Why are their ironclads better than mine?

[MyOlde]

I'm playing Babs on Regent level. The French are bombarding my city improvements with veteran ironclads. I am building veteran ironclads (in harbor cities) but they consistently lose -- whether I initiate the attack or the French ironclad attacks.

Should I give up building ironclads and just let my workers repair the damage? (I do have lots of workers.) Or what? My military is tied up cleaning the Persian scum off the face of the earth.

[Arrian]

Two options:

1) Hold your new ironclads in port until you have several of them, then sortie out, bombard the enemy ironclad with the first few and attack with the last one. Hopefully, the enemy unit will have 1hp left when you intiate the attack.

2) Build some cannons or artillery (whichever you have the tech for) and bombard the enemy from shore. Then you can mop them up with your ironclads, or at least they will run away to heal. This works much better with artillery than with cannon.

-Arrian

[MyOlde]

Good answers, Arrian. Thanks! I hadn't thought of bombarding them. The artillery is a good idea, too. Thanks again.

[Arrian]

No problem... I played for a while before I thought of using naval units to bombard other naval units, or using artillery as counterbatteries vs. those pesky AI navies. It really helps. The artillery thing is particularly useful once you have railroads, because you can zap a stack of arty around instantly, and unleash holy hell on any ship that dares end its turn w/in two squares of shore. Then you finish 'em off with your ships, which will pretty much always win vs. a 1hp enemy, and you're all set.

-Arrian

p.s. Also move your ships in stacks, because that way one will act like a bombard unit if the stack is attacked - you get that free shot to soften up the attacker.

[chiefpaco]

Does the 10% terrain defense bonus apply to water squares too? If so, that would tip the scales in favour of the defender. If not, then nevermind, I'll go hide.

[Arrian]

Chiefpaco,

Good question, I don't know. I've wondered that too.

-Arrian

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by chiefpaco
Does the 10% terrain defense bonus apply to water squares too? If so, that would tip the scales in favour of the defender. If not, then nevermind, I'll go hide.

I'm not at my home computer, but I do believe the most commen defense bonus is 10%. The exceptions are rivers, mountains, hills, jungles, etc...

[Ethelred]

The AI uses that bombard and then attack method with ships. At least when they enough units available. Since ironclads bombard only when adjacent you can't really see that they are doing that.

On top of that ships with bombard ability get a free shot when come at them before you start your attack. Like bowmen do.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Thrawn05


I'm not at my home computer, but I do believe the most commen defense bonus is 10%. The exceptions are rivers, mountains, hills, jungles, etc...

He's referring to the 10% bonus applied to grassland, plains, desert and tundra (terrain types that get no major bonuses like mountains, hills, jungles and forests). This was done to give the defender a slight edge, even in flat, open terrain.

-Arrian