Rocket Artillery Weak

[protista123]

Is it just me, or is the Rocket Artillery very weak? Also, a very minor point, but I don't see any rockets firing or leaving the launch vehicle?

[Paulytnz]

Depends really what you are hitting and it's combat strength. Late game you need to have them as armies to do any real damage vs cities with 100-120 Defence. My current game I am facing cities with 122 defence and my Rocket Arties (as armies) are doing about 12-20 damage each to the walls. Not too bad if you have 3 of them (armies) and a supporting navy.

They are next to useless vs units, they are not built for killing them. As they use the "bombardment" attack type which is mainly for cities and some help for districts I think.

As for the visual glitch I have noticed that too. But it's not 100% of the time. It seems to be certian angles or distances from your target. Not seen it in my curren game yet but I have in a previous one.

[katzenkrimis]

Yes, units in this game are very tough. Unlike Beyond Earth and Civ V.

Even if you counter units perfectly you are in for a fight.

Couple games back I was using jet bombers and felt like they were completely useless, but I've had that exact same experience with every unit in the game at some point.

It really depends on what year you are hitting stuff, and with what unit on the tech tree.

If you can get a great science lead, great leader bonus, or even a corps or armada upgrade it can really change the game.

Last game I was lucky enough to get a battleship extremely early because of a Great Admiral bonus, so I took advantage of that and easily wiped out all four cities of the leading culture civ.

The game before that I was using four missile cruisers, two nuclear subs, and two destroyers late-game and it took forever to wipe out just three German cities.

[Azunai]

the amount of damage done depends on the difference between combat strength of the units. someone posted an interesting table and some speculations what kind of formula might be behind them.

it basically boils down to:
~30 damage to both units if they have same stength
~ a 50% bonus to damage dealt and 1/3rd less damage taken if strength difference is 10 points
(ie. ~45 damage done and 20 damage taken)
~ a 100% bonus to damage dealt and 50% less damage taken if strength delta is 17 points (~60 done vs. 15 taken)
~ a delta of 30 (or more) is a 1 hit kill

all numbers are randomized to some degree. presumably, the game multiplies the actual damage number with a random factor of +- 25%

don't know how it works for ranged attacks. i guess the ratios will be the same, but perhaps a penalty to the damage done (since the defender doesn't fight back) ?

here's the link to the original discussion on the civfanatics board:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/hans-lemurson-figures-out-the-combat-formula.606147/

[ambershee]

Rocket Artillery isn't very good against units, but it is particularly good, if not required, to take down late-game cities.