I was wondering why we can't compile large amounts of troops into grand armies?
So many people including myself get very overwhelmed by all the units late game and the turns start taking forever.

Wouldn't it be cool to join up a few rifle men and grenadiers to have a Grand Army unit that has the power of all the units put into it and has it's bonus's and a few extra perks to encourage people to make them?

It would save the unit masses late game and help a lot of computers.

you can group together all the units on 1 tile and move thing together.

you can group together all the units on 1 tile and move thing together.

Yeah, but cohesive armies with mixed unit types are fun to build, name and use. :D

This isn't about grouping the units to move with ease, I'm talking less units to manage, the AI masses so many units anyways I hold over a stack and I see nearly 50 units, wouldn't it be easier if it was only 2 army's?

This would cut the calculations down when you push turn because then the computer instead of moving 30 units around making stacks, fortifying cities every turn and moving his units around for pointless reasons, he could simply have a few armies to move.
I know this would be easier for the CPU to turn faster late game, and it would have a fun element to it also, I know what we call "stacks" are really armies but it would be cool to have one unit as a whole stack of units with their bonuses compiled into a super unit.

Has anyone played Cossacks? You build 120 infantry and put them into a regiment and they move as one and are a lot more effective than 120 men, A lot easier to control, a lot easier to micro.

I would say that, except for the "combined strength" part (would be WAY too powerful, like 1,500 v. 24 = >99.9% every time), this is already available in the game. With the "Stack Attack" option turned on and units grouped together, you could click the bulls-eye to multi-bombard defenses, and then let the computer attack with the stack until (whatever) is reduced to a mushy yet smooth paste.
Been thinking about playing around with this more... :p

such an army could add time to turns as certainly I constantly change the make up of a stack, after an attack the good ones move on and the rest wait to get healed etc. this would have to be available really as no-one is going to want to dump a load of units into a fixed stack never to be changed again, and if you can change it then its just more stuff to do really, like the pain in the arse the old great general from civ3 was.

what I would like is the ability to move a stack but exclude one or more units not to move, such as the city with 20 rifles in and 4 cannons and you want to move on and kick arse and cos you are within range from enemy cavalry from a nearby AI city you need to leave some troops behind so you cant move them all in one simple click so you have to manually move each individual troop to leave just 2 behind, there should be a move all except ability, or am I just crap and missed an existing way to do this...

For this, I just do the Shift-click-click-click-click thing to select whom I want to move. Just don't click the ones you wish to leave behind. :p

I wouldn't like that because then the AI would manage my attack instead of me.

When I have a big stack attack, I choose the order the units go in based on individual matchups. And when I can't get a favorable one, I sacrifice the weakest in my stack to wear down the enemy rather than the AI sending them in order of strength. It preservers the most strength on my side.

Thats why army wouldn't be a stack. :P

I don't think anyone is getting the point of my idea :(

Thats why army wouldn't be a stack. :P

I don't think anyone is getting the point of my idea :(Yea, thats my feeling as well :D

Just try to stop thinking "Stack" guys... A Army is a single unit - built by uniting a couple of 'normal' units.

I like the idea - i loved the CivIII armies, tho the AI's unability to make a good use of this feature was disturbing - perhaps the reason why it got purged out of CIV ?

Thats why army wouldn't be a stack. :P

I don't think anyone is getting the point of my idea :(

Oh we get it; Just not a really workable option. Your postulation would mean that an entire Army (7-10,000 soldiers) would somehow be able to simultaneously bring 7-10,000 weapons to bear on a single target. Logistics and physics make this unworkable.

Also, If you form an army, then you can't disband it into it's parts later. In Civ3 I used a lot of armies. I usually got my first one with Knights and built up to tanks. The nice part was that none died until all died. But that also made it too powerful and lopsided because the AIs "mixed" armies weren't effective.

I never played civ 1-3 only Civ 4, SMAC, and freeciv, so I don't know if this idea had been implemented before.

It just seems like it would simplify combat a little more and would help time after you hit turn by a drastic amount.

I get your point. The solution is a combined arms army ala Call to Power 2. Dale's Combat Mod is working on that idea. I'm not sure why Firaxis left that brilliant model out of Civ4, because if Activision could model it in CTP2, Firaxis certainly can.

Maybe Civ5? Or Dale's mod, if he succeeds in giving the AI enough of the "I" to make it work...:lol:

What I would like to see is a way to fight major battles in a "field of battle" screen where you line up your army against the enemies army and fight it out with all units fighting at the same time. It would have to be a whole new combat system (CIV5)

The way Armies were handles in Civ3, no units died until they all died. That's a huge long run advantage to the player who can make better decisions on the creation and use of Armies.

Its may be better if you were able to group the units.
In second thought it would be great!
but...(its a big but),
What do want to do about it?

If the AI doesn't make effective use of the ability, then it's too unbalanced. Personally, I think it's more challenging the current way, where you have to choose the units your sacrifice.