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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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Paratroopers are quite possibly the most maligned unit in the game, completely ignored by most players and underutilized by the rest, myself included. This stems mainly from the fact that it has a very situation-specific specialty, is weak offensively, slow and not overpowering defensively, and comes with a little researched, optional tech. Despite their drawbacks, the paratrooper and its modern paratrooper successor do have their uses, though, which I’m going to attempt to expound upon. First, the basics:
Paratrooper
Cost: 90
A/D/M: 4/9/1
Tech: Advanced Flight
Range: 6
Abilities: Airdrop, Zone of Control
Modern Paratrooper
Cost: 110
A/D/M: 6/11/1
Tech: Synthetic Fibers
Range: 8
Abilities: Airdrop, Zone of Control
As you can see, both types of paratrooper are essentially infantry units, so why would you bother to build either when you can build infantry? Airdrop is the only plausible answer. Yes, infantry or TOW infantry can do these same things via helicopter, but means 100 extra shields devoted to two units to do the job of one (or four to do the job of three with the helo’s increased capacity) and is susceptible to enemy interception. The drawback to airdrop is that it requires the unit to be in a city with an airport. For this reason, and trade, I like to rush at least one airport ASAP once the front moves, even on my own continent. This is surprisingly easy with the implementation of civil engineers, especially when playing a militaristic civ. Assuming airports in the right places, there are four major uses for which paratroopers are ideally suited:
Instant Mobile Defense
Your armor has just taken a city which became engulfed by enemy borders. It was a bloody fight and you’ve just got a handful of beat up units to hold it against the inevitable counterattack. The quickest way to get reinforcements to your new city is to airdrop three or four paratroopers in and hold the town until next turn, when you can move your attackers in to heal and maybe get that mech infantry unit there. Admittedly, this is the one case where helos are significantly better, if you can make the extra investment in shields and support, since they can be loaded and rebased within a much farther range, and don’t require an airport. This is the only use that won’t add to WW slightly by ending a turn in enemy territory.
Second Front Harassment
There’s nothing the enemy hates worse than your units deep in its territory. Drop a column of paratroopers as deep as you can at the end of your turn, especially early in the war, and your main offensive column will have that many fewer attacks to absorb before pressing on the offensive. The AI will pour attackers at these guys, who are pretty stout defenders, until it can wipe them out. In some cases, this will leave the tiles adjacent to your stack littered with wounded AI slowmovers. You’ll get plenty of elites this way, but I wouldn’t recommend picking off a weak AI unit in hopes of getting a leader unless your armor can open the path back home the same turn. You should have Battlefield Medicine by the time you’re using paratroopers, so drop enough of them together and you’ll almost always have a full strength unit on top while your others heal. Needless to say, if they’re going to be there a turn or two, pillage and fortify. See the general guidelines below for tips on how to use this most effectively. Caution: save the drop for last, not only to see if it’s still necessary, but to avoid overunning your dropzone that same turn, effectively wasting a move.
Resource Denial
My favorite use of the paratroopers is very similar to the Second Front Harassment.
The bad news: Fascist Hiawatha’s pumping out infantry faster than my tanks can kill them and I’ve got a few more turns before I can get enough cities on tanks to overwhelm him.
The good news: Hmmm, he’s only got one source of rubber.
The bad news: It’s behind three rows of mountains and I have no bombers handy.
The solution: A good ol’ fashioned resource denial airdrop. Drop your paratrooper column right on top of his resource, or as close as you can get, then pillage and fortify. Not only do you deprive that drafting bastage of his rubber, you keep his uberfast workers from hooking it back up as soon as you move. Naturally, since the AI does recognize the value of resources, you’re going to absorb a lot of the attacks this way, just like opening a second front.
Offensive Force Augmentation
I generally don’t like this one, but it does become necessary at times. Once you’ve located that out of the way, crappy little AI town defended only by a couple of spearmen that you really don’t want to waste cavalry/tank/MA attacks on, send in the airborne. This is about the only time I recommend using these guys offensively, though the MP is the equal of cavalry in offensive strength. Remember that regardless of what you’re using as your main offensive unit, you only have a finite number of attacks you can make with it in a given turn. This tactic allows you to stretch that number as far as possible. It’s particularly useful when that out of the way town is lightly defended because of a natural barrier, which will sap even more potential attacks from your force just getting there.
