Do you build red cross?

[ekanata]

Since you can bring medic explorer along with your main force, do you think it's worth to build red cross somewhere (since your top production city most likely already have HE and WP)?

Does it give medic promotion to unit that can't normally have medic (like tank or bomber)?

 

[Palantir30]

Since you can bring medic explorer along with your main force, do you think it's worth to build red cross somewhere (since your top production city most likely already have HE and WP)?

Does it give medic promotion to unit that can't normally have medic (like tank or bomber)?

Of course I build Red Cross. A unit that has its own medic is much more reliable than having a medicexplorer along, and is that much closer to being able to March.

RC cannot grant Medic1 to units that cant have it, so your tanks cant have Medic1, so there's no reason to feel bad about not having RC in your HE+WP city. That city pumps out tanks first, everything else second. The RC city is for Mech Infantry and Battleships. Every other city is for Bombers.

 

[Wreck]

Of course it's worth it. For one thing, you no longer have to spend 40 shields to get a medic. The other is, you now can have medics everywhere, and have many attacking forces.

Also, if I have to use two promotions to get March (which is normally the case), I don't do it. I just don't think that's worthwhile. But units built in the Red Cross city only need one. And that, I think, is well worth it. March is a great promotion; it means that unit never needs to stop. Try it; you'll like it.

 

[emills]

March is a great promotion. Combine it with first strikes (like SEALS) and you can go forever. I think naval vessels should be able to get march, I don't understand why not.

 

[Sparta]

I'd agree with what was already said; I typically build it somewhere, although it's not supremely high-priority if I'm in a total war already. Another thing to consider is that it goes well with your Ironworks city, since as you point out, HE/WP is pretty much standard, so you'll have a separate IW city sitting somewhere begging for a supplemental national wonder (and as far as I've been able to tell, RC would be about the only thing left with good synergy with IW, given the stage of the game (admittedly, I skip spies)).

Wreck and emills make a very good point about March - it's an excellent promotion IMO, and getting it for half price makes it even more valuable and commonplace (Medic artillery are nice too, since you'll need to take them with anyway, and this way you can ditch those explorers or allocate them to non-frontline holdings). I'd advise against a lot of late-game medic Infantry though, just since they already get March upon upgrade to MI, IIRC. Maybe grab a few anti-artillery Marine Marchers to guard your offensive stacks instead. And yeah, I was quite crestfallen when I realized that my eagerly-awaited Marching tank would not work (no Medic for ineligible units), but there's not much you can do about that, and RC still beats Globe Theatre and the almost entirely useless Hermitage in most cases, IMHO.

If I have a solid production coastal city, I'll do what Palantir said, so you can have medic naval units as well. Otherwise I just put it (and IW) in my highest-production city that doesn't have any national wonders in it yet (basically, the RC decision is made when I place IW). It'll cost you an extra Medic destroyer or two in the long run to not go coastal, but if production is significantly better and/or the map is not archipelago, I think you wind up getting more bang for your buck in the end, personally.

Either way, it probably is worth playing around with, at the very least just to see if you find it useful to your approach. It's not that terribly expensive by that point in the game anyway. Consider rush-buying it after turn one if you feel like it, so the city can get going on its unit production ASAP (IMO, HE and RC cities should not be 'wasting' time building infrastructure, so I rush most of it when able).

Good luck!

 

[emills]

Good point on the Iron Works - Red Cross combo. I have used it a whole lot myself. Many time this happens in my capital as it usually turns out to be the 2nd in hammer production.

 

[Pete2006]

I rarely make it that late in the game before winning by domination. If I can't win by domination, I'll go for space race. Red cross is unnecessary for space race.

 

[naterator]

i find that a really good production city can usually have the RC and WP and still churn em out quick enough without using HE there. this way during peace it can crank out 10 exp units (with the pentagon, that is), thus fortifying your borders with stacked troops who, if i'm attacked, can hold out until i switch to police state and switch production in every city, which cranks out waves and waves of troops and generally does the job. i put the HE in a city that has good, but not great production, but may need the troops quicker than it can produce them. although i lose total hammers i save turns transporting troops, plus it allows my supertroop city with 14exp medics later. stop the chopping, people, those lumbermills become production giants and give health from the forest!

 

[Wreck]

Sparta - I completely agree about combining RC w/ Ironworks. I always do that. You certainly don't need to build lots of spies, and other than that there are just 4 national wonders which affect production quantity/quality.

The one other NW that does indirectly affect production is the Palace, when combined with Bureaucracy. I'm not sure... does the limit of 2 NWs/city include the Palace? If so, then at least until the later game you might want to combine Ironworks+Palace. Of course, eventually you'll ditch Bureaucracy for Free Speech, at which point, moving the Palace and installing Red Cross instead makes sense.

As for RC in a seacoast town... yes, that can be nice. But I find the AIs don't usually build enough navy, and are thus rather easily beaten navally. Then your ship spend some time hammering the walls on all seacoast towns. Then... they sit around. Plenty of time then to heal. So, having medic is nice, but not really as vital as having it on land units.

