Effective Use of Air Power

[Rowick Hepan]

I've been playing around with air units in the late game and am wondering whether anyone has found much use for them.

In naval engagements air power / missiles are the ultimate weapons but in land engagements they don't seem to be good for much beyond trashing enemy cities. Personally I'd rather spend my resources on tanks / artillery, capture the enemy city and either keep or sell the improvements that air units would otherwise destroy.

Has anyone found an effective use for air units in non-naval engagements??

[Cookie Monster]

Well in C3C bombers can now kill units. I use them to break up enemy incursions into my territory and then send in the armor to mop up and launch counterattacks.

You have to build fighters to protect your airspace because AAA is not enough.

Just a few random thoughts on what I do with airpower.

[shmily_dana]

Bomb resources. Oil and Rubber first of all. Use carrier to get into range if necessary. Second choice is any lux resource.

You may be able to knock out some key railroad to slow the enemy down a bit.

If two enemies are at war, bomb the no-mans land around conquered cities. Ruin as much as possible to deny it from enemy. Obviously, only if you cna't reach this area with a tank or whatever.

[JereL]

Helps defeat the AIs Stack of death, first use massed artillery to bring them down to 1-2 hp, then bring in the bombers and lay them to waste. All this without ever jeopardizing your land units.

Bombers also help in cutting down the AIs transportation network, which is of paramount importance when trying to get a foothold on a big AIs island when both have similar techs. When tanks and infantry are in the game not bombing the rails to your captured/to-be-captured city will mean that the AI can bring all the free units it has next/into the city in one turn and still attack. This usually will mean that his tanks will slowly chew away the infantry defenders thanks to blitz, fast and good attack.

[Rowick Hepan]

Hmmm...,

I find that when I assualt an enemy Civ after railroads they will usually throw their entire offensive capability at my incursion on the first turn after war is declared - especially if I attacking from the sea. Assuming I survive the first turn the AI's units then just hide in their cities where I can't bomb them directly.

I can see their value in a defensive scenario although I think artillery using your railroads can achieve the same effect and do not need to waste time re-basing between cities.

In an offensive scenario I'm generally far stronger than my openent otherwise I wouldn't be attacking. I would rather build units that are effective at attacking fortified units in cities rather than soft targets that I can roll up with regular land units.

I like the idea of bombing strategic and luxury resources, although again if my incursion is still rolling forward after the AI's initial counter attack I will probably seize those resources with ground units within the first few turns of fighting.

I'm hoping someone can prove me wrong, but air units just don't seem useful to an army that is already winning.

[GeorgeWang]

Of course air units aren't useful when you're already winning. Air units are for there for the first few turns of a war when you're evenly matched (or more likely behind).

[Mariola]

Imho, if you can achieve air superiority the game is almost won, you can destroy any enemy unit without any risk to lose a battle.
IMHO lethal bombing has unbalanced the game, also because AI is very bad at using it (does not build enough bombers!), if you can get flight first the game is won, if you are not the first, you may need some more time and a more challenging fight, but using wisely your air force at the end you win.

[Solomwi]

As Mariola alludes to, air power used "properly" changes the face and nature of warfare. Massed bombers can strip a city of all its defenses with a smaller chance of losses than land forces, especially since the first units injured are enemy air units, if present. That allows a single land unit to take the city with no risk to itself. Add cruise missiles to the mix, especially with their four tile range, and you can eliminate the chance of offensive losses altogether. My target priority in the first turn of a war, assuming all are within range of my air force, goes as follows:

1. Enemy air power and sea power, in that order. Take full control of the skies and you can move the war forward at your own pace, with very few losses, if any.

2. Oil/Uranium/Aluminum, in that order. This is the same principle as above, denying the enemy the ability to strike deep into your territory, as well as denying him any strong fastmovers.

3. Cities in order of invasion. Ideally leaving the city defenseless and using only one unit to take it. Given the loose city spacing of AI's, this keeps 4xCav armies useful until the game's end. If I'm going to use a 4xMA army to take it, I'll leave a defender and begin bombing the next city.

4. Rubber. Moving down the list of units I want to deny my enemy.

5. Roaming enemy units. Just for the thrill of destruction and chipping away a little bit more at his available forces.

6. Improved tiles, whether to cut a trade route, split an empire or just keep AI workers busy. One trick I like is to bomb an improved mountain. The AI will flock any available workers to it, allowing me to capture them all with one unit.

[Rowick Hepan]

So when bombing cities, at what point do you start inflicting damage on defending units??

I can bomb the same city 4-5 times and only destroy improvements that i would have prefered to capture rather than demolish

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Rowick Hepan
So when bombing cities, at what point do you start inflicting damage on defending units??

I can bomb the same city 4-5 times and only destroy improvements that i would have prefered to capture rather than demolish

Last I recall, bombing cities is 50% units and 25% each for improvements and cits. If you hit an improvement and there ARE no improvements then no effect.
Of course, there is also no effect if your bombardment strength doesn't "win" vs. the unit strength or the 16 improvement-or-cit strength. I do not remember whether city target strengths are adjusted due to city size, etc. for air-bombardment defense.

[Solomwi]

4-5 times isn't anywhere close to enough bombardment to accomplish your goal. Depending on how well defended it is, I'll typically throw 15-25 bombers at a city. Sometimes the first one damages a unit, sometimes not. If you go with a bombardment strategy, you have to resign yourself to rebuilding everything in the city. That way, you may be pleasantly surprised.

[trev]

I am not fond of bombers, I find I tend to lose too many to fighters, so I mass artillery against cities to capture them with units, some cities I will mass armies of tanks and MA against for a quicker victory, my aim is to capture cities without any losses if at all possible (my aim needs to be that as I use Democratic gov't almost exclusively)

[Paddy]

well I use the fighter-bombers in the WWII Scenario with great delight

they really cut through the Zero's and hit the enemy hard

Would be great to see them available elsewhere

As to other planes, I love getting the f-14's up and about, but they are not the greatest at getting results

[Mad Bomber]

The best use of airpower is to prepare a landing area for invasion. I build about 10-12 carriers and make them the focal point of between 2 and 4 task forces. Each task force is heavily escorted. When the invasion time becomes near, the task forces enter the enemies waters and start bombing luxuries and resources. After those are taken out (not just cut but also all roads leading to them) then I start bombing the road network, particulary around the capitol. Next comes their other infrastructure, esp radar towers. Finally I destroy all of the roads leading to the invasion site and pound the targeted city(ies) to town size and eliminate their barracks.

[Solomwi]

Trev, once you have rocketry, cruise missiles will destroy any fighters in cities four tiles from the border, and naval bombardment can handle those in coastal cities without the possibility of retaliation. You may also want to build some fighters to "fly escort", i.e. send the fighters on bombing runs first to draw out enemy fighters.