Taking over the enemy, one city at a time

BtS Warfare Pros: Siege weapons relegated to a support role and can't be the main attacking force anymore. Air unit promotions added and the balance of air combat is improved dramatically. Missiles are fun.

BtS Warfare Cons: A few navy-specific promotions would be nice. It might be a bit too easy to hole up in cities.

BtS Warfare Tips: Build more ships for blockading and escorting missile carriers. Plan your air operations more carefully. Promote your siege weapons with Bombard.

While the biggest additions to Beyond the Sword are related to peaceful activities or alternative methods of hurting your rivals, combat and warfare have also received a bunch of significant changes. Overall, these changes make warfare a little less powerful (or harder to do, which is essentially the same thing), which, in my opinion, pretty much takes the balance back to what it was before Warlords. Warlords boosted warfare with the addition of Great Generals and some of its tweaks, and BtS counteracts those changes in part.

The biggest change to combat in Beyond the Sword is how siege weapons work. They have been changed in several ways. First and foremost, siege weapons can no longer kill units on the attack. Instead, they have a maximum amount of damage that they can do and, if they do that amount of damage, they withdraw. This change has major implications. Huge stacks of Catapults with a little bit of other unit support will no longer do, because you need something to finish the defenders off with once you have dealt as much damage as you can with your siege.

Catapults and Trebuchets are now weaker than they were in Warlords, losing their ability to kill. Trebuchets promoted with City Raider II were excellent city attackers; they would have very good raw strength and would make subsequent attacks easier through their collateral damage. In BtS, they do retain excellent survival chances but are again demoted to a support role, as you need some other troops to finish the defenders off.

In addition, siege weapon bombardment math has been changed to actually make some sense. Bombardment percentage is now a fixed number, and defences will be reduced by that much. So if a Catapult (which can reduce city defenses by 8%) bombards a city with 60% defense, the city will then have 52% defense. The immediate implication is that sieges now take longer given the same amount of siege units as in Warlords. Pulling off an attack that reduces defenses to 0% in one turn is more challenging now. At the same time, this change does increase the value of the Bombard promotion. It is also harder to gain experience with siege weapons, of course, given their inability to kill.

If there is anything I can say for sure, it is that these changes to siege weaponry will cause a good amount of controversy in the community. Warmongers will need to tweak their strategies to take these changes into account. Conquest may have become somewhat harder with these changes, but you can still conquer effectively as you tweak your strategies.

To finish with siege weapons, there’s another important change – the Charge promotion is now available with Combat I as opposed to Combat II, making it easier to get units that can counter siege weapons effectively. It is particularly important in the early game, as you may want Horse Archers with Charge.

There are also later changes to combat. One notable tweak is that the timeframe at around Military Tradition has been changed. Military Tradition now gives Cuirassiers, which are mounted units with strength of 12, an intermediate step between Knights and Cavalry. Cavalry now also requires Rifling in addition to Military Tradition. Also, a new technology, Military Science, has been introduced (available with Chemistry), enabling Military Acadamies and Grenadiers. Unfortunately, a bug has made its way into the retail version which allows Military Acadamies to be built without the required technology.

Switching units around like that pushes Grenadiers back somewhat, allowing Musketmen to remain active longer, and also avoids the problem of having any one technology provide too much and thus become a military powerhouse.

Some new ships have also been added in that timeframe. It’s no longer Frigates against other Frigates. Military Science and Astronomy now give Ships of the Line. They have strength of 8 with a 50% combat bonus against Frigates, but they ar also slower at only 3 movement. And Astronomy + Chemistry provides the immensely fun Privateers. Those of you who have played Civ3 will remeber that Privateers are hidden nationality ships – you can not see who they belong to. As a consequence, they can attack or be attacked at any time without declaring war. Privateers can be used to pillage enemy seafood or try and intercept Galleons while you are at peace. That is quite pleasant, but at strength 6, they are usually unable to hold their own against Frigates.

Privateers also have another fun feature - they are better at blockading than other ships. When a Privateer blockades enemy trade, it will also provide you with plunder money every turn. It’s not much, but still nice. Of course, you can use Privateers to blockade enemy coastal tiles even at peace, making them unable to work their sea tiles. On the downside, a Frigate will probably come by and sink your Privateer before long.

