Making battleships both "Bombarders" and normal units

[Corbeau]

Just thought of a trick.

Create a "unit" which is basically ammunition, missile-class. Range: 1 (or even 2). Not too strong, most of the time it loses the battle, but damages the defender. Load the battleship with it. At the same time, Battleship is a normal unit which can destroy other units.

Shore bombardment: smash them with Ammunition, then kill them with the ship.

Ship vs. ship: same thing, have some barrage exchange, then finish off with the ship. The problem here is that the defender can't fight back, but maybe make ships unreachable for Ammunition? At a first glance, doesn't make sense, but it does if you only consider it a game mechanic for shore bombardment and keep in mind that, if you want to attack sea targets, you actually use the ship.

Also, graphics? It doesn't even have to have a graphic, can be invisible since it's used instantly. Would this be possible?

[Lord_P]

I was thinking about the same thing for coastal defense batteries capable of firing on ships off shore.
Make a 'Coastal Cannon Ammo' unit, that is basically a cruise missile with range 2 or 3, that must end its turn in a city with coastal def.
This would make coastal defense an active as well as passive deterrence to an armada gathering off shore.

The added logistics of having to re-supply battleships would be interesting, and its kind of an earlier available version of carrier/sub + missiles. It could even be introduced with gunpowder/navigation. Frigate and Ironclad 1 shot, destroyer 2, cruiser 3, battleship 4.

I think you could also make all (post industrial) surface ships slightly stronger in defense than attack, so they are more like floating protection for transports etc that cant be sunk 1 on 1, unless they are bombarded first (Ramming is for ancient ships only. ).

With this addition I think all ships should be unable to directly attack land units or cities. It makes zero sense that you can ram someone on the shore with a trireme or sail a battleship into a harbour wall to kill a unit of marines...

[wieder]

It would be easy to prevent the ships from attacking land units.

The problem with missile units and ammo is that the defender may get promotions and that will really make it difficult to attack something that's getting better and better.

There is a ship with better defensive capabilities. The cruiser currently has a defense of 8 and attack of 4. It was intended as the defensive ship for transports.

[Corbeau]

Does unit gain experience if it s hit by a Bombarder? If not, then give Ammunition "Bombarder" flag. It damages units, but not destroys them (which is basically what artillery does). Also, witm movement 1 it's almost impossible to scout and abuse this units for purposes isn't intended for.

[wieder]

The bombarding units only bombard stuff in cities. Not individual units outside cities.

[Corbeau]

Excuse me? I thought "Bombarder" flag is a method of attack and that you can attack anything that you can target the "normal" way.

[wieder]

The cities are bombarded with a bomber by moving the bomber to the enemy city. It can't move there and because of that it bombards the city. If a marine is moved in similar way, it will attack against one unit in the city.

[Corbeau]

Code: Select all

; "Bombarder"   = this unit cannot kill other units, only damage them, but
;                 also is not harmed by return fire when attacking; the field
;                 bombard_rate regulates its number of shots

Reading this, I understand that a unit with a "Bombarder" flag can attack the same units it could attack if it didn't have a "Bombarder" flag, with the only difference being that the attack isn't "kill or be killed", but "cause damage, don't kill, don't die". So if a Phalanx is standing outside the city, it can be attacked and damaged, but not killed, by a unit with a "Bombarder" flag.

Am I wrong?

[wieder]

Tested it. I was wrong about this. The bombers bomb units and cities. However they do attack ships. I guess it's configurable.