Upgrading an army?

fossicker · November 4, 2001, 15:43

Does anyone know if it is possible to upgrade the units in an army?

I couldn't figure out how to. Sort of a pain because I wanted to use my army that I got in the beginning towards the end but it became too weak relative to my opponents.

Pembleton · November 4, 2001, 15:46

I'm pretty sure you can't. And I don't think you should. This would make armies ridiculously powerful. It's a nice strategic choice whether to make the army earlier or save it later for stronger units.

But hey, surprises happen all the time and maybe you can.

fossicker · November 4, 2001, 15:50

Oh well, at least they died a glorious death

Setsuna · November 4, 2001, 17:52

Quote:

Originally posted by Pembleton
I'm pretty sure you can't. And I don't think you should. This would make armies ridiculously powerful. It's a nice strategic choice whether to make the army earlier or save it later for stronger units.

*Is utterly nonplussed at the above post.*

Pembleton · November 4, 2001, 18:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Setsuna

*Is utterly nonplussed at the above post.*

Well you didn't clarify so I'll take a guess at why you're confused.

An army is "kind of unit". You can't unload units out of the army once it's formed and "leave the city of its creation", as the readme states. The manual is wrong and this was updated in the readme. You could put 2 units in an army but they will always be in that army. Later on, you could add a technically superior unit to 3 to round it out, and with the Pentagon a 4th.

But once you load a unit into an army it's stuck there. So the choice is this. Make the army now with weaker units, or wait until later and put all technologically superior units into it.

Lord Blackmoor · November 4, 2001, 18:35

That answers my question.

Though I wish the military academy gave you an option to upgrade armies in just that city maybe...

LB

Zanzin · November 4, 2001, 18:39

One question -

with the military academy, you can create unlimited armies, right, based on the number of cities you have? (One army per 4 cities right?)

And how effectively does the AI use armies?

And (sorry, this turned into 3 questions!!), would 10 swordsmen attacking a city one after another be more effective than an Army of 3 swordsmen?

Lord Blackmoor · November 4, 2001, 18:48

Ive found armies to be a bit more effective in attacking cities, because if one unit in the army almost dies, it retreats and the next attacks, so you tend to loose less units.

The problem with armies is that they can only attack one thing. So for defending myself from invasions, I prefer loose units. IE an army of three can kill one unit, three seperate units can kill three other units.

Now if I have a good lead in tech, I will use individual units to attack cities, but when your approaching parity I go with armies.

My two cents
LB

freezuch · November 4, 2001, 19:20

I found armies very effective when making marine assault. You'll almost 100% lose few units if you attack as individual unit, but with army you garantie to take out even MechInfantry(exception if the city is on the mountain) and don't lose a single unit.

Sharagar · November 4, 2001, 19:27

freezuch

You cant build cities on mountain

freezuch · November 4, 2001, 20:40

Quote:

You cant build cities on mountain

I meant hill.

Lawrence of Arabia · November 4, 2001, 21:06

freezuch · November 4, 2001, 22:05

my mistake: you can't attack from the sea using marine army.

TechWins · November 5, 2001, 02:12

How do you create armies? I know you have to have 4 cities or a great leader to do so but how? Is there type of button or option I'm not seeing? I'm still fairly early in my first game and I haven't figured out how to do it yet. If somebody could please help that would be nice.

Oh yeah GO DBACKS!!! Hell yeah baby!!!

Zanteogo · November 5, 2001, 03:26

You got to be kinding me...

I spent over an hour trying to change the units in my army. Now I find out that once you make one.. you cannot change one.

Now, I know this game is not a real life sim.. however.. that has to be the MOST UNREALISTIC THING EVER. We should be able to AT LEAST UPGRADE THE UNITS IN THEM.

Leaders are rare enough as it is. If you never play a miltaristic civ you could never see one.. EVER. Even when playing a miltaristic civ they are very rare.

You would also think something as important as this would be clearly in the manual (printed or in game one).

Man, this is almost as bad as when I spent an hour trying to figure out how to cancel a defensive pact. (You are told no where how to do this)

ME ->

Cian McGuire · November 5, 2001, 03:47

Quote:

Now, I know this game is not a real life sim.. however.. that has to be the MOST UNREALISTIC THING EVER. We should be able to AT LEAST UPGRADE THE UNITS IN THEM.

I disagree- armies are meant to be a special unit: if you were a militaristic civ and had maybe 3 armies you could sustain them indefinitely, as opposed to it's intended purpose of being useful for a time.

MaSsConFUsi0n · November 5, 2001, 04:04

no, you can't upgrade the armies once you've made them. but after your first leader, make an army. then place the military academy in your city that has the most production output. then you can just manufacture the armies from there. they cose quite a lot, that's why you GOT to put that academy into a city with tons and tons of shields. once army per 4 cities.

oh, and if invading another civ, just make an army of ALL defense units... very hard to kill and very important for a beach assault. then after they gain a foothold, send in the attackers.

MaSsConFUsi0n