The brilliance of lethal bombardment!

[=DrJambo=]

I gotta say that the addition of this in 1.21f is just brilliant...

I gave lethal land/sea bombardment to:
Jet Fighters
F15s
Stealth Fighters/Bombers
BAttleships
AEGIS
Destroyers
Radar Artillery

I gave lethal land to:
Cannon and Artillery

I gave lethal sea to:
All bombarding sea vessels

Remember to label the air bombard to air units like Jet Fighters so that the AI will use them this way. And it does so very effectively too.

People really over estimate the unbalancing factor of lethal bombardment against the AI. Remember that Destroyers, Cannons and Artillery, my most questionable additions, can still reduce a unit to 1 hp effectively rendering that unit useless anyway and does actually killing it make that much of a difference?!

If you actually kill the unit you save the AI money (1 less maintenance fee) and time in returning the unit home to recuperate. Remember, in versions before 1.21f, AI ships would always run away to port once you bombarded them to red, not realising that you couldn't actually kill them outright. Human players would realise this and just keep on bombarding away, now this isn't the case. Human navies now have a reason to be scared once bombarded and a quick getaway often becomes necessary. To avoid this bring a carrier with jet fighters to protect your navy.

One thing i would advise though. Give modern ships +1 hp (AEGIS and Nuclear Subs +2) to help them a little. Also i made AEGIS have a defence of 16 and Battleships 14.

I had my navy (3 battleships, 1 destroyer, 2 subs, 1 carrier with 1 bomber and 3 jet fighers causing havoc to the Egyptians off their coast, when all of a sudden, their bombers rained in, artillery from the coast fired and a whole squad of battleships blocked their escape and are closing in... they appear to be well and truly doomed. Great excitment though as they could yet escape....! Previously i wouldn't have been bothered as bombers and jet fighters were never a threat as they couldn't kill them and they could have just kept out of range from their battleships...

This is all incorporated into the Real_Deal v1.2 if you wish to take a peek later today when i get time to update the thread.

[dunk]

I think the only lethal bombardment in the game should be air vs sea. Air units are the only units that can't attack like other units. Ships can sinks ships already, they just have to attack.

[=DrJambo=]

Originally posted by dunk999
I think the only lethal bombardment in the game should be air vs sea. Air units are the only units that can't attack like other units. Ships can sinks ships already, they just have to attack.

I can tell you i use my modern navy a lot more now i am able to lethally bombard land units.

The AI fleets now bring terror when i see them pounding my land/units knowing that they can kill them... previously i'd just let the AI bombard away and get my workers to repair the tiles and just leave my units as they could never kill them. In fact one tactic was just to leave units on the coast to protect the built-up land as while units there the navy couldn't destroy the roads, etc. This meant the AI navy was pointless.

Much better now

Ships can bombard other ships...whether lethal or not?! Making it lethal doesn't make much difference in my games. A 4,4 (4,1,2) full strength Ironclad has just as much chance at killing a Battleship if it attacks or bombards. In fact probably better to attack as you get 4-5 hp worth of attacking rather than just a rate of fire of 2!

[dunk]

Originally posted by =DrJambo=
The AI fleets now bring terror when i see them pounding my land/units knowing that they can kill them... previously i'd just let the AI bombard away and get my workers to repair the tiles and just leave my units as they could never kill them. In fact one tactic was just to leave units on the coast to protect the built-up land as while units there the navy couldn't destroy the roads, etc. This meant the AI navy was pointless.

I've only seen the AI bombard my units or cities after it has destroyed all the improvements in the area. It would move somewhere where it could hit roads, etc. before attacking units. Then again, I've never seen a big grouping of AI naval units. Maybe 1.21 altered that? It definately would increase the need for a standing navy or land-based artillery.

Originally posted by =DrJambo=
Ships can bombard other ships...whether lethal or not?! Making it lethal doesn't make much difference in my games. A 4,4 (4,1,2) full strength Ironclad has just as much chance at killing a Battleship if it attacks or bombards. In fact probably better to attack as you get 4-5 hp worth of attacking rather than just a rate of fire of 2!

Well, ship to ship bombard is basically free shots and an extended range for ship to ship combat. An actual naval engagement would have both ships firing simultaneously. Your naval bombard model could have 5 (just a guess) ironclads sink a battleship without getting a scratch on them. As the game stands unmodded, you'd probably have 1 or 2 ironclads left after the battle with damage to them. Or if you bomarded the battleship down to one HP, you would still probably lose 1 or 2 ironclads.