Some Garrison advice please!

rodneyandstep2

Chieftain
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
12
I have a couple of questions on garrisoning units, something I've never done before:

  1. Am I right in thinking that if you have Oligarchy and Military Caste policies active, you can garrison all your cities for free with a bonus to city range attacks, culture and happiness?
  2. Can you garrison with an aircraft unit?
  3. Can obsolete units act as a garrison? My thought would be to use Scouts in every city - they wouldn't be any use attacking but if they were free you would get the bonuses mentioned above
  4. If aircraft and scouts cannot be used, what are the best units to go for?

Any advice greatly received - I've never contemplated using a garrison on Civ5 before but I have the opportunity to have Oligarchy and Military Caste and wondered if the combo was worth it!
 
1) Yes.
2) No.
3) Yes.

Rapid answer, short but definitely to the point! Nice one :)

Thank you for that - so you just have to make sure you cover your cities with Scouts before Scientific Theory stops you building them? I wasn't sure if their garrison effect remained once obsolete as I had read on another forum that someone had to put new units in after getting that advance...
 
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Yes.
4. The more melee combat strength a unit has, the stronger the city attack becomes. A ranged unit of course also allows to shoot as well (usually being even stronger than the city attack). So if you actually need to defend a city, it should be garrisoned by a modern ranged unit. All other cities that won't get attacked are fine with a scout as garrison. Note however that Scientific Theory makes you unable to produce new scouts.

Another note: When a ranged garrison shoots, it will cost maintenance (Oligarchy) and not give happyness/+2culture for that turn, as it won't be garrisoned then (also reducing the city strength if enemies are attacking in that turn. If you don 't shoot, it's all fine. Usually though it's well worth it to shoot, unless you know for sure that shot won't kill the enemy unit and allow it to gain a promotion/instaheal.
And: First shoot with the city, then with the unit inside. This way the city's attack will be stronger than if you do it the other way round.
 
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Yes.
4. The more melee combat strength a unit has, the stronger the city attack becomes. A ranged unit of course also allows to shoot as well (usually being even stronger than the city attack). So if you actually need to defend a city, it should be garrisoned by a modern ranged unit. All other cities that won't get attacked are fine with a scout as garrison. Note however that Scientific Theory makes you unable to produce new scouts.

Another note: When a ranged garrison shoots, it will cost maintenance (Oligarchy) and not give happyness/+2culture for that turn, as it won't be garrisoned then (also reducing the city strength if enemies are attacking in that turn. If you don 't shoot, it's all fine. Usually though it's well worth it to shoot, unless you know for sure that shot won't kill the enemy unit and allow it to gain a promotion/instaheal.
And: First shoot with the city, then with the unit inside. This way the city's attack will be stronger than if you do it the other way round.

More great advice - thanks again! I have to admit that I am at a stage of my blog where I am choosing new social policies and the happiness/culture bonus is what tempts me with Military Caste. I realised that for this to work well, you also need Oligarchy to eliminate the cost of the garrison. I don't need protection for my cities, just liked the idea of the bonuses!

If you're interested, my blog is at http://martinpalmercivilizationv.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/civ5-me-and-civilization.html

NB. I might have to mention that I had advice from two other 'military advisers' when choosing my next social policies... :)
 
Just thought of one other garrison-related question:

If you have a garrisoned unit in a city, can you have aircraft based there too?

Not an issue for me yet seeing I'm still in the middle of the Renaissance Era but doesn't hurt to plan ahead...
 
^^^Yes--you can have a garrison unit and aircraft.

NOTE: If you want to buy a new military unit, you have to un-garrison your garrisoned unit. Don't need to do that if buying a new aircraft.
 
^^^Yes--you can have a garrison unit and aircraft.

NOTE: If you want to buy a new military unit, you have to un-garrison your garrisoned unit. Don't need to do that if buying a new aircraft.

Thanks docbud for this extra bit of info :)
 
Just thought of one other garrison-related question:

If you have a garrisoned unit in a city, can you have aircraft based there too?

Not an issue for me yet seeing I'm still in the middle of the Renaissance Era but doesn't hurt to plan ahead...

Aircraft are stackable, and don't count as garrisoned units. You can pile as many planes as you like into one city.

Also to note: Ships are on their own "stack" as well. So you can put a boat inside your city (granted that it's coastal), and let it bombard troops from safety without having to worry about taking damage.

Workers, Settlers and Great People are on yet another stack type, so you could put a great general in your city and get a bit of an attack bonus as well. You should be able to fit one military unit, one non-military unit, one boat and as many planes as you like into your city.
 
Aircraft are stackable, and don't count as garrisoned units. You can pile as many planes as you like into one city.

Also to note: Ships are on their own "stack" as well. So you can put a boat inside your city (granted that it's coastal), and let it bombard troops from safety without having to worry about taking damage.

Workers, Settlers and Great People are on yet another stack type, so you could put a great general in your city and get a bit of an attack bonus as well. You should be able to fit one military unit, one non-military unit, one boat and as many planes as you like into your city.

Great advice again - just love forums like this as I would have been happy with the Scout confirmation but I've now got these other 'stack' tips too :)
 
Personally you should be stocking ur garrisons with the best units as possible than just simple scouts. A generic combat unit would be good, at least they'll be immediately useful if you get attacked in an unexpected area.
 
When I take Military Caste, it's usually because I want the Happiness bonus to avoid unhappiness penalties to combat strength in domination centric games. I prefer weak cheap units to get the happiness garrison bonus, because I'm almost always on the offensive, so I don't need my garrison units to contribute in combat. Methinks it's time to step up the difficulty in my usual games, ha.

When I'm at war, I like to have one to two cities producing front line units, and one city with just enough industry to produce a Scout garrison for conquered cities every 1-2 turns.
 
Personally you should be stocking ur garrisons with the best units as possible than just simple scouts. A generic combat unit would be good, at least they'll be immediately useful if you get attacked in an unexpected area.

I agree with you that this is the ideal and if it wasn't for the fact in the game I'm playing my nation Russia is so far ahead militarily and has seen off all attacks from the AI, wiping out the Mongols and taking cities from my other neighbours Germany and Songhai, I would put strong ranged garrison troops in each city. In this instance, it will be quicker to produce the 16+ Scouts I need to cover all my cities and get the bonuses. :)
 
When I take Military Caste, it's usually because I want the Happiness bonus to avoid unhappiness penalties to combat strength in domination centric games. I prefer weak cheap units to get the happiness garrison bonus, because I'm almost always on the offensive, so I don't need my garrison units to contribute in combat. Methinks it's time to step up the difficulty in my usual games, ha.

When I'm at war, I like to have one to two cities producing front line units, and one city with just enough industry to produce a Scout garrison for conquered cities every 1-2 turns.

Sounds a good strategy - unfortunately domination isn't likely in my blog game (Huge/Earth/Marathon/Ancient/King)! :lol:
 
Sounds a good strategy - unfortunately domination isn't likely in my blog game (Huge/Earth/Marathon/Ancient/King)! :lol:

Hmm...I've never liked Marathon speed (more partial to Quick, actually), but I've been wavering betwixt King and Prince for sometime. I'll have to give this a shot.
 
There is no 'cost to garrison' if that is what you are thinking. There is a normal upkeep cost for units. If you have Oligarchy, then this cost is waived so long as the unit is garrisoned. Just clarifying.
 
Another note: When a ranged garrison shoots, it will cost maintenance (Oligarchy) and not give happyness/+2culture for that turn, as it won't be garrisoned then (also reducing the city strength if enemies are attacking in that turn.
With Cho Ko Nus and other units with logistics you can shoot and re-garrison the same turn.
 
I use scouts for garrison unless its a border city - then I use a range unit. Why waste a perfectly good unit in the center of your empire? If my neighbor is friendly, I just use one range unit for the entire border. Why waste an army defending from a friendly civ? If you play the diplomacy, you should know when your friendly naighbor is about to DoW (most of the time). Just make sure you trot the unit over to the border from time to time so they see it.

It's a bad idea to depend on this SP for happiness if you are bordeline, you will be going back and forth over the line when you use your range units. Best to get happiness from stuff that won't change all the time.
 
Another piece of advice that's quite effective, especially on the large maps you are playing on:
Rather than walk a new scout all the way to the city that needs a garrison, shuffle each of the other scouts along one starting from the city that's closest to the city that needs the garrison. This may be too much micro management for some, but it does work well.
 
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