Commando promotion : any practical use?

[Napo981]

Does anyone ever use the commando promotion to have any strategical value?

The only strategy I see is to attack poorly defended cities behing the front line. However, the fact it is a very advanced promotion few units are eligible throughout the game coupled those promotions rather used to get more useful promotions make this strategy hard to realize.

Anyone have any comments on that?

 

[eumaies]

I think Promotions like commando or the extra movement in terrain are useful in civ because enemies usually plan out exactly what you can and can't do in a scenario beforeactually going to war.

Then on the surprise first turn or two when you actually fight, the ability to be where henever calculated possible is potentially very big.

I often culture-bomb to be able to more quickly move into a war and take cities fast. Command has similar advantage if you can't our-culture them.

 

[Napo981]

I think Promotions like commando or the extra movement in terrain are useful in civ because enemies usually plan out exactly what you can and can't do in a scenario beforeactually going to war.

Then on the surprise first turn or two when you actually fight, the ability to be where henever calculated possible is potentially very big.

I often culture-bomb to be able to more quickly move into a war and take cities fast. Command has similar advantage if you can't our-culture them.

But have you ever do this!?!

It 's pretty hard to accumulate enough of these high-level units to launch a respectable offensive.

Personnally, I even never be close to do this. But I'm not the big-offensive guy either.

Anyone?

 

[weimingshi]

agressive leaders can get alot of commando if you shoot for it, they start with strength 1 promo. Just the thought of a mordern armor that can move 10 tiles in your territory is terrifying. But against the Ai, I would say the use of this promo is limited, cause AI defends all its cities. But if you go multiplayer, commando can create some ingenious battle plans.

 

[Shqype]

I agree with the latter. I personally have not yet recieved Commando in a game, the highest I've gotten was Combat 4. (Then again , I used other promotions for +25% against gunpowder units, etc.) Commando seems better for use against human players.

 

[chewbaccad]

I find the commando promotion (though I haven't used it that much) to be very helpful for pillaging/destroying resources. I don't use it to go after cities. It's much more useful to quickly cut off the enemy's one source of oil or aluminum.

 

[Silver Marmot]

Commando has a lot of potential against human opponents (like the previous poster said). Generally, when I play only my border cities have a strong defense, because if for some reason my inner cities were under threat I could quickly get units to defend them. However, with three good units with commando a player could theoretically declare war, send the units to an inner city in one turn, and attack. I would lose an inner city before I could even react.

At any rate, I don't think commando would be easy to get without agressive. Even then, you would have to have the proper civics, buildings, and wonders, and you would still have to kill a couple units to get commando. It's a strategy that I personally wouldn't attempt.

 

[Grogs]

At any rate, I don't think commando would be easy to get without agressive. Even then, you would have to have the proper civics, buildings, and wonders, and you would still have to kill a couple units to get commando. It's a strategy that I personally wouldn't attempt.

Ideally, since it's such a hard promotion to get, I'd want to give it to a fast unit, like knights or cavalry and make them super-pillagers, plunging 6 tiles behind enemy lines each turn. Unfortunately, even for aggressive civs, that's not easy to get. The combat I promotion only goes on melee or gunpowder units. The only 2-move melee or gunpowder units I can think of are musketeers (French UU) or Mech Infantry. So most likely, even an aggressive civ will need 26 xp to earn the promotion, or else 17 and put it on a melee/gunpowder unit. Still seems really useful for one of those units (infantry that can stay up with the tanks for example), but I think you'd have to plan from the beginning that you want to make a particular unit into a commando. The temptation to step off the Combat I-IV track and pick up one of the +25% promotions for a particular battle is one I find hard to resist.

 

[Shqype]

I think you'd have to plan from the beginning that you want to make a particular unit into a commando. The temptation to step off the Combat I-IV track and pick up one of the +25% promotions for a particular battle is one I find hard to resist.

Wholeheartedly agree.

