Special Forces

In the real world, most armies have elite units. This guide is on how to get the best out of them, and to make them worthy of the illustrious real-world parachute units – Delta Force, the SAS and a host of others. As Sun Tzu put it: “in my army I have the regular men and those who are extraordinary, without them I cannot win”: properly used elite units are a valuable asset to a country’s military.

We first need to understand what constitutes a Special Forces unit. It must be able to rely on itself, so units which cannot gain Medic and March promotions are no good. It must be better than other units and have some special capacity. From this we can see units which we can use – the Paratrooper; which comes late in the game but is among the most unique units, and when promoted and employed properly is a great unit. It should be noted that Special Forces are not run-of-the-mill units: they need to be trained carefully - in a city with a Barracks, West Point, settled Officers, The Pentagon and then they need to be baptised in fire. Train your men well, then use them in small battles which you would trust to anyone, then move up the missions ladder until you have a hard-as-nails elite unit. Do not expect to have many of these.

Promotions

So, first I will talk about what is needed – a cadre of good soldiers. Taking the lead of real units, we can identify roles that Paratroopers might perform; advance guards (like the paratroopers who guarded the eastern flank of the D-Day assault), commandos (like those who raided Pegasus Bridge); a rapid reaction force (like the Parachute Regiment who saw action in the Falklands) and as a general purpose elite unit which is ready for anything (as the recent actions of the SAS have shown).

The Paratrooper is a decent unit to start with. It has strength 24 and the ability to drop five tiles; with a 33% chance of evading any enemy troops which may be in position to intercept it. This gives them the ability to fight basically anything, but they should watch out for Infantry if they are not prepared, as those men get +25% against them, or 25 – better than equal footing, without promotions or terrain.

So; if we take a look at our uses, what can we see developing? I will now describe some Paratrooper variants, and how they can be used in action. It should be noted that as in the real world Special Forces are elite; you need to train them well; bringing them from a military city (for example, one with a Heroic Epic, West Point, a Military Academy and a few settled Great Generals, with the Pentagon in one of your cities).

The Commando is a unit designed to get into a war zone, to cause crippling damage behind enemy lines, and then get out before they can be defeated. This reminds you of the actions of Special Air Service personnel before the First Gulf War and battles at the Bridges during the Normandy Invasion. He has Commando, letting him move along the enemy’s roads, Combat IV (by necessity), some kind of Medic promotion (I or maybe III if you have a Great General in command) and March, which means that the unit can move into enemy lands, fight skirmishes against the odds and get out without being slowed. Taking a Great General and Morale (admittedly quite an investment) means that they can move four tiles per turn on enemy roads - that's as fast as a Tank, and they have the initiative.

Another good use for your Paratroopers is as a reaction force – when you need men into an action at speed and then they need to fight. If you have March, Commando, Pinch, Ambush and Amphibious (the first is essential, the last desirable, then they descend in importance) and then Drill and Combat promotions, they will be able to move in to engage the enemy quickly and then to fight them, regardless of who they are.

You may also want them for specialist duties, like the US Green Berets which are experts in jungle fighting. Despite the lack of terrain-specific promotions (with the exception of Woodsman and Guerrilla) you can still, with full lines in the chosen terrain and Drill promotions, make skilled men for action in specific battles. For example, a hills unit would want Drill to counteract the enemy’s defensive bonuses, as well as Amphibious (there are a lot of rivers in the hills), while a forest/jungle (for reasons that are beyond me, the two are the same) soldier needs to have Medic and March lines, so that he can make ambushes and then escape, safe because the enemy are slower in the jungle than him, and to boost the medic properties of Woodsman III.

Missions

So, now that we have worked out the line up for our Special Forces men, how are we to employ them? Obviously, as with all military operations, it depends on which men you are sending in as to where they go and how they do it. There are some basic missions which work for most units:

To start out in action, move a group of Paratroopers with air support and recon five tiles from a Fort in your land, then mark that site. Either move on to attract the enemy, then pull back to the RV point and make a drop in with extra men, or attack while the aeroplanes deal with the enemy's crack divisions. This means that the troops can get experience points, letting you take promotions and then improve your men.

Using the para-drop function to move into a recently taken city, fortifying there and drawing the enemy while the main army moves out into a new action is a tactic which you can use to free up your men an also to keep the enemy off; they will take their old city over an attack on your army. Men on this mission will do well with Drill and Combat promotions to make them more durable, and probably Ambush to block tank attacks. You need either good intelligence or a very good unit for this; as you are basically acting as a magnet for the enemy to dry them up and destroy them.

