Bombardment missing the point

[Jaybe]

Hagbart, you are noting a bit of bad luck (and excess expectations) with your catapult. You wanted 2-4 of them to be halfway confident of success. Catapults are NOT Artillery ( they aren't even cannons)!

[korn469]

one thing to keep in mind with bombardment is this little fact

i sent speed bump (aka barry at firaxis) an email asking about why air units would fail an unusually large amount of the time in the blitz mod and here was his responce

The first thing that happens is the bombarding unit rolls a virtual 4-sided die to determine the target (assuming it is a city...units on open ground will be the target unless they have only one hitpoint and lethal bombard is not in effect). Results of 1 or 2 mean a unit is targeted, 3 targets population, and 4 targets improvements. If this die roll results in a null target, this will be an automatice miss. If the target is valid, then the unit rolls to hit.

I hope that helps,
Barry

or to put it in gameplay perspective a size one zero improvement city doubles the units defense against bombard, so this may explain some of the unexpected failures

[Tuberski]

So, obviously, the better built an enemy city is, the better bombard works?

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Yeah, artillery is great! In fact, I have stopped using artillery at the lower level because victory seems so hollow.

Absolutely. Bombardment is very powerful.

I often have wars in epochs where defense is strong; such as the age of pike and catapult (before knights), and the age of infantry and artillery (before tanks). With bombardment, you can actually take ground with infantry v. infantry. It leads to a much more sophisticated battle position, I think; and being able to profitably fight in these epochs means that you can fight a war anytime, not just when you have a fortuitous technological advantage on the attack.

Most players play as if they know that tanks will be invented in 5000 years, while their scientists are still trying to learn how to make metal alloys.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Hagbart
Yeah you're right. I just played a game (Apolyton Expack as the Vikings) and I bombarded a city maybe four turns with a catapult without hitting the city a single time!

Siege warfare takes patience. A pikeman in a hill city can be nearly impossible to take out with normal means, especially before the age of knights. After several turns of pounding the city with "maybe four" catapults, you will realize the benefit of bombard units.

You can also pound cities you have no intention of taking. Make the enemy find a way to dislodge your pikeman on a hill overlooking his city.