Like a lot of people, I thought the GDR felt really out of place in game of civilization. But then I thought, "well it doesn't really matter, I almost never use modern armor in Civ IV, and this will be even more advanced, so it will be very rare to see it."
How wrong I was.
I just finished my first conquest victory on deity, continents map. I gained control of my continent with companion cavalry abuse, while Nobunaga took over his. I wanted to invade him, but a Deity AI with over 50 cities is not an easy foe. He produced so many units that it seemed like I had no chance at an invasion.
The biggest problem was my lack of production. I was teching pretty fast, so before I could even finish building a unit, it would already be obselete. 20 turns to build a fighter, but only 5 turns to research lasers for jets. 25 turns to build a tank, but again 5 turns to research modern armor. Meanwhile I kept popping great scientists, with the result that before I could put together any sort of real invasion force, I had already reached the end of the tech tree!
Well, thanks to Big Ben, plus a stockpile of gold, I was able to immediately buy 4 giant death robots. (they take a long time to build, but you can buy them instantly, whereas other victory conditions require you to actually build an expensive project) These were my entire invasion force, except for a few old cavalry and artillery. I had one city and one allied city-state as an invasion base. Nobunaga had an entire continent of deity-level production to throw at me. The result?
![](http://i56.tinypic.com/29z4dxt.jpg)
He never stood a chance. The GDRs tear through anything and everything. Pretty soon they leveled up enough to take blitz, auto-repair, and mobility, and then they were each killing multiple units in one hit, every turn, usually taking no damage at all.
These things are waaaaaaay too strong for a joke unit.
How wrong I was.
I just finished my first conquest victory on deity, continents map. I gained control of my continent with companion cavalry abuse, while Nobunaga took over his. I wanted to invade him, but a Deity AI with over 50 cities is not an easy foe. He produced so many units that it seemed like I had no chance at an invasion.
The biggest problem was my lack of production. I was teching pretty fast, so before I could even finish building a unit, it would already be obselete. 20 turns to build a fighter, but only 5 turns to research lasers for jets. 25 turns to build a tank, but again 5 turns to research modern armor. Meanwhile I kept popping great scientists, with the result that before I could put together any sort of real invasion force, I had already reached the end of the tech tree!
Well, thanks to Big Ben, plus a stockpile of gold, I was able to immediately buy 4 giant death robots. (they take a long time to build, but you can buy them instantly, whereas other victory conditions require you to actually build an expensive project) These were my entire invasion force, except for a few old cavalry and artillery. I had one city and one allied city-state as an invasion base. Nobunaga had an entire continent of deity-level production to throw at me. The result?
![](http://i56.tinypic.com/29z4dxt.jpg)
He never stood a chance. The GDRs tear through anything and everything. Pretty soon they leveled up enough to take blitz, auto-repair, and mobility, and then they were each killing multiple units in one hit, every turn, usually taking no damage at all.
These things are waaaaaaay too strong for a joke unit.