Battleships and Carriers

[King Andre]

Civilopedia says that Aircraft Carriers ended the reign of the ferocious Battleships, well, I suppose they didn't. And the AI thinks same I believe. :-)


I have never seen a computer player using dozens of carriers, but they love battleships -like me-. A vet Battleship can even sometimes bring down those Stealth Bomber units, as efficiently as AEGIS Cruisers. But Carriers are both expensive and air units are not as powerful as the units I counted above.


Is there anyone who uses the aircraft carriers to carry fighters and bombers? - not nukes(oophs, AI usually carries nukes with subs, I forgot). They may be a good transport, but no more.

[Paul]

The only navy I ever use consists of Transports to carry my Howitzers to other continents. Earlier I also use Triremes, Caravels and Galleons to transport my Diplomats, Settlers and Caravans.

[King Andre]

Paul,

Strange... In my last game, I had a navy consisting 13 battleships, 2 carriers, 23 AEGIS cruisers, 11 subs and 19 destroyers.


Sounds nice, isn't it? But I'm using only some destroyer to patrol and 3 battleships for security near the coast of my capital. The others wait in the port.


Well, I think mine is just another strategy to make the game more enjoyable. Everyday you learn something, eh?


Hey, wait a moment. Did you count Transports in the navy?(and the only type of ship in your navy) But who will escort them then? Fighters??

Navy is just another important part of the army. Not a kind of transport, I suppose.

[Aurelius]

Paul, you don't even have a spy amongst those manned robots? Or a beach head engineer to give the landed howitzers their full two turns?

Yeah, I'm not much for navies either. But sometimes I'll escort the transports with an Aegis and if I can manage, a bomber--all one stack. I hate to lose a transport full of Howitzers to a sneak attack.

Aurelius

[Paul]

I wiil have the occasional spy or engineer on board, but there is no need for protection. The continents are always close enough to allow your tranport to reach the next continent in one turn.

[Aurelius]

I use a large map most of the time (not in OCC of course But I find the distances a bit perilous and especially so given the AI's tendency to build tons of ships--'AndreLike'. But given this, I do enjoy the thrill of sneaking a boat load of killer units unescorted on occasion.

[rah]

The AI, has no clue how to use aircraft carriers. As a result, they very very rarely build them. I have given a few to the AI to see how it would use them. They will attack coastal cities with them(it was hilarious.) Further proof that the AI doesn't know how to use them. Of course, since their bombers can stay aloft indefinately, why do they need carriers.

RAH

[Puaxant Tuvip]

hmm well the ai will use massive amounts of cruise missles on my battleships and carriers effectively rendering the useless. (I usually don't let them build up to missles, but sometimes they are on a far away continent). So when I research rocketry I build massive amounts of aegis cruisers- fairly cheap and can bombard cities decently if there is no coastal fortress. The ai never uses missles on cruisers and transports in my games.

Of course I like lots of navy ships since I used to be in the navy. I try to have a combined force. But I rarely build and use subs. They are worthless. The only subs I will build is my own ballistic sub design. I never build destroyer either, cruisers are right after them anyways.
[This message has been edited by Puaxant Tuvip (edited December 26, 1999).]

[rah]

We were playing the WWII scenario and I would put one battleship out to sea with 5 Aegis Cruisers on the stack. The next turn over 50 cruise missles attacked that stack. I went back and checked and some cities that fired were technically out of range. (More AI cheats.) Thanks to vet status, the stack survived. It turned out to be a good way to divert AI production. They immediately started replacing their stockpile. So I would provide a target every 10 turns or so. Watching 50 cruise missles inbound is also very entertaining.

RAH

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I'm not a big builder of cruise missiles. I do build them sometimes for special cases but for the most part they are not powerful enough and cost to much. Maybe I'd build more if you could target city improvments.

[Puaxant Tuvip]

I don't mind it if it takes like 5 missles to sink my batttleship. That is definately worth the waste of ai production. But sometimes they get lucky and get it with 2 missles.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I hate having a battle ship sunk. They take a little while to build but longer to move to the part of the world you want them in. I like building airbases on small islands to extend the range of my airforce. Than I keep bombers over my battle ships to protect them (nice against subs also).

[Theben]

Carriers in civ1 were great- because back then bombers could "pillage" terrain. I used to cripple the production of entire empires with 2 carriers with 7 bombers each (plus 1 fighter) by "pillaging" mines and rr's. Bombers aren't too useful in civ2, so I rarely build carriers. I usually dont' bother with too many planes at all except fighters for defense and stealth fighters for offense/defense.

As for missiles, I use them in rare circumstances. To sink loaded enemy transports which no other unit can react to fast enough, or en masse to empty an enemy city with nukes in it.

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Theben
Co-Moderator of the Civ3 Forums

[Aurelius]

Hey Theban,

Do you ever use bombers in OCC? I find them pretty useful as I have to deal with powerful allies around 1920. It pays to have a few fortressed alpine troops in mountains with a Bomber fortified. The AI can't figure out how to get by

I like bombers as they defend the stack. But in the spirit of this thread, I NEVER build aircraft carriers. I once had a carrier attacked by some planes/bombers and it sunk with a couple fighter on board. I think the fighters should be allowed to scramble. (maybe they can but the aircraft carrier took defensive precedence.)

Aurelius.

[Carolus Rex]

I don't remember the outcome on the bomber stack in our OCC voting. Anyway, you can do fine without bombers. I use those shields for more important things (like freights) instead.

My navy consists only of transport vessels of all kinds. There are exceptions like The Super Ironclad.

Carolus