The new use of barracks.

[Bloodsfire]

Units’ strength will be represented by the number of units. At full strength, a unit will have three units, and when it takes damage it loses a single unit until it is destroyed.

The info above was taken from http://www.civfanatics.com/civ4/info/#Units. It suggests the promotions are also replacing the Health/Rank system used in Civ3. My question now is what will barracks do now instead of increase health and will they be as/more useful than befor? In the first game my strategy included building barracks second in practicaly all of my cities and I'm afraid they wont be as useful now. Now the promotions are here will barracks give experience to all units, give them a slightly higher base strength, or give them a set promotion like Combat 1. If anyone knows a something about the new barracks please tell me!
Thank you.

 

[Sickman]

I suspect:

give them a set promotion like Combat 1.

 

[mitsho]

It might be as it has been forever (at least in civ3, not sure about civ2):
The barracks produces veteran units instead of normal ones. This means, they have one 'hitpoint' (=one figure) more. So, the unit has 4 instead of 3 figures. this probably could also be achieved via promotions (as it had been in civ3). Not much change here.

mitsho

 

[Joseph Stalin]

I think they will give a little bonus and they will probably will be needed to give your units abilities or maybe you will need a barracks to give your city a bonus def.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

One basic promotion is the equivalent to the Veteran and Elite Status of units-where they have extra hit-points (we have had this confirmed in a number of previews.)
So, I am guessing, as was said earlier, that Barracks will still serve to grant an automatic 4-hp start to a unit constructed in that city.
Also, I would not be suprised if they also served their function of allowing units to heal more quickly in those cities (from what I have been hearing, it sounds like units will rarely heal all lost HP in a single turn-even in cities with barracks).

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Bloodsfire]

Thank you very much Aussie_Lurker! I thought every unit could only have 3 health max thanx for clearing this up!

 

[Sickman]

One basic promotion is the equivalent to the Veteran and Elite Status of units-where they have extra hit-points (we have had this confirmed in a number of previews.)

If this is confirmed it's new bit of info for me.

So there are actually more than three "unit figures" in unit when they get promotions?

How did I ever miss this?

 

[Bloodsfire]

Aussie_Lurker can you tell where you got the source of the information? If a preview i missed stated things like this it porbably states other things i dont know yet too and again thank you very much for helping me.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

I have seen more then 3 units in in there

5 spearmen

atleast it seems like 5 men in 1 squar

 

[Sickman]

5 spearmen
atleast it seems like 5 men in 1 squar

Once again, I was blind...
thanks.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Once again, I was blind...
thanks.

no problem it happens to all of us

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, my biggest source for the first piece of information comes from an Apolytoner's incredibly close scrutiny of the Promotions list from the E3 video. This list, with what it probably all means, was put on the Apolyton Website-at THIS site.
You will notice that, at the beginning of the list, there are 1-5 stars, each of which relate to the current 'strength'-in HP-of the unit (with Conscript as level 1 and Elite as level 5). We have had this partially confirmed, though, by both videos and screenshots where we have seen 2, 3 and even 4-man units in the game (I don't think I have seen a 5-man unit yet, but I could be mistaken).
The second piece of info is actually based more on speculation than fact, now that I give it more thought, and was mostly due to the fact that units only heal a % of their losses, rather than an entire man, according to the promotions list I mentioned previously. I admit that I might be wrong, then, regarding the healing function of barracks and the rate of healing more generally.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Jaybe]

It is conceivable that some of the pictures we have seen with more figures-per-unit were from earlier versions of the game. That was my first impression. Thank you, A_L for another alternative.

Personally, I hope that unit upgrades are not dependent on a barracks that is used to create veteran-type units. I prefer games where most units have to EARN their veteran status!

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, if it also helps Jaybe, we also know that the units of Militaristic civs will start with a bonus 'Promotion' which-I assume-is the equivalent to being Veteran level, or 4 HP's. So maybe this means they have made it entirely based on combat experience, and not barracks (though I hope barracks would still play some role in the promotion chance and in unit upgrades).

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Bloodsfire]

Lol I i feel like a retart i always thought combat 1-5 meant your base strength of whatever got a 1 point boost >.< anywho thanks to Aussie Lurker and Joseph Stalin for pointing this out.

 

[Meleager]

Is it possible that you need a barracks in order to build military units in a city at all?

Afterall we know that you need a monestary to build missionaries because their is a civic option which changes that.

"Organized Religion - Can build Missionaries without a Monastery."

 

[Vietcong]

hm, i wish u chold, when bulding a unit with a beraks or something u chold chose a spacific training program for that unit, such as gurrila tatics, or city gard, and what ever the promotion is, so u can chose the promotion for the unit u build

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Thats true Meleager. It actually seems as though units may actually have both a resource and/or a building prerequisite. It may be that some units need none (resource or building), some will need just the resource, some will need a building (just a barracks), some will need more advanced buildings than a barracks (but no resources), some might need buildings that themselves need resources to build, and some might simply require a building and a resource to build.
Could open up lots of intriguing possibilities for strategy.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker

 

[Bloodsfire]

I pray they dont make it so you need barracks to build units that could seriously annoying but i doubt they would do that. The reason i think they did that with missionaries is because you have to study scriptures for years befor you are ready to go to foreign land and preech your religion where as you dont need to know much to hold and swing a pointy object or press a trigger.

 

[Meleager]

Ahh, but you do need years of training to shoot a gun or swing a "pointy pobject" well without hurting youself after a while (you also have to remember that we are talking a batalion of units). If you do need a baracks, then i am not completely adverse to the idea. It would slow down unit creation at the start a bit but as long as the effect carries over to the AI as well it will be ok. I built most my units in cities with barracks anyway. The main problem could be on higher difficulties when the AI has a huge production bonus and could be attacking you before you even have a barracks built.

Aussie_lurker, considering the increased number of city buildings you may just be right. I will be very interested to here more on this possibility from fraxis in the future. (unless any firaxians want to but into this thread for us )