why bombarding is fun

[Ranges]

I like to go for strategic resources when bombing my enemies.
That way i can cripple his production capabilities quite severely in the first turn. Aside from that; there are usually about 1 or 2 of the same strategic resources in a civ, which is a _lot_ less than the 8 squares around an enemy capital.

example;
Yesterday i decided to invade russia (island) with my babylonian forces (tanks vs cavalry)
I had a carrier off the cost, some battlecruisers and some destroyers.

After a few turns the iruquois declared war on me (damn russians made a treaty etc.).
This was where the bombing came in handy;
-i destroyed all roads on salpeter squares
-i destroyed all roads on luxury squares (especially in the iruquois lands)

Pretty soon the iruqious were in civil unrest, their cities starving (why leave the irrigation working huh?) and the russians ran out of calpeter; no more pesky cavalry.
Few cities reverted to the russians because i bombed the other russian cities down to little hamlets (pop <=6)

I would've lost this war without bombing, i think.

How do you guys use bombarding?
-Ranges

PS; bombing versus cities is not that effective; i kill more population than i damage the units (or improvements).

 

[eyrei]

Right on. Whenever I suspect an AI civ will challenge me in the future, I plant carriers(with battleship escorts) filled with bombers within operational range of every source of oil and rubber I can. This is just a precaution, because usually by the late industrial age I am pretty secure militarily, but should war break out, my enemy suddenly finds himself unable to build anything but riflemen, effectively crippling any counterattack.

 

[Sonic747]

I am playing such game now, it is already 2500 and still few techs remains. At first, there was tiny world and 4 civs: England, America, Russia and me, Lithuania. Me, USA and Russia were on one small continent while England was in another and a way bigger. I was friendly with Americans and destroyed Russia, later came on to alliance with Britains and destroyed USA. Now it became time to fight vs Britains, but they were twice as powerful as me. They had 1 continent, 1 smaller continent, 5 islands with 1 city each and 2 cities in my continent. I had continent and two island, one of which was very near English continent. This is where bombers came handy. One city was on the coast and I started bombing all roads around it. I cut it off and it fallen into disorder. I had nearly 10 bombers. Later, I came with troops and easily taken city and relocated bombers there. From there, I could bombard every city in continent except two at western side. I attacked resources and roads to London, Newcastle and York. Also, I sent carrier with 4 bombers and escort of two battleships and two nuclear subs. Subs launched tactical nukes to London and Coventry. Later, ICBM came from capital to Hastings. All remained towns were bombed. Soonly after that, another ICBM destroyed a source of oil and mariines taken over 3 islands. Now, I am playing at this point .