What's the CARVR for?

[Umbral Reaver]

It's in a dead-end tech in a direction of little use, and it has nothing special about it militarily.

 

[Aeson]

CARVRs are pretty good. I like CNDRs usually because you can get more of them, but a CARVR here or there is nice to soak up some damage.

40 Affinity is useful. 50 STR is good until you get upgraded CNDRs.

I think SABRs are more a problem. Just too slow.

 

[Sarke1]

Sabr gets an unmatched 4 attack range. Has pathetic strength fully upgraded, and no city attack bonus so is probably meant as a city defender which it is really good at. In the endgame most of your cities can see 4 titles away and thanks to the obstacle ignore perk that means you will get one more shot (or more if you have more sabrs) in before they get to your city.

 

[Promethian]

CARVR is pretty awful. It is just a stronger CNDR, nothing special about it at all to justify the firaxite cost. At least it doesn't hold Supremacy back. Upgraded SABRs with the no set up perk teamed with CNDRs and Redeemers make an awesome invasion force. Just get the vision perk from the Optical Surgery and try for the Panopticon and you can really abuse those SABRs.

 

[Umbral Reaver]

Maybe if it cost titanium + firaxite (similar to the AEGIS) instead of a huge pile of firaxite, it would be worth building.

 

[ahawk]

SABR is terrible if that's the one that has 1 movement point and has to set-up to attack. The extra range is completely worthless since you can't shoot over terrain. And you have to upgrade them to remove the set-up need.

On the other hand, CARVR is handier than you think: if you bee-line it, it will be ahead of most enemy units at least for a little window.

The tech-web is all about bee-lining, now. Bee-lining was always important in Civ V, like when folks would bee-line to artillery and just start taking city after city, or bee-lining composite bows. But now? Now, in C:BE, if you don't bee-line to something like CARVR it's worthless, but if you do rush to it, it's a lot more powerful than you think. I found this out with the Battlesuits in the Purity track already: don't bee-line to them and they are terrible, but if you do, they can take a good number of cities for you.

CARVR is one of those units you need to bee-line.

 

[Arkangelus]

SABR does a TON of damage though, its pretty much unmatched in terms of artillery, and the 3 range makes it a nightmare to deal with. They were one-shotting my Aegises, even after their Pure upgrades they could wipe them out if they were already even a bit damaged.

 

[Ayestes]

3 CNDR are definitely better then a single CARVR. I think they need some kind of specialty. I can see them being useful if you have so much Firaxite you don't care about it, but that usually isn't the case yet for me. As it stands I think the CARVR should have some sort of 1 tile ranged attack instead or something with additional balancing based on that.

SABR are like the ultimate in personal defense. They feel like they require roads though if it's going to be used offensively. I really like these ones.

 

[Question]

If you look at the bonuses you can see CNDR is supposed to be defensive while CARVR is supposed to be offensive.

The problem is that with limited strategic resources its more effective to spam more CNDRs.

 

[ahawk]

If you look at the bonuses you can see CNDR is supposed to be defensive while CARVR is supposed to be offensive.

The problem is that with limited strategic resources its more effective to spam more CNDRs.

That's the only real issue.

If you have the Firaxite to pump out 4 or 5 CARVR's, you should. But, because you usually won't have nearly that much, you end up with 1 CARVR and a bunch of CNDRs.

But hey, it could be worse: Purity affinity needs Floatstone AND Titanium to build various units in its roster, which can be a bigger problem at times.

 

[Darvon]

TL: DR - Timing attacks and 1UPT.

Granted I've only played one game, built random stuff, and facerolled Apollo, but, the advantage of CARVR (3f, 50str) over CNDRs (1f, 38str) is from the 1UPT rule we're still stuck with. I always had massively more CNDRs than I had positioning room, or spots on my teleport satelite. Using CARVRs instead helps maximize your per-tile strength.

Also, I beelined CNDRs, then CARVR. The AI managed to catch up to the CNDR just as CARVR finished, so it was a non-stop roflstomp.

 

[AriochIV]

The CARVR and Aegis are puzzling, because they require Affinity level 7 but are on the third ring of techs, whereas the SABR and LEV Tank require Affinity level 9 but are in the second ring of techs, and are much easier to get to. The technologies for CARVR and Aegis are just as hard to get as the techs for the apex units. At least the CARVR and SABR are very different units, so you might still want a CARVR if you think ANGELs are too expensive to build, but the Aegis seems pretty useless... unless you beeline for it, by the time you get to Surrogacy you'll already be at Purity 9 and able to build the more-effective LEV Tank. But the third ring techs are so expensive in the midgame, the only way you can beeline is to cheese it with some kind of tech slingshot.

Maybe that's what both units are there for... strictly for slingshot beelining for some kind of mid-game rush. Kind of sad, because there's a hole in the all-important unique units for Purity and Supremacy between affinity levels 4 and 9. You'll have to make do with strength 38/40 affinity level 4 units and the pathetic strength 24 tier 3 infantry while Harmony is kicking your butt with strength 48 Xeno Cavalry.