Question regarding paratroopers.....

[mrwhite89]

What are the rules about the units being able to parachute? Do you have to be in friendly territory to do it? The reason I ask is that I just finished a game - I won - but every time I tried to parachute in neutral or enemy territory I was not given the option to.

Any advice would be great.

 

[axident]

What are the rules about the units being able to parachute? Do you have to be in friendly territory to do it? The reason I ask is that I just finished a game - I won - but every time I tried to parachute in neutral or enemy territory I was not given the option to.

Any advice would be great.

You have to jump from a fort within your cultural borders, or from a city that you control. You can jump from either of those locations, to any spot 5 tiles away, and then move 1 more time (but not attack). However you must still respect normal border rules, so I don't think you can jump without first declaring war, if you don't have Open Borders with that civ.

 

[mrwhite89]

Thank you.

 

[Stylesrj]

Paratroopers are awesome. You can take out the defences of a city with a nuke or gunship and then give the city a drop. It's a good way to capture without the mess of a ground assault... but you will have to later on airlift in some Mech Infantry or Infantry to support it, so you can use the trooper to drop again next turn...

Paratroopers and Nationalism and Airports are awesome

 

[hest]

I used them for the first time yesterday in a game with HRE. Hannibal had a city on an island near my border, my stack of doom was on the other side of the world. So I built 4 paratroopers and bombed the hell out of the island, no problem at all taking it. (Then ofc. he was using muskets as main defenders)

But they are really great for borderwars. I will make sure that I build plenty more fortresses in the future.

 

[Sephlock]

Aside from island hopping, are Paratroopers really that great?

 

[mrwhite89]

Aside from island hopping, are Paratroopers really that great?

That was my whole problem with them in the game I just finished. I was playing a medium-small map with snaky continents - so, lot's of island groups. My plan of attack was to have lots of transports carrying marines (for the coastal cities) and paratroops, who I would place on the razed city to move inland towards any city that wasn't accessible by coastal assault. The idea was to get them on the beach then have them parachute ahead to the inland city so it wouldn't take them 5 or 6 turns to get them in position to attack. But when I got them ashore, they weren't allowed to parachute.

My problem obviously was that I was going for a conquest victory and was razing every city I captured. Had I kept the city, I could have paratrooped them from it toward the next target, I guess.

 

[Sephlock]

Whats so great about their ability, anyway? Is it just that they can move so far in one turn? They can't even attack in that turn, and they're pretty weak... plus in order to get them, you need Flight, which is not along the path of techs that you need to get all the good late-midgame wonders .

 

[kokoras]

I would like to see this unit have the ability to also attack enemy units after the drop and not only being able to pillage terrain tiles.
Also it sould have a bigger drop range,it's not right because you have to place them in a nearby city just to drop them in enemy teritory,and if you want to take an island you must choose another land unit bacause simply friendly cities are far away.

 

[Sephlock]

Yeah it really sucks when the edge of your opponent's island is SIX squares away from the nearest land tile (wherein you would presumably build a fort). Its also kinda ridiculous given that paratroopers don't actually JUMP on their own like C&C3 zone troopers- they're dropped from planes...

Then again, that brings to mind a similar gripe of mine involving cruise missiles... but thats another thread.

 

[Stylesrj]

The Nuke & Paradrop strategy is a good one.
You nuke. Paradrop. Draft some Infantry. Airlift Infantry. Next turn. Rinse and repeat.

Also, they're good for island hopping too. I nuked 2 Greek cities once and I didn't want to take them over by building a navy. I just paradropped in some Paratroopers, as the 1 square islands were only 5 squares away.

Of course, I didn't know back then that Forts could create paradrops. I thought they can create canals between a city and a lake or a sea access path from a city to the sea, and Forts would make good airbases. Too bad they need soldiers on them to give them a use and that Forts can't be like the Starbase in Final Frontier.

 

[torsoboy]

Whats so great about their ability, anyway? Is it just that they can move so far in one turn? They can't even attack in that turn, and they're pretty weak... plus in order to get them, you need Flight, which is not along the path of techs that you need to get all the good late-midgame wonders .

They are on of the few gunpowder units before Mechanized Infantry that can keep up with your tanks on a conquest spree. Also, they can pillage on the same turn while jumping. I leave it to your imagination to figure out what you can do with that.

 

[Sephlock]

The Nuke & Paradrop strategy is a good one.
. I just paradropped in some Paratroopers, as the 1 square islands were only 5 squares away.

You can paradrop directly onto an enemy city?

 

[MrTomothy]

You can paradrop directly onto an enemy city?

If it is unoccupied.

I like to make use of Paratroopers sometimes, but it is good to remember to build some forts on the edge of your culture borders to make use of them.