Armies

[Nelis]

I received Civ IV one week ago, I've played a few games now, and (cross my fingers) I have not meet any serious bug. It's not superfast but that's far to be unplayable.

One thing I have not found in Civ IV et that I liked in Civ III is armies. I like armies because it helps to organize your military units.

I though how to adapt the concept of army in Civ IV, and here is the idea :

Sometime (on certains tech research for example, or buildings like casern will help to generate these Great Peoples), a city will get a Great Leader.

A Great Leader can :
- Find a tech (related to military)
- Join the city (and the military units build in this city will get +2 XP)
- Build an Army

The other way to build an army will be for example to get West Point.

An army is a logical grouping of units. It can for example contains 5 units. For movement, the army is handled as a single unit (you cannot move a unit alone, or you should first remove the unit from a army).

When you attack with the army, the better unit depending of the opponent will be choose to attack. If it loose and it has the withdraw ability, it can, else it is destroyed. If it win, the unit will receive XP but the army also. The units inside the army and the army can get promotions. The army promotions applies to all units in the army.

When defending, the army choose also the better unit to fight the opponent.

What do you think about armies working this way ? Can we ask for it to Firaxis for a future patch ?

[Dr,ape]

You cannot create armies like you did in Civ3.

That idea has been dropped / modified.

Instead, you can group units at will. (shift-key)

[Nelis]

I liked the concept of armies instead of grouping, but it's true that Firaxis cannot follow every single people demand ;-)

I'll have a look on the Python API and see if I can implements it myself in a mod

[Clonereject1138]

Originally posted by Dr,ape
You cannot create armies like you did in Civ3.

That idea has been dropped / modified.

Instead, you can group units at will. (shift-key)

But will they fight together? Like a phalanx backed up by some archers for covering fire? So far, iv only used it to keep my settlers from getting butchered. Mmmm.....man-flesh....tastes like pork, so Im told.

[Axxaer]

No as far as I can tell they fight individually. Whilst combined fighting would be very fun and interesting, it would be unbalanced as a phalanx backed up by an archer would always beat an individual phalanx or archer and thus everyone would 'have to' group units to win battles.

[Enigma_Nova]

Or ram stacks to 0 with Collateral.

[Diadem]

From a gameplay point of view, the combat system of civ4 is more or less perfect. It's very balanced and allows for very deep strategy.

[MoonWolf]

Originally posted by Clonereject1138 Mmmm.....man-flesh....tastes like pork, so Im told.

More like chicken actually...

I was kind of dissapointed when I heard there was no armies in Civ4, but after playing it, I don't see how it could be implemented without ruining the gameplay as the combat system is a lot more balanced now.

I think the only way an army like option could be possible, is if several units are attacking together. When e.g. an arhcer and a swordsman attack, defender will do most of the damage to the swordsman as the archers will always shoot from distance. This will of course vary if the defender is an archer as well as they too have ranged combat. And when gunpowder units enter the scene, it will get even more compilcated.

I do however have a feeling that units attacking together have a higher survival rate...