Unit Abilities

[lajzar]

Can Capture City - Only infantry (and horse) units should have this flag. A unit without this flag that attempts to enter a city will have an option appear to [Raze] or [Cancel]. Units with this flag also get the [Capture] option. This flag shouldn't be applied to guerilla units.

Can be Bribed - Most units by default shouldn't be bribable. Note that this flag also implies the existance of briber units, such as the civ1/civ2/smac diplo/spy units. If a stack is present, it should be possibel to bribe the entire stack in one go, assuming sufficient funds are available. This should be more expensive than bribing each member individually, and stacks should not be bribable piecemeal.

Can Bribe - duh

Paradrop [n] - Allows civ2 style airdrops either in or out of a friendly city. Doing an airdrop ends the unit's turn. An extra tech (parachute tech then combined arms for transport helicopters to recover the men) is required to to a paradrop back to a friendly city.

[Ajan]

Why can't all units capture cities? Yes, tanks might blow away a few buildings in the process of entering an enemy city, but they should still be able to capture it.

I miss the bribing ability from civ2. I agree, not all units should be bribable, though.

Do you mean paradrops along with airdrops?

Airdrops/paradrops (para specifically) are supposed to be used for a fast-strike attack behind enemy lines...where do I see that in civ2 or civ3?

[lajzar]

I was using airdrop/paradrop interchangeably.

While fast strikes behind enemy lines is the theoretical goal of paratroops, historical results with them has been less than inspiring. The technique is good for getting guerillas, spies, and special forces behind lines, but with mainline infantry units, the support requirements for modern units means they will be toast if they are dropped far enough behind enemy lines to be meaningful.

I envisage paradrop ability being given to irregular units such as the aforementioned spies, commandoes, and guerillas - either too few in number to be detected, or able to live off local resources without disrupting the area's normal economy (deliberate military action aside).

It is worth noting that in the recent troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan, paratroops were not used in meaningful numbers.

The catpuring cities flag I admit is more controversial. While a tank might capture a city and physically be in it, it lacks the ability to police a city in the way an infantry unit can. Plus, tanks make excellent targets in urban warfare (Stalingrad forex). The cannons lack the range advantage, tanks have very limited fields of vision, allowing guerillas to sneak up easily. The only way a tank can fight effectively in a city is by freely destroying buildings, in effect, razing it.

[Skanky Burns]

New ability:
Can Police - This is what it takes to hold enemy cities, or to be used as military police in your own cities.

Tanks should be able to capture cities, but not do much to prevent the citizens from taking the city back.

[lajzar]

ok, how about any unit without the "can police" flag suffers a significant chance every turn of being destroyed by rioters? Let's say, 10% per rebelling citizen, plus 5% per unhappy citizen? This should be reduced significantly if any units that can police are present.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
Tanks should be able to capture cities, but not do much to prevent the citizens from taking the city back.

If tanks are ineffectual at defending a city, how would they be able to take it in the first place?

[lajzar]

Originally posted by Dauphin




If tanks are ineffectual at defending a city, how would they be able to take it in the first place?

Actually, tanks are ineffectual at defending cities.

I will be pleased to be shown examples of tanks successfully fighting an equivalent technology opponent in urban warfare.

[Dauphin]

I'd be more interested in knowing how they take the city without bulldozing it.