How exactly are you supposed to use paratroopers?

[Bestbank Tiger]

I can't figure it out. Do they jump out of helicopters?

I've seen other civs drop them from out of nowhere, but I tried to use them and they only move one square per turn.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

They can move, but they have a separate "Paradrop" option on the Orders menu for them to "jump". I think the shortcut is the "p" key. Hit this and your mouse cursor will turn into a pardrop icon showing where you can (and can't) drop them. Hit enter and he will jump there. No aircraft necessary.

I believe they must have their full movement left to jump, and they must do it from a city. Once they land, they still have thier 1 movement left.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

They can also make a paradrop from an airbase. I think their range is 10(?) squares for the jump and then can move after that.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Ah paratroopers, I miss you so. So much fun in Civ 2 to have a great paratrooper raid.

They do need a full movement to jump, IIRC, had lots of fun remembering that rule

 

[Ace]

Althrough paratroopers must have their full movement in order to "drop", they can be moved by railroad (or ship if you go port to port) and still drop.

 

[gunkulator]

As to their proper use, you first nuke the city to clear it out and then drop in a paratrooper to capture it. This something even the AI will do.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

As to their proper use, you first nuke the city to clear it out and then drop in a paratrooper to capture it.

And if you are among those of us who hate to use nukes, the proper use is to use a powerful ship (for coastal cities) or bombers/fighters to kill the defenders and the paratrooper to capture it.

 

[nemt]

My favorite strategy is to plant a nuclear device in an enemy capital city, then capture the city with paratroopers. If you have the UN, you can demand a peace treaty right afterwards. I've effectively split a global empire into eight factions this way.

 

[starlifter]

This something even the AI will do.

The AI "excels" at this. For reasons discussed in other threads, the AI can build & launch a nuke on the same turn, against any city you have that is within 16 squares of any of its cities (even the city that did not "produce" the nuke missile)... and even if your city is 'undiscovered' by that AI civilization (e.g., your nuked city is in it's black area)... and there will be no ground track, since the missile simply appears overhead (just like ahem ... paratroopers). But paratroopers can go only 10 squares' radius. The AI seems unable to paratroop to an enemy rail network, and slide into an empty enemy city.

 

[Mikestarface]

I also discovered what I call city hopping. The trick is to kill everything in as many cities as possible and paradrop into the closest one, then the city screen will show, exit the screen and move your cursor around and if you move it to another empty city you'll take that one too. Do it over and over. I once took out an entire nation this way. It also works on your own cities. So if you have a paratrooper and he's too far away to do anything with just city hop your way through your own nation into theirs. P.s. I should note that I've only done this on the PS1 Version.

 

[Mikestarface]

Another trick I figured out is if you paradrop into a city and fortify him when the city screen comes Up, exit the screen and do the city hop trick/glitch and another random unit will drop (provided you have some unused and unfortified guys nearby *10 spaces*) and if you fortify him you can do it again and again. You could drop an entire army into an enemy capital and really mess things up. Again city hopping your own cities is a way of getting these extra guys from point a to point b. P.s. I should mention that I have only done city hopping on the PS1 version of the game. Not sure if it works on p.c.

 

[Lilyblack]

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