Upgrading ARMY units

[bernman]

Okay, I finally got a Great Leader and built an ARMY!!! This is pretty cool.

Now I've researched better units and want to upgrade the units in my ARMY. How in the #$%@ do you upgrade units that have been loaded into an ARMY??? I can't seem to find a menu option (or anything else for that matter) that allows me to do this.

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

Easy, you can't.

Welcome to the Forums!

 

[bernman]

Sooooo, if I get a GL, create any ARMY and add units to it, the only way I can "upgrade" the units is to create a new ARMY (which may necessitate disbanding the old ARMY) and (assuming I was able to build Military Academy), build the better units and add them to the new ARMY I've built.

Okaay! That's pretty simple. Hopefully someone at Firaxis is reading this and gets the point that ARMIES in the real world are constantly being upgraded with newer and better units. Sounds like a great enhancement to make to a future patch.

 

[WarlordMatt]

Yes! Great idea man!!

 

[Catt]

The inability to upgrade units in an army is a deliberate game design feature. I don't recall where I saw it, but in a statement by a Firaxian (either in a chat, in a post on a thread, in a readme or an interview) the designers very clearly stated that, after lots of play-testing, they designers collectively felt that the ability to upgrade units in an army was too powerful a feature, and therefore too unbalancing to gameplay. So they deliberately eliminated the possibility.

BTW, for awhile with version 1.16 or 1.17, a bug allowed removing units from an army and replacing them with newer units (basically upgrading your army) -- that bug was fixed in the next patch.

Welcome to the forums!

P.S., spend some time reading through a bunch of the old threads -- there is a tremendous amount of useful information contained here at CF.

 

[BCLG100]

yeh but thats civ3 for you also thats why modern age armies are sooooooo much more powerful than ancient age armies

 

[WarlordMatt]

anyone ever had an army with mixed age units?

 

[BCLG100]

yeh had tanks and mech infantry dont know if that really counts

 

[Catt]

Originally posted by WarlordMatt
anyone ever had an army with mixed age units?

Yes - I often do if I'm in one of those "tons o' leaders" games. I might put a pair of horsemen into an army and leave it as is until Chivalry, then add a knight. After the Pentagon I will often add a rifleman to that army (although adding a one-move unit with a 2 move army can be painful).

When playing Persia, I've often had an army made up of 2 immortals, a musketman, and later a rifleman.

And I almost always put only 3 tanks into an army -- I'll add a mechanized infantry later for defense.

 

[BCLG100]

can you put artillery in an army if so can the armay bombard and can the artillery attack?

 

[thomson_2001]

ok 1 question. I know armies are supperior to individual units as they are VERY difficult to defeat.However 4 individual units can be more lethal as u could attack a city 4 times in order to take it over. With an army u only get 1 attack

 

[BCLG100]

yes but them 4 units could all die or only knock 1 hp off where as an armie can sustain an attack for much longer

 

[Catt]

Originally posted by thomson_2001
ok 1 question. I know armies are supperior to individual units as they are VERY difficult to defeat.However 4 individual units can be more lethal as u could attack a city 4 times in order to take it over. With an army u only get 1 attack

You can have more than one attack, but only if the units in the army are allowed more than one attack -- an army of tanks can attack twice; an army of modern armor can attack three times.

I find that armies are great for defense (an army of 4 infantry or 4 mech infantry is unbeatable by all but very large stacks of doom), but also great for offense if you use them wisely. A 3-horseman army shouldn't fear a pikeman fortified in a city; 3 horsemen might have trouble taking down that pikeman (especially with promotions) -- and, if there is more than one pikeman there, the "fresh unit" will replace the wounded pikeman sometime during your three separate attacks. A 3-tank army can take a mechanized infantry fortified in a metropolis -- 3 tanks might not (and are subject to the same "relief by fresher units" proiblem described above).

On offense, I count on my army to take out the strongest defender, no matter what that defender is or where it is fortified.

 

[Zouave]

Armies are a waste of time if you can instead build any Wonder.

Civ 3 needed MILITARY LEADERS who could supply a combat bonus. So of course we didn't get it.