Announcement

**Proteus_MST** · November 13, 2005, 01:26

If you try to bombard an enemy stack,
well, you can´t do it.
Only planes can bombard enemy units in Civ IV.

Siege weapons on the other hand are only able to bombard city defenses and reduce them (i.e. the bonus the defending units of a city get against your forces).
Therefore the bombard button is displayed only, if you are next to an enemy city.

The only way to "bombard" enemy stacks of units in Civ IV is, to attack them with the catapult (like you would with a normal unit).
Siege weapons do collateral damage, i.e. by attacking one unit they are able damage many or even all units within the stack.
But of course attacking the stack means also that your Catapults have a certain chance to get destryoed unless they are stronger than the enemy (and therefore have good chances to win the fight) or withdraw from battle before getting destroyed (Siege weapons have a 25% waithdrawal chance).

Therefore in Civ IV you have to build Siege weapons like you would have Cruise missiles in previous parts of Civ, i.e. build many of them as they´re likely to get lost as a result of their attack.

**Dr,ape** · November 13, 2005, 01:43

That I think, is like a compromise between the Civ1/2 ways and the Civ3 way. I think it's an improvement.

**madmaxxam** · November 13, 2005, 01:48

Yeah. I've found that catapults and other siege weapons are indespensible. Besides the bombardment of cities and elimination of the defensive bonus, the default collateral damage done to stacks is extremely useful. Also, if the catapults (or other siege weapons) don't win the battle, but withdraw instead, they still get experience points. Just try them out and you'll realize how useful they are.

**Saldrin** · November 13, 2005, 10:44

I'm kinda mixed on the new bombard system. I guess it is a lot "fairer" for the AI this time where as in Civ3 the AI had no chance due to lack of programming...My only gripe is navies seem so .... useless? But now the city combat system has turned into a defending SoD(efense) against massed charging catapults... Its basically the same thing, except now we lose a lot more catapults...

On the funny side, I don't think I can advertise the actual commercial, but there is a TV commercial for a bank, that uses barbs to get its point across. One of the scenes has a groups of barbs charging up a city street with a catapult. Made me chuckle and think of the new bombard system.

**Jerh9e1k5** · November 13, 2005, 22:46

Thank you very much for the replies, but unfortunately they didn't solve my problem

I was next to a city, the adjacent tile and the bombard button did not show up. The city was a barbarian city, could this have been why the button didn't show?

**Frank Johnson** · November 13, 2005, 23:15

The barbarian city probably didnt have enough culture to generate a defensive bonus, thus the bombard option was taken away.

**Proteus_MST** · November 14, 2005, 01:14

Yep,
if there are no defensive % to bombard,
the bombard button doesn´t show up.

Also happens if the defenses drop to zero because of your bombardment.

**uberloz** · November 15, 2005, 10:24

I recently discovered the overwhelming value of siege equipment.

In Civ 3 I barely used them. They weren't really worth it in my opinion.

But in the civ4 game I'm playing right now I happened to make a 'surplus' of cannons just to see how effective they were.

As I suspected, individually they sucked. But 3 cannon completely erased a city defenses in 2 turns.

They also come in handy when the comp has more advanced units then you do.

Hit those stacks with a bunch of sacrificial cannons and all of a sudden that stack of marines and infantry is beatable by your lowly cavalry and riflemen.

They have won high marks from me for that ability!

Announcement

Bombarding with Catapults?

Bombarding with Catapults?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment