How do they change the game and how do they stack up? Obviously the Airship headache has been discussed on other threads, but I'm very curious about Cuirassiers, anti-tank guns and anti-tank infantry. I can't imagine paratroopers being very useful if they can't attack, pillage or fortify before being attacked in enemy territory - am I wrong?
New Units in BTS besides Airship
- Thread starter a4phantom
- Start date
Bigfoot3814
Deity
Curraisers provide a better bridge between knight and cavalry. Anti-tank units are saviors if you can't get ahold of oil, and paratroopers can pillage when they land, I think. Many people use them as super medics.
Yes, Paratroopers can pillage when they land. That makes them useful for isolating a city you're planning on attacking with your regular forces. Land them behind the city and sever all the roads leading into it. That makes it more difficult for the AI to send in reinforcements and cuts the city off from strategic resources.
Ah. Sacrifice paratroopers to hurt the enemy's ability to respond. Historical accuracy at last! But doesn't the AI build redundant roads/railroads over every square of their territory? Or was that just in Civ3, it's been awhile.
Supr49er
2011 Thunderfall Cup
The Ai does always seem to spam roads/railroads.
You should be able to pillage the road/railroad before you pillage the improvement.
Paratroopers also make an excellent diversion - the AI will rush to counter the threat, meanwhile you hit them with your main force far, far away.
The Ai does always seem to spam roads/railroads.
You should be able to pillage the road/railroad before you pillage the improvement.
Paratroopers also make an excellent diversion - the AI will rush to counter the threat, meanwhile you hit them with your main force far, far away.
I suppose parachuting a whole bunch of them with Guerrilla promos onto a hill somewhere would do the trick. What're the limitations on where a para can jump from and to?
You just need to build alot of Paratroopers. And it will probably take your regular troops a few turns to arrive at the city so there's plenty of time. Plus just having the Paratroopers there behind the city will help keep any reinforcements out since they'll be able to attack any units that approach.
They have to jump from a city or a fort and I believe they're range is 5 tiles. Just enough to put them behind most cities usually.
Supr49er
2011 Thunderfall Cup
Bigfoot3814
Deity
Pretty weak range.
They should be able to jump from transport planes.
I concurr!
Pretty weak range.
Very easy to change. Unitinfo.xml -- iDropRange value.
r_rolo1
King of myself
Try to:
- Use Bombers to strip cultural defense and some collateral damage
- Use tanks to kill the defenders
- Use paras to garrison cities until CG infantry comes by
-Rinse and repeat
AI is clearly inept dealing with any kind of Blitzkrieg .....
IMHO the less balanced BtS unit is the cruise missile. They're cheap, can do a lot of damage ( being on the other side of a rain of 20 of them per turn is really bad ) and don't have any kind of counter ( by soime unknown reason the SDI missiles can't lock on non nuclear missiles... they should use Geiger counters as tracking devices
).
- Use Bombers to strip cultural defense and some collateral damage
- Use tanks to kill the defenders
- Use paras to garrison cities until CG infantry comes by
-Rinse and repeat
AI is clearly inept dealing with any kind of Blitzkrieg .....
IMHO the less balanced BtS unit is the cruise missile. They're cheap, can do a lot of damage ( being on the other side of a rain of 20 of them per turn is really bad ) and don't have any kind of counter ( by soime unknown reason the SDI missiles can't lock on non nuclear missiles... they should use Geiger counters as tracking devices
).Paratroopers I like
They have higher strength than Infantry against non-gunpowder units (such as tanks).
They allow your army to move MUCH faster (along with bombers and tanks).
They can take out a strategic resource near the border or cut off a road or something (generally they do have backup though).
A diversion to generally distract enemy troops just by throwing them anywhere.
But my favourite use is (especially if I get a super xp city with GGs) is to heavily promote them to guerilla (or better yet, woodsman if there is a strategically located forest/jungle) and drop a stack on the right tile and the enemy army with throw everything against it while your SoD has free range. If you can get commando ones, though (4 or 5 promotions unfortunately so it is rare), the computer can't touch you (an effective range of 15! is great).
I do agree that their range should be longer, but they are a great unit.
Cruise missiles I haven't used much, I would rather invest the hammers into aircraft or troops that might attack twice.
Cuirassiers don't make a huge impact on the strategic, or even tactical game, IMO. Their advantage can be important, or even critical, but they are just like strong knights/weak cavalry.
Anti-tanks are quite weak IMO, but if you lack oil/hammers/industrialism they can be key to your survival, tough I wouldn't count on them. Another good use of them is, if you have lots of gold, promote them to get Ambush mechs.
As for the other units, meh, I rarely use them. I normally skimp on navy, only building eenough to explore/get my transports across (once). And mobile artillery (and normal artillery) are outclassed by bombers and (if neccessary) barrage tanks, so why bother?
Also I don't like nukes since everybody gets them at once, especially annoying if I put all those hammers into the Manhatten project (compared to civ 2 when my primary late game strategy was nuke and parachute, then make peace every turn possible)
They have higher strength than Infantry against non-gunpowder units (such as tanks).
They allow your army to move MUCH faster (along with bombers and tanks).
They can take out a strategic resource near the border or cut off a road or something (generally they do have backup though).
A diversion to generally distract enemy troops just by throwing them anywhere.
But my favourite use is (especially if I get a super xp city with GGs) is to heavily promote them to guerilla (or better yet, woodsman if there is a strategically located forest/jungle) and drop a stack on the right tile and the enemy army with throw everything against it while your SoD has free range. If you can get commando ones, though (4 or 5 promotions unfortunately so it is rare), the computer can't touch you (an effective range of 15! is great).
