Gunship vs. lesser units

[Broken Hawk]

I'm sure someone has touched on this, but...

I've lost Gunships to a Musketman and, yes, a Pikeman.
What's the deal?

A design flaw or am I missing something? Geez.

[Kc7mxo]

Just hold down the alt button before you attack to check the odds. if they ain't in your favor, don't waste the gunship.

[MasterDave]

Your pilots were obviously flying too low if they got impaled by pikemen.

[vmxa1]

Probably your gunship was damaged already. Understand that you have a 100 HP to start. If you take damage and are down to say 50 HP, you are no longer function the same.

So a unit that it would clobber has a much greater chance of winning. It only needs to do 50 HP of damage, while the Gunship still has to do 100.

It is not a profitable plan to attack with injured units in IV. I lost lots of 20 attack gunships to attack 10 camel archers, when mine were damaged. Some times you do not have a choice.

[Firecrak]

Hp = Strength. Research upgrades just allow higher strength, but still equal hp. Thus a heli with 1 hp is worse than a warrior.

[Broken Hawk]

Thanks. I got it now.

[deluXE]

I found Gunships to be fairly disappointing, to be honest. Not much of an improvement compared to the Cavarly.

[vmxa1]

You have to remember they cannot capture towns, that got me in trouble a few times, now I hold a few calvs to rush in.

[Broken Hawk]

Originally posted by deluXE
I found Gunships to be fairly disappointing, to be honest. Not much of an improvement compared to the Cavarly.

I don't think they are any improvement over the Camel Rider units I upgraded from. At least the Camels can capture a city.

[Dis]

I find uses for gunships. With bomber support they can take most units. And have great movement.

[vmxa1]

Camel Archers are attack 10, how is that going to fair better than attack 20? Now Calvs may be acceptable, Camel Archers will get chewed up by Gunships and Calvs under most conditions.

The capture towns only requires that you bring something else along to do the actual capture.

[Broken Hawk]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Camel Archers are attack 10, how is that going to fair better than attack 20?

Point taken.

You are right in general. In the specific game I am playing, given the inferior military techs available to the AI, Gunships do not appear to be more valuable than Camel Riders.

[YC4B4U]

Gunships are tank killers - nothing more. If your opponent does not have tanks, then they are fairly useless.

Add a couple to your combined arms attack force and they render your army immune to tanks.

I do not think that they should receive damage from ancient melee units though - unless they get attacked when the pilot has to land to take a leak...

[mgdpublic]

I'm wondering if Gunship's are bugged too. The win/loss doesn't seem on par with the stats alleged.

[borkus]

Definitely check the odds

Defensive bonuses for a unit can greatly increase its toughness. I was thinking of having a tank attack a rifleman in a town. It would've been an even fight. After whittling down the defenses with some artillery, the tank did just fine.