favourite unit recipes

[boychuk]

I've seen that there is a lot of materials here regarding icons for units but not much about the units themselves. With that in mind, I am starting a thread for the stats of your homebrew units.

You should post

1) the rules.txt stats of your unit(s):

name, until, domain, move, rng, att, def, hit, firepwr, cost, hold, role, preq, flags (a suggestion of the icon you used would be nice)

2) A short explanation of why you created it.

 

[boychuk]

Suicide Bomber, nil, 0, 1.,0, 10a,4d, 2h,1f, 3,0, 0, Fun, 001100001000110

(I modified the partisan unit for this unit's icon. Basically, I took away the gun and put a red square on his/her chest.)

This seems to be an obvious choice. I wasn't happy with having the fanatic as the sole 'unique' unit for fundie govs. I also didn't think it reflected the role of human bombs in such situations as the Iran/Iraq war or any type of asymetrical warfare. The fanatic/suicide bomber seems to be a good mix and the computer has made use of it in my game (though you might need to tinker with the message as it talks about a missle attack on your troops).

I am still wondering about its attack level and cost. I wanted to make it high enough to hurt/destroy all units but not high enough to compete with cruise missles. I also thought that it doesn't take much to 'build' a suicide bomber as all it requires is a willing individal and some explosives.

Special Abilities

Free support for fundamentalism (fanatics)
Destroyed after attacking (missiles)

These should be obvious.

Ignore zones of control
Can make amphibious assaults
Negates city walls (howitzer)

I gave the suicide bomber these abilities to represent the difficulty of finding and stopping the bomber as they may blend in the the local population and slip through security (or they just don't care about getting killed...). Do you think this makes them too powerful?


I am thinking of switching the rules.txt positions of the fanatic and the suicide bomber to make the suicide bomber only accessible to the fundies. My reasoning is that any gov can have fanatics (super patriots, idealogical zealots etc.) but it takes a certain mindset to have a policy of using human bombs.

 

[boychuk]

Combat Controller, nil, 0, 1.,0, 5a,4d, 2h,1f, 7,0, 1, CA, 000001110000010

(I have not found a good pic for this yet.)

see: http://www.specialoperations.com/USAF/CCT/default.html

This unit was created to solve a strategic problem I had in a game. I found it was one thing to to attack a civ that I was linked to via rails but it was difficult to attack one across non settled terrain. I was using alpine troops (didn't have partisan yet) that were supported by choppers but was getting killed because I didn't have air superiority because the enemy was a bit too far beyond the range of my cities. So I created a 'special forces' unit to solve the problem.

I made it by modifying the stats for a paratrooper. Apart from the special abilities, I lowered the attack and raised the cost. I figure that these folks are not really assault troops like marines or paratroops.

Special abilities:

Can make paradrops
Alpine (treats all squares as road)

These look like standard special forces abilities: i.e. rapid deployment in any terrain.

Ignore zones of control

They sometimes need to infiltrate enemy controlled areas.

Can carry air units (carrier)

This is what makes them 'combat controllers.' They can't carry units like a sea borne unit but aircraft can use them as impromptu landing strips. Therefore, you can carry out (and centralise) air operations far beyond the usual limits of your cities or airstrips. "Why not just use an engineer to make an air strip," you might ask. Well... that exposes your engineers to danger and you would also risk giving a permanent air strip to your enemies. The combat controller also gives you the flexibility of moving your airstrips around and gives you an 'automatic' air strip instead of either waiting to build one or wasting a charged engineer.

 

[boychuk]

ICBM, nil, 1, 32.,1, 99a,0d, 1h,1f, 20,0, 0, SFl, 001000000000000

(I used the icon for the nuke for this one but gave it red stripes.)

I wasn't happy with the range of the nuke on the large world map so I made a nuke with longer range. I also raised the build cost and made the prereq space flight to keep it from being built before normal nukes (but I don''t think you need to build a wonder to get this). This missile gives should give you more options and greater flexibility in your strategy. I am also working on a tac nuke (a cruise missle with an attack of 98 but shorter range) but haven't play-tested it yet.

 

[boychuk]

Torpedo, nil, 1, 1.,1, 12a,0d, 1h,3f, 1,0, 0, Cmb, 001000000001000

I wasn't too happy that any missile a sub carries is visible so I thought about giving it the sub advantage/disadvantage (so everything was invisible) and realised that it was a torpedo. I gave it a move of 1 to prevent too much abuse but retain the feel of a sub stealth attack. It is still a missile so it can be used by carriers and cities but I don't think it is too much of a problem. I made the build cost low since early torpedoes are probably not that expensive. The real problem seems to be that it takes 9 shields to maintain a fully stocked sub!

 

[kobayashi]

The trick with torpedoes is to make them regenerate at the home port (but with home city set to NONE) using a 'unit killed' event. Building torpedoes is quite a tedious affair and supporting them is just as bad.

