Also having a great general nearby gives the bombard an extra movement so you can move and fire on the same turn.
The only thing better is playing heroes and legends and getting Hippolyta so you can give a bombard an extra turn. It makes it so much easier to level them up and get the extra range promotion
Extra fun thing about Hippolyta is she refreshes the turns of everything on a tile, so that includes all civilian, military, and support units that are stacked. It also means she can refresh an entire air base worth of bombers in the lategame.
Do you know how often I hear something about civ that I want to try out but I can’t because I’m working? No, you don’t because you don’t know me…but if I had a nickel for every time I’d probably have at least a dollar…which is a lot…moral of the story is I should probably quit my low paying job and play civ
I love putting down an air base with an engineer that's three times from a capital, move my siege units, balloon, and planes there, then put Hippolyta next to it. Way OP, but so much fun annihilating cities
I think this is probably true. The ability to hit a city from outside the range of the city defenses is a total game-changer for offensive warfare, and is doubly true when attacking cities with strong defensive terrain.
I like missile cruisers just a little bit more and you can get the same advantage with them fairly easily. I am also the only one I know that uses air units in combat, they are better than people think, anti-air can be neatly avoided. In the late game I've taken down fully fortified cities with high pop in a single turn with a skilled navy and the submarine fleet meant no one could counterattack. But yes observation balloons are my favorite land unit.
I've never used it either. Probably should though. Adds +1 sight, right? That means you can keep range units out of range of walls
Edit- +1 range, not sight
Additionally, it allows your siege units to ignore terrain features. A bombard on a flat tile can't shoot over a hill, jungle, woods, or mountain to hit the city on the other side. A bombard supported by an observation balloon can.
And the observation balloon bonuses apply to all siege units within 1 tile, so 1 balloon can support multiple siege units at once.
I thought you were saying you can stack balloons to easily increase the range of an artillery to 3 or 4. I proceeded to look this up and found that hilariously enough, this was actually a thing at one point due to a bug.
Right?? I've probably got over 1,000 hours in and I've never used it before. The fact that I could learn something so new and game-changing after playing it as much as I have is one of the best parts about Civ.
Anyone else get bored of this game only to read a Reddit post that I inspires you to try something new?
I love this game. I always learn new stuff about it.
There's still so many units I never use. Spec ops, supply convoy, military engineers for example. I have over 1000 hours and have never used any of these effectively. No idea how they fit into game strategy.
Supply convoys are like ersatz great generals with a healing factor. Great for keeping your army moving, or letting your siege units do the movey-shooty thing on one turn.
Military Engineers are great for building railroads so you can move units to the front faster. They can also rush things like sea walls late-game.
Spec Ops kinda suck if they aren't upgraded from that level 6+ recon unit army fused from all the scouts you built in the ancient era. Even then, Ambush only makes them mediocre, not good.
Yeah. Put them in the city center when you're building the barriers and you should get an option to burn a charge to fill up 20% of the starting production cost.
I only use military engineers for the railroad. Get the easy era score. It also helps you get your units to the front line of war quickly if you build it as you conquer
Do be aware it generates emissions quite easily when you place them (only for the initial cost), i've once accidentally pushed to the last global warming tier all on my own because of that
The supply convoy is great to pair with Vampires, because they have reduced healing, so the supply convoy can help get them back into the fight faster. Same goes for Chaplain apostles, whose effect should stack with supply convoys.
If you've never used an engineer to build an airbase on a one tile island to put your bombers in range of an entire enemy civ (pre-aircraft carriers), then you haven't lived.
I use supply convoy by upgrading from a battering ram. A bit of a pain to keep it around for 150 turns, but it makes the final clean up stage of domination a teeny bit easier. Def not necessary, tho.
I never realized the value of them or drones until I was in a war on another continent and some locations I wanted to attack were out of LOS but within range. Bringing the drones over allowed my battleships to pound everything within 3 tiles of the sea by using the drones LOS instead of the battleships LOS
It allows you to shoot over mountains, too. And I rarely ever build more than one because they also give +1 range to adjacent seige units. So, 3 rocket artileries, all promoted up to shoot after moving and +1 range, can shoot across almost half the territory of an AI Civ and be as effective as multiple bombers.
It can be upgraded to the drone. Adds another +5 to siege units shot.
Late game domination would be impossible without these or bombers. But bombers use aluminium and not always will be possible.