The lowest-risk mission is to work as recon; you press into the attack with a brigade of Special Forces ahead of you, then pull out behind to join the army if a dangerous enemy shows his head, and if not kill anything in the way. A Paratrooper is not absolutely necessary for this task; you could use any well-promoted unit which has sufficient skill to do a recon. These missions are often done in the jungle, so Woodsman Paratroopers are often best for this job, but Guerrilla troopers do just as well because they have a Withdrawal Chance. The task should be done by a capable unit, since you can only pull out once before the unit is needed to fight, but not by a unit that you seriously object to losing.

The most heroic and difficult mission that you can order troops into is a full-scale invasion. So far, we have covered the two ‘support’ missions, where there is a fall-back point. From now on I will discuss actions which should be done with the finest men bearing the brunt of the action.

The simplest one of these is the Pegasus, where a paratrooper moves into enemy lands from an allied city with his para-drop, supported by a Spy to check that the area is clear and to remove the Fog of War, with a view to destroy enemy infrastructure. It is named after the Pegasus Bridge action, which you can read about in my Utrinque Paratus article, because that was the first and best operation by airborne soldiers to do this. Commando units, as described before, do best at this as the objective is to get in and then get out. There is a more difficult version of this, which is ‘take and hold’ – to take and burn the oil well, then to fortify on the source and then to deny the enemy it permanently, which needs Medic II at least (preferably III) and lots of Drill and Combat promotions. This method is brutal – chewing up a mass of troops to cripple them, but it only works as long as there is a man on the objective.

The more complex to run attack with the parachute is a full-scale airborne invasion. There are a million and one methods and principles of doing this, but a few come above all: that you need the best men that you can find as the battle is hugely against the odds (unless you can call in a nautical or aerial bombardment), that you must recon the area before you attack by Spies, Explorers or Aerial Forces to avoid, like one mission to Sierra Leone, dropping into a swamp or a gunfight , that you need to remove enemy air support first as 66% of your men will be killed if under aerial fire and that you need a city or fort near the enemy border to launch the mission. Finally, you can’t parachute into a city.

These missions can only be done over a maximum of five tiles of water, and so must be assisted by reconnaissance units to check on good landing sites and the enemy; air units that the enemy has must be removed quickly and spots where the enemy can marshal to beat you in a turn (you can’t drop then move) need to be avoided. It is important to remember that as a sole means of operation it is not considered tactically sound, because there are too many unknowns in the method, and so needs to be combined with other methods, for example parachuting in your SAS to attack the soldiers threatening to kill your sea-borne assault force or to move in to attack a city which has been left vulnerable by the enemy.

The circumstances of these missions need to be taken into account before one is launched. The invasion of Crete was done against weak defences after air power had been taken out and so was a strong army taking advantage of a weaker enemy before he could get stronger, and that is the way to do them: to attack something in a one-turn window of opportunity which would be gone if a full-scale attack was mounted.

The ideal attack is done on a two-tile island, with a city on one of those tiles, and a hill or forest on the other. Send a fleet with Missile Cruisers and Carriers to bombard the city and destroy enemy aeroplanes in the area, then land the ground troops and capture the stricken city before the enemy can react. This means that you can seize the enemy’s territory before he can assemble a fleet to get you and that you don’t need to risk the invasion on a sea crossing – if the fleet is destroyed, the mission can still go ahead.

So, in summary, a very powerful Paratrooper unit is worth keeping around. They can carry out missions, especially those which are difficult or impossible for other units, and they are incredibly versatile both in support roles and in spearheading an attack to crush the enemy: they can work on land or sea, and they have the advantage of surprise if properly employed regardless of what they do. As I said at the start, they are not easy to get hold of, but if you have a city suited to making them (which is a good strategy anyway) then you have the potential to be able to use advantages that nobody else has.

He has Commando, letting him move along the enemy’s roads, Combat III (by necessity), Medic II and March

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Commando needs Combat 4.
For an Aggresive leader Commando needs 17XP (Boudica needs 13)
Charismatic leaders need 20XP
Non AGG non Char leaders need 26

This is before the medic or march promotions. Even getting the a big enough group of 17XP units with AGG leaders may be difficult let alone going for march.
Boudica may be able to manage it (20XP March Commandos!) but I think anyone else is going to really struggle.

To me building up as many XP boosters in one city as you would need to pull this off seems a bit of a waste (Maybe decent if you were Boudica)

If you have March, Commando, Pinch, Ambush and Amphibious

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If you get all this on more than one unit reliably I would be impressed. 62XP for CHA leaders, 65 for AGG leaders and 49 for Boudica. Gettng this reliably for any sizeable force is jsut about imposssible.

While I will accept that spreading the promotions will redue the XP needed considerably, each unit will still need at least Commando and preferably March before any other promotion. Still needing huge XP numbers

Does Medic 2 even help as a healing promotion? I'm sure all it does is add a bonus to healing in adjacent tiles.

