Idea: A ranged defensive ship with high defense/HP, low offense, but most importantly HIGH retaliation damage to counter bomber blockades

Originally posted by WeenisWrinkle

You may have found a problem with my idea 🤣

There would be no naval counter to this other than brute force with bombers or rammers and accepting the retaliation damage. But at least there would be consequences to setting up two bombers 3 tiles away from every opponent's port and just sitting there annihilating any ship that docks there.

And these ships would offer no offensive utility, but would be expensive (10-15stars?). They could even have 0 attack.

Pre-update, even with no ships and a battleship blockade, you could make a battleship and it would at least deliver a retaliation shot before dying next turn. You could at least wear down a blockade.

Now, it's just impossible to recover once you have lost control of the water. It doesn't matter how strong your economy is or how elite your land units are.

If you don't have the economy to build them, you would still lose. But if you have an economic advantage over your opponent, this would give you an opportunity to try and regain water control.

Originally posted by Paddragonian

I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me. A ranged weapon that devastates its target as long as its target makes the first move but which cannot make the first move itself? Either it has a devastating ranged attack, period, or it doesn't. How does the fact that the other side hit them first magically transform their otherwise useless weapon into a heavy hitter? Call me a pedant but I'm curious if you can actually think of any real-world examples of a ranged weapon that can only be used for retaliation but not attack, and how that would work logically. I know Polytopia doesn't go in much for lore and is very much a gameplay-led rather than narrative-led IP but even then, they do generally try to put forward a veneer of narrative plausibility for all the features of the game, and I'm struggling to see what they could possibly say about how this proposed new unit could exist.

If you're really desperate for a Bomber killer, the answer is not simply more firepower, you need something tactical. Maybe give Cloak Dinghies to ability to board and sabotage enemy Bombers?

Originally posted by LoginLogin777

Maybe like it needs time to set up, like one turn or two turn and when attacked by literally anything it stops

Originally posted by WeenisWrinkle

The only things that could hit them are boats, but it beats all boats, so you'd come full circle

It doesn't beat boats, it just delivers equal damage in retaliation to bombers or rammers. It's like a defender retaliating against a swordsman attack.

Would it be that much worse than bombers now? You already have a nearly impenetrable defense by building a few bombers next to your coastal city.

Rammers can make a dent, but they really aren't that effective at clearing defensive bombers unless you already have free water access to spam them.

They would be broken if they were inexpensive, but if they were expensive (like bombers), it wouldn't make much sense to train them specifically for coastal city defense unless you are under siege by bombers.

Originally posted by Dry10237

Rammer and catapult