Useful and Useless Military Units?

[Mistro]

I find myself not using many unit types because they seem useless.
Future Military:
I couldn't wait to get the cyborgs built up and test them out in a war just to find out how useless they are. RIFLEMEN took out 2 cyborg units with ease so I stopped producing them out of disgust. I find myself primarily spamming the modern armor tanks, and keeping big mech at important places, and that lethal big tank and a few fighter jets to swat those pesky airships. Everything else seems to be a waste of production time, especially when I'm being attacked by 2-3 nations. I may send in some ground troops just to let my tanks heal for a while.

Bombing:
I tried bombing a few cities using the fighter jet and felt like I was just throwing dirt on them. The jets just really helped with taking out the AI airships that like to bomb my units. Are there any effective bombers in this game that can actually take enemy units out?
Also I wanted to see what a biological warfare missile can do since I could never get nukes (even though I had access to uranium) but I have no idea how to use them. When I hover for a target, I only get a grey box and I'm not sure if they launched or not. I'm thinking the tile should turn green.....not sure what to do here.

Naval Ships:
Are there any sea ships that can attack a land based target like in real life? By instinct I started sending my military fleets around the world at key positions but I only experience using my battleships and the ones with the missiles to fight other weaker boats from early times. Seems like a waste of good hardware that could've caused shock and awe from left field to a coastal city.

I have a feeling these observations of mine are because of my ignorance since I'm a new player. I saw some very powerful foot soldiers take out 3 of my modern armor tanks in one turn. So is it a matter of somehow upgrading the units be stronger? If so how do I go about doing that? I did manage to get the great general in my capital a few times and assign them to units but its not like I get them frequently enough to effect a large percentage of my army. Any help is appreciated.

 

[s.bernbaum]

Airplanes can knock out tile improvements and city defense percentages, and degrade units, similar to siege. Bombers work better at knocking out tile improvements and city defense percentages. Fighter planes work better at attacking individual units and also work agains naval units. Jets don't have any greater effect than propeller planes but they have a greater range. Fighters also defend against incoming enemy bombers and jets.

Battleships, destroyers, and frigates can bombard city defense percentages down to zero. That allows your planes and/or siege to concentrate on the defending units instead. Ships that carry missiles can use them against land units and tile improvements that are in range.

When you use a plane or missile to attack a tile improvement there is a percent probability that the improvement will be undamaged or destroyed. There is no in between undamaged and destroyed. Bombers and missiles are more likely to destroy the improvement than fighters.

When you attack units, they take damage. Fighters and missiles only damage the defending unit. Bombers cause collateral damage to the rest of the stack. As with siege units, there is a limit to how much damage planes can do to a unit. Missiles can destroy units but it may take more than one to do the job.

 

[malfuriouspete]

where are you getting cyborg units from??

 

[BornInCantaloup]

where are you getting cyborg units from??

Skynet would be my guess. Next War mod, maybe? Never played any Civ mod

@Fighters: they're resistance units mostly useful for defensive purposes: intercepting is what they do. The bomber is the better offensive unit.

 

[Ataxerxes]

Skynet would be my guess. Next War mod, maybe? Never played any Civ mod

@Fighters: they're resistance units mostly useful for defensive purposes: intercepting is what they do. The bomber is the better offensive unit.

Sounds like Next War mod. It has Cyborgs. @OP - Cyborgs are cheap defensive replacements for infantry but not quite as good.

For aerial bombardment, bombers are definitely the way to go. I usually send in a few fighters to attack first. They don't do much damage but they attract the attention of enemy fighters that are set to intercept you.

 

[Mistro]

Yeah I was playing with the Next War mod. Those cyborgs need some new programming. Think of the movie "The Terminator" series and how the cyborgs at war were tough to kill. No flesh foot soldiers should be able to easily take out a cyborg let alone a whole squad of 6-8 of them in one turn. I'm gonna look into modding them. It takes a lot of work to finally get them so they should be worth it.

I figured out how to get nukes. I forgot to mine the uranium.

I still don't know what to do with the biological missiles.

What is the fastest way to break through an arcology?

 

[lindsay40k]

With regard to units seeming to punch above their weight: with the correct Promotions, many units can fight off or wipe out their natural counter or a more advanced unit. Barracks, settled Great Generals, Pentagon, West Point and the Theocracy and Vassalage civics all help produce stronger recruits. City Garrison and City Raider are obvious choices, but if you're fighting in the field then Combat and Drill can unlock specialist promos like Shock and Pinch. A well-trained Musket can beat an inexperienced Rifle - especially if your leader is Aggressive or Protective (weak traits, but have their uses).

 

[God-Emperor]

You should consider reading the Civilopedia. The Cyborg unit is not really anything like a Terminator of the types played by Arnold S. They are much more primitive as they are vat grown clones with barely functional brains augmented by some not so smart computer stuff (and apparently not a lot of other cybernetic enhancements either):

Cyborgs are improved "automatons," clone soldiers controlled by bio-mechanical computers. Cyborgs are smarter and tougher than their primitive cousins, and while still not as intelligent or effective as "normal" human soldiers, they come pretty close. While further advancement in intelligence is theoretically possible, many political leaders are reluctant to allow the scientists to try to increase the cyborgs' mental capacity any farther, fearing that smarter organisms may decide to rebel against their creators, wreaking a terrible revenge on those who have enslaved them. Exasperated generals believe that this so-called "Battlestar Galactica" syndrome (named after an American television program from the beginning of the twenty-first century) is patent nonsense, but as of yet have not yet been able to prevail.

Their advantage is not their strength, it is that they are cheap to build. It doesn't matter if you have a dozen get killed since you can just pound out another dozen next turn. Good if you like the quantity end of the quantity vs. quality thing.

 

[lindsay40k]

Pop them in safe cities that just need one unit to maintain order, frontline cities and fighting forces still need decent units.