 

[Crighton]

its the medic transports on archipeligo maps which are extremely usefull for a leapfrogging strategy, i believe you can also get March for naval units too so healing the troops on the beach could come in handy i suppose.

Personally I just pop the wounded into the transports then relive dday further down the coast at the next city.

 

[jeejeep]

It would be worth it if i wasn't going for space race at the time

 

[lawren65]

its the medic transports on archipeligo maps which are extremely usefull for a leapfrogging strategy, i believe you can also get March for naval units too so healing the troops on the beach could come in handy i suppose.

Personally I just pop the wounded into the transports then relive dday further down the coast at the next city.

do the units in the transport heal while the transport is being moved?
If so, medic transport would be amazing

 

[emills]

units on transports are considered sleeping or fortified and do heal during transportation. Adding march to units only makes it better since you heal the same turn you attacked. All it takes is one destoyer or tranport in the stack, so you do not have to get crazy with the medic promotion.

In single player, GW and the SEALS (march promo) can take anyone down when playing archipelago.

 

[Bezhukov]

The pertinent question is: do you research Medicine, as its entirely optional, and the answer is: rarely, but when you need it, you really need it. Once I have Medicine, I build the hospitals I needed for the health, and then go ahead and grab RC because its available. The one game where it really helped was in RB adventure two where I got sneaked by huge JC stacks, then later by Alex, despite going for space myself.

As for march, you can also get it after combat 3, which I did alot playing AW.

 

[Sparta]

As for RC in a seacoast town... yes, that can be nice. But I find the AIs don't usually build enough navy, and are thus rather easily beaten navally. Then your ship spend some time hammering the walls on all seacoast towns. Then... they sit around. Plenty of time then to heal. So, having medic is nice, but not really as vital as having it on land units.

I'd agree with that (and thanks for affirmation on IW/RC btw) - I was trying to be diplomatic before, but to be honest I think my weighting of 'coastal' versus net shields for RC is becoming increasingly small as I play more. I encounter the same thing you mention - a first-class Navy eventually sitting around on permanent duty making sure those dastardly village fishermen don't get out to sea that year . I've come to believe that 'wasting' production elsewhere on an extra destroyer or two to play medic is much more worthwhile than accepting a sizeable decrease in production to favor a coastal city for RC, personally. Likewise ...

its the medic transports on archipeligo maps which are extremely usefull for a leapfrogging strategy, i believe you can also get March for naval units too so healing the troops on the beach could come in handy i suppose.

While I really like the spirit of your overall strategy, couldn't the effect be replicated with vanilla transports stacked with a single medic I destroyer? I'm not sure, but if it were you could give all those transports Navigation I (through Flanking I) so they could have an extra movement point, if you're producing them with at least 5 XP to start with (e.g. Drydocks and Pentagon). I suppose on archipelago maps one movement may not be that big a deal anyway, but on large maps it can make a difference (e.g. making transoceanic supply routes require one less transport, etc.).

@Wreck: Capitol building does not count against your two nationals, btw. I like cottaging my cap for the bureaucratic boost personally, but if it's shield heavy you could definitely put IW/RC there if so inclined, just so you know.

@Bezhukov: Agreed - when you're researching Medicine out of necessity, you really need it! In my experience though, I haven't had many opportunities to skip Medicine unless victory is already imminent (i.e. I usually don't skip Medicine in favor of too many other later techs). I often times really need hospitals to combat pollution from my industrialization, as by that point in the game I'm often hitting caps otherwise and at war with half of my potential health resource trades . Short of resources, your only next option would be Genetics, which is a pretty unappealing tech to anyone not space racing. Personally, I usually need those hospitals, but if you can close out a game sooner by/while skipping Medicine you're right that you should do so - it would most likely help out in final score. Good point, btw, regarding CombatIII-March - I love doing that with early knights or cavalry when I can. It's awesome how much ground a couple of them can cover when working in tandem a ways apart from each other.

 

[ekanata]

Ok, so RC makes your unit can get march easily, which is a good promotion for unit that need to be moving alot while taking damage (pilaging/stack defence/drill mopping, etc). But how many of such unit do you need?
Does it worthy enough to sacrifice WP-EP combo (especially if you're playing island map/late era war) so that you can have RC-WP combo ?

 

[petertr2000]

Good point on the Iron Works - Red Cross combo. I have used it a whole lot myself. Many time this happens in my capital as it usually turns out to be the 2nd in hammer production.

Ah.

I usually have my main military city to have West Point and Iron Works. And then I build a city with Hero Epic and Red Cross.
That way I have loads of both types of unit.

Plus, my military city is always my most productive - so I can build wonders whenever I dont need units.

 

[Wreck]

I usually have my main military city to have West Point and Iron Works. And then I build a city with Hero Epic and Red Cross.

There's no difference in terms military unit production here to WP+HE, and Ironworks+RC. Both get +100% when producing military.

However, there is a difference when you want to produce some military units, while using the second city (ironworks) for wonder production. Your arrangement means you'll be making medics; the way I do it, I make experienced units.

IMO, you need experienced hordes more, because experience wins battles, whereas medics are only useful if you win a battle.