General Guidelines for Dropping in Enemy Territory
*Select the best possible dropzone. What’s your target going to be? Now look at the tiles adjacent and see what suits your needs best. Remember to use terrain to your advantage. I’ve just dropped eight paratroopers on a mountain behind one of your cities. With the defense bonus, that’s a defensive strength of 18. How many tanks did you want to send to clear them out? Sure, you can use artillery, but that’s just that many more bombardments you can’t use on my main stack. Next turn, when I fortify, that defense strength will go up to 20.25 (not sure where or if it rounds). Do the same thing with MP and the strengths are 22 and 24.75. Without some bombardment help, you’re going to have a tough time dislodging these guys even with modern armor.
*Scout your dropzone. If there’s an enemy unit or city on the tile you drop into, you lose the paratrooper (same applies to airdrops from helos), so be sure to do a recon mission over the area (jet fighter or helo), or at least pay attention to that tile during a bombing run. A recon mission will also give you an idea of what units are in the vicinity, though by this time the enemy should have enough railroads that you’ll see more hit you than are in the vicinity.
*There is strength in numbers. Rarely if ever will a single paratrooper achieve your desired goal. Dropping them spread out only works in a poorly developed region. Most of the time it's best to keep them in stacks.
*Don’t leave them hanging. Don’t drop your SFH stack, then “give it a turn or two to work”. Apply the pressure the very next turn. The quicker you get to them, the quicker you can get an airport rushed and do the same thing over again. If you can’t get to them soon, try to give them as much air support as possible. This is also a good setup for a bomber killing ground if the AI attacks with slowmovers.
One minor use of the normal paratrooper is for single turn defense production. I often find myself with a good many cities producing 90-99 shields, and just a few producing 110+, especially before nuke plants. Rather than waiting two turns for an MI, if I need warm bodies with decent defense now so I can keep pressing my offensive and not leave captured cities open to one measly cavalry unit sliding up the rails, it’s a good match.
Just to touch on paratrooper armies, don't use them. Unlike marine armies (the single baddest unit in the game  ), paratrooper armies don't keep their specialty, so you just wind up turning them into a weaker infantry army for the same shield and support cost. Why bother.
All in all, both paratrooper units are too situation specific to recommend always using, but when the situation presents itself, they do the job well and add to the fun of a well coordinated modern war. Whether you research AF, the last “cheap” tech before entering the modern era, trade for it or just wait for SF, every player should try to recognize paratrooper-friendly situations and make use of them, at least once for the experience.
Last edited by Solomwi on 04-05-2004 at 18:48
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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The offense, airport and range drawbacks I really couldn't agree more with. They should at least be strong enough to keep an offensive moving until the big guns arrive, but I want to plant the seed with everybody, including non-modders, because as SR says, the coolness factor is definitely high, and like marines, artillery, cruise missiles, etc., the game is that much more fun when you use as much as possible of what it gives you. I'd be fine with the airport requirement in they could also drop from airbases.
I also want to hear how others use paratroopers, and get some ideas for myself, as well as ways they could be fixed, though the likelihood of it happening before C4 is low.
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Sir Ralph
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Long live teh Schwampel!
Dec 2001
time: 06:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Solomwi
I also want to hear how others use paratroopers, and get some ideas for myself, as well as ways they could be fixed, |
I used them exactly once, in an old AU game (still with PtW, I posted screenshots), where I performed a huge intercontinental invasion. I used them not because they were useful in the particular situations, but only for the coolness factor. The paras I had shipped in a beachhead city had the objective to take 2 cities, but they took only one and took awful losses. The other was taken by my advancing MAs one or two turns later.
Historically, paratroopers usually don't have the objective to take cities or land, but to secure small objects, like airfields, railroad junctions, bridges, troop headquarters etc. Thanks to Firaxis' "railroads everywhere" philosophy there are no railroad junctions, when paratroopers come around. Taking airfields would be a valid objective, but I have yet to see the AI to build an airfield, and a human would know to protect it; not even considering the fact, that most MP games don't go that far. There are neither bridges ("roads everywhere") nor HQs in Civ3. Taking important landmarks like isthmuses with paras is also out, because it's much easier to land a bunch of better attackers by ship.