I'm not too convinced yet

I amended the errors, and put in a bit stating how to get them. You need a military machine which is, simply put, a powerhouse (which I outlined) and you need to nurture them carefully; and then you will have a few which you can trust to heroic missions.

25% of 20 is 5. Infantry will always be odds-on vs paratroopers given equal promotions/flat terrain. This is one of the reasons infantry is so strong ---> it beats everything in the field except tanks until gunships, MA, or mech infantry show up.

Paratroops ARE pretty stout with air support though. You don't need super promos...just shred everything with fighters/bombers and then attack. Even though infantry dominate paratroopers, they won't do so at 1/2 strength. Paradrop some more in to defend after that, air lift an infantry or so, and move the air force up for the next capture. You can substitute nukes for air power possibly .

Comando just require combat 3, it is way better with multiple movement making paratroopsers poor for this role. Mech inf(especially with agressive leaders) is very good for this role, but cavalery can also be used(especially with charsimatic), they do get help from stable. That is if you want a big division(and comando is mostly useful in MP anyways), but even a few GG promoted commando units(can also get morale for extra range) can seriously hack up lightly defended cities.

You can get double movement with Morale

Yes, but morale needs a GG... I was talking about regular comando units(best with charismatic of for mech info only, agressive).

Regular commando units? That's an oxymoron. You might get three of these in a game; of which one will die. That leaves two by the end.

as i just said it is just 13 xp with charismatic and 10 with mech inf/agressive... Having 3 promo units out of the gate isn't too hard either(vassalage + theocracy + pentagon + 1 gg(2 gg's or WP with charismatic for 4 promos)), having some of those(C3) units survive shouldn't be too hard(and as i just said even a few comando units can really rip up a human player that isn't overly careful)...

You have (dives into his files) +4 from West Point, +3 from the Barracks, +2 from having the Pentagon and +2 from each settled Great General, so that's at least 11 off the bat - and +20 if you invest a Great General into them.

And here I thought combat IV was needed for commando...though III does open march (as does I + medic I).

You'd need 17 xp with aggressive. Possible in the late game, mostly.

You only get Paratroopers with Flight, Rifling and Fascism

Sorry you are right, it requires combat 4, i confused it with blitz... Boudica would be able to get 13 xp comando units though...

oyzar said:

Comando ... is way better with multiple movement making paratroopsers poor for this role.

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Cav and tanks are best suited for commando at first.
Then, after the AI rails it's territory, it's 10 tiles for everything except gunships (it should be noted that commando gunships, upgraded from cav, move 12 on enemy roads or rails).

Side note: a commando paratrooper can jump 5 tiles and then move 5 tiles on enemy rails, same as if he had travelled per pedes (altough the jump may have some tactical advantages, getting "over" something)

I don;t get it. One should have Commando/Blitz/March/Combat whatever units to 'sneak behind enemy lines' and kill, even though you yourself state that you'll only have a few?

If you're fighting an enemy where killing three units a turn, one by one, is a major asset, you have bigger problems then commando creation.

I recently played a game as Boudica of HRE on a marathon, huge, 18 player Pangaea, with conquest as the only possible victory, and with no barbarians, and no tech trading. By around 1600 AD I had conquered at least 12 nations, and my military city, which contained west point, the pentagon, the heroic epic, and 5 settled GGs was able to produce Combat V, Commando, Drill I infantry, and it could produce them at a rate of 1-2 per turn. I decided against getting march because I had so many of them that it was ok if the wounded ones fell behind. I had workers building a railroad as quickly as I conquered new territory, so the wounded infantry were able to catch up pretty quickly. I opted for drill instead because that would increase their combat odds and potentially keep them from getting injured. Since it was Pangaea, there was little benefit to getting amphibious, and it seemed like my enemies were just making the transition from macemen and crossbows to gunpowder units, so type-specific promotions seemed like a waste.

Overall, it was a massacre. I generally didn't need to siege at all, because my infantry usually had a 95-99% chance of victory. I just raced to capture and raze every city as fast as I could.

If I were to do it again, I would have gifted my enemies with warriors or scouts at the beginning of the game, so that I would have more (easy) units to defeat in every battle. That would let me build up my units' experience and get a great general sooner, while at the same time reducing my enemy's ability to research, and thus making sure that they have fewer serious threats when I attack.

Boudica's army is very, very powerful. They can very easily defeat most other units, and the promotions they get from their easy victories give them health to keep them moving quickly.

As a paratrooper myself, I have been very pleased with their level of importance in game play.

