Whats the deal with fighters in 4.16?

[beginner_]

Playing on 4.16 as 4.19 wasn't yet available when this game started. Amway in this version prior to all versions before fighters are kind of overpowered? they always one-shot heavy bombers making "bombers" in general completely useless as at that point everyone can upgrade the fighters to have 2 interceptions per turn. so even air sweeping won't help as you can't sweep twice and would need double the amount of fighters. Just outright killing bombers in oneshoot with zero downside for the defender makes defending way to easy and hence bombers completely useless.

thoughts? Why was this change done? before bombers took damage and could be rotated in and out to heal but with them dying like flies makes them useless.

 

[donthaveaname]

I'm pretty sure even in vanilla fighters one shot bombers if they intercept them or do like 95-99 damage. You could always just find their plane stack and nuke it, think it takes about 4 atom bombs if they have the bomb shelter.

 

[Delvemor]

IIRC the general sentiment was that air units were OP. That's why the max number of air units per city has been reduced, and the interception range of AA guns and Mobile SAM has been increased, among other things. I agree that the nerf is a bit too much now, especially if you don't go Autocracy and don't have access to Zero. On the other hand it makes it way easier for you to defend on higher difficulty if the AIs get air units before you.

 

[Jdoug312]

Playing on 4.16 as 4.19 wasn't yet available when this game started. Amway in this version prior to all versions before fighters are kind of overpowered? they always one-shot heavy bombers making "bombers" in general completely useless as at that point everyone can upgrade the fighters to have 2 interceptions per turn. so even air sweeping won't help as you can't sweep twice and would need double the amount of fighters. Just outright killing bombers in oneshoot with zero downside for the defender makes defending way to easy and hence bombers completely useless.

thoughts? Why was this change done? before bombers took damage and could be rotated in and out to heal but with them dying like flies makes them useless.

Before getting the stealth bombers, it's essential to use your fighters to clear the skies before sending in bombers. I believe this is intended, but if not, it should be. As for fighters having no downsides, enemy fighters can be a real hassle, and the promotion to have 2 interceptions in a turn can backfire and get your (or the enemy's) fighters destroyed fairly often. I've had my fighters get wrecked while they were intercepting fighters from the previous era. Comes down to which promotions are being chosen. That "+100% vs air units" is a powerful thing, and there's another, similar promo or two on top of that. Usually my aircraft start with three promos late-game. I typically go for Interception promotions 2-4 with those, which gives me two interceptions per turn. My next promotion is typically Air Repair, so I'm still missing that +100% promo mentioned earlier. Sometimes my fighters get wrecked as a result. Or I go for Dogfighting promotions + Air Repair, same result though, still missing that Eagle Fighter promotion and the other one that allows previous era planes to do serious damage against mine.

As far as bombers go, stealth bombers are really good at dodging interception. Air Sweeping is the best way to handle those imo.

 

[DizzKneeLand33]

This is a conversation that was never had in Civ 6. Just sayin.

 

[beginner_]

Before getting the stealth bombers, it's essential to use your fighters to clear the skies before sending in bombers. I believe this is intended, but if not, it should be. As for fighters having no downsides, enemy fighters can be a real hassle, and the promotion to have 2 interceptions in a turn can backfire and get your (or the enemy's) fighters destroyed fairly often. I've had my fighters get wrecked while they were intercepting fighters from the previous era. Comes down to which promotions are being chosen. That "+100% vs air units" is a powerful thing, and there's another, similar promo or two on top of that. Usually my aircraft start with three promos late-game. I typically go for Interception promotions 2-4 with those, which gives me two interceptions per turn. My next promotion is typically Air Repair, so I'm still missing that +100% promo mentioned earlier. Sometimes my fighters get wrecked as a result. Or I go for Dogfighting promotions + Air Repair, same result though, still missing that Eagle Fighter promotion and the other one that allows previous era planes to do serious damage against mine.

As far as bombers go, stealth bombers are really good at dodging interception. Air Sweeping is the best way to handle those imo.

Yeah I got the hang of it after understanding it. having chosen autocracy in this game I got zeroes and indeed these wrecked the AI in terms of intercepting and air sweep. also if you air sweep a city and there is no resistance you damage all the planes in said city. with the promotions you inflict 30 damage. so spamming air sweeps can destory the AIs airforce rather quickly. I think the downside now is, because it's more complex than just point and click bombers it heavily favors human players once you get how it works.