Remains the resource denial, which is a valid target indeed. It has 2 downsides: The resource has to be both unique and within range (this alone is already unlikely), and you have to build and upkeep units, which are in most other cases utterly useless. Personally, I wouldn't bother, since a well planned tank punch can also make it in the very first turn, even with much less likely losses of shields.
Paratroopers are basically useless. Cool but useless. They are like Stealth Fighters.
quote:
though the likelihood of it happening before C4 is low. |
The likelihood that it will fixed in Civ4 is just as low.
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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quote:
Personally, I wouldn't bother, since a well planned tank punch can also make it in the very first turn, even with much less likely losses of shields. |
Unfortunately, you're right, except when terrain prevents it. Of course, the chances of that combining with being in range (or a square or two out of it, depending on your projected arrival with tanks) and unique are slim. The uniqueness of the resource doesn't bother me, since even if it's not unique, it needs to be taken out in conjunction with other instances of said resource. That just reinforces their role as complementary forces to your main attack, not that it was ever in doubt.
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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Goethe, the marine is my favorite unit of any era... but Catt already had that write-up.
I try to keep my modern era forces balanced and avoid just building hundreds of tanks and upgrading them, so I tend to build one airborne division (8 units) and one helicopter division, to best match the tool to the job, so to speak. Playing on huge maps, 16 units isn't going to break me on support in democracy, nor is it going to push me over the limit in any other government.
Catt, thanks, first off, I've had mixed results dropping them as a diversion, but it works particularly well against a fairly new phenomenon I'm noticing: fascist AI's using WWI tactics of throwing large infantry at you on the offensive. My current game is probably the most aggressive AI I've seen yet. Heck, I've fought Egypt, Persia and the Iroquois since the middle of the industrial age and haven't had to start a single conflict yet. Anyway, when the Iroquois started our war, they did so by sending 35 infantry units and a handful of assorted others at a recently conquered Persian city, then attacking with about three cavs using the stack for cover. The civ is almost wiped out now, and I've found out that almost all the cavs they did have, they loaded up in galleons and shipped to my homeland (all but one sunk before reaching it), leaving them nothing but their 200+ infantry with which to attack. A stack of para's on a mountain works wonders in that situation.
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Plotinus
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I've only used paratroopers once, but I enjoyed doing it (dropping them on the enemy's mountains). It is a bit hard to justify building a Modern Paratrooper when you could get a Modern Armor for the same price. In most cases they are a good nuisance to annoy the enemy, but they won't turn the tide of war, unless you really deliberately wage the war in a way such that they will do so - in which case you clearly have such an advantage that you are enjoying the luxury of stretching out and keeping your opponent on the rack.
I don't agree with the resource-denying use. The AI invariably plonks Infantry or similar on its resources, and there's nothing that paratroopers can do about that. You're better off bombing them to bits. Of course, you could bomb them to bits and *then* drop paratroopers on them, but now you're talking a fairly hefty investment in this one mission - especially since most of those enemy resources are on flat land in the middle of the territory, where the paratroopers will be minced pronto. That's assuming they have the range to get there, of course.
I would like it if paratroopers had the ability to do their drop and *then* have a move. This would allow them to fortify, pillage, or perhaps move to a better spot before they get minced. At the very least, they should be automatically fortified when dropped.
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Goethe80
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Leicester, UK
Jul 2003
time: 05:35
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Yeah, marines are brilliant. My only issue is that later in the game, they need substantial air/naval bombardment support to be reasonably efficient. But late in the game, even MA need some bombardment support to be useful (fighting MI on hill cities with civil defense... ouch). Alternatively, if I'm just getting tired of the game, and want a quick population victory, there's always the option of turning the AI territory into a nuclear wasteland... 
But, my fav. unit has got to be the viking berzerks! a 6att, amphib unit when the main defenders are pikemen and musketmen? *roar*
I also agree that for some reason, the AI seems to love using stacks and stacks of infantry to attack. Doesn't pose significant threat to defending cities, but it's a hassle to clear out of your territory, especially if you don't have tanks yet.