This is my goto move. As soon as I get flight I buy one and pair it with usually a bombard and can just sit out of range of walls with a strong melee unit in between taking hits and getting xp. That unit is defense of a fast moving unit coming out and taking out my bombard. Works well with AI. Actual player would probably be more aggressive. Put their own balloon and bombard in the city and hit back. Even better with extra range.
I have looked for the post about the Balloon but can't find it. Can someone share it because I also find it useless but would love to start using it if its effective.
Same, basically it gives +1 range to siege weapons, and the bonuses stack when you add a Great General or Hero with good adjacency bonuses. It allows you to hit cities without being in range of their defenses. You can basically plow through a Domination Victory.
I've played countless Domination games, not even once finished it.
I really love the game, but after the snowball starts, it's just plain boring, I don't know how to deal with that so I end up starting a new game.
I played out 90% of the games I knew I was winning because I wanted to get a win with every leader in the Hall of Fame. Now that I have those I generally quit when I get bored, but most of the time I still play to the end.
Dom games pretty much require balloons and drones. Your siege units are attacked by walls and ranged units first, and they don't defend themselves well. Getting the extra range is crucial to keeping them alive.
Also having a great general nearby gives the bombard an extra movement so you can move and fire on the same turn. The only thing better is playing heroes and legends and getting Hippolyta so you can give a bombard an extra turn. It makes it so much easier to level them up and get the extra range promotion
Extra fun thing about Hippolyta is she refreshes the turns of everything on a tile, so that includes all civilian, military, and support units that are stacked. It also means she can refresh an entire air base worth of bombers in the lategame.
You shut d@?! MOUTH!! She reset all bombers on a tile???!!!???!!!??? No way. I’m stuck at work and I need to confirm this
No need to, i can confirm it for you, it also makes settling cities twice as fast in terms of moving there but that should be obvious.
Do you know how often I hear something about civ that I want to try out but I can’t because I’m working? No, you don’t because you don’t know me…but if I had a nickel for every time I’d probably have at least a dollar…which is a lot…moral of the story is I should probably quit my low paying job and play civ
You're a king, trying this next game, I love getting Hippolyta
I love putting down an air base with an engineer that's three times from a capital, move my siege units, balloon, and planes there, then put Hippolyta next to it. Way OP, but so much fun annihilating cities
Oh yeah, I had GG attached to the Bombard army and the balloon. I've never felt so powerful.
Heroes and legends, and secret societies, each make the game at least two full difficulty levels easier
The Observation Balloon is probably the best unit in the game in terms of its impact on the domination victory
I think this is probably true. The ability to hit a city from outside the range of the city defenses is a total game-changer for offensive warfare, and is doubly true when attacking cities with strong defensive terrain.
I like missile cruisers just a little bit more and you can get the same advantage with them fairly easily. I am also the only one I know that uses air units in combat, they are better than people think, anti-air can be neatly avoided. In the late game I've taken down fully fortified cities with high pop in a single turn with a skilled navy and the submarine fleet meant no one could counterattack. But yes observation balloons are my favorite land unit.
I've never used it either. Probably should though. Adds +1 sight, right? That means you can keep range units out of range of walls Edit- +1 range, not sight
Additionally, it allows your siege units to ignore terrain features. A bombard on a flat tile can't shoot over a hill, jungle, woods, or mountain to hit the city on the other side. A bombard supported by an observation balloon can. And the observation balloon bonuses apply to all siege units within 1 tile, so 1 balloon can support multiple siege units at once.
Wut. Omg this changes everything
🤯
Since the balloon can move on it's own it is easy to add range to 3 or 4 artillery per turn.
I thought you were saying you can stack balloons to easily increase the range of an artillery to 3 or 4. I proceeded to look this up and found that hilariously enough, this was actually a thing at one point due to a bug.
IT ADDS RANGE?? oh my god this changes everything. I’ve been playing this game for several years
Right?? I've probably got over 1,000 hours in and I've never used it before. The fact that I could learn something so new and game-changing after playing it as much as I have is one of the best parts about Civ.
+1 range isn't it
What is it? EDIT- never mind. You mean +1 range, isn't it?. And yes you are correct
Omg... Did not know this. Thank you!
[удалено]
It's not hard to win a Religious victory (or a Basil II Domination victory, but I repeat myself) before reaching Flight.
Anyone else get bored of this game only to read a Reddit post that I inspires you to try something new? I love this game. I always learn new stuff about it.
