Incredibly Dumb Newbie Question re Catapults

[noghar]

After 6? years of playing Civ 2 I have dipped my toes in the water of Civ III. I am playing it on chieftain level to try and get the hang of the new rules about trade and combat.

But one thing has stumped me. I led out three units to attack an enemy city - catapult, archers, spearmen - but when I activated the catapult first, to try and soften up the city defences, it would not attack, and I got a message saying something like, 'only offensive units can occupy cities'. I had to lead the attack with my archers and got my... elbow kicked. Later as the catapult retreated this matrix of red squares appeared around it, showing, I think, where it could attack - but why did it not attack the city when I wanted it to? I am flummoxed and I'm sorry to say I couldn't find any solution flicking through the manual. Can someone explain it to me in words of one syllable?

[vmxa1]

Bombardment units will display a box outlined in red. Those are the valid squares that can be attacked (in range).

You use the launch icon to have the cat attack/bomb a target. So if the town had units in it they had to be killed before you could enter. The cat does not attack via a move order like an archer or a spear.

So you could use the cat to bombard the town and then have attackers finsih off the units. The cat can only occupy empty tiles or those with your units.

[1889]

most artillary can bombard only adjacent tiles. The tile must have a valid target such as an enemy unit with more than one hit point, an improved tile or a city with units, buildings or multiple citizens.

press B or click the bombard icon at the bottom of the screen.

That brings up the red overlay and the target icon.

[noghar]

Got it. Thanks guys.

[Willem]

Originally posted by noghar
Got it. Thanks guys.

You can also hit Shift-B which will have the unit auto-bombard the target each turn. However, you have to turn off the Cancel Orders When Next To Enemy Unit preference, or it won't work. If it's a two square bombard like Artillery, you don't have to bother.

[1889]

I always wondered why that didn't work. Thanks Will.