They dont seem to do enough damage for me, even if you bump their range up to 2. I had gatling guns fighting riflemen and it took like 4 shots to take one down? At that point i may as well use range 3 artillery that would be better at taking out cities...
Gatling guns and above - lackluster?
- Thread starter Question
- Start date
OldEarthRelic
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2014
- Messages
- 190
Compare Gatling Guns to what else is there in that era ... Gatling guns are by far the best for unit combat
kingfish101
Prince
Gatling Guns aren't worth putting on the offensive. I just use them to defend cities and my frontiers.
brasaelal
Warlord
When Artillery becomes available I tend to use gatling guns to defend cities, unless they were able to fight so much to be promoted to get +1 range.
But even with +1 range, Artilleries are much more useful, runs much less risk of beeing killed due to the 3 range and they upgrade to Rocket Artillery, which is the most powerful unit in the late game, I think.
But even with +1 range, Artilleries are much more useful, runs much less risk of beeing killed due to the 3 range and they upgrade to Rocket Artillery, which is the most powerful unit in the late game, I think.
kingfish101
Prince
Well, we do have Giant Death Robots! 
The thing is that when you get gatling guns, artillery isnt far off and artillery has almost the same ranged strength except that they have indirect fire, range 3 and a massive bonus against cities.
That completley invalidates gatling guns and above. It would help if they had some kind of bonus against infantry, but they dont...
That completley invalidates gatling guns and above. It would help if they had some kind of bonus against infantry, but they dont...
ThisIsHughYoung
Chieftain
In my last game I was backstabbed by a friend and took the opportunity to liberate some of his captured city states. I had some CS gifted gatling guns which I used as a forward defence, creating choke points using their ZoC's. My limited siege units were never in danger.
I was playing a culture game and didn't want to waste too much production on extra melee units, etc. Gatling Guns did the job very well.
I was playing a culture game and didn't want to waste too much production on extra melee units, etc. Gatling Guns did the job very well.
Sharples
Prince
Gatling Guns are designed to hold the line for as little damage as possible. Range units are good early game and start to become less significant during late game. While seige units are bad early game but good late game. Notice the switch here?
A Crossbow upgrade to a Gatling Gun is usually expensive, costing more than a 100 gold. In turn they get 30 combat strength and 30 range strength, with reduced range. Which tells us more that they were designed for more of a defensive role. Putting them in forts and fortifying them makes them pretty tough. Garrisoning them in a city makes the city have a higher strength bonus. If I'm being attacked, usually fortifying my city with Gatlings in the best way to go. And at Machine Guns they basically get double range strength and combat strength which is usually to defend against bombers and such with a combination of anti-aircraft.
And during the stage of Gatling Guns you should have your Barracks and Armories up. Which you use to promote them and give them extra defense.
A Crossbow upgrade to a Gatling Gun is usually expensive, costing more than a 100 gold. In turn they get 30 combat strength and 30 range strength, with reduced range. Which tells us more that they were designed for more of a defensive role. Putting them in forts and fortifying them makes them pretty tough. Garrisoning them in a city makes the city have a higher strength bonus. If I'm being attacked, usually fortifying my city with Gatlings in the best way to go. And at Machine Guns they basically get double range strength and combat strength which is usually to defend against bombers and such with a combination of anti-aircraft.
And during the stage of Gatling Guns you should have your Barracks and Armories up. Which you use to promote them and give them extra defense.
kingfish101
Prince
Gating Guns have been more or less useful to me. They did kill tons of roaming barbarians though.
Gatlings have one advantage and that's its tech location. Industrialization is usually the first tech to take in the industrial era way ahead of rifles, calvs and artillery. So you can time a very convenient gatling rush before your opponents get arsenals. Once arsenals are up the cities will become too hard to take with Gatling's alone which relegates Gatling's to defensive roles. Upgrading xbows to gatlings are really expensive so if I'm just garrisoning my cities I wouldn't even bother converting xbows to Gatlings.
