A Use for bombardment?

[Sava]

I've found that bombardments are almost useless because the production required to get a decent artillery/bomber force needed to have an impact on city bombing could be better spent on tanks. But having said that, I have found that if I have shields to spend, there is a use for bombing.

I tend to enjoy bombing tile improvements during an invasion or war. This prevents reinforcements from getting to the front fast as well as hurts the collection of food, shields, and trade. This can have a devestating effect on research, as well as the economy of your enemy. Does anyone else utilize bombing in such a fashion? I tend to destroy just about all tile-improvements, cutting off the enemy from resources, trade, and from reinforcing isolated units.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Actually I think there is a broad consensus here at Apolyton that bombardment (artillery) is very usefull and actually too strong, as the AI doesn't seem to be able to use it properly.

Imagine a game where you're experiencing difficulties to become the strongest power, imagine you being attacked by a stronger/bigger army: using your own terrain capabilities and having a big artillery can make the difference between losing your cities or destroying the opponet's invading armies. Use the arts to knock their HP's down and kill them with other units.

Tanks of course are usefull as well, but if you can mass produce those units, it implies you're in a winning position already I suppose

AJ

[CerberusIV]

Maybe it depends on difficulty level or map size (I am currently on Monarch and standard maps) but I usually build 20 bombers and about 30 tanks plus 4 armies for the tanks to go in and only a handful of artillery, mainly for coastal defence.

I actually increased the shield cost of many of the Industrial/Modern units yet I have no problem with producing this force level and could usually double the tank force if I needed to. It takes a while to pick off an AI city by city but it works.

I only bother to bomb strategic resources to deny them to the enemy as I want the RR's for my own use, such as bringing in infantry to garrison captured cities.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

Bombing is also good for crippling enemy metropolises:

imagine yourself trying to invade a small but good defended enemy island that has some big metropolises on it. If you have enough time, bring in your ships and carriers and bomb all tile improvements around the metropolises, especially those belonging to the AI capital.

Results: after a while metropolises become cities/towns
(easier to conquer) and if you manage to cut off the capital or luxury roads, the AI might fall into anarchy.

I've used this tactic a couple of times, most succesfully when one isolated civ tried building the Manhattan Project, whilst the others didn't. As I always try not to experience nukes in my games, I crippled the producing city by mass bombardments, so that it would take centuries to complete this wonder, meanwhile preparing my invading forces to take control of this 'axis of evil'

AJ

[Spec]

Weakening units before they hit your cities....if the bombardement goes well, they will probably turn back before they even attack. HA!


Spec.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
...
I actually increased the shield cost of many of the Industrial/Modern units ...

Tanks/Panzer, Mech Infantry: 120 shields
Modern Armor: 160

[Capt Dizle]

Replaceable parts is only three techs deep into the age, therefore you can field huge stacks of artillery and infantry to soften up enemy cities.

Use cavalry for assault units and garner easy wins even if the enemy has infantry. This will result in leaders.

This can easily lead to a conquest win prior to discovering tanks or flight.

Best combined with a large prebuild of cannon and the ability to upgrade at half price.

[Theseus]

Bombarding SODs to the redline and destroying them with inferior units... one of the great joys in life.

Bombarding the resources of distant AI civs, just to generally f-ck up their day... also a lot of fun.

Bombarding cities with useful GWs done to 1 pop... priceless.

[badams52]

Sava:

I usually don't bombard tile improvements cause I'm gonna take the city anyway and I'd rather not have my workers rebuilding the roads to make the city usable again. If I want to take out a resource (iron, oil, saltpeter, etc.) then I'll send in an army of cavalry, knights, tanks or other fast moving units (stacked with one other unit of the same if pre PTW) and pillage the road to the resource. The army is for pure defensive purposes as the AI refrains from attacking units when it has less than 10% chance of winning, and an army of 3 cavs won't be attacked until tanks arrive.

Most of my wars are overkill with the number of units I have, and the AI is sitting back in defense only mode with the occasional offensive unit on the attack, so I actually use bombardment by artillery only (fighters are a pain in the but) to knock the city down to size so that taking it will have much less chance for CF. But if the civ in question is close to extermination, I won't bombard and just take the city.

The other good use of bombardment is if the AI has a navy and is bombarding your coast, use rails + artillery or just bombers and knock down some HP to clean up with battleships or other naval forces.

I don't build cannons or catapults though and wait for artillery.

[Odin]

Artillery works best for defense in the WWI era, with Infantry but no tanks, a.k.a. Trench Warfare. I use them to soften up enemy stacks then send Geurillas and Cavalry to mop up the mess.

[nationalist]

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR
. As I always try not to experience nukes in my games,

Why no Nukes? Sometimes they can really save your ass, and can totally devastate a rival civ. The global warming isn't that bad if you have been managing your pollution levels and don't use hundreds of nukes.

[epics]

Originally posted by badams52

The other good use of bombardment is if the AI has a navy and is bombarding your coast, use rails + artillery or just bombers and knock down some HP to clean up with battleships or other naval forces.

Battleships may just walk away for 3 tiles from the shores and you can just say "Aloha" to them with your artillery.


Does any of you use fighters for bombardment? I don't, they can't make any damage neither to improvments nor units.

[BigDork]

Theseus...

You made me think of something that I'm sure you all do but has never occured to me. Using artillery with cavalry. Once they become obsolete you can use the artillery to red line a SOD, as you said, and then defeat them with cavalry. Hrm...actually not a bad idea. I bet you I've read it a bunch of times before different threads and it never occured to me.

I like to use bombardment to hit strategic resources so the AI can't use them during war. I usually use naval vessals to hit those next to the sea and bombers/fighters for those more inland. I also build some bombers and will bombard a city before I take it.

BigD

[yxhuvud]

bigdork: You really don't need cavalry if you have artillery. Just a few infantry and a lot of artillery.

The attack power of infantry is more than enough, since it usually takes a few turns to grind down a city anyhow.

[Don Giovanni]

All the games that I've won so far on Emperor/Deity - 5 or 6, I think - have been decided during the first 20 or so turns after Replacable parts. I usually build about 30 artillery units, then declare war and then continue to build 10-15 additional units. A stack of 40-45 units can decimate most major cities/metros, within a couple of turns, while taking no casualties. When all defenders (even infantry) are left with only one hit point, and the town is below size 7, my cavalry units deal with the rest.

A stack of artillery units is still useful after motorized transportation. You will experience much lower casualties, hence many elite units (tanks), and leaders.

I almost feel like cheating, because the AI is unable to use artillery in the offense