I've played quite a bit..but still have a few questions...

[derekgoalie]

I have played this game quite few times, but I have some questions about the gameplay or I think there area few things which don't make much sense...I wanted to see what you guys thought:

Gameplay question:
1) When attacking a stack, is there anyway I can specificy which unit I want my unit to attack? I want my SAM guys to tackle their Gunships..but that doesn't always happen. Same thing on defending..how does it make the decisions it does?

2) Bomber/fighter unit damage: I was attacking a transport with a 10 bombers, but after 6 or so attacks, I could no longer cause damage, It wouldnt even give me the option to attack that tile anymore..any ideas?

Things that don't make sense:

1) Subs: how come a battleship and destoryer pretty much crush a sub everytime? I could see the destroyer doing the damage, but aren't battleships vulnverable since they dont have anti-sub weapons? It seems that the sub is very underpowered (aside from its stealth). Typically, every unit has a unit to which it is vulnerable...but in naval warfare, this doesnt seem to be the case.

2) battleships: Does it strike anyone as odd that a battleship cannot damage units garrisoned inside a city? Bombers/fighters can both destroy tile improvements OR damage units...so why can't battleships (with their increased production valve) do more than a destroyer?

3) fighter/bomber damage: Why is this a % of the points and not just raw damage? As the health of the unit goes down, so does the amount of damage a bomber can cause..and once it goes below 40% or so..you cant damage any more.

[Standup]

Well i think you may have answered your second question yourself. So far as i can work out there is a maximum amount of damage that you can achieve with planes.

1. No

2. as above

1. probably part of the spearman tank argument in that you could argue it's not a single battleship but a fleet etc. Make the subs too powerful and nobody would build other ships.

2. I agree on this one especially as in Civ3 one of the few uses for a navy was shore bombardment i've got use to softening up cities with my battleships.

3. Presumbly to reflect you can't win a war with airpower alone ? Feels about right to me although i haven't really tried it since the changes to combat in the latest patch.

[Forwarn45]

3) fighter/bomber damage: Why is this a % of the points and not just raw damage? As the health of the unit goes down, so does the amount of damage a bomber can cause..and once it goes below 40% or so..you cant damage any more.

I think the last poster is right that they didn't want to make air so powerful it could win the war for you. This makes sense to me in the context of air versus land units. Air can suppress them but not kill them. But I wonder why air can't sink ships? Maybe this should be changed.

[Solomwi]

Re: I've played quite a bit..but still have a few questions...

Originally posted by derekgoalie

Gameplay question:
1) When attacking a stack, is there anyway I can specificy which unit I want my unit to attack? I want my SAM guys to tackle their Gunships..but that doesn't always happen. Same thing on defending..how does it make the decisions it does?

Your enemy will always present the toughest defense at its disposal. For instance, if his stack consists of a spearman and an axeman, and yours consists of a horse archer and a swordsman, it won't matter in which order you attack. Your swordsman will draw the axeman (+50% vs. melee) and your horse archer will draw the spearman (+100% vs. mounted), assuming nothing (health, promotions, etc.) changes the equation. To produce the favorable matchup, you have to have a big enough stack to manipulate the battle in your favor. For instance, enough infantry to weaken or kill the non-helicopter units enough that, when you attack with the SAM, the gunship represents the toughest defense the enemy can provide.

On #2, you can only air strike a unit to half its initial strength.

[derekgoalie]

Very cool...is there some thread where Fraxis checks for game enhancements? I would really like to see battleships do unit damage...even if it was like airpower where it ticks off %s.

One other thing....I seem to be running through artillery like candy (pre-tank) when attacking stacks and doing colleratal damage....are other people seeing the same thing? I'll attack a city with 5 or 6 artillery units to soften up the D...but of course, each artillery gets destroyed in the process. Is there a different order of attacking I should be using to minimze my artillery loss?

[Solomwi]

I don't think minimizing artillery loss is a common goal. In fact, the whole purpose of the suicide siege tactic is that you sacrifice those cats/cannons/artillery so that you don't lose your City Raider III swordsman/rifleman/infantry. To protect your siege units, you're looking at losing more of those city attackers, so either way you slice it, you're going to be building more units. The question is, in losing the unit, would you rather lose an easily replaceable siege unit that brings collateral damage, or a perhaps not so easily replaceable attacker that only damages the unit it fights.

[player1]

There is also bombard action which makes seige units do damage to city defenses, reducing defense bonus for defender.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by player1
There is also bombard action which makes seige units do damage to city defenses, reducing defense bonus for defender.

True. I assumed he was already using the requisite number to reduce city defenses to zero, then attacking with artillery. If that's not the case, the obvious answer is to bring four (or three with Accuracy promo) more artillery along and bombard the city to zero before attacking.

[Axxaer]

Re: I've played quite a bit..but still have a few questions...

Originally posted by derekgoalie

1) When attacking a stack, is there anyway I can specificy which unit I want my unit to attack? I want my SAM guys to tackle their Gunships..but that doesn't always happen. Same thing on defending..how does it make the decisions it does?

Ok, think about that carefully. You want to be able to choose which unit you attack when attacking, and which unit to defend with when defending. Wouldn't that make it rather a bit too easy? And think about multiplayer too...

[derekgoalie]

I cool with the stack attack/defend stuff...I just hate it when my rogue unit get owned when it's out destroying tile improvements with no protection.

For the artillery...I first take the city D down to 0..then to the colleraterial attacks, typically resulting in the utter destruction of most of my artillery. I thought about what another poster said and I totally agree....making cannons and stuff is really easy..you need to focus on keeping your unit promotions (something which I haven't really done in the past).