runningfrog
Chieftain
Perhaps this is an old well-known technique. Perhaps it is a glitch that has been patched. But I only downloaded Civ4Col a week or two ago and am still getting used to it.
In a recent game, I chose to play with just one town on a very small island (five land squares including one used by a native village directly adjacent to me) and try to win before 1650. I accomplished that goal, but things got really desperate in the middle of the WOI and I wound up doing something without planning it, then realizing how useful it was.
I started with 8 soldiers, 8 dragoons, 1 cannon, and 200 spare guns, with a city of 18 pop (4 converts). REF was roughly 26-12-7. My whole plan was based on the natives helping fight alongside me but a fellow European dragged them into a war on the main continent the turn before I declared, and I was too stubborn to wait for their peace so I declared anyway. Had I realized the natives would not be involved in my fight I would have added 2 or 3 more cannons to get the settlement attack bonus against REF that landed in the native village. I still wiped out 5 units with that cannon, but it would have been nice to get more.
Halfway through the fight, things were looking grim. I was killing just fine, but my units weren't healing fast enough to recover. There were too many units in my town for general bonuses to act as a free heal for all of them (I stupidly let 4 useless ships get blockaded inside the town sucking up GG bonuses). After several defensive wins and a few defensive losses, I had lots of wounded REF at the gates but my own units couldn't finish them off. And I was down to two wounded dragoons (plus wounded soldiers).
So I sent wounded dragoon back to colonist status to let him heal, and handed his horses and guns to a Carpenter from inside the town and attacked, winning. The Carpenter dragoon still had movement points, so I switched him back to colonist status and sure enough, there were the horses and guns in the warehouse waiting to be used again. I proceeded to cycle the same 50 horses through 11 different instadrafted units and kill 11 wounded REF units without losing a single man. At the end of the turn, my population was down to 4, and I had about 15 sets of colonists just chilling around the town.
Does it make sense that I should be able to do this? No, of course not. You shouldn't be able to get 11 Dragoon attacks in one turn using the same 50 horses over and over. But the people of my newly freed colony definitely appreciated it.
By the same logic, of course, I should probably have switched all Dragoons back to soldier at the end of every turn, so the horses could never be lost in a defensive fight. As long as there was any defensive bonus at all to be had, they'd be better off being off horses during the REF's turn and on them for mine.
Maybe this is old hat. Maybe every else already knew this ten years ago. But hey, it was new to me this week.
In a recent game, I chose to play with just one town on a very small island (five land squares including one used by a native village directly adjacent to me) and try to win before 1650. I accomplished that goal, but things got really desperate in the middle of the WOI and I wound up doing something without planning it, then realizing how useful it was.
I started with 8 soldiers, 8 dragoons, 1 cannon, and 200 spare guns, with a city of 18 pop (4 converts). REF was roughly 26-12-7. My whole plan was based on the natives helping fight alongside me but a fellow European dragged them into a war on the main continent the turn before I declared, and I was too stubborn to wait for their peace so I declared anyway. Had I realized the natives would not be involved in my fight I would have added 2 or 3 more cannons to get the settlement attack bonus against REF that landed in the native village. I still wiped out 5 units with that cannon, but it would have been nice to get more.
Halfway through the fight, things were looking grim. I was killing just fine, but my units weren't healing fast enough to recover. There were too many units in my town for general bonuses to act as a free heal for all of them (I stupidly let 4 useless ships get blockaded inside the town sucking up GG bonuses). After several defensive wins and a few defensive losses, I had lots of wounded REF at the gates but my own units couldn't finish them off. And I was down to two wounded dragoons (plus wounded soldiers).
So I sent wounded dragoon back to colonist status to let him heal, and handed his horses and guns to a Carpenter from inside the town and attacked, winning. The Carpenter dragoon still had movement points, so I switched him back to colonist status and sure enough, there were the horses and guns in the warehouse waiting to be used again. I proceeded to cycle the same 50 horses through 11 different instadrafted units and kill 11 wounded REF units without losing a single man. At the end of the turn, my population was down to 4, and I had about 15 sets of colonists just chilling around the town.
Does it make sense that I should be able to do this? No, of course not. You shouldn't be able to get 11 Dragoon attacks in one turn using the same 50 horses over and over. But the people of my newly freed colony definitely appreciated it.
By the same logic, of course, I should probably have switched all Dragoons back to soldier at the end of every turn, so the horses could never be lost in a defensive fight. As long as there was any defensive bonus at all to be had, they'd be better off being off horses during the REF's turn and on them for mine.
Maybe this is old hat. Maybe every else already knew this ten years ago. But hey, it was new to me this week.