Carazycool
Warlord
I once steamrolled through opponents using gatling guns with +1 range (and later upgraded to machine guns). They are better against units than artillery. They get defensive terrain bonuses and they can fortify. If you upgrade them to heal-while-moving they are damn good offensive units.
Of course, everything is relative. It depends how strong the cities are that you're attacking and how strong the other guy's units are. But they can mow through rifles and even great war infantry if properly placed and properly upgraded.
Of course, everything is relative. It depends how strong the cities are that you're attacking and how strong the other guy's units are. But they can mow through rifles and even great war infantry if properly placed and properly upgraded.
Primacide
Settler
I will say that gats are way better than the old upgrade path for archers. Remember all your ranged promotions being suddenly absurd?
Still, I just don't use em a ton. They are good little damage-takers when you approach a city mid-game, but other than that I just don't use them a ton. Occupation duty.
Still, I just don't use em a ton. They are good little damage-takers when you approach a city mid-game, but other than that I just don't use them a ton. Occupation duty.
I found that it was much better to protect artillery with riflemen and beyond as they can take way more damage though.
Fortify + healing every turn will last a lot longer than gatling guns firing for pitiful damage every turn. Of course if you have march gatling guns, thats another story, but i hate how annoying it is to get march, you need either shock or drill 3 and you cant have a combination of both, so you end up with super specialized units that suck in half the terrain...
Fortify + healing every turn will last a lot longer than gatling guns firing for pitiful damage every turn. Of course if you have march gatling guns, thats another story, but i hate how annoying it is to get march, you need either shock or drill 3 and you cant have a combination of both, so you end up with super specialized units that suck in half the terrain...
Xiao Xiong
Prince
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2009
- Messages
- 480
I find late game I wind up using them as sacrificial units, soaking up damage and frequently dying while I maintain an attack. That's because I don't find them useful for much else and I'm not sorry to see them go -- their maintenance cost could be paying for something I can actually kill somebody with.
Which is too bad because they are usually super promoted by that time. Often I will still have my original scout wandering around as a highly promoted gatling gun late game and when I sacrifice him to take a city I feel a little sad.
Which is too bad because they are usually super promoted by that time. Often I will still have my original scout wandering around as a highly promoted gatling gun late game and when I sacrifice him to take a city I feel a little sad.
kingfish101
Prince
If you want to "feel" more, you could have renamed the highly promoted Gatling Gun. I feel a connection when I name units, you know?
You can delay the Crossbow -> Gatling Gun upgrade for awhile, but eventually that Crossbow won't do enough damage and so needs to be upgraded to Gatling Guns if it's ever going to see combat again. (This is shortly before Machine Guns become available)
In many cases, the game would be better off it archery type units only had a range of 1, and so did city bombardment (naval bombardment would also be 1 less), but that would also require limiting the heavy foot solider types down to only 1 MP which would cause the AI too much traffic jam problems with 1 unit per tile.
In many cases, the game would be better off it archery type units only had a range of 1, and so did city bombardment (naval bombardment would also be 1 less), but that would also require limiting the heavy foot solider types down to only 1 MP which would cause the AI too much traffic jam problems with 1 unit per tile.
I'm not seeing why gatlings are getting a bad rap? Range upgraded gatlings are just as good as regular xbows in their era. Gatlings in front, artillery in back. Cavalry and rifle "melee" troops have their place, just as they always did.
I do like postponing xbow upgrades, though, because you can really milk that xp and GG points from 3 range.
I do like postponing xbow upgrades, though, because you can really milk that xp and GG points from 3 range.
A range promotion is only unlocked after already having level 2 of your choice of bonus against targets in soft terriagn and bonus against targets in hard terraign, so unless playing England or having been involved in a very intense war you might not have reached 60 XP for any of your crossbows by the time Gatling Guns are available.
kingfish101
Prince
*Cough* Chu-Ko-Nus *Cough*