For the reasons mentioned in previous posts ("However, with three good units with commando a player could theoretically declare war, send the units to an inner city in one turn, and attack. I would lose an inner city before I could even react"), Commando has been made really hard to acquire on purpose. Too many Commando units give a civilization a very significant advantage in offensive combat (which reminds me of Anima_Croatorum's Croatian UU , Garde Brigade).

 

[Thalassicus]

With the Pentagon, your West Point units start out with 14 xp, just 3 shy of the fourth promotion. Aggressive civs start with Combat I, so getting Commando shouldn't be too hard near endgame, if infantry / mech infantry get a free Combat I.

I doubt it'd be very useful for city assault (since it is intentionally near the end of the Combat line), but a few commandos could easily wreak havoc on a civ's improvements and workers the instant you declare war, especially if they have railroads.

And yeah, I usually defend cities away from the front or coast with only 1 mech inf, so in a multiplayer game it'd be pretty powerful, but I understand those games never get that far

 

[joelzhl]

IMO mounted, infantry, and MI are the only units worth this promotion. The best starting scenario is exactly what Thalassicus said, however you need Assembly Line and also build the pentagon in order to pump out 14 xp Infantries. Even those will take a battle or two to get Commando promotion. Mounted units on the other hand is quite easy to build up, you have a few hundred turns to make them, just a few wars and you'll have quite a few 26 xp mounted units.

For mounted units, I usually send them as suicide units into enemy territory and pillage important strategic resources. They can move 5 spaces in enemy territory and pillage in the same turn, furthermore their upgrade unit - the Gunship - is such a piece of crap that it's not even worth the upgrade money, thus making them the best expandible unit in industrial/modern age.

I use Infanties and MI much differently then mounted commandos. They make up the core of my assult force during late game. These guys start only 3 xp from commando and are quite easy to mass. I usually first use fighters to absorb enemy anti-air, then send in bomber to carpet bomb a city. Afterward the commandos move in to capture a city most likely with 0 loss. Once the enemy culture border clears, tanks and other anti-gunderpower infanties clear up any remaining troops in the area. I think using commando gunderpowder units give much better mobility and faster conquest speed then the classic tank/MA combo. Another advantage to consider is that infantries receive defensive bonus, thus they are not that susceptible to counter-attacks.


Edit: I forgot another good tactic to use with infanties, you can use combat engineers teams (1 inf + 2 workers) to build a piece of rail on the 1st enemy border if they don't have rails yet. With the new piece of rail, you can attack 4 squares deep into enemy city.

 

[magerain]

Commando could be used in single player. The speed with which your troops can effectively move towards enemy cities is one tile/turn. If you have bombers and your opponent doesn't have fighters or if you have stealth bombers you can go without artillery, just armour. This way you go at double speed two tiles/turn. But if you somehow managed to produce several commando units then your invasion moves at unbelievable speed of 10 tiles/turn. Which is a city/turn for most maps.

I just think that if you are strong enough to produce commando armour, you will kill every other opponent long before it comes to armour/bombers.

And commando cavalry/knights/swordsmen etc. are useless because you can't have commando artillery (i don't remember, maybe technically you can, but it's too hard for artillery to get experience, they usually die instead

 

[Napo981]

Commando could be used in single player. The speed with which your troops can effectively move towards enemy cities is one tile/turn. If you have bombers and your opponent doesn't have fighters or if you have stealth bombers you can go without artillery, just armour. This way you go at double speed two tiles/turn. But if you somehow managed to produce several commando units then your invasion moves at unbelievable speed of 10 tiles/turn. Which is a city/turn for most maps.

I just think that if you are strong enough to produce commando armour, you will kill every other opponent long before it comes to armour/bombers.

And commando cavalry/knights/swordsmen etc. are useless because you can't have commando artillery (i don't remember, maybe technically you can, but it's too hard for artillery to get experience, they usually die instead

Welcome to Civfanatics!

Happy to have your first post !

 

[magerain]

)))
What a warm welcome!
Thank you