For Emperor's Sake!

[mandrakoukos]

How many destroyed armors are enough when attacking to an enemy city?
I currently play a game on the Mediterranean scenario. Ok, I always knew that a phalanx can easily beat a bomber. But this time it seems that my armors are nothing against enemy units.
Why on Earth is this happening? Do barracks have any value after..., after... (I don't remember which advance makes barracks obsolete)
Anyway, I never build barracks.

 

[SWY]

Barracks become obsolete twice, with Gunpowder and later on with Combustion.
Barracks make your units Veteran units, which does give a huge advantage in combat.

 

[mandrakoukos]

Thanks, but do units still become automatically veteran, even if Gunpowder is invented? What does "Gunpowder made barracks obsolete" means then?
I never build barracks, because when I begin my imperialistic moves I already have gunpowder.

 

[kirkham7]

Your units can become veterans in battle. You attack, you win, and after a few wins (sometimes 1), it becomes a veteran. As far as what veteran status does, here is what the manual says:

Veteran Status: Veteran armies have their attack and defense strengths increased by 50% before any other modification. Armies become veterans when built at cities containing the Barracks improvement, or they may become veterans after winning a battle.

 

[Mize]

It means that any barracks you already have will be erased from your cities at the moment you discover gunpowder, and again when you discover combustion. So if you have barracks before these techs, better finish what units you're building and sell all of the barracks the turn before you make an advance, so you at least get some cash. I myself will rarely build barracks before combustion, or at least steel -- the 50% advantage is the greatest for battleships, turning their 16 attack into 24 and greatly reducing the risk of fluke battles with phalanx (you should still avoid walled cities though).

 

[tjs282]

Once again my Builder-tendencies are showing. I always built Barracks all the way through in every CivDOS game I played, usually from about 3000BC onwards (after I'd got a couple of Warriors out exploring, and/or my second Settler), because the boosted A/D-values are so strong (D=3 vet Phalanxes? A=6 vet Chariots? Yes, please!).

The first time I lost them at Gunpowder I didn't even realise what had happened. The next time I lost them I was annoyed. The third time, I started shouting at the screen Finally I accepted it as simply 'part of the game that I don't like' (along with the crappy diplomacy). And then eventually (much) later on I realised that I could sell them the turn before they vanished, for 40g apiece -- so then I could start being annoyed all over again, but with myself instead of the game, whenever I forgot to do that...

There's one other thing no-one's mentioned yet -- although the Barracks build-cost doesn't change (always 40s), IIRC, the maintenance-cost increases as you advance in tech:

• 1st-gen Barracks (obsoleted by Gunpowder) cost 1GPT
• 2nd-gen Barracks (obsoleted by Combustion) cost 2GPT
• 3rd-gen Barracks (never obsolete, but can always be sold and then rebuilt, usually in 1-2T by that point) cost 3GPT

 

[Posidonius]

The first time I lost them at Gunpowder I didn't even realise what had happened. The next time I lost them I was annoyed. The third time, I started shouting at the screen. Finally I accepted it...

A decade ago, i wrote out a list of what Wonders and improvements become obsolete alongside whichever civ advance makes them impotent. Good to know beforehand, when a Science advisor is asking you what advance you want to work on next.