I can't see how any of these units are good for much, maybe its just me. But really after you get mech inf they are so useless that you'd be a fool to build them even if they can paradrop or attack from the sea. And using them to take a CIV who hasn't even researched the TANK yet don't count. They need to up their stats to compete with the other modern units to make them useful. Or am I missing the point of these units....someone help me out??
Marines and paratroopers...what is the use??
- Thread starter Sha-Feer
- Start date
This has been discussed a lot in the past.
The amphibious ability in no way makes up for the lack of attacking power of the marines. To be of use, you'd have to bump up their attack value a bit.
As for paratroopers, there have been some decent uses for them but I cannot recall them all. One use may have been for reconnaissance, but I'm really not sure.
Hopefully someone else can help you with the paratrooper's deal.
Basically, these just aren't Civ units at their best. Most people are better off not bothering with them.
The amphibious ability in no way makes up for the lack of attacking power of the marines. To be of use, you'd have to bump up their attack value a bit.
As for paratroopers, there have been some decent uses for them but I cannot recall them all. One use may have been for reconnaissance, but I'm really not sure.
Hopefully someone else can help you with the paratrooper's deal.
Basically, these just aren't Civ units at their best. Most people are better off not bothering with them.
dreamdeferred
Civ Playa
Paratroopers--Drop them on key enemy resources or transportation junctions and pillage.
Marines--If your opponent has blocked all of his island with military or non-military units so that no one can land, you definitely need marines. (This is a trick humans use, you probably won't see the AI using it.) If the unit blocking you is pretty strong, bomb the h*** out of it, and then attack with marines. Then land Mechs and MA to secure your foothold.
Marines--If your opponent has blocked all of his island with military or non-military units so that no one can land, you definitely need marines. (This is a trick humans use, you probably won't see the AI using it.) If the unit blocking you is pretty strong, bomb the h*** out of it, and then attack with marines. Then land Mechs and MA to secure your foothold.
I tried droping the paratroopers...they died the next turn before they could even move..I guess you would have to get a early jump on the CIv you was attacking before it had roads..oh but wait buy the time you get paras there are roads everywhere and railroads too (hee hee, just teasing)
Marines...I don't get to play against many humans, so I prolly want get to use that stradegy against the computer but it may come in handy one day
(I wished the search was working!!)
Roads...where we are going..we don't need..roads
Norlamand
Procrastinator Rex
Try dropping your paratroopers in several locations a turn or two after mounting an offensive somewhere else. This draws away the AI's forces and disperses your paras so at least some of them can do their job. If the AI has railroads they can instantly mass troops to counter attack so you should use bombers to disrupt or destroy their rail system around the landing site. I rarely use paras or marines. I prefer to bomb my enemies into the stone age and roll over them with tanks.
When I use paras I drop at least two groups as described above with each group having 3-5 so some will survive. Using fighters to scout the terrain before you drop is wise too. Paras that land on tiles with troops die instantly. Learned that the hard way.
When I use paras I drop at least two groups as described above with each group having 3-5 so some will survive. Using fighters to scout the terrain before you drop is wise too. Paras that land on tiles with troops die instantly. Learned that the hard way.
dreamdeferred
Civ Playa
Yeah, I'd say all civ units have a use, even if it's exetremely limited by circumstances. I've used marines to attack a city on an island that was so far out of the way that it still had a rifleman to defend it. Norlamand discusses the paratroopers better than I do. I've never done it, but I can see how paratroopers can be useful in this regard.
I love marines! Here are a few nifty tricks.
1. Slaves! - load two marines into a transport. At the start of a war, bombard the improvements in a key coastal square away from the front. When the AI sends in workers to repair the damage, send your marines on a suicide mission to capture them. You'll lose the marine, but you'll be able to capture the workers. Do this enough, and you'll completely cripple the AI's ability to recover when it comes time to bomb it back to the stone age.
2. Blitz! - The most common tactic for amphibious assaults involves 2-stages- first, land your forces with ton of defensive units on a mountain or hllside, beat off the initial counterattack, then take the city on the next turn. The problem is that you need to find adjacent to a hill-mountain, which limits which cities to mount your initial assault. Marines give you greater flexibility, and let you take the city on the first turn. Two transports - 16 marines - are enough to take one city defended by infantry if you lead with air/naval bombardment. You can then land your defensive troops at port, letting you fortify them and increase your chances of holding against the inevitable counterattack. And since any coastal city will do, you can be selective as to where to begin your attack. I like to land with 16 Marines, 12 Infantry, 4 Tanks, 8 artillery - far fewer units than I'm comfortable with on a 2-turn landing. If we're in the modern era, I just add an extra transport full of Marines.
3. Oil! - The AI defends its cities well, but not equally well. Small cities tend to have only 3-4 defensive units. Where do you find small cities? On desert and tundra squares, which happens to be where you also find oil. Two transports are guaranteed take out a city fortified with infantry, three if they've got MI. Take out a strategic resource in a single round.
1. Slaves! - load two marines into a transport. At the start of a war, bombard the improvements in a key coastal square away from the front. When the AI sends in workers to repair the damage, send your marines on a suicide mission to capture them. You'll lose the marine, but you'll be able to capture the workers. Do this enough, and you'll completely cripple the AI's ability to recover when it comes time to bomb it back to the stone age.
