Intercepting Bomber Missions

[bobbo008]

Hi, i was wondering:

how exactly is the chance of intercepting a bombing mission work when you have both a SAM missile site and a fighter in the area on "air superiority"? also, if there is more than one fighter? also, do fighters and jet fighters have the same chance as intercepting? finally, i'll use an example for this question. if i'm germany, and i bomb a city and have a fighter on air superiority nearby, can my german fighter intercept, say, a french fighter going to intercept my bomber?

thank you

[Spiffor]

To avoid having my bombers getting intercept, I often send my fighters first on reconnaissance mission over the target. IIRC, the enemy planes try to intercept my fighter, and an even battle ensues.

[ruthless]

Originally posted by Spiffor
To avoid having my bombers getting intercept, I often send my fighters first on reconnaissance mission over the target. IIRC, the enemy planes try to intercept my fighter, and an even battle ensues.

if u get that far in the game i would recommened stealth planes....i have yet to get intercepted with stealth

[Jaybe]

Spiffor, Reconnaissance missions are not subject to interception. Use your fighters on bombing missions instead to provoke it (50% default chance*).

The intercept battles are not even. The interceptor is the attacker (jet fighter attack at 8), the intercepted is the defender (jet fighter defense at 4 (stock value*)).

* I prefer 67% chance to intercept; I have increased Fighter Defense to 3, Jet Fighter to 7, F-15 to 8.

[Jaybe]

bobbo008, each bombing mission has a 50% chance of being intercepted if there are 1 or more potential interceptors (or SAM site) in range of your target square. The intercept chance does not increase with more interceptors available, except that interceptors can only intercept once per turn.

Air superiority missions apply ONLY against the bombing aircraft! You CANNOT counter air superiority missions with your own air superiority missions! See my previous post regarding workarounds.

I have had limited experience with the function of SAM sites (just today, in fact). They cover only the city, not even the adjacent tiles. It is my supposition that if you are fated to be intercepted and a SAM site is available, it will be used. A SAM site cannot lose (until it is destroyed by bombardment), a fighter that intercepts CAN unless it is intercepting a stealth craft.

[johncmcleod]

Civ3 has such bad air combat. Fighters should be able to escort bombers. And it doesn't make any sense if you have 10 fighter units based in a city on air superiority and the bomber gets through unscathed. Also, when a bomber is intercepted it should be able to fight back, not just crash. Another thing that needs to be done is air units shouldn't always fight to the death. It is not the way it really happened. The problem with this is the wounded bomber units would just go back to the city and get healed. So, the solution for that is air units can't heal when they go back to the city. They have to go to the city and the city has to spend shields rebuilding the unit. This should only apply to air units though.

[Kuciwalker]

Fighters CAN escort bombers - send them on bombing runs to clear out enemy fighters.

If you don't like how often the bombers get through, edit the value (I have it at 80%).

A bomber CAN fight back. It has a defense of 2. Stealth Fighters and Bombers can't fight back because they carry no antifighter weapons. A Stealth plane's sole line of defense is the Stealth, which is pretty darned good.

Units in Civ3 ofthen DO fight to the death. It would just be a huge impossible mess if they almost never did. The game is on a strategic level, and it actually simulates air combat extremely well. Or would you rather it work like in Civ2?

[vmxa1]

Yes I have had many bombers shoot down a fighter that attacked them. I have no idea what the odds are, but it happens at least once in most of my games.
Usually I stop sending bombers if they have fighters in that city.

[CerberusIV]

Yes, bombers can destroy intercepting fighters and even be promoted to elite as a result. They tend to not fare so well against jet fighters which have a higher attack value.

SAM sites are a real pain. In one game I hit a major city with 16 stealth bombers in a single turn. The SAM site shot down 3 of them (the chance is only supposed to be 5%), damn the RNG! Even more irritating, I went in again on the next 2 turns using smart bombing to try and take out the SAM site. I got it eventually after losing 2 more stealth bombers but only after taking out every other improvement in the target city first. That's not very "smart". I hope that one of the changes in conquests is to allow smart bombing to choose which city improvement you go for - anyone with any sense is going to go for the SAM site first given a choice.

[Panag]

hi ,

the only thing thats regretable is the fact that fighter bombers are not well portrayed in the game , ......

like for example a phantom or skyhawk , ......

as for the rest , the bombers like even updated B-52's and b-17's and all the other rim ram , the numbers are good , most fighters shoot them indeed down , ......

have a nice day

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Yes I have had many bombers shoot down a fighter that attacked them. I have no idea what the odds are, but it happens at least once in most of my games.
Usually I stop sending bombers if they have fighters in that city.

The odds are 2/3 chance of the fighter shooting down the bomber (assuming equal hp).

[georges bonbon]

Originally posted by ruthless


planes....i have yet to get intercepted with stealth

Playing with around 40 Stealth-Bombers, I lost 4 of them in one turn.

[georges bonbon]

Originally posted by johncmcleod
Civ3 has such bad air combat.

The same thing can be said about artillery and sea bombardement.

But if you have huge numbers of any them, they are pretty useful.

And they are even more useful in defense.

[Panag]

Originally posted by georges bonbon



Playing with around 40 Stealth-Bombers, I lost 4 of them in one turn.

hi ,

bad luck , happens in the real world also , .....

have a nice day

[bobbo008]

ok, i appears as if some posts contradict or i'm just slow. anyone care to help me out again and say how exactly i can get fighters to fight each other. do they both have to be on air superiority, can one be on recon, or does one have to be on a bombing mission? thanks

and i've had many stealth bombers get shot down, and once to a plain ol' fighter...