The other thing to note is that the AI won't use the torpedoes unless its sub ends its turn right next to your ship (i.e. the torpedoes turn to move is only after the sub finishes moving)

See ZWK

 

[Jawz II]

this is a great idea for a thread, but i must say i havent seen any unit concept here that i havent thinked of myself

suicide bomber
i thought about suicide bomber too, it is a good idea, but then i figuered the fanatics and the "no ones ever unhappy" are huge advantages over any other form of government already so the suicide bombers would make it even better, too good in fact

maybe they should be available to all gov. types?


combat controller
this is basicly recon/forward observers yes?
i had this unit in game, the same a/d numbers too and special abilities (no air dropping ability though), only i gave them 2 movement and called them "recon" and i used the ww2 german motorcycle with sidecar icon for it (you can find it in the units thread)


torpedo
i didnt know missiles on subs make them visible.. if thats true then this is prolly a good idea, call it tomahawk or something


ICBM
i dont like this idea, since the AI is very keen on nuking my ass anyway this just makes it easier for them
i never use nukes myself



now here are the units i use in my game:

SAM:
this is to defend your ground units/strongholds from those pesky stealth bombers
SAM, nil, 0, 1.,0, 2a,5d, 3h,1f, 6,0, 1, Roc, 010000000000000


special forces:
just cause theyre so damn cool
Commandoes, nil, 0, 1.,0, 10a,5d, 2h,1f, 8,0, 0, Las, 000000101000010


SR-71:
just to take a looksee
Spy Plane, nil, 1, 16.,3, 0a,5d, 2h,2f, 9,0, 0, SFl, 100000000000001


light tanks:
cause the M-24 icon was so good looking, and i wanted a unit with 4 mov.
Light Armor, nil, 0, 4.,0, 8a,4d, 2h,1f, 7,0, 0, Aut, 000000000000001


modern armor:
inspired from civ3
Adv. Armor, nil, 0, 3.,0, 12a,6d, 3h,1f, 10,0, 0, Rec, 000000000000000


nuclear sub:
also inspired from civ3, i never liked the idea of ww2 style subs carrying nukes
Nuc. Sub, nil, 2, 5.,0, 12a,3d, 3h,2f, 10,0, 2, NP, 000000000001000


jet fighter:
fighter escort for your bombers, idea stolen from leonidas
Jet Fighter, nil, 1, 12.,2, 6a,6d, 2h,2f, 10,0, 3, Roc, 000000000010001


attack helicopter
cause the original chopper unit in the game is more like air cavalry, vietnam style, it can take cities and be attacked by ground units
A Helicopter, nil, 1, 5.,8, 10a,3d, 2h,2f, 10,0, 0, Las, 000000000000001


coastal patrol boat:
cause coast guard is cool (trieme rules, has to stay near land)
Patrol Boat, nil, 2, 7.,0, 4a,1d, 3h,1f, 4,0, 2, Lab, 000000000100000


armored infantry fighting vehicle:
i wanted a unit with better defence as a counterweight to all the other kick ass units i made
AIFV, nil, 0, 2.,0, 7a,8d, 3h,1f, 8,0, 1, Cmp, 000000000000000


anti tank infantry:
i wanted a dirt cheap unit for defence, basicly a modern day phalanx, these guys have crap attack value, but good defense, i was thinking of mujahedin with RPGs or WW2 german vulksturm with panzerfausts, but ended up making a TOW icon for it, since tow and similar AT launchers are great for defense, specially against hard targets, and crap for attacking
AT Infantry, nil, 0, 1.,0, 1a,5d, 2h,1f, 3,0, 1, Roc, 000000000000000


you can see the icons i use in the units thread


ps. i also tried to make a trasnsport helicopter that would carry 1 unit, but that didnt work in the game...

 

[Jawz II]

ive also changed the default units a lill bit

alpine troops:
Jaeger, nil, 0, 1.,0, 5a,5d, 2h,1f, 5,0, 1, Tac, 000001000000000

helicopter:
Air Cav, nil, 1, 5.,0, 8a,4d, 2h,2f, 8,0, 0, CA, 100000000000001

since the AIFV and the TOW almost made mech infantry redundant, i gave the mech inf. the "ignores city walls" howitzer bonus: 000000001000000

so they can be used for attacking cities now




also here are Leonidas ideas for units, from the unit graphics thread, the ones i liked ive used:



Modern Armor, nil, 0, 4.,0, 12a,8d, 4h,1f, 15,0, 0, Rob, 000000000000000

Advanced Armor, nil, 0, 4.,0, 14a,10d, 5h,1f, 20,0, 0, Sth, 000000000000000

Mobile Artillery, nil, 0, 3.,0, 13a,5d, 3h,2f, 13,0, 0, Sth, 000000001000000

Mobile SAM, nil, 0, 3.,0, 8a,3d, 3h,2f, 10,0, 3, Cmp, 010000000010001

Jet Fighter-Bomber, nil, 1, 12.,2, 6a,4d, 2h,2f, 15,0, 3, Lab, 000000000010001

Nuclear Submarine, nil, 2, 6.,0, 14a,5d, 4h,2f, 20,1, 2, NP, 000000000001001

Attack Jeep, nil, 0, 3.,0, 7a,3d, 2h,1f, 7,0, 0, Mob, 000000000000001

AA Half-Track, nil, 0, 3.,0, 2a,3d, 2h,1f, 5,0, 3, Fli, 010000000010001

Laser Satellite, nil, 1, 18.,2, 16a,6d, 4h,2f, 38,0, 0, U2, 100000001000011

Battle Hovercraft, nil, 0, 2.,0, 16a,12d, 6h,1f, 30,0, 0, Sth, 000001000000001

Sanger III, nil, 1, 16.,2, 12a,6d, 4h,2f, 30,0, 3, Env, 000000000010001

 

[Gelion]

Guys thanks I was looking for something like that....