Exploding cities and stacking units?

[grandfoobar]

I got my copy of the game yesterday and have a couple of quick questions after playing for a bit.

In previous versions of Civ, you could stack units together before charging into battle. After looking at the manual, I noticed that there is a concept of an army, but this cannot be used until a "leader" emerges. Or can it? Is there any way to stack units/join forces before engaging an enemy unit?

Second question--While playing, occasionally one of my cities will have what appears to be explosions (or fireworks) occurring over it on the map. This is different to civil disorder, where the city appears to be on fire. I have no clue as to what this means?!?! Can anyone help here?

Thanks and happy gaming,
Brennan

 

[Jay H]

Yes, you can stack units on top of each other but it's not the same concept as an army, it's just stacked.

The fireworks I believe are part of the WLTK (We love the king) days. Happens alot when part of a golden age. Civil unrest is signified by grey smoke and not fireworks.

Jay

 

[grandfoobar]

Thanks for the reply Jay. I realize that you can stack units, but is there a way to join them together and make them attack as one cohesive unit, rather than each unit attacking at a time during the turn?

Cheers,
Brennan

 

[Jay H]

Ahhhhhh, Well, I haven't come across any command that treats the stack as one. In fact, I witnessed last night a huge stack of russian spearmen going by my capitol last night. Each individual unit would move one at a time, and you could see the somewhat domino looking effect. The manual seems to imply that there's no way to move units as one. There isn't any command in the reference section to stack units and move as one.

Jay

 

[Peteus]

I'm guessing that you can't move them as one to avoid just what you're describing, because you can't get units to attack as one until you group them in an army. Then they effectively pool their HPs - my army (Kublai Khan with 3 Chinese Riders) was reduced from 14 HP to 1, but after one turn in a City with Barracks, it's back to 14! (i.e. two of the Riders didn't die when they ran out of HPs)

 

[Fire!]

The fireworks you see occur during and throughout the WLTK celebration.

I was very confused until I figured that out as well.

 

[miradus]

I have lots of WLTK celebrations all the time, and the manual says you get extra stuff in a city that's having one ... but what extra stuff is that? Boost to production? Boost to commerce?

Happiness seems a lot more important.

 

[philippe]

in the 1.17f patch there is now a stack command

 

[napoleon526]

Originally posted by miradus
I have lots of WLTK celebrations all the time, and the manual says you get extra stuff in a city that's having one ... but what extra stuff is that? Boost to production? Boost to commerce?

Happiness seems a lot more important.

WLTKD seems to have a significant affect on reducing corruption.

 

[Tassadar]

wltk almost double production shield in far away city under democraty, but my conclusion was it cost too much to do that for the benefit of several half corrupted city, you need to hav lots of luxuries+market place and luxuries rate at 20% or more. so i prefer staying small, put 10 % on luxuries and the rest on science.

 

[gslinkr]

"in the 1.17f patch there is now a stack command"

what is the command?

 

[NiteCreature]

In the newer versions > 1.17f they have built-in a new stack command.

Just like moving one unit with 'G' u can now move an entire stack of the same units with 'J'.

Altough u can move them, i think it's not possible to use them all at once in an attack

Remember, only the same units will move with 'J'...so u can't move a cavalry and infantry at the same time with the 'J' command.... But i believe there will be a better movement option in the upcoming PTW XP

 

[gslinkr]

Cool! Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Zouave]

You CAN'T move them if fortified. You have to first wake them. A pain, but better than before.

 

[eighty]

Useful shortcut: right click on a fortified stack. hold down shift key and then you can wake each unit one at a time without having to keep right clicking the stack. Learning that one saved me many a headache!

 

[Zouave]

Originally posted by grandfoobar
Thanks for the reply Jay. I realize that you can stack units, but is there a way to join them together and make them attack as one cohesive unit, rather than each unit attacking at a time during the turn?

Cheers,
Brennan

I have been saying for some time that one of the weaknesses in combat in the game is LACK OF STACK COMBAT.

Units, no matter how many in a stack, fight individually, which not only gets tedious later in the game it is unrealistic as it cancels out the valid concept of Combined Arms in which a force with all the right elements (horse, foot, bombardment) is stronger than one of equal size of just one type of unit. Battles would go faster, be more interesting, and could even have a real time aspect to them, as I've seen in other games.

Armies have very limited value and I'd never waste a leader on them.

STACK COMBAT, and leaders who supply a combat bonus to the stack, is needed. Don't hold your breath waiting for it; we asked for it five years ago after Civ 2 came out.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Zouave
Armies have very limited value and I'd never waste a leader on them.

I have good luck (and great fun) with armies.

 

[ibliss]

Originally posted by Peteus
I'm guessing that you can't move them as one to avoid just what you're describing, because you can't get units to attack as one until you group them in an army. Then they effectively pool their HPs - my army (Kublai Khan with 3 Chinese Riders) was reduced from 14 HP to 1, but after one turn in a City with Barracks, it's back to 14! (i.e. two of the Riders didn't die when they ran out of HPs)

strange... when i put my heavily damaged army in a city with a barracks, it took me 2 or sometimes even 3 turns to completely recover... it looks to me as if each unit heals seperately sequentially or either there is a max healing thing or so...
or do i need some thing like a hospital improvement to let them heal in one turn?

 

[Maple]

Originally posted by Zachriel


I have good luck (and great fun) with armies.

I don't want to be on the recieving end of that armada