How do armies work?

Hello All,

Yes, I am terribly new at Civ III and I'm struggling along at the Chieftain level, so be gentle with me. My immediate concern is with armies. It's not well-explained in the manual or in the 'paedia.

One of my swordsman units was lucky enough to be promoted to a Leader. When he was in one of my cites with a bunch of knights, I clicked on the "Build Army" button, so I presume he formed an army with them. However, when I move him out of town, he's just a weak little guy with some really lousy A/D/M stats.

So just exactly how do you get armies to move around and fight as one unit like the manual suggests?

Dinorius Redundicus

First of all, I'd like to say welcome!


Now, your question.


First of all, when you get a leader, you're supposed to take it to a city, (which you already did) and from there, you can build your army providing you have at least 4 cities (four cities per army), and obviously, since you had the "build army" icon, you had those cities so now to the question.
Think of a leader as a transport unit. When you click the "build army" icon, you have designated the leader to be a military leader. When you have the units you want in the army in the same city as your leader, as it becomes that unit's turn, you should see an icon for that unit to "load" it into the army. Click on the icon, and ta da! It is in the army now. Do the same thing to the other two units you want to put into your army.
The units in the army cannot (to my knowledge) be removed from the army, and they will fight and move as one unit.

I hope the helped.

Thanks Becka, I will give it a go. I wish the manual was as clear as your explanation!

Dinorius Redundicus I :enlighten

You're welcome. I've had...experience. [punch]