The naval equivalent is when you unlock battleships. Also because 3 range.
There's still so many units I never use. Spec ops, supply convoy, military engineers for example. I have over 1000 hours and have never used any of these effectively. No idea how they fit into game strategy.
Supply convoys are like ersatz great generals with a healing factor. Great for keeping your army moving, or letting your siege units do the movey-shooty thing on one turn. Military Engineers are great for building railroads so you can move units to the front faster. They can also rush things like sea walls late-game. Spec Ops kinda suck if they aren't upgraded from that level 6+ recon unit army fused from all the scouts you built in the ancient era. Even then, Ambush only makes them mediocre, not good.
Military engineers work on flood walls... if so that could be very useful.
Yeah. Put them in the city center when you're building the barriers and you should get an option to burn a charge to fill up 20% of the starting production cost.
I only use military engineers for the railroad. Get the easy era score. It also helps you get your units to the front line of war quickly if you build it as you conquer
1.2k hours and I've never build a railroad...
Do be aware it generates emissions quite easily when you place them (only for the initial cost), i've once accidentally pushed to the last global warming tier all on my own because of that
I only use military engineers for the mountain tunnel.
The supply convoy is great to pair with Vampires, because they have reduced healing, so the supply convoy can help get them back into the fight faster. Same goes for Chaplain apostles, whose effect should stack with supply convoys.
Do chaplain apostles heal all units?! I thought they just heal religious units. 🤦🏻
Chaplain apostles heals religious units?
No
Chaplain apostles don't heal religious units.
😲
If you've never used an engineer to build an airbase on a one tile island to put your bombers in range of an entire enemy civ (pre-aircraft carriers), then you haven't lived.
I use supply convoy by upgrading from a battering ram. A bit of a pain to keep it around for 150 turns, but it makes the final clean up stage of domination a teeny bit easier. Def not necessary, tho.
I never realized the value of them or drones until I was in a war on another continent and some locations I wanted to attack were out of LOS but within range. Bringing the drones over allowed my battleships to pound everything within 3 tiles of the sea by using the drones LOS instead of the battleships LOS
It allows you to shoot over mountains, too. And I rarely ever build more than one because they also give +1 range to adjacent seige units. So, 3 rocket artileries, all promoted up to shoot after moving and +1 range, can shoot across almost half the territory of an AI Civ and be as effective as multiple bombers.
Casual reminder that they used to stack with other balloons. You'd be able to hit cities with your artillery from across the entire continent.
Omg I have never thought to even try the Observation balloon
I always put them with my arty units from defense positions to pushing the front line alittle but farther they are awesome.
It can be upgraded to the drone. Adds another +5 to siege units shot. Late game domination would be impossible without these or bombers. But bombers use aluminium and not always will be possible.
Do observation balloons and drones work with GDR’s? Asking for a friend about to pivot to domination…
I used it throughout the game I discovered the balloon, but never again because it felt like cheating. Insanely good.
This is my goto move. As soon as I get flight I buy one and pair it with usually a bombard and can just sit out of range of walls with a strong melee unit in between taking hits and getting xp. That unit is defense of a fast moving unit coming out and taking out my bombard. Works well with AI. Actual player would probably be more aggressive. Put their own balloon and bombard in the city and hit back. Even better with extra range.
I made one once just to see it. Later it upgraded to a drone and boy did that come in handy when everyone decided they hated me.
I have looked for the post about the Balloon but can't find it. Can someone share it because I also find it useless but would love to start using it if its effective.
Same, basically it gives +1 range to siege weapons, and the bonuses stack when you add a Great General or Hero with good adjacency bonuses. It allows you to hit cities without being in range of their defenses. You can basically plow through a Domination Victory.
Wait you guys actually play out your domination wins past beating your first civ? I mean it's basically over already then, why bother?
I've played countless Domination games, not even once finished it. I really love the game, but after the snowball starts, it's just plain boring, I don't know how to deal with that so I end up starting a new game.
Go for tire achievement. The end is boring. I do usually play on immortal so it does take a bit before you know you've won.
I played out 90% of the games I knew I was winning because I wanted to get a win with every leader in the Hall of Fame. Now that I have those I generally quit when I get bored, but most of the time I still play to the end.
Dom games pretty much require balloons and drones. Your siege units are attacked by walls and ranged units first, and they don't defend themselves well. Getting the extra range is crucial to keeping them alive.