2. Blitz! - The most common tactic for amphibious assaults involves 2-stages- first, land your forces with ton of defensive units on a mountain or hllside, beat off the initial counterattack, then take the city on the next turn. The problem is that you need to find adjacent to a hill-mountain, which limits which cities to mount your initial assault. Marines give you greater flexibility, and let you take the city on the first turn. Two transports - 16 marines - are enough to take one city defended by infantry if you lead with air/naval bombardment. You can then land your defensive troops at port, letting you fortify them and increase your chances of holding against the inevitable counterattack. And since any coastal city will do, you can be selective as to where to begin your attack. I like to land with 16 Marines, 12 Infantry, 4 Tanks, 8 artillery - far fewer units than I'm comfortable with on a 2-turn landing. If we're in the modern era, I just add an extra transport full of Marines.
3. Oil! - The AI defends its cities well, but not equally well. Small cities tend to have only 3-4 defensive units. Where do you find small cities? On desert and tundra squares, which happens to be where you also find oil. Two transports are guaranteed take out a city fortified with infantry, three if they've got MI. Take out a strategic resource in a single round.
EdwardTking
Deity
Marines are quite useful in capturing one tile one city islands.
Paratroopers can be used to pillage strategic resources
in hills.
They are both specialised units so build them when you have a need for their specialisation. If there are no opportunities to usefully employ them in your game, then you need not build any.
Paratroopers can be used to pillage strategic resources
in hills.
They are both specialised units so build them when you have a need for their specialisation. If there are no opportunities to usefully employ them in your game, then you need not build any.
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
The chance of a Veteran Marine knocking one HP away from a MI fortified in a Metro is roughly 50%. As a rule of thumb, I'll only commit Marines into attacking redlined MI, so the trick is bring along sufficiently many Battleships.
This far, I've found Paras entirely useless. What I can drop Paras on, I can blast with Bombers.
This far, I've found Paras entirely useless. What I can drop Paras on, I can blast with Bombers.
lord42
Prince
Try useing Helicopters to drop marines to give paratroopers offensive support. As the Ai rarely upgrades units unless they are in danger you can take out their oil and rubber first and thus prevent seeing most MIs and MAs.
The units this tactic will leave them with are easily defeated by marine paratrooper combos and as offensive units are drawn off to kill them you van use fast offensive units to take a less defended border.
The units this tactic will leave them with are easily defeated by marine paratrooper combos and as offensive units are drawn off to kill them you van use fast offensive units to take a less defended border.
Flash_Flood
Chieftain
i havent used marines or paras in the regular game, but i have modded a scenairio in that makes the paras more defense centerd(my own preference) and the marines more offense centerd (i think the only time marines were purposelyused defensively was vietnam) so use the quite often in that version!
Clown2TheLeft
Prince
Paratroopers are excellent to quickly penetrate enemy territory. Airdrop them into position, on a vital resource, en masse. One or two aren't effective. Six or eight is better, because the AI will go ballistic trying to attack them. you can use one or two to pilliage the supply lines to the resource, fortify the rest. Just make sure you're backing them up with another force quickly.
They also make a good garrison after you capture a city with a larger population (the AI's cities are often bloated, because they don't know how to mine, only irrigate). True, they need one or two real defensive units to back them up, but to have a few more units on a city to keep it from culture-flipping is nice. By using paratroopers to do this, you free up other units that could be best employed elsewhere on the battlefield.
Marines: I have used them in island-grabbing campaigns, in the worker grab scenario mentioned above, and as a diversionary strike in a prelude to a larger offensive against the AI. When you hit a smaller coastal city with marines, teh AI will go nutty in trying to defend it. While they're moving their units around to counter the marine "threat," you can sweep in with your main force with less risk for your more flexible offensive units.
So says me.
Your mileage may vary.
Later!
--The Clown to the Left
They also make a good garrison after you capture a city with a larger population (the AI's cities are often bloated, because they don't know how to mine, only irrigate). True, they need one or two real defensive units to back them up, but to have a few more units on a city to keep it from culture-flipping is nice. By using paratroopers to do this, you free up other units that could be best employed elsewhere on the battlefield.
Marines: I have used them in island-grabbing campaigns, in the worker grab scenario mentioned above, and as a diversionary strike in a prelude to a larger offensive against the AI. When you hit a smaller coastal city with marines, teh AI will go nutty in trying to defend it. While they're moving their units around to counter the marine "threat," you can sweep in with your main force with less risk for your more flexible offensive units.
So says me.
Your mileage may vary.
Later!
--The Clown to the Left
MacPhisto
Chieftain
Unfortunetly nukes are not as powerful as they were in Civ2 (destroy all units) but yes... paratroopers and helicopters and marines make great distractions.
Operation Market Garden anyone? The Brits using paratroopers to capture bridges while the main force hightailed it over there? (just be sure to hightail it, for the trooper's sake!)
I've seen the AI use this against me. In a war against the Zulu they kept dropping Impi's behind my lines with choppers... then I'd either have to reroute forces to destroy them and if I didn't, they'd go nuts and pillage pillage pillage.
Not bad huh?
Operation Market Garden anyone? The Brits using paratroopers to capture bridges while the main force hightailed it over there? (just be sure to hightail it, for the trooper's sake!)
I've seen the AI use this against me. In a war against the Zulu they kept dropping Impi's behind my lines with choppers... then I'd either have to reroute forces to destroy them and if I didn't, they'd go nuts and pillage pillage pillage.
Not bad huh?
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