Heal inside a resisting city or on neutral land?

[dw31]

After my stack (of say 1 MVP units) captured a city, I often want to heal my troops fully. On the following turn, should I move the injured troops inside the resisting city to heal? or should I leave them in the now neutral tile outside the city to heal? This of course, is assuming I'm attacking from the outskirts of an enemy empire, which is often the case, and that I'm in no immediate danger of having the enemy retake the city.

I did a calcuation. A unit on neutral land heals 10 HP per turn; resisting city heals 15 HP per turn; neutral land with medic I heals 20 HP per turn; resisting city with medic I heals 25 HP per turn. Moving a unit into the resisting city costs an extra 1 turn of healing time.

1st column: initial HP
2nd column: number of turns necessary to heal in neutral territory
3rd column: number of turns necessary to heal in a resisting city
4th column: number of turns to heal in neutral territory with a medic
5th column: number of turns to heal in a resisting city with a medic

0, 10, 8, 5, 5
5, 10, 8, 5, 5
10, 9, 7, 5, 5
15, 9, 7, 5, 5
20, 8, 7, 4, 5
25, 8, 6, 4, 4
30, 7, 6, 4, 4
35, 7, 6, 4, 4
40, 6, 5, 3, 4
45, 6, 5, 3, 4
50, 5, 5, 3, 3
55, 5, 4, 3, 3
60, 4, 4, 2, 3
65, 4, 4, 2, 3
70, 3, 3, 2, 3
75, 3, 3, 2, 2
80, 2, 3, 1, 2
85, 2, 2, 1, 2
90, 1, 2, 1, 2
95, 1, 2, 1, 2

General conclusions:

(1) Without any medic, it is better to move the unit into the resisting city unless the unit is only 1 turn away from being fully healed. This brings the unit closer to the enemy empire for the next attack. It also allows the unit to fortify and protect the newly captured city while healing.

(2) With a medic, howerver, healing in the neutral territory with a medic beats or is at least on par with the other 3 healing scenarios.

 

[Brave Jay]

I just move the units inside the city, I leave the injured units there to heal and send my fully healed units to the next city i'm attacking. It's not really a waste of a turn for me to move my injured units into the resisting city because its either in the general direction I am going anyway/or there is a road and it doesn't really cost me a turn anyway. On a side note, if your taking over cities and winning the battle then why worry and fret over 1 turn of healing. I guess i'm not that much into micro managing, but i justify moving them into the city by using them as a temporary garrison until my longbowmen or current city defenders can get there to relieve them.

 

[DaviddesJ]

It's not really a waste of a turn for me to move my injured units into the resisting city because its either in the general direction I am going anyway/or there is a road and it doesn't really cost me a turn anyway.

When you move along the road, and end your turn with movement remaining, it does cost you: you don't get to heal at all that turn, even though you used only part of your available movement.

The OP's original point (if you don't have a Medic, then it usually makes sense to move into the city, but if you do have a Medic, then it usually makes sense to heal in place) seems right to me. Although, if you only have one Medic I, you may want to put the Medic in the city for the benefit of all units, and then you want to move other units (if they are significantly damaged) into the city, too.

 

[Naismith]

Usually, I'm a lot more concerned about the possibility of counterattacks than anything else, which means I want as many units as possible in the city ASAP. If it is very clear I have enough units to hold the city and repel pillaging parties, then I put a little thought into healing.

Most often, I did not use any medic units to attack, so I can move them all into the city if I wish. I might leave one medic behind with the units that attacked a city defender, and used up all their movement points. Sometimes, if I'm concerned that my wounded units may get attacked, I will fortify a strong defending unit or two to protect them. Everything else goes into the city, whether there is a road or not.

Unless you have very, very, complete knowledge of all counterattacking units, you are taking a chance if you don't move everything you can into the city immediately.

Nice analysis, though.

 

[Brave Jay]

When you move along the road, and end your turn with movement remaining, it does cost you: you don't get to heal at all that turn, even though you used only part of your available movement.

hmmm.....didn't know that at all. thanks for the info