which tiles (if any) is providing a major portion of that food. Can you make the city starve down to a town? Would bombarding mines hurt the production? Is there only a single road that connects their core towards your units? IOW, it depends
Rarely would I do either. I want to hit the units to make the capture/raze easier. Sometimes, I will want to drop the pop, but bombers will kill citizens anyway.
Very very seldom will be able to use arty types for these task. BTW I seldom see city or metros starve even will pillaging. It is just to slow of a process as they will have food in the box.
Very very seldom will be able to use arty types for these task. BTW I seldom see city or metros starve even will pillaging. It is just to slow of a process as they will have food in the box.
capnvonbaron
Democratia gladii
Many times I'll use the "pillaging explorer" feint once navigation is discovered. It works especially well if you can land a couple of galleons or transports with equal parts riflemen/infantry and explorers in their backfield. Then march inland, using the rifles/inf to raze tiles they're on and the explorers to branch out, raze tiles, scare workers into the cities, and then duck back behind the guards. If you have cavalry, you can mix a couple of those in for token offense/worker kidnappers. Try and nail their resource tiles too.
The AI will generally freak out and use its attackers against the rifles/inf. and leave your main invasion force largely unmolested. They will also be less prone to try and reinforce cities you can't get the main force to in the first few moves of the war. Even better, you can save your arty/bombers for taking out the city defenders, and there is no "mission failed" when you raze with units vs. bomb with arty/air. Try and keep your defenders on mountains or hills for the best results. Even if the AI is strong enough to eliminate the invading force, big deal. Just a dozen or so units, and your main objective should be complete anyways.
The best part is, if you do enough damage to their core with the pillagers, after you have taken a few cities, you can negotiate peace and take the AI for an arm and a leg. Wait the requisit # of turns for peace to expire, and since you have used the time to build oodles of units and the AI has simply been trying to reconstruct their infrastructure, you now have a weaker opponent than before. I've even done this trick using mech inf and explorers, which IMO is the very best combo.
<---- and I just noticed, I hit the century mark sometime recently! Yay, I'm officially a troll!
The AI will generally freak out and use its attackers against the rifles/inf. and leave your main invasion force largely unmolested. They will also be less prone to try and reinforce cities you can't get the main force to in the first few moves of the war. Even better, you can save your arty/bombers for taking out the city defenders, and there is no "mission failed" when you raze with units vs. bomb with arty/air. Try and keep your defenders on mountains or hills for the best results. Even if the AI is strong enough to eliminate the invading force, big deal. Just a dozen or so units, and your main objective should be complete anyways.
The best part is, if you do enough damage to their core with the pillagers, after you have taken a few cities, you can negotiate peace and take the AI for an arm and a leg. Wait the requisit # of turns for peace to expire, and since you have used the time to build oodles of units and the AI has simply been trying to reconstruct their infrastructure, you now have a weaker opponent than before. I've even done this trick using mech inf and explorers, which IMO is the very best combo.
<---- and I just noticed, I hit the century mark sometime recently! Yay, I'm officially a troll!
Exwing17
Warlord
Generally by the time I have bombers, artillery and the ability to naval bombard I employ a scorched earth policy. Whilst my troops are fighting on the front lines, my bombers and destroying every tile around a city, so it has barely any food, production and no connection to the other cities (unhappiness). I then take down the troops inside with my arty, and raze the city.
At the end stage in the game, when victory is in grasp, the last thing you want is to capture then lose a city, just raze them! (especially if your fascist  ).
But in answer to the question…I’d usually bomb all the tiles around a city, and do the same to each of their major cities, providing they were in range of my airbases or carriers!
At the end stage in the game, when victory is in grasp, the last thing you want is to capture then lose a city, just raze them! (especially if your fascist  ).
But in answer to the question…I’d usually bomb all the tiles around a city, and do the same to each of their major cities, providing they were in range of my airbases or carriers!
Ringo Kid
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2004
- Messages
- 536
If you remove the irrigation the ai has to move pop off the mines and onto the food producing tiles to keep from starving. So I think bombarding the irrigation actually hurts shield and food production both.
If you pillage luxuries or resources, you may break a trade between the AIs, which would reduce tech trading between them, weakening all the AIs at once. At least I think that would be the result.
Or would the AIs keep trading techs with each other after being cheated by a broken resource or lux trade?
If you pillage luxuries or resources, you may break a trade between the AIs, which would reduce tech trading between them, weakening all the AIs at once. At least I think that would be the result.
Or would the AIs keep trading techs with each other after being cheated by a broken resource or lux trade?
capnvonbaron
Democratia gladii
In reality, bombing mines and irrigation do little in short-term wars. If you plan on taking a city in three or four turns max, the AI won't be able to produce units short of rushing anyways, in which case they'll get them before you get there. Bombing mines and irrigation is only if you want to cripple an enemy for future takeovers... it really has little or no effect in the first several turns of warfare because the enemy switches all its production to military units when it goes to war, and those units are almost always ready to go in a turn or two.
During your first strikes, bombing their units and cities to bring down population is much more productive. Second to that is destroying key roads to create choke-points for reinforcements and resources so that they can't build up-to-date units after the first few turns. Bomb the oncoming reinforcements, too... the AI rarely attacks with damaged units and when it does it is waaaay less effective. After that I go after luxuries to make the citizens unhappy. Remember also, if you can't reach the resource with your bombers, see if you can pillage/bomb the road that connects the resource to their infrastructure. A disconnected resource tile is just as good as an unimproved resource tile.
During your first strikes, bombing their units and cities to bring down population is much more productive. Second to that is destroying key roads to create choke-points for reinforcements and resources so that they can't build up-to-date units after the first few turns. Bomb the oncoming reinforcements, too... the AI rarely attacks with damaged units and when it does it is waaaay less effective. After that I go after luxuries to make the citizens unhappy. Remember also, if you can't reach the resource with your bombers, see if you can pillage/bomb the road that connects the resource to their infrastructure. A disconnected resource tile is just as good as an unimproved resource tile.
I think the big problem with bombing irrigation is the one that vmxa already pointed out: The AI may well already have a full food box. To compound this problem, the AI tends to over-irrigate and will run a city with a large surplus of food, even if the city can't grow any more (for example, a city at size 12 before hospitals). That means that unless you can take out an awful lot of their food, starvation is a very slow process. Simply bombing the crap out of their cities and killing pop in the process is much faster.
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