I do agree that their range should be longer, but they are a great unit.
Cruise missiles I haven't used much, I would rather invest the hammers into aircraft or troops that might attack twice.
Cuirassiers don't make a huge impact on the strategic, or even tactical game, IMO. Their advantage can be important, or even critical, but they are just like strong knights/weak cavalry.
Anti-tanks are quite weak IMO, but if you lack oil/hammers/industrialism they can be key to your survival, tough I wouldn't count on them. Another good use of them is, if you have lots of gold, promote them to get Ambush mechs.
As for the other units, meh, I rarely use them. I normally skimp on navy, only building eenough to explore/get my transports across (once). And mobile artillery (and normal artillery) are outclassed by bombers and (if neccessary) barrage tanks, so why bother?
Also I don't like nukes since everybody gets them at once, especially annoying if I put all those hammers into the Manhatten project (compared to civ 2 when my primary late game strategy was nuke and parachute, then make peace every turn possible)
SenhorDaGuerra
Prince
i always do it the old fashioned vanilla way. make a stack of tanks and artillery, bomb the cultural defences with my bombers then just roll the tanks in... i cant be bothered with all these millions of modern era units. well, sometimes i take a few spies with me...
Crowqueen
Token forum woman
Cuirassiers are good but I seldom go for Military Tradition before Replaceable Parts/Rifling so I tend to bypass them. Often I don't launch a major world war before I get Gunpowder ahead of the others, and if the initial gunpowder surprise doesn't work and I am not in line yet for RP/Rifling then I go for MT and cuirassiers, but most of the time I have knights, macemen and musketmen going hell-for-leather against the opponent and bypass Cuirassiers entirely in a rush to rifling.
Problem is I've never played a game yet when the AI has anything more than muskets to defend against me so I haven't tried out the special anti-tank abilities. I build a mixture of infantry units in late game but paras are fun when attacking overseas territories. A coastal city within sight of an enemy island means paras are pretty good for this job since often my ships are elsewhere at the time.
Problem is I've never played a game yet when the AI has anything more than muskets to defend against me so I haven't tried out the special anti-tank abilities. I build a mixture of infantry units in late game but paras are fun when attacking overseas territories. A coastal city within sight of an enemy island means paras are pretty good for this job since often my ships are elsewhere at the time.
Squarg
Awesomesauce
nobody's mentioning my personal favorite unit, The mobile SAM!
j/k (did you know those crap piles cost more then MI's!?!?)
Seriously though Mobile Artillery are beastly.
j/k (did you know those crap piles cost more then MI's!?!?)
Seriously though Mobile Artillery are beastly.
But aren't your tanks vulnerable to being massacred gunships or the new anti-tank units on the march over, if they're not bringing infantry with?
Wolfshanze
CFC Historian
Paratroopers are much better then the folks who don't seem to know what to do with them are saying...
#1) They get terrain bonuses... tanks don't... so they are often better at defending in enemy territory then tanks.
#2) Paratroopers can drop five hexes away from a jump point, then still move in their turn (that's an effective range of "6"), so they are about three-times as fast as tanks in getting deep into enemy territory, and six-times as fast as Infantry or Artillery... remember, drop bases include cities and forts... so you can ALWAYS have a drop point right on the enemy's border.
#3) Paratroopers don't need to wait for other forces to join them... any fool with enough common sense to blast-away the enemy city's defenses with bombers, and drop a LARGE stack of Paratroopers (instead of a few) can EASILY take enemy cities quickly and easily with nothing more then paratroopers and bombers... advancing much further and faster then an infantry/tank army can.
#4) If you're paying attention to step-3, you've just got a new "jump base" deep in enemy territory... air transport in some infantry or marines to protect your new city, rebase your bombers (if need be) in the new city... rinse, cycle, repeat with para+bomber strategy, take new cities about every other turn.
Simple... effective... it works.
#1) They get terrain bonuses... tanks don't... so they are often better at defending in enemy territory then tanks.
#2) Paratroopers can drop five hexes away from a jump point, then still move in their turn (that's an effective range of "6"), so they are about three-times as fast as tanks in getting deep into enemy territory, and six-times as fast as Infantry or Artillery... remember, drop bases include cities and forts... so you can ALWAYS have a drop point right on the enemy's border.
#3) Paratroopers don't need to wait for other forces to join them... any fool with enough common sense to blast-away the enemy city's defenses with bombers, and drop a LARGE stack of Paratroopers (instead of a few) can EASILY take enemy cities quickly and easily with nothing more then paratroopers and bombers... advancing much further and faster then an infantry/tank army can.
#4) If you're paying attention to step-3, you've just got a new "jump base" deep in enemy territory... air transport in some infantry or marines to protect your new city, rebase your bombers (if need be) in the new city... rinse, cycle, repeat with para+bomber strategy, take new cities about every other turn.
Simple... effective... it works.
There are a few options.
With a decent tech advantage, hit him before he can mass produce gunships.
With a production advantage, you can accept the losses (a few losses are well worth the faster conquest when you can out produce your opponent get those cities building replacements sooner).
If you really need to, you can use paratroopers, or if you get the chance a few commando SAMs to stay with the stack (they are crap in battle, but warding off bombers is nice).
The bigger problem I have are bombers causing collateral damage, but....
Most importantly PILLAGE HIS OIL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which is easy in BTS with spies, paras, and bombers. And if he is getting it from somewhere else, send out the spies and pillage everybody's (not that this is a bad idea anyways). Then my usual tactic is to wait out the initial attack and then the enemy have few if any gunships left and no way to rebuild them.
