Marines and Paratroopers what are they??!!

[Cookie Monster]

Well here's my humble opinion on this matter.

I think both marines and paratroopers have their uses. Marines as stated before are great for assaulting directly out of transports which is necessary sometimes. I usually back up the marines with artillery or air support. They have 8 for attack as opposed to 6 for infantry. This is one advantage. While they defend at 6 as opposed to infantrys' 10 the marine paired with infantry augment the attack ability of infantry. As long as the enemy has only infantry and cavalry as defense this combo works well in any offensive. Just remember to back the whole force up with adequate artillery and/or air power. Civ3 is all about combined arms with no one piece strong enough to stand on his own. (I'm talking late industrial early modern age here)

Now as for paratroopers. Yes their airdrop range is limited but can be somewhat extended with properly based helicopters. I like to use paratroopers to harass the enemy behind the lines. If they can get to a resource tile they can cut the roads there. They can be used to airdrop near enemy workers and capture them. Disband the workers if there is no prospect for ever getting them back to friendly territory thus denying the enemy from using them. Paratroopers must link up with your regular troops as soon as possible as they don't stand a chance against a determined counterattack. I agree that paratroopers alone don't stand a chance against any modern forces but are useful if you use them in some sort of combined arms offensive. If used properly there job is to create havoc behind the lines until regular troops relieve them. In real life paratroopers are lightly armed and are used to capture and hold key targets until the regular troops arrive. They are meant to divert the enemys' forces from the frontlines so that the regular army units can breakthrough.

Give these units a chance, if used in the proper fashion they can be quite useful.

In case anyone's paying attention Haupt D = Moff J.

[GePap]

I think Dr. Jambo's suggestions are great and would help make the units better _ I plan to try them out. Fiddling with the eidtor is not forbidden or a bad thing if you disagree with the values.

On why paratroopers might be useful even with RR"s- you can use them to cut off railroads or to block certain areas- specially something like mountains. Drop Para in, if it survives the counerattack, if any, then pillage the rail system- since you can't use it anyway, it slows any enemy counterattacks. This is even more vital if Armor units have been made 'wheeled', which is a very simple and realisitc way of forcing one into Combined arms.

[Captain]

Originally posted by bahoo


I don't see what's so unrealistic about paradropping AND moving in the span of say, umm, a year. Especially considering other units can ride a train the entire way across a continent.

well, it's a game and the whole turn/year thing has been argued before. pretty much all unit movement is unrealistic - as if it takes a year for a ship to cross the mediterranean!

unlimited RR continues to be ridiculous (since there's no penalty for RR - it boosts everything - then eveyrhting is RR'd and thus there's no real advantage for units with more movement or greater range.)

assuming RR is not a factor, i meant that paradrop and move is unrealistic in comparison to other units movement. the dropitself is quick, but reassembling and organizing takes time. unless its a total surprise and a perfect execution, defenders usually have time to counter so "realistically" it shouldn't have the chance to attack after. Talk to someone with experience paradropping a large force. it's pretty damn confusing. lot harder than attacking by ground. no chance in hell you'd win over equally armed defenders who are awake. just shoot 'em outta the sky.

But to make the unit more useful & fun (not more realistic) it should have that extra move. If we wanted more realism, we wouldn't play civ 3.

whatever. i can't believe i'm explaining this, it's been argued a billion times already. still, i guess i'm just a sucker for this stuff.

[Captain]

Originally posted by GePap
I think Dr. Jambo's suggestions are great and would help make the units better _ I plan to try them out. Fiddling with the eidtor is not forbidden or a bad thing if you disagree with the values.

On why paratroopers might be useful even with RR"s- you can use them to cut off railroads or to block certain areas- specially something like mountains. Drop Para in, if it survives the counerattack, if any, then pillage the rail system- since you can't use it anyway, it slows any enemy counterattacks. This is even more vital if Armor units have been made 'wheeled', which is a very simple and realisitc way of forcing one into Combined arms.

yes, on the off-chance that there's a mountain bottleneck you can pillage that's not already heavily defended. haven't played enough to be sure but I think the AI is decent at recognizing this. (someone else with more experience can be the judge)

If it's not a bottleneck, then they'd just go around - you can count of this game having RRs everywhere.

but it was a good idea!

[GePap]

The computer many times has transport bottlenecks, which usually are through jungles or mountains- I know, since I have used paras in my games just like I mentioned. The computer likes to throw its weight into the front, ususlly not keeping huge reserves. If the enemy army is heavily occupied elsewhere, like against your main force, paras will most likely not face very heavy counterattacks. Never throw Paras into the thick of battle- throw thenm at the enemies weak spot.