Paratroopers..

[Rydbeck]

How do you use your paratroopers?

I really dont know which situation they should be used in.

And im not sure if they are really important, they dont have any good attack points and you need a airport to even use them..

Suggestions!

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"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad."

 

[D. Boon's Ghost]

Alot of people I know use them (when they use them) to drop behind enemy lines and pillage improvements. Build or rush an airport on a border town, use that as a launching point for the paratroopers.
Personally, though, it is one of the two or three units in the game that I never build.

 

[PaulHausser]

Paratroopers pretty much useless in real life too, with a few exceptions (Normandy invasion, Crete, etc).

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Here's some previous discussion of paratroops:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16673

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16672

 

[Selous]

Originally posted by PaulHausser
Paratroopers pretty much useless in real life too, with a few exceptions (Normandy invasion, Crete, etc).

lol ... guess u dont know much about modern warfare then? ... lets not just look at the use of paratroopers 50 years ago and perhaps u would like to look at the uses of paratroopers on the modern battlefeild?

but in the game ... paras are quite useless .... u need a teck for em ... they are expencive ... and mostly useless in the game ... paras in the real world are the most elite infantry units ... but then infantry are also usless in the game in the modern are also

 

[damunzy]

Originally posted by PaulHausser
Paratroopers pretty much useless in real life too, with a few exceptions (Normandy invasion, Crete, etc).

The 82ND Airborne is now preparing to drop in on your house for such saying such a thing! I, being an ex-soldier, but always a US Paratrooper, can say I find what you say midly insulting.

Paratroopers fill a role in modern combat...they aren't the end all be all, just like tanks fill only their niche. Try to have tanks fighting in the middle of the mountains and I bet they become useless...in that situation. The good thing about Paratroopers is that they can also become regular ground bounders if need be. Paratroopers were used in place of non-Airborne troops alot in Kosovo.

In Civ3 I cannot understand why Mechanized Infantry has a higher attack value than Paratroopers, or Marines for that fact, unless they are counting the weapons on the vehicles. If that is so I would give non-mechs a higher defense since they aren't as easy to spot with planes and helicopters and other infantry and thus are harder to kill than mechanized. (APC -Armored Personell Carrier - armor isn't worth jack so that doesn't make them die less...it just gets them to the battlefield faster)

 

[Park Ranger]

Originally posted by PaleHorse76

In Civ3 I cannot understand why Mechanized Infantry has a higher attack value than Paratroopers, or Marines for that fact, unless they are counting the weapons on the vehicles.

I wonder if civ3 wouldn't do better to have two types of marines - one that fits in with infantry and tanks (the WWII marine) and an upgraded unit that can hold its own amongst the mech inf and modern armour. I would have the early unit with 8/8/1 (marines should defend better than riflemen, IMHO), the later one with something like 10/10/1 (defend at least as well as infantry).

But as a civvie, I know squat about this sort of thing in RL, so I won't be appalled if people object to this idea.

As for paratroopers, i almost had a RL experience with them in '92, in Zaire, when the country went civil disorder and people talked in hushed whispers about the possibility of the French and/or Belgians sending in their airborne divisions to calm things down. We never saw them, but the consensus among those who knew more than I did was that the paratroopers would be much, much more than Mobutu's "private" army could handle.

So it seems to me that civ3 has really downplayed the importance of these two types of units.

 

[The Last Conformist]

What I find weird about the Paras and Marines are that they've got so bad stats compared to reg'lar infantry:

Infantry: 6/10/1
Paras: 6/8/1
Marines: 8/6/1

Since these types of units are usually among the best trained and equipped in an army it seems weird that they should defend so poorly. I'd probably up the Paras to the same stats as normal Infantry (their better training doing up for their lack of heavier guns) an increase the Marines defense to ten. The costs'd have to go up a bit I guess.

(Re that Zaire experience: for mainly economical reasons, African troops tend to have much worse training and equipment than NATO country troops, particularly in failed states like Zaire. Pretty much any French unit would've been more than a match for Mobutu's best troops.)

 

[Selous]

Originally posted by Park Ranger


I wonder if civ3 wouldn't do better to have two types of marines - one that fits in with infantry and tanks (the WWII marine) and an upgraded unit that can hold its own amongst the mech inf and modern armour. I would have the early unit with 8/8/1 (marines should defend better than riflemen, IMHO), the later one with something like 10/10/1 (defend at least as well as infantry).

But as a civvie, I know squat about this sort of thing in RL, so I won't be appalled if people object to this idea.

yup i agree with u ... mostly .... but as an infinteer myself i would say that modern infantry (it should/could be called that also) that any unit is very capable of the para role and also the amphibious role ... so i would say that modern infantry (unless someone can think of a better name?) should be para units that can attack from ships as well (and esspecially since these roles in civ3 are sooooo limited)

on a side note .... i think that in civ3 infantry should get a bonus to attack cities and rugged terrain (in alpha centuri infantry units got a 25% bonus to attack cities) ... this would help make up a little for the fact that tanks do quite well in mountains (as to in real life they become basically useless)