Paratroopers Won't Jump? Or, How the Heck Do I Use Them?

[Lemon Merchant]

I was playing a game the other night, and HC launched his spaceship. I knew he was getting close and I had stockpiled some nukes before banning them with the UN. The turn after he launches, I hit his capital with an ICBM and three tac nukes.

"Aha!" she says to the screen. "I'll teach you not to launch spaceships before me!"

I thought I would take the city with paratroopers and raze, thus ending Huayna's dreams of Alpha Centauri glory, but my paratroopers wouldn't go anywhere. I could not get the little square to turn yellow, and clicking like crazy wouldn't get them to move after I chose the Paradrop mission. I sheepishly admit to never having used them in all the six years that I have been playing, but I didn't think I would do it wrong when I did.

What am I doing wrong? Do they have a range or something? Do they need airlift support from aircraft? Am I just stupid?

 

[lymond]

They do have to be in range. I forget what that is..like 5 tiles maybe. I also forget if you can launch them from ships, but then I don't use them much myself. If you are far from HC it maybe best to capture a city amphibiously first and send them over.

 

[pob]

They can only jump from one of your cities or forts or a civ's city who you have open borders with. They must also not have moved yet this turn.
The tile you are jumping to must be visible and not have an enemy unit in it.
They can't attack a unit on the turn they jump, so to take a city, it must be empty of enemy units, so one corporation executive could block your paratrooper (you also have to paradrop next to the city and then walk in to take it, you can't just paradrop into the city itself).

A common tactic is to take one of the enemy's coastal cities, move a transport of paratroopers into it and then jump on the same turn to inland cities you've heavily nuked.
Another tactic is to use gunships to destroy all the units in a city before taking it with a paratrooper (because gunships can't take cities).

The early versions of the unofficial patch change it so that paratroopers cannot take a city after jumping at all, even if it is empty.
The later versions of the unofficial patch (so also Better BAT AI ) change it so that paratroopers aren't stopped from taking a city by civilian units/boats/etc and also make it possible to capture workers in the open field straight after jumping.

 

[Amao]

They can only jump from one of your cities or forts or a civ's city with who you have open borders. They must also not have moved yet this turn.
The tile you are jumping to must be visible and not have an enemy unit in it.
They can't attack a unit on the turn they jump, so to take a city, it must be empty of enemy units, so one corporation executive could block your paratrooper (you also have to paradrop next to the city and then walk in to take it, you can't just paradrop into the city itself).

A common tactic is to take one of the enemy's coastal cities, move a transport of paratroopers into it and then jump on the same turn to inland cities you've heavily nuked.
Another tactic is to use gunships to destroy all the units in a city before taking it with a paratrooper (because gunships can't take cities).

The early versions of the unofficial patch change it so that paratroopers cannot take a city after jumping at all, even if it is empty.
The later versions of the unofficial patch (so also Better BAT AI ) change it so that paratroopers aren't stopped from taking a city by civilian units/boats/etc and also make it possible to capture workers in the open field straight after jumping.

Nice summary. I didn't know the last part. However, haven't played any games to this late in recent years as well.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

I know the feeling of, I should probably know how to use Paratroopers, but how do you use them? I had the same thing with guided missiles, built a few, clicked like crazy, talked to screen, "why won't you do anything?" Gave up and moved on, don't need those things anyways!

 

[AdamCrock]

Yup , paradrops are from cities and forts only Great description there pob - Im not sure if they can jump the same turn they unload from the transport but I think they can do that provided they were not loaded on a transport the same turn. Missiles work like planes, except they always die at the end of the mission - often they destroy those really hard to kill and insanely promoted units on the spot

edit: watch out for SAM and air defense fighters too , they can damage Your units during jumps

 

[s.bernbaum]

If you use the land unit's unload command to get off the transport, that counts as having moved. OTOH, if you use the transport's unload command that does not count as having moved the land unit. So, if you use the transport's unload command you should be able to paradrop.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

I'm going to have to try that, I didn't realize the transport had an unload command. I remember being able to unload without it using movement points previously, but thought it had been changed in BtS so that it was no longer possible.

