Does anybody uses marines in Civ3 ?

O_o

Zergling
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When u r able to produce marines they really can't make any damage!Almost useless!In Civ2 marines were great but now they overpowered too easy even by rifleman and besides everyone has infantry b4 marines!! :jesus:
 
Actually, they make for pretty decent attack units if you don't have oil to build tanks.
 
Marines can make amphibious attacks, which is why they are called marines. Useful in some circumstances, especially useful with a map of many small islands.

In Civ3, the marines attack factor is higher than any other non-armored land unit.
 
I use marines quite a bit. I always use a very aggressive strategy, so units with a strong attack rating are very valuable to me. My strategy is that the best defense is a good offense. Therefore, If a civ was to attack one of my cities, then it's my damn fault and I should have stopped them before they could attack. I will use Infantry to fortify cities, but I usually build a couple very nice size "armies" that consist of marines and tanks.

Bottom line, it depends on your style.
 
As I told in some other thread, I use marines widely. They're very useful when invading. When attacking from trasport they ignore any defensive bonuses like walls, terrain, city sizes, fortify etc. Actually, when attacking from the trasport they are as effective as tanks. They are the coolest attack unit that you can air transport by helicopter so it can be highly mobile when you need attack from the city without airport. I always have 5-6 helicopters with marines in it and 5-6 helicopters with paratroppers. Helicoper can transfer the marine to any of your cities and you can attack in the same turn. When airlift unit using airport, you can't attack in the same turn. The same story about paratroopers. You can trasfer them with helicopter to any city and fortify them in the same turn - you never can do this with airlift. So it is cool for defending your cities on the islands and other continents.
 
I just used 6 of them in conjunction with 2 tanks - a whole marine army! - in a great campaign against the Japanese two nights ago. The initial landing force, supported by 1 x BB, 1 x DE and three bombers managed to cut two Japanese infantry to ribbons to liberate Chengdu from their barbaric rule without hitting dry land first.

From there, the First Marine Army went on to take three cities, and crossed a treacherous mountain range against tough opposition, losing only two marine units and no tanks in the process. On several occasions, it was the marines who were the performers - finishing off wounded infantry, protecting the tanks, covering key mountain positions, etc. The intervention into the German-Japanese War would have been a failure without them.

I have a soft spot for the Indian Marine Corps. So much so that a member of the Corps will play a bit role in the story I'm posting tommorrow. He died in the Battle of the Plantations, a rough but decisive affair far from India on the shores of South Colony Island...

R.III
 
I never use marines in Civ 3. The problem is that the marines aren't much better than infantry at all. I would rather build tanks, for the mobility, in order to attack opposing civs. Marines aren't very effective as garrison either in a city. My strategy is to build as many tanks in the later stages of the game as possible in order to defend my empire. A civ attacks me, I have many tanks, that move right along a railroad. This means that I can also easily go through the attacking civ's territory with my tanks. Marines are useless, although they really shouldn't be in the game.
 
after cavalry the next offensive unit is tank..marine r just too expensive too inefficient and they r late on the tec tree...only AI uses them (thats y im beating it :goodjob: )
 
Marines can be useful in restricted roles, especially leading an assault on a new continent. Marine armies are greating for storming out of transports to take a city allowing you to move in your armor and artilllery in transports and be on your way to the next city before the enemy reacts. The main flaw with marines is as noted they are late on the tech tree. Science civs leap into mod era so quickly with the free tech that the window for marine effectiveness tends to be short. Helicopters are another tech that gets lost in the mix for the same reason. Admittedly my pref is for huge archipelago maps so lifts tend to be more useful to me than drops.

Overall i have to agree that marine useful is limited but in the right situation they can be quite effective.
 
My French allies are on the same continent as my arch-enemy England. The French cavalry units are bouncing off English riflemen and his new infantry that is coming on line.

While I bombard the English coast and prepare for an invasion, I want the French to not get beat or sue for peace. But I don't want them too strong. So I gave them Amphibious Warfare at a very low price. Now French marines can attack with a better chance than the cavalry did.

So that is another use for marines - the offensive unit that can come after cavalry but before the tank.
 
I like to uise the marines for the amphibious attacks like everyone else but I have found they are good units to put in the helios and fly them out to the front quickly.
 
This is a "me-too" post.

I'm with those who like Marines for specialized purposes. And for specialized purposes, Marines are great. You won't use them in every game (at least I don't), but when you can use them, Marines can be utterly devastating.

If you have enough cities to build 7 or 8 Marines plus the transport to move them, then Marines are great for attacking a city behind enemy lines via amphibious assault. Use Marines to destroy your enemy from the rear by transport, and not as a sort of primary ground assault unit. Ground assault is the job of infantry, and only infantry, because infantry is upgradable into mech infantry whereas Marines are not upgradable. Marines, to me at least, are always a niche assault unit.

Consider the following scenario for a Marine niche assault: Let's say you're at war, or about to go to war with, the civ with the coal. So war is inevitable. You must have those coal fields. You've got all your mutual defense pacts lined up against your enemy, and you're ready to trick your enemy into starting a nice little war. Further assume, the enemy has, say, some nice incense (or its coal fields) that you're lusting over, but that city is further back, though on the coast, and you know it's going to take awhile to get there, what with the need to quell resistors in intervening cities.

Now if you've got a transport full of Marines what you do is position those Marines out in the ocean within striking distance of the luxury city in the rear. (Protect the transport, of course.) When the war starts, the enemy rushes pell-mell to meet your attack, pulling strength from its rear.

Now move your transport next to the luxury city and attack the luxury city with your Marines right from the transport. If you've got 8 Marines in the transport, you'll likely lose several of them in the combat, to be sure, but you'll also probably have sufficient strength to take the city. The question is whether you'll have enough remaining strength to quell the city. Another transport with older units would certainly be enough to quell the city. And if you also happen to have a tank or two?

In this scenario, you've now opened up a 2 front war, catching the enemy in a pinchers movement. The destruction of the enemy civilization is only a matter of time . . . .

Comments / criticizms / flames requested & encouraged.
 
i've fixed the marine and paratrooper problems by boosting their stats and related technology.

marine: now 12/7/1, amp warfare now comes after industrialization. you can decide to go for early infantry, or for a much needed attack improvement over calvary. they now successfully assault small cities defended by infantry, and annhilate riflemen as they should

paratrooper: now 7/12/1, tougher than infantry and slightly more expensive. didn't move the tech - you can go for paratrooper for better defense or wait a few techs until mech infantry. i accidentally left the ai usage for para to attack, but maybe it's for the better. now i'm facing hordes of 12 d paras on my moutains and they are tough as hell to dig out. often i had to wait until they moved off mountains
 
Originally posted by Albert Einstain
As I told in some other thread, I use marines widely. They're very useful when invading. When attacking from trasport they ignore any defensive bonuses like walls, terrain, city sizes, fortify etc. Actually, when attacking from the trasport they are as effective as tanks. They are the coolest attack unit that you can air transport by helicopter so it can be highly mobile when you need attack from the city without airport. I always have 5-6 helicopters with marines in it and 5-6 helicopters with paratroppers. Helicoper can transfer the marine to any of your cities and you can attack in the same turn. When airlift unit using airport, you can't attack in the same turn. The same story about paratroopers. You can trasfer them with helicopter to any city and fortify them in the same turn - you never can do this with airlift. So it is cool for defending your cities on the islands and other continents.

I`ll second that, you picked out all the uses for them!
 
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