Patrols!

[Englishman]

Do any you bother patrolling an area of the map (Your boarder perhaps or a patch of ocean) by moving units in about *each and every* turn like the AI do?

If so, do those that do find that it has helped you at all? EIther in recon or acting as an "shock absorber" by preventing some of the AI's attack getting through?

and finally do any think such a feature should be built into the game? Like pressing 'Y' but with a goto like selection, that would allow you to point the course that a unit should patrol?

What are your ideas?

 

[Zouave]

I first saw people talking about a patrol function for naval units five years ago, after Civ 2 came out. Yes, a good idea - and another one disregarded by Firaxis.

Of course in Civ 2 naval warfare was far more important what with the need to use caravans/freight and diplomats/spies by sea. Sneaking them past enemy naval units was always good. Civ 2 also made naval movement more imprtant as you didn't run out of things to explore by 500 AD.

 

[LaRo]

Yeah, I would like to patrol but doing it manually is a pita.

I hope a function that allow to do automatic patrol will be in the next patch.

 

[Crunchy]

Instead of labouriously patrolling an area I just use a line of ships. If you put them close enough together so they can see the whole of the line then you can watch any ship ativity in that area, you can do the same on land too.

 

[WickedWombat]

SMAC had a pretty cool patrol function that eliminated the tedium of constantly moving ships back and forth, turn after turn. I would love to see this incorporated in the next patch.

 

[Englishman]

I often do what Crunchy does, but its also expensive if you've got a big coastline. What about on land, does anyone use fortresses to secure their boarders? Do you find it effective?

 

[Crunchy]

I've used a line of fortresses to seal a border several times. The AI often will refuse to attack the units in the fortresses, especially if they are on hills/mountains, so you can avoid wars that would've happened otherwise. For instance in one game for centuries I had a border with Germany that was protected in this way, as soon as I moved one of the units the Germans declared war and went for the gap .

 

[Zouave]

If your border is long and irregular building all those fortresses and unts to garrison them with become prohibitively expensive.

Building those units also limits your offensive counter-attack forces.

Real ZOC's are needed, along with a cheap unit such as BORDER GUARDS. Hey, that's a great idea! A dirt cheap unit with no defense factor but that blocks your border from those Wandering Workers and Settler Diarrhea.

 

[d3dash]

Border guards would be cool, but I wish there was a function of the worker, maybe like a border gate, and be able to build walls into your empire. Maybe fences, something that would force a peaceful unit to go through slot A, and not allow them to wander just everywhere.

 

[Heffalump]

Literally EVERY GAME I miss the absence of the mapping out patrol routes for naval units. Given its simplicity to implement and frequency of possible use I find this a big lapse.