Silly Rules succession game

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit

I wonder if it might not be time to give up the archipelago cities and consolidate our assets.
Once the CF goes -- as it will -- Bullwinkle and Sticky Moose are toast. Heck, if they're surrounded, they could starve to death.
It might be wiser to send a rescue mission to empty the cities and sell off the assets.

Oh, and did I see that correctly? @ war with Spanish now, too?
.[/B]

I agree that Bullwinkle and Sticky Moose are toast if/when the Zulus attack with all their strength, but vet Alpine behind walls (or coastal fortress) are strong defenders. I would expect (and enjoy ) heavy Zulu casualties. IMO those 2 small cities are what allows us to leave our main island very lightly defended, and therefore use our gold to build the spies and armours that are giving us France.

If we manage to take the remaining French cities before the Zulus wake up and sneak attack, we are going to be stronger than they are and probably able to counter attack and destroy their invasion force.

As to the Spanish, yes they sneak attacked, but they lost a few ships against our coastal fortresses. Their strong Navy has been sailing to and fro quite a while since then

[La Fayette]

OldnSlow ?

[Bloody Monk]

-Jrabbit & La Fayette,

Simply beautiful. Well done.

These logs are getting very interesting to read.

I would appreciate a brief treatise on the use of bombers, esp their advantage over other units. I usually waited to build stealth fighters and dont have any experience using bombers. Thanks

Monk

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk

I would appreciate a brief treatise on the use of bombers, esp their advantage over other units. I usually waited to build stealth fighters and dont have any experience using bombers. Thanks

Monk

IMO Bombers are only useful in creating a 'bomber stack', which you may know as a trick to prevent land or naval units from being attacked by AI land or naval units

If the AI doesn't have Fighters, Bombers can be useful. But if your opponent has Flight, the losses can be just too heavy to bear. Generally it makes more sense to wait for Howitzers, or knock down the walls.

But in this game, perhaps someone will show me a new trick, and I can learn too.

Stealth Fighters (when the game lasts that long )

[rjmatsleepers]

Great turnsets JRabbit and LF. Net gain of 5 cities if I've done the sums correctly. As we get stronger and the rest of the world gets weaker we can gradually pump up the rate at which we offer our protection to the poor souls suffering under all those serious regimes.

RJM at Sleeper's

[La Fayette]

bombers

Originally posted by Bloody Monk
I would appreciate a brief treatise on the use of bombers, esp their advantage over other units

This is not a treatise, because I use bombers very seldom (costly and fragile).

Howies, or Armours + Spies, do the job much faster, with much lower casualties, in most cases.

Yet, bombers have at least 4 main possible uses (apart from the famous bomber stack that I never use because I consider it a bug, or a cheat, if you prefer).

1) Your foe has not discovered flight and has a very poor transportation network (roads and RRs).

2) One tile island with coastal fortress, and you have no battleship.

3) You lack either Mobile Warfare or Espionage.

4) Numerous defenders inside smaller cities (what I call "barbe à papa": if you destroy the walls, you will also destroy the city).

In all cases, it is highly advisable to have a bombing squadron numerous enough to take the city in one turn, and avoid stacking your bombers after the attack (a lone vet fighter coming from a city nearby can destroy 2 or 3 stacks, and that may be VERY costly).

("barbe à papa" = "cotton candy"

[rjmatsleepers]

Re: bombers

Originally posted by La Fayette

4) Numerous defenders inside smaller cities (what I call "barbe à papa": if you destroy the walls, you will also destroy the city).


("barbe à papa" = "cotton candy"

In our case, we don't need to be too careful about not destroying cities. All we need to do is deny them to the AI. Unless they are especially useful to us, destroying is as good as capturing.

I think our biggest enemy in this game is now time.

RJM at Sleeper's

("barbe à papa" = "cotton candy"="candy floss")

[-Jrabbit]

A couple more notes on bombers --

Yes, they are susceptible to fighter planes. That's why your spies' Investigate City (free) function is so important. Silly to use bombers when they will be countered. But where Fighters are absent (and the AI doesn't build many of them), they can take out most any city defender and, like howies, ignore the walls.

The other cool function of the bomber is their movement of 8x2turns. On their outbound turn (whether dropping a bomb or not), they prevent attacks on the square they cover, and create Zone Of Control issues for the enemy. My favorite use of this is when taking a city. I position my bombers to keep the partisans from occupying fortress and mountain squares. Greatly facilitates troop movement in the aftermath, so you can move on to the next target...

Pretty good as advance scouts, too. Opens up visbility 10 squares away...

[-Jrabbit]

BTW, I agree with La Fayette's rejoinder to my thoughts on Sticky Bullwinkle Isle...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Re: Re: bombers

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers

I think our biggest enemy in this game is now time.

Seventy turns is an eternity in Civ2 If we keep the momentum up, I expect us to be finished before Reagan's R/T presidency.

[Bloody Monk]

Thanks Fellows for the ideas on use of bombers.

La Fayette- Your four points are well taken. Each presents an interesting problem that bombers can solve; and, it actually brought a smile as I visualized each in turn, impressed once again about the depth of this game.

-Jrabbit- I agree that using air to cover the city squares before taking the city is a good tactic. But, with only an 8move, an airbase or nearby city is required, right??

And they seem to be awfully expensive esp considering how vulnerable they become when the AI gets Flight (STYOM's point)

But I see now how, if circumstances are right, bombers can be very useful...in spite of the huge investment required.

Monk

[duke o' york]

You will not necessarily need a nearby city or airbase (or even carrier), because you can move your bombers into position, get them to wait while the cover the fortress squares, take the city and then land them in the city when the partisans have appeared on the squares you considered safe.

[-Jrabbit]

Exactly right, duke.

BM -- Obviously, there needs to be a city within 8 spaces, and you do need to keep track of your movements -- running out of fuel is an expensive proposition. Important to know that, unlike fighters, once you attack, your turn is over -- so you can't bomb that stray partisan on your way back to base.

Basically, your bombers move through the enemy cities along with your ground troops. Expensive to build, yes, but 3 or 4 of them is plenty. "Only 8" moves? True, but that's x2 turns, so you can advance 16 tiles before landing.

While staging ground troops for the next attack, use your bombers on alternate turns. I try to always have a couple in the air, monitoring enemy troop movements and providing cover for armor/spy troops as they advance into position.

[Old n Slow]

Talk about speed -- I leave Friday (having seen JRabbit's early notes) & a world of posts by Monday AM!

Nice action La Fayette!

I d/l the save & will look at it tonight.

[Old n Slow]

Save tonight, log tomorrow.

The Zulus and Spanish have Rocketry, and the Zulus have built Manhatten. ...

News to follow...