does the medic come with instructions?

[Fabio1701]

How does the medic actually work? I've had one on a injured machine gone for ages and it doesn't seem to be healing faster than normal. There seem to be no activation button. What are the actual mechanics?

(It woudl be useful if the wikipedia had info about some of the unit mechanics in this game...)

 

[Larsenex]

Ok so after several threads I posted for information here is how he works. The medic ONLY works when adjacent, so linking him to a melee unit is not going to help. His bonus ONLY kicks in if hte unit is not fighting and takes an entire turn (not attacked) to heal. Then he adds a bonus to the base heal the unit that is trying to heal itself gets.

So if you have say a mech infantry attacking a city and its damaged, your medic must be behind the unit (or adjacent to it) and the mech inf must stop and 'fortify while healing' for that turn to get the benefit of the heal.

The medic does NOT passively heal the units as they are marching.

It is NOT like the Civ 4 medic which worked like the march promotion and healed automatically per turn if the unit was damaged. I would LOVE to mod that in but I doubt we can do it till the SDK is avail.

 

[enar]

So, not quite useless, but in the same zip code?

 

[Futumch]

So, not quite useless, but in the same zip code?

Pretty close. It would be my candidate for least-built unit, even less used than some of the more esoteric early land warfare units. You know the ones that get made obselete within a dozen turns or so. I have used them to protect artillery, or station them in a fort as a sort of "first aid station" away from the front lines. I'd move units back out of danger, fortify them and move in fresh units.
They'd be better if the maintenance wasn't so high.

Yes, the lack of instructions on the packet they arrive in doesn't help either.

 

[kaspergm]

Isn't this the same as the Observation Balloon - or did they fix that one? I.e. it works when adjacent but not when stack with. Seems like a bug if you ask me. I really hope they fix it, because having to micromanage meaningless things like that does certainly NOT help the game.

 

[Gort]

While we're on the subject of support units, how exactly do battering rams and siege towers work, and how are they different?

 

[kaspergm]

While we're on the subject of support units, how exactly do battering rams and siege towers work, and how are they different?

Battering rams let your melee units do full damage to walls (presumably they get a penalty normally?), while siege towers let your units circumvent the walls, i.e. do damage directly to the city as if the walls was not there.

 

[Zuizgond]

You can look in the Civilopedia. Game mechanisms are well explained there.









/sarcasm

 

[Gort]

You can look in the Civilopedia. Game mechanisms are well explained there.









/sarcasm

Man, I missed that little bit at the bottom at first and was about to go off on a rant at you

 

[Zuizgond]

Man, I missed that little bit at the bottom at first and was about to go off on a rant at you

Yay it worked!

 

[Fabio1701]

Isn't this the same as the Observation Balloon - or did they fix that one? I.e. it works when adjacent but not when stack with. Seems like a bug if you ask me. I really hope they fix it, because having to micromanage meaningless things like that does certainly NOT help the game.

I think I am using the baloon successfully, I actually always have one or two . Link it to an artillary and it will extend the range by one. (doesn't work for 'field artillery' whcih is techihcally and archery unit. should have rethought that name firaxis!

Battering rams let your melee units do full damage to walls (presumably they get a penalty normally?), while siege towers let your units circumvent the walls, i.e. do damage directly to the city as if the walls was not there.

while on the subject i notice that seige towrs and battering rams dont upfgrade to anything. I've got a couple hanging around in the atomic age, loks inda silly. Do they still work? ie, does the ram still help full damadge to walls when infintary is attacking? If so, they could atleast update the graphics to a modern door buster or something.

 

[Leyrann]

while on the subject i notice that seige towrs and battering rams dont upfgrade to anything. I've got a couple hanging around in the atomic age, loks inda silly. Do they still work? ie, does the ram still help full damadge to walls when infintary is attacking? If so, they could atleast update the graphics to a modern door buster or something.

I'm pretty sure they do, yes. Then again, if you're going for a domination victory you probably have 6-7 promotion levels on your infantry plus some artillery units with expert crew, so you're most likely not going to bother even moving that battering ram anymore (at least I don't; it's still standing parked in that city I conquered late classical era while it's now industrial era). And if you're not going for a domination victory... Why are you even conquering cities then because everyone instantly hates you.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

On the topic of Battering Rams, normally melee units have penalties when attacking cities. Battering Rams makes them do their full damage again (as if walls were units) against those walls. I think Rams only do this for walls, though; once they're down, the damage to the city seems to be the same as an unwalled city.

And yes, they still work in later eras. Use them with Cavalry tier 4 promotion, which makes attached units walk at the same pace as the Cavalry. Then they may reach the enemy city much faster than Artillery.

 

[camomilk]

You can roll over cities in the modern era with some infantry and a siege tower.

 

[Olleus]

So, not quite useless, but in the same zip code?

I disagree. Do you ever stop to heal your units? The answer is yes - of course you do, it's unavoidable. Medic reduces the amount of time that healing takes. You don't need very many, but 1 per front your fighting it, placed a little further back in your territory and next to a road helps. It means all your other units need less vacation time and can spend more time killing. The usefulness of the medic scales with how many units they have and how expensive they are (as you would need more to offset the medics ability).

Eg: 2 musketmen is better than a musket and a medic. But a medic and 6 tanks are better than 7 tanks.

Of course, the AI is so bad that you need so few units (and they take so little damage) that it might not make any practical difference.

 

[phoinix]

i always thought it was odd that some early era support units arent made obsolete by later techs

 

[UWHabs]

i always thought it was odd that some early era support units arent made obsolete by later techs

They're obsolete in that you can no longer build them. But they still maintain their usefulness. I don't have any idea how a siege tower is supposed to help Cavalry or tanks take a city, but they do. A great strategy with Scythia is to raid early with the double units, and then make sure you keep a siege tower or two around and conquer the rest of the world with Cavalry armies.

 

[Larsenex]

Yea the siege tower is so good I always try to make 3 of them before they obsolete. They are so deadly when paired with a melee unit against a city.

 

[Gort]

They should at least change graphics as you hit the later techs, even if they don't change effect.