Using Modern Units

[duke o' york]

I play with MGE on the PC, but have never used paratroopers on the PC. Unfortunately (until I get my laptop ), the PC's my girlfriend's so I can only use it when she isn't.
When I first read about this bug on CFC about a year ago then I went home and tried it on my PS version of Civ 2. I don't know which version the person who originally posted news of this bug was using, and I'm afraid that CFC have suspended their search facility "to make the forums run more quickly" at the moment so I can't find the thread.


I'd be impressed if you've got a current version of Civ 2 though Monk.

[Bloody Monk]

Then you must be bursting with "impressed."

And I also try to test things I am not sure about before I post. Wouldn't want to get a rep as a spreader of urban legends.

Monk

[duke o' york]

I'm at work! I can't exactly load up Civ 2 because no-one would get any work done, and I'd be swamped with people offering friendly (but ultimately useless) advice on how to crush the Romans!

[Bloody Monk]

So what about airbases??

--Are they defendable like city square with other units??

--Can they be captured?? Or do they just get razed??

--Do they attract Nukes??

--There must be more answers to questions I can't think of....

Thanks.

Monk

[gunkulator]

IIRC, units in an airbase defend one at time, like a city. No stack death.

Airbases can be captured by a ground unit. Don't know about Helos. You have to pillage to get rid of airbases.

Never played long enough to see if the AI nukes them. My guess is no. One thing I've done in the past when I have a city that is getting pounded by bombers is to empty the city and (assuming the AI has no paratroopers or Helos) station my bombers in a nearby airbase. The AI doesn't seem to bother bombing airbases so perhaps it wouldn't nuke them.

Of course most everyone knows about the airbase terrain "advantage": They provide irrigation, farmland, road & rails. You can also surround your city with airbases, making it safe from air attack. Both are considered cheats.

The venerable Xin Yu had a good exploit call the X-Pack using airbases: You can have a near impregnable stack of units by stacking mech infs with bombers, fighters and four engineers. Every turn one mech inf pillages a fortress and two engineers build an airbase. Bombers and fighters take off, attack and land from the airbase. At the end of your turn, another mech inf pillages the airbase and then the last two engineers build a fortress. The AI cannot attack the stack except with fighters since the bombers are not in an airbase anymore, they are hovering over the stack. Any fighters have to deal with vet mech infs in a fortress usually on tough terrain. No stack death and double defense for the mech inf.

[Elephant]

Sounds like you need to rotate pre-charged Engineers in and out of the X-Pack: any idea how much needs to be charged? How many Engineers should be dedicated?

Airbases sound similar to Fortresses - probably share the same code base, are their build times the same?

[gunkulator]

If you have four engineers, you don't need to pre-charge them. Two engineers can start and finish the airbase at the beginning of your turn. The other two start and finish the fortress at the end of your turn.

Airbases and fortresses take the same amount of time to build: 4 turns for a settler, 2 for an engineer. Half that if using two units.

Airbases are more like the central city square than like fortresses: No stack death, no defense bonus, refuel air units, free roads, rails, irrigation and farmland. There are differences too of course. You can't move a ship into an airbase, for one.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Bloody Monk


Six, et all,

Could you expand on this, please?? How to use airbases?? Thanks

Monk

Well, as noted, an airbase works a bit like a fortress- you don't lose all units stacked there if one is defeated.

I prefer airbases to carriers for a few reasons:

- aircraft heal faster in an airbase than they do on a carrier.

- airbases can be built by 2 Engineers in a turn - carriers are more costly than 2 Engineers, and I would be taking the Engineers along on the invasion anyway.

- Most planes can make a flight from one of my cities to a new airbase close to AI cities. Very rarely is the map so big that I can't 'island hop' to AI lands.

- airbases can't be sunk (or pillaged - unless all the planes there are defeated. Often the AI doesn't pillage them, so they can be retaken if lost). They aren't Cruise Missile magnets like Carriers are.

- there is no limit to the number of planes you can base in an airbase.

I mainly play ToT when I play SP; the airbase 'cheats' seem to have been eliminated in ToT (no free food/rail effect).

[Bloody Monk]

STYOM and Gunkulator,

Thanks for the responses on airbases.

I have seen the X-Pack described before. Xin Yu is very ingenious!! But, is this considered legal??

Monk

[duke o' york]

I don't think it is, but if you wanted to practise it then it takes a hell of a lot of preparation and is far too fiddly to use regularly. Also, if you make one mistake then the whole thing could be done for.

I'd be willing to bet that it's banned in the MP forum.

[Old n Slow]

I haven't seen any rules against the X-Pak in any our our games nor have I seen it used either -- partly since it is expensive & takes some managing to pull off. Also, it is somewhat slow compared to our usual conquering activities. finally, many of our sxn games see the conquering sooner vs later, so the X-Pak doesn't come into play.

I've never used it nor seen conditions so dismal that it had to be used (but we may be getting close with Silly -- so it might be a good change of pace.)

[Elephant]

Here's another question: if the city with Manhattan Project is wiped out, do nukes disappear from the game?

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Elephant
Here's another question: if the city with Manhattan Project is wiped out, do nukes disappear from the game?

No, unfortunately (game tested on King a few years back; a long nukefest resulted in it being destroyed, along with the originally-size-18 city that built it ).

Can one still build spaceships if the city with Apollo is destroyed? I suspect that this works like Manhattan and the answer is 'yes', but I haven't seen it tested.