Army updated?

[Handel]

One question - Can be units inside the army get updated and how? If not, that definitely must be fixed!

[Lord Blackmoor]

If there is, I havent found it. An earlier thread also said that there was no way to upgrade the units in an army... Sorry

LB

[Timeline]

From Civ III Readme

Armies: Armies now function slightly differently from the description in the manual. When an army is created (either through a leader or military academy) you can load or unload units into the army as described in the manual. Once that army leaves the city of it's construction, you cannot add or remove units from the army. Armies now literally share the hit points of the units within it. For example, an army of 3 regular spearman would have hit points equal to 9. To kill any unit in the army, the entire army must be eliminated. Armies heal at the regular rate of the units, which means that an army will appear to heal faster than a regular unit. The only unit abilities that an army can inherit is mobility, and only when all units in that army have that ability.

If you can win a battle witht he army you have, then you can build a wonder that will allow you to build armies in your city queue.

That's the only way you can get an updated army unless you spawn another leader.

You can't spawn a leader against a minor civ btw.

[yin26]

The decision seems deliberate, otherwise your army would be continually upgraded a remain a holy terror. I think they wanted armies to have only a brief effectiveness that you would have to leverage within that window of opportunity.

However, with the right advancements, you can raise armies, as posted above.

[Kc7mxo]

Unfortunately, it seems armies are less than useful.

I've watched as an army of three imorrtals at 2/3 health loses to a single spearmen. the next spearmen in the city is slaughtered by a single immortal.

If you ask me there is something rather fishy about the combat effectivness of an army.

[SuiteSisterMary]

My deeply held belief is that the random number generator they're using has runs, and they need a new one.

I've seen a conscript spearman fight off an elite knight without taking a single hit, then the regular knight that follows takes him out without a scratch.

(Speaking of conscripts, my last game, the AI Iroquois and I were beating on Zululand. He KNEW he was dying, so he started emptying out his cities by drafting everybody into riflemen! Just to piss me off, I'm convinced! VERY nice! I'd next like to see the AI start pillaging it's own roads and improvements around cities it knows it's going to lose, in an attempt to slow me down.....)

[macrae]

...ealry armies are good within their era...really...unfortunately, they die quickly against higher-tech units, especially since you can't even upgrade Archers into Longbowmen (a harsh discovery).

I pushed hard to build a military academy (in Sparta, of course...:-), and am using combined arms units to good effect (though it sucks to not get the double attacks from the Modern Tanks,plus the slower speed (even though Bradleys and Abrams are about the same), the 4 units are very very hard to kill (yes, I have the Pentagon, too)). I now have an army of pure armor...I'll find out tomorrow if they keep the double attack ability.

On the matter of the AI conscripting the entire populace, I kind of like it, as the conscripts are easy kills for my battle-hardened veterans, and there are fewer resisting people left in the city after you conquer it.

Oh, and armoes are GREAT for holding high-population cities which are still in Resistance-mode.

Later...Stephen

P.S.: It was so rewarding to watch 4 combined arms mech units (2 modern armor and 2 mech infantry each) with supporting armored cav units (I was using 2 mech infantry for each army, and bringing in reserves as needed to fill gaps) to fill in the line carve through the enemy in 4 turns...8 cities later (and 16 cruise missiles...which definitely need an increased bombarbment range, though they CAN kill units (I watched them do so several times)) I let the AI know they could have peace for some cash, a tech (I had bypassed amphibious Warfare, as I was ona large continent), and another city...life is good.

[dainbramaged13]

The only leader i got using the chinese (a militaristic civ, i believe) (of course im only in the industrial age after 5 days of playing ) was GHENGIS KHAN! anyway, i used him to rush-build the forbidden city in the middle of the 'other' half of my empire, greatly increasing my production oand income, and basically that was the game make-orbreak choice that i made. instead of using him to make an army and capture even MORE unproductive cities a ridiculous distance from my capital.
Leaders can be very important, and i think that with my expansionistic playing style, I will be using leaders more often for that exact prupose (building the forbidden city) than in battle in the early ages.