Airborne Units

[Alorente]

This is another very important aspect of war that has been ignored in Civ. Practically every invasion in the 20th century began with a large parachute drop behind the lines. I am not clear on how it could be coded because you can't actually load airborne units on to bombers. Maybe there is a way to link a unit to a bomber and when clicking on an air drop icon the unit would appear on the ground under the bomber's location. You could even drop a Great Airborne General with them. Any suggestions?

 

[civ_king]

Paratroopers

 

[i_diavolorosso]

Paratroopers

Absolutely
Let's keep simple thing simple

 

[gramcrkr103]

The paratroopers are kind of underpowered though. I try to use them but no others civs do and they get outdated quickly.
Maybe the range for them could be increased (I think its 5 now) or given a better bonus against normal infantry?

 

[Killtech]

all i know most parachute operation in serious warfare ended in a big mess. maybe in a the future era you could have a drop-ship that's like the transport ship but flies i.e. can move over water and land (no fuel, no range... just normal movement; however it should ignore all road bonuses). for the modern times one could add a transport helicopter like the Bell UH-1 D. same as drop-ship but could transport only a single infantry unit and needs to be over land at the end of a turn.

for WWII times i could suggest following: remove paratrooper unit. change bombers so they can carry one infantry unit that need a new parachute promotion. furthermore they get a new mission: para drop. so all paratroops aren't any bit underpowered since they can be any infantry type (hmm... heard about the 1st para-spearmen regiment?). additionally you'd get another way of unit transport. guess bombers would need a max rebase range.

EDIT: thinking of it the bomber change would make it reasonable to rework all air transport of units into this system with more advanced plane types able to transport heavier units. then again the AI couldn't understand such air transport stuff so just better to leave it out.

 

[xartah]

One thing to remember about paratroopers is that they're usually lightly armed. They're not going to have the artillery, mortars and anti-tank guns that normal infantry units have. Modern paratroopers might be better armed but overall I'd say a higher experience but lower strength compared to normal infantry would be somewhat realistic.

 

[Alorente]

all i know most parachute operation in serious warfare ended in a big mess. maybe in a the future era you could have a drop-ship that's like the transport ship but flies i.e. can move over water and land (no fuel, no range... just normal movement; however it should ignore all road bonuses). for the modern times one could add a transport helicopter like the Bell UH-1 D. same as drop-ship but could transport only a single infantry unit and needs to be over land at the end of a turn.

for WWII times i could suggest following: remove paratrooper unit. change bombers so they can carry one infantry unit that need a new parachute promotion. furthermore they get a new mission: para drop. so all paratroops aren't any bit underpowered since they can be any infantry type (hmm... heard about the 1st para-spearmen regiment?). additionally you'd get another way of unit transport. guess bombers would need a max rebase range.

EDIT: thinking of it the bomber change would make it reasonable to rework all air transport of units into this system with more advanced plane types able to transport heavier units. then again the AI couldn't understand such air transport stuff so just better to leave it out.

I agree with everything you said. That way you can para drop your veteran infantry by just giving them the parachute promotion.

 

[civ_king]

paradrop should be a special forces thing, also in the future Era the unit should be fast a la the Aggressor (a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid with a very silent and low heat signature mode stealth mode basically and a fast GTFO mode for escape, this vehicle is air-dropable and can be used as a portable generator), the perfect paratrooper/spy/SEAL vehicle

should also be very expensive to maintain