Here are the many reasons I love them:
1) paradrop + move = 6 spaces deep into enemy territory, in one turn!!! Or, drop and pillage for $$$
2) they come about at just the time when I am able to product my butt off, so I can make them in large number
3) when you get Facism, you get a great general... save it for a brand spanking new paratrooper and give that paratrooper Combat I, Medic I, Medic II, and the one for double XP gaining (ALWAYS take that)... when you get a promotion, Medic III, you know have a very portable hospital to take with you, all your other paras can focus on Combat I, II, and III, then grab March
4) at 24, pretty darned effective at defending the new cities
5) they look cool
6) you can, once you take a city, air transport in vanilla infantry to defend it, and paradrop yet further into enemy territory... a non-armored blitzkreig (we all know once the AI has shot his initial wad of troops you can easily crush him by simply continuing the advance relentlessly)

Reason 5 is the most important .

I am a HUGE fan of late game warmongering. I LOVE using all the toys available in the Industrial or later eras and using "specialty" troops is part in parcel with that.

In general, I find myself leaning more and more towards Charismatic leaders for the sheer "fun" factor that it provides in terms of unit advancements. Boudica and Churchill in particular are awesome if you want to truly overachieve when it comes to promotions. Using a Barracks, Feudalism, Theocracy, and the Pentagon (I almost always save a Great Engineer for that purpose if the tech race is close) your units in ANY city can come out with THREE promotions. Add in West Point or two Great Generals and you are starting with FOUR (not to mention the Combat I if you are Boudica). I realize that all of this has been said above, but it's just something that cannot be stressed enough I think!!

Seeing as the strat above requires such expansive promotions that's pretty much where you are locked in. Right now I'm playing a game with Brennus (Charismatic/Spiritual) and it's just wonderful to pop out my "holy warriors" with three promotions right out of the gate. I have always used the "special forces" strategy, but often I favor the more traditional "stack of doom" approach. I get about four or five of these going and just roll over stuff using these "special forces" more defensively than offensively. Typically I'll have the following in a stack that just rolls ever on across my enemies territories...
1 Woodsman III Infantry
1 Guerilla III Infantry
1 Combat III Infantry
1 Drill I, Medic II Machine Gun
1 Interception II, Combat I SAM Infantry
1 Combat III Anti-Tank
This allows me to always have a strong defense against whatever is thrown at my stack. When I go full production I can get one of these base defensive corps to the edge of my territory within two turns and often supplement it with various attack units (tanks, artillery, calvary, bombers, helicopters, marines, etc.) within turns after that since every town I have can pump out any one of these.

Now, what about paratroopers (since that was the original poster's preferred special unit)?

Well, my position on them is situational. Most often I use them in a defensive or skirmishing manner. My typical setup is to build a fort on the edge of friendly territory and drop them into enemy land onto a resource or vital square. Woodsman III, Guerilla III, or Combat III paratroops are the ones I call into service for this role. I'll drop these guys in on a strategic resource, pillage it, and fortify them against all comers. If I can deprive my opponent of his oil fields for the entire length of a war with one or two paratroop units I feel the cost is well worth it. With Guerilla III paratroopers at my disposal a foe might as well give up on any aluminum, most iron, and most coal resources. My Woodsmen would be the closest to a "Commando" unit I have. Their job is to get into an underdeveloped region and pillage roads delaying my foes reinforcement by his allies (from that direction at least). I don't however upgrade to "Commando" itself because even with Combat IV my paratrooper behind enemy lines without the benefit of terrain (open plain or grassland) eventually will get killed and I feel that I wasted all those promotions.

In the end what works for the situation is the thing to note. If I am playing Boudica and I am pumping out 13xp Commandos then yeah I'm going to be dropping pairs of these guys all over working them up for March at 20xp, but if I'm going to be spending more than 20xp on March and Commando then the amount of time invested is just too much for a unit that will most likely eventually be hunted and slaughtered by a massive stack.

Finally, in terms of "Combined Arms" using Bombers and Paratroopers I have to say I like the strategy alot even if it is situational. Just stack the bombers, clear the defenses and damage the units and then send in a huge stack of Guerilla III (for cities on hills) and Combat III (or Combat II + Specialty [Pinch, Ambush, etc.]) Paratroopers with one City Defence III and one Woodsman III (for healing) paratroopers for counter attacks and you're rocking it. By the time you move up the bombers and a couple defensive units you are ready for the next jump.

This article reads as something that's great in theory but doesn't work in real game. I've always felt like the experience system in Civ4 is a bit underwhelming at higher levels. I mean, level 2 units will dominate level 1, no question. And CR3 is extremely nice. But do you REALLY need a combat 4/march/amphibious/whatever infantry? It'll still lose, almost every time, to just two unpromoted infantry. Paratroopers are even weaker against infantry, and since they have to wait a turn to attack after a jump, they usually die before doing anything if you jump them into the middle of enemy territory. Just use an air strike or a spy instead- much more effective. The only use I get from Paratroopers is when mopping up someone way weaker than me, since paratroopers+air support can advance faster than tanks.