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Goethe80
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Leicester, UK
Jul 2003
time: 05:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Solomwi
To threadjack my own thread for a moment, that may be because you're overlooking the best possible use of marines. Make armies out of them. With the changes to armies, I won't hesitate to throw my 4xMarine against an MI fortified in a metro on a hill.
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Heh, as usual this thread is slightly running off-topic.
Anyway, on the topic of marine armies, I do use them, as the fully developed 4x marine army is a very scary 36 attack unit (i think, 25% bonus to attack with size 4 army and military acad.?). My only complaint against that is that it takes up alot of space in the transport with only 2 attacks. So while that's not a problem in games on large maps, where the overall size of military forces are on a much larger scale, it does pose some problems in more limited attacks.
Moving further off-topic(!), armies are seriously overpowered in SP since the AI doesn't really know how to use them or how to deal with them. A single calvary army will tear an AI apart, not to mention multiple armies.
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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Build more transports.
Really, you only need two or three per invasion, and the increased chance of victory with the army over a single marine unit makes it worthwhile, IMO. I'll sometimes use two transports, with an infantry filling out one and a single marine in the other, in case I think there may be a spearman to clean up or leader fish on.
On the army/MA bonus... if they're 25% each, wouldn't that make a 4xMarine an 18 attack unit? 4*12*1.5 = 72, then 72 spread over 4 units gives 18. That's closer to what it "feels" like than 36. Or do the bonus A/D points not get spread over the units? If not, there's an easy fix (not that it will be implemented this late in the game's development) to nerf armies, yet keep them powerful enough to build. Of course, even without the bonus, they beat the original armies... stick 4 MA in one and lose blitz ability. 
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Jaybe
quote:
On the army/MA bonus... if they're 25% each, ... |
That 25% bonus counts EACH of your units, and is applied to EACH combat, so an army with 4 identical units has its strength doubled with the Mil Academy. e.g., (12 attack * 0.25 bonus) * 4 marines = 12 attack BONUS |
That's how I at one point thought it worked. So, to get this straight, it's a total 25% bonus with an army and MA, calculated off total attack value, but applied in whole to each individual. Effectively, as you say, with the full bonus implemented, the attack value is doubled. Presumably this applies to defense value as well?
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Goethe80
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Leicester, UK
Jul 2003
time: 05:35
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hmm... i wonder how i managed to get 36.
well.. i'm a law student, so i'm allowed to fail maths. anyway, 12*4*0.25 = 12, so the attack for a fully developed marine army should be 24. I didn't know about the amphib bonus (i thought it just ignored walls/civil def.), but that probably explains why my 3unit non-MA berzerk armies happily take out 2 vet riflemen in size 7 cities
Strangely enough, I'm quite happy to use a berzerk army over my reservations over a marine army due to size. probably because what i normally use is a berzerk army together with 4 berzerks for a middle-age amphib assault, and that fits quite nicely into 2 galleons (a little more complicated with caravels, but then again, with caravels, the defending town probably doesn't have a full complement of musketmen yet)
A final note on amphib armies. One reason we've not been mentioning is that they have considerably more hitpoints than typical units. So back to the 24attack(since we're unsure about the amphib attack bonus) marine army, another reason why it can take out a MI on a hill metro is because it gets so many shots at taking out that MI.
Oh, and a question.
Have any of you had a defensive bombard activate against an amphib assault? I can't really seem to remember. (I'll fire up one of my stalemated viking games to find out - I have more land/cities, KAI is the mongols with 5-6 tech advantage and have replaceable parts... so I'm not sure what's next)
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Solomwi
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Don King of the Apolyton HLA Movement
Dec 2002
time: 23:35
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Subject line edited to better reflect the thread, because even though it's wandered, I like where it's going.
I think I've seen defensive bombard against amphibious attacks, but won't swear to it. Easy enough to test, though. I figured the hitpoint issue went without saying. I wonder, has anybody tried assembling their army at sea? For instance, you send two galleys, one containing a Berserk and an empty army, the other two Berserks, then simply wake transported, load the Zerks into the army and attack.
The only time I want my lawyer failing math is when he sends me the bill... or when I pay it.
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28-04-2004 07:53
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