Transporting Armies

[conuil]

I'm playing in the ancient/medieval era and I managed to get a great leader early. As I wanted to knock out the Bablyonians on a neighbouring island I brought him home and created an army. But now I can't transport it anywhere (I only have caravels) . Whats the rule with regard to armies? Does an army constitute 4 units?

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Yes. The Leader + every unit you loaded into it. Wait for Galleons

 

[Gen]

Three combat units plus a leader (the guy with flag). After pentagon, you may load one additional combat unit. To transport an army, you need ship with capacity equal or greater than number of units loaded into army plus one. Thus, caravel can only transport an army with two units (2 + 1 = 3 = caravel transport capacity).

 

[Catt]

Frustrating, but you've learned a valuable lesson. If you want to use an army overseas, don't load any units into it until you transport it to its destination. You can load an empty army and three knights (and a defender or 2) into two caravels, sail to the destination, unload everyone, and then load the units into the army.

 

[eqphreak]

Just a side question (or three), can you airlift an army that is fully loaded? Can you airlift a great leader? Can you airlift an army that has not been loaded yet?

It's kind of frustating not being able to airlift settlers, so I'm wondering if the above is also not allowed.

 

[Gen]

Nope, you cannot airlift an army, loaded or not

 

[eqphreak]

Thanks for the reply.

That sucks! There doesn't seem to be any reason for it in the Modern Era

 

[Catt]

Originally posted by eqphreak
Thanks for the reply.

That sucks! There doesn't seem to be any reason for it in the Modern Era

The reasons must be gameplay-related (making a better game) rather than realism-related (making a more realistic game). You can't airlift settlers, workers, armies, artillery units, and perhaps (I can't remember) scouts and explorers. You can change this in the editor if you so desire.

 

[SinisterDeath]

I've got a better idea. I use my first leader to go to the enemies continent and settle a city, hopefully near some strategic resources, or a strategic location. I them use the leader to rush build the FP, and I settle the surrounding area like a swarm of bees. Once you make your ring of cities, you're laughing, as you have fully productive soldier factories, at his front door...

However, this won't work if he has completely settled his continent. That's why I usually go for the GL wonder, and then send a settler or 2 (usually 3 - with spear\pikemen) to settle on his continent and get some temples established. By the time you are ready to attack, you have a very nice secure beach head, and if it works out with the leader, you have soldier factories all around him...

 

[conuil]

Thanks guys. Very frustrating is right a fully loaded army ready to rock and thier stuck on the home continent picking fluff outta thier belly buttons I must admit though I cheated, went back a couple of turns and did it again.

I agree with one of the other posters using the GL to create a FP is a masterstroke. During the resultant war I managed to get another GL and did just that! However it'll always be on my conscience that I bent the rules

 

[Hellfire]

I can't think of a single gameplay reason why you shouldn't airlift units like these. Not being able to airlift workers and artillery are my biggest pet peeve. I'll consider armies, but the only reason I can see is because they all match a pattern (ground units with no HP) and the programmers felt too lazy to think about it and left it to people who use the editor to change at their preference.

Except they never counted on a small percentage of macintosh users (OS 9 users) not having access to the editor because of crappy contracts..........

 

[Catt]

Originally posted by Hellfire
I can't think of a single gameplay reason why you shouldn't airlift units like these. Not being able to airlift workers and artillery are my biggest pet peeve. I'll consider armies, but the only reason I can see is because they all match a pattern (ground units with no HP) and the programmers felt too lazy to think about it and left it to people who use the editor to change at their preference.

You may be right that there is not a great reason . . . but who knows, maybe there is -- I've not played much (if at all) with the airlift flags changed for the no-HP units to explore the changed gameplay impact. It is clearly a flag in the editor and it's not much effort to click the flag before saving the default .bic / .bix for the game, which seems to me to weigh in favor of some conscious decision-making. Also, the original Civ 3 manual (IIRC) said that airports could only airlift one unit per turn, or accept one airlifted unit per turn. In the actual release, of course, airports could only airlift one unit, but could accept any number of units per turn. Once again, presumably a gameplay decision -- I would hate to have airports only accept one unit per turn, but I also think that in SP allowing airports to accept an unlimited number of units per turn strongly favors the human.

Except they never counted on a small percentage of macintosh users (OS 9 users) not having access to the editor because of crappy contracts..........

Yeah, much sympathy for OS 9 users.

 

[PresidentMike]

Originally posted by Gen
Nope, you cannot airlift an army, loaded or not

True, but you can easily modify this in the Civ3 editor. Just click on the airlift button.

This goes for other units in the game. I've modified it so I can airlift settelers, workers, cruise missiles, artillery units and great leaders. I haven't noticed the AI using it, but I find it very convenient, although it's not a decisive advantage.

I don't allow armies to be airlifted. Transporting up to five units at once doesn't seem realistic or fair. I have no idea why Firaxis didn't allow such basic units as workers to be airlifted though. I'd guess that it was an oversight, like lethal bombardment.

 

[Gen]

Originally posted by PresidentMike

Transporting up to five units at once doesn't seem realistic or fair.

Just use five planes

I have no idea why Firaxis didn't allow such basic units as workers to be airlifted though. I'd guess that it was an oversight, like lethal bombardment.

Lack of lethal bombardment isn't an oversight, it makes artillery units too powerful. Other units (even in armies) would only serve as protection for artillery stacks and to capture cities, workers, settlers ... and enemy arty stacks

 

[PresidentMike]

Originally posted by Gen


Just use five planes

A city can only airlift one unit per turn, ergo a city only has one "squadron" of transport aircraft, ergo there are never five transport squadrons stationed in one city, ergo you cannot airlift an army.

Am I ready for law school or what?

Lack of lethal bombardment isn't an oversight, it makes artillery units too powerful. Other units (even in armies) would only serve as protection for artillery stacks and to capture cities, workers, settlers ... and enemy arty stacks

For land warfare I agree with you; it's not realistic and it doesn't balance the game well. Naval warfare is another matter, and for the life of me I can't understand why they didn't include lethal sea bombardment in the first editions of the game. Bombs sink ships. Shells sink ships. They do not wear ships down to the "nearly sunk" point and then magically lose their effect. That was damn exasperating before they finally patched it.

 

[Gen]

Originally posted by PresidentMike


A city can only airlift one unit per turn, ergo a city only has one "squadron" of transport aircraft, ergo there are never five transport squadrons stationed in one city, ergo you cannot airlift an army.

Am I ready for law school or what?

I think you definitely are Just kidding about five planes (smiley )

Naval warfare is another matter, and for the life of me I can't understand why they didn't include lethal sea bombardment in the first editions of the game. Bombs sink ships. Shells sink ships. They do not wear ships down to the "nearly sunk" point and then magically lose their effect. That was damn exasperating before they finally patched it.

Couldn't agree more

 

[PresidentMike]

Originally posted by Gen
Couldn't agree more

Great minds think alike. Isn't it great when we can all agree? :love2:

 

[Sukenis]

First off, you should never fully load an army until the industrial era. This is explained very well in other treads so I will not dwell on it.

A leader plus 2 units can fit into a (non galley) ship and sail to the enemy. After a city is conquered, add the third unit (if you want 3 in it).

Just remember, odds are (pre calvery) and 2 units combined will win a fight. Also, an army with a unit that has a defense of 2 (or better) will most likely not be attacked by the ai.

 

[barron of ideas]

Re the airlift question. One transport plane, something like a C5A or a Boeing 747, operated 365 days a year can transport an awsome number of people. There is no logical reason to assume one sortie per turn, a turn is at least a year long. Which is why some of the other movement restrictions is peculiar, particualy early in the game when a turn is 50 years.

 

[redhulkz]

do u people disallow airlift of MA or MI ?