 

[civfanchambers]

I'm going to have to try that, I didn't realize the transport had an unload command. I remember being able to unload without it using movement points previously, but thought it had been changed in BtS so that it was no longer possible.

It will work with your civ's cities, friendly cities, and even forts. Paratroopers are a lot of fun. Used in conjunction with helicopters, modern wars can proceed rapidly.

 

[Mec AntiKythera]

Does it work the same for loading on to the transport as well?

 

[s.bernbaum]

Does it work the same for loading on to the transport as well?

No. The transports do not have a load command. The unload command will only appear if there are units onboard to be unloaded.

My favorite use is when attacking a new land mass. A large fleet contains enough battleships and destroyers to defend the fleet, plus a half dozen or more aircraft carriers and one to two dozen transports. Five of the transports are loaded with marines, the rest with ground troops. The battleships and/or destroyers remove the defense factor of a coastal city. Then the fighters attack the defenders and reduce them all to 50% strength. Next the marines attack and capture the city. After that the transports move into the captured city and unload using the unload command for the transports. The ground troops are now in the city with a full turn of movement. Garrison troops get the defend command, the rest of the stack moves against the nearest city and/or any nearby field units. Any fighters that were not used in the attack on the first city attack the defense factor of the ground troops' target city and, if any haven't flown yet, the defenders or field units. I usually leave three fighters on defense patrol if the enemy has aircraft.

 

[Tatran]

I do remember some funny things with units on transporters.
In civ3 anti-air units did protect a transporter when attacked by airplanes.
Recently in civ4 I tested a unit with sentry which gave a galley also a +1 sight.

 

[AdamCrock]

No. The transports do not have a load command. The unload command will only appear if there are units onboard to be unloaded.

My favorite use is when attacking a new land mass. A large fleet contains enough battleships and destroyers to defend the fleet, plus a half dozen or more aircraft carriers and one to two dozen transports. Five of the transports are loaded with marines, the rest with ground troops. The battleships and/or destroyers remove the defense factor of a coastal city. Then the fighters attack the defenders and reduce them all to 50% strength. Next the marines attack and capture the city. After that the transports move into the captured city and unload using the unload command for the transports. The ground troops are now in the city with a full turn of movement. Garrison troops get the defend command, the rest of the stack moves against the nearest city and/or any nearby field units. Any fighters that were not used in the attack on the first city attack the defense factor of the ground troops' target city and, if any haven't flown yet, the defenders or field units. I usually leave three fighters on defense patrol if the enemy has aircraft.

Great tactics ! I do something similar just with less units cos I often play at just Noble and don't need as many but I can assure You all that this tactics described by s.bernbaum work perfectly ! There's also the great role of submarines here if You have acces to nukes - You can split trasports with marines to as many coastal cities as You can bomb than wipe out their defenses with tac nukes and take them all in the same turn with marines - it's brilliant !

In "Realism Invictus" mod there are also transport helicopters which You can use to move land units across water and they also have unload option like transports do so You can send a "fleet" of helicopters loaded with heavy equipement and mobile artillery there as well to any inland cities "behind enemy lines" - so to speek (should choose those with air defense fighters to bring em down before Your carriers release theirs) while Your fleet (as above tactics describe) attack the coastal cities.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

They can only jump from one of your cities or forts or a civ's city with who you have open borders. They must also not have moved yet this turn.
The tile you are jumping to must be visible and not have an enemy unit in it.
They can't attack a unit on the turn they jump, so to take a city, it must be empty of enemy units, so one corporation executive could block your paratrooper (you also have to paradrop next to the city and then walk in to take it, you can't just paradrop into the city itself).

A common tactic is to take one of the enemy's coastal cities, move a transport of paratroopers into it and then jump on the same turn to inland cities you've heavily nuked.
Another tactic is to use gunships to destroy all the units in a city before taking it with a paratrooper (because gunships can't take cities).

The early versions of the unofficial patch change it so that paratroopers cannot take a city after jumping at all, even if it is empty.
The later versions of the unofficial patch (so also Better BAT AI ) change it so that paratroopers aren't stopped from taking a city by civilian units/boats/etc and also make it possible to capture workers in the open field straight after jumping.

Thanks for the clarification on that, pob. I'm going to reload the save from that game and try it again.