A use for those helicopters and marines/paratroopers

[narmox]

I was playing the BTM_BASIC4.1 mod the other day, and I found a good use for a combo of helicopters and marines - take out the AI's damned radar towers!

This worked well until they had MI and MA defending the towers.

Basically, I had 3-4 helicopters full of marines (in BTM they have an attack of 10, while paratroppers have an attack of 8), and I would airdrop them around the city I wanted to conquer, near the radar towers. On the next turn, I would use them to attack the lone defender of the radar towers, thus removing the defense bonus of the defenders in the city.

 

[Shabbaman]

Well, can't you just bombard those towers? That's a lot quicker.
Or can't they be bombarded? Hmm...

 

[narmox]

I usually bombard the unit guarding the tower before attacking. I've never seen my bombardment destroy the tower (but they didn't destroy other terrain improvements either in my last game).

 

[amk25a]

You can remove a radar tower by bombardment but it will take a while. It's the last terrain improvement to be destroyed. So if you have a tile with a radar tower, railroad, mine/irrigation, and defender(s), bombardment will first knock down all defenders to 1 hp, then take out the railroad, road, mine/irrigatione, and then finally the radar tower.

 

[farting bob]

without PTW yet, what do radar towers exactly do?

 

[Alex the Great]

The towers give an attack and defense bonus to friendly units in 2(?) squares. I think the bonus is like 50 or 100%

 

[Shillen]

They give 25% bonus, and yes, the range is 2 tiles.

 

[taper]

I gave helicopters a movement value, and I find them incredibly useful now. I do consider this real-life, as helos can take off and land on almost any terrain. As an air unit, they can cross land and water, and the airdrop ability gives a vast range for landing troops.

 

[JMK]

amk25a quote:

You can remove a radar tower by bombardment but it will take a while. It's the last terrain improvement to be destroyed. So if you have a tile with a radar tower, railroad, mine/irrigation, and defender(s), bombardment will first knock down all defenders to 1 hp, then take out the railroad, road, mine/irrigatione, and then finally the radar tower.

Are you sure about the above ?
In my own game it does not look to work that way, terrain improvement(s) can not be destroyed til you have an unit (even redlined) on the square.
Please confirm, thank you.

 

[muppet]

Terrain improvements can be destroyed by bombardment alone.

 

[Naval Power]

I'd like to do what u did taper as well as upgrading there transport but I dont know how to get into the editor could someone please tell me how. This way I can send in marines ahead of time while i load other marines on my ships and ship them out. The helicopter wave pillages and kills anything moving along RR and Roads. Then a couple of turns later my Transports arrive say 4 each with 8 marines thats 32 of them which can easily make it very far inland while I airlift MA to give my marines support. I dont like using MA's as primary attackers but as more of mop up units taking anything out the marines miss.

 

[general Patton]

Yeah well I have killed alot of stupid marines
In Civ3 the Marines are the many the stupid the dead. I find I just stick to infantry they are better than marines or paratroops. I'd much rather have 32 tanks. With tanks I only need like 7 tanks to take a city. I did find a use for helicopters though load some infantry in some helicopters and choose new airbase. You now can airlift any non mech unit anywhere without any airports. They kind of loose their effectiveness after computers though

 

[cookie_monster]

A theory I have yet to test fully is when you capture a town with marines from the sea, the computer does not have time to sell off all the buildings, so the town is much more valuable for the near future. Obviously all cultural buildings are destroyed upon town capture. Problems can be radar tower +25% defence bonus. Civil Defence +50%? Hills +50%.Radar Tower +25%. Modern Infantry. I think it took around 20 marines to beat 4 modern infantry.
So first remove the radar tower as described in above posts. Then after checking the town diplomatically or through espionage for civil defence, you can remove that with stealth bomber precision strike. The modern infantry could also be removed by cruise missles (depends on location).
It is a slaughter for marines sometimes but the town is still unculturally fully functioning. Factories etc.
Upon landing set up a radar tower with mod.inf cos the town defence bonus dont work in resistance.
Defend the town with enough units.Culture flip etc. I presume when you have taken 3 towns with this in one round the comp will ask for peace so you can still use democracy.
This maybe be wasteful of marines but the town is fully unculturally functioning as before.
My theory any comments welcome.

 

[Hygro]

The computer doesn't sell its culture buildings, Cookie Monster, they all get destroyed when you take the town over. Other buildings get destroyed too, but that's at random.

 

[cookie_monster]

Hmm... Hygro my theory never mentioned cultural buildings as the presumption was most people know they are always destroyed. Thanks for being constructive.....

 

[TerraHero]

yes..even forts can be destroyed after intens bombing

 

[Hygro]

I would like to mention that the rest of your post was good though