Moving further along the timeline, combat sees some more changes. Air combat has been changed considerably. I am quite partial to these changes. First, I feel that air combat in general and Bombers specifically were never balanced properly in Civ4 – a problem that became critical to fix in BtS because of the late-game emphasis and better AI. Second, the way aerial combat works in BtS is, for the most part, my design, which makes me partial to these changes and makes me want to believe that they are good.

The first big change is that defending interceptor planes can now intercept multiple times per turn. Interception probability for Fighters is 100% at full health and drops as their health decreases. Therefore, if your enemy has 3 Fighters in the area, you can no longer be certain that, after the 3rd time you’re intercepted, you’re completely safe.

You will also note that you can no longer base an unlimited number of airplanes in a city. Cities without airports are now limited to four planes. This is to prevent situations where, after capturing one city on a foreign continent, you would fly in your entire airforce and base it there, immediately creating complete air superiority. As a side effect, this change also makes Carriers more important. During offensive operations, you must now decide carefully how many aircraft slots to use for Fighters and how many for Bombers. Going in with only Fighters will give you very good defensive capabilities but very limited aerial attack capabilities, whereas going in with Bombers only will leave you too vulnerable to enemy air units.

Forts now also serve as aircraft bases, increasing their usefulness (in addition, ships can enter Forts, making them useful as canals). Bottom line is, aerial assaults need more planning and are no longer risk-free. With the increased interception chances, you can no longer pound any enemy army into oblivion as long as you have enough Bombers. You can actually lose the majority of your air force now!

To make things more fun, airplanes also gain experience and have promotions now. Other than the standard Combat line promotions and Pinch and Ambush, there are also Interception promotions, increasing the interception chance, Range promotions increasing the airplane’s operational range and an Ace promotion, increasing the chance to evade interception. Life is no longer unfair, units of every domain now get promotions.

Speaking of air combat, I should also mention Airships. They are early air units, available with Physics. No good in combat, they make for good recon units and are even able to see Submarines. In combat, you can use them to deal 10% of damage to opposing units, but it is not really significant.

Further adding to the changes in modern warfare, there are new modern ships and missiles. There are two types of missiles – Tactical Nukes and Guided Missiles. Tactical Nukes are short-range nuclear weapons that have a 50% chance of avoiding interception, while Guided Missiles are conventional missiles that can never be intercepted. These work well in conjunction with Submarines, which are now able to carry 3 missiles.

Guided Missiles are an excellent way to strike at enemy tile improvements. In the Modern age, I try to position missile-carrying subs in strategic locations before I invade, so that I can open with a missile strike against enemy Oil wells, if they are within the missile strike range. Tactical Nukes, if you’re willing to use them, are the ultimate weapon against coastal cities. You can use one to nuke a coastal city and then move in with Marines to mop up the defenders. Coastal cities are more attractive to have in BtS, but they are also more prone to surprise attacks because of missiles.

With Submarines now being missile carriers, there’s also an Attack Submarine. It’s a version that does not carry missiles, however, receives a 50% combat bonus against regular subs. Completing the new ship lineup are the Stealth Destroyer (also strength 30, but invisible) and the Missile Cruiser, an upgrade for Battleships, also strength 40 but with the ability to carry up to 4 missiles. Missile Cruisers are the ultimate naval weapon. They posess a great advantage when attacking, as they can first launch Guided Missiles to weaken the opposing stack, if it is of equal strength, and then move in for the kill.

Navies are more relevant in BtS with the introduction of blockades, and missiles add some extra tactical elements, the one thing lacking from naval combat are more promotions. No naval promotions have been added, and a couple of them would probably add an extra measure of fun to ocean fights. Can’t have everything!

Finally, there are fun new late-game land units. Paratroopers (them requiring Fascism is clearly a case of artistic license) can perform airdrops from cities or forts with a range of 5 tiles, and then there are Mobile SAM and Mobile Artillery, providing fast (2 moves) anti-air and siege support respectively.