Amphibious Assault Bug?

[Broken Hawk]

Last night I was engaged in a island hopping operation.

My normal tactic is to bombard a city's defenses with Battleships and Destroyers first. Air strikes from Carrier based Jet Fighters also help. Once the defending units are pretty much wiped out, Marines or Navy SEALS based on Transports will take the island city (located on one tile). All is well.

Due to some poor logistical planning, I found myself attacking an island city with Transports full of every land unit except Marines. On a whim, I started to attack the city's defenses with Gunships as they sat atop their Transports. Once all but one of the defending units were eliminated, a piece of Artillery destroyed the last enemy and rolled off the Transport and turned the city into ruins.

It states in the Civilopedia that land units cannot attack from a Transport. I assume it doesn't mean Marines and Navy SEALS.

In CivII, the only land unit that can attack a city or enemy land unit from a Transport is a Marine.

My guess is I have stumbled across a CivIV bug. Anyone else have the same experience?

[Arrian]

My understanding is that any unit can attempt an amphib assault, but they suffer a big penalty unless they have the amphibious promotion...

Last night I took out an enemy grenadier using a mech inf - straight off my transport. The odds were not as lopsided as they would have been if my mech inf had started on land, but luckily for me my unit was so much more advanced that it didn't matter.

-Arrian

[Artuero]

The penalty is not all that big really (I think it is 25% but might be 50%). I almost never build Marines because modern armor can do just as well if you soften up the defenders and armor is much more versatile.

[The keeper]

ANY unit can attack from a transport/gally/galleon. They suffer a large penalty for an amphibous assault.

Marines and Navy SEALS come ready with the amphibous assault promotion - which eliminates the penalty. Many units have this same promotion in their promotion path though I have never needed it.

Gunships attacking from a transport STILL suffer the penalty for an amphibous assult (someone can check me on this). They only take one movement to move onto land, then they can attack without the penalty, and then even move back onto the transport.

[Broken Hawk]

OK, I guess I'm still in CivII mode. There is a lot to learn in CivIV. I must say this change somewhat negates the usefulness of Marines and Navy SEALS.

[Quillan]

They have other uses, like huge bonuses against machineguns and artillery. On the whole, however, I agree with you. I'd much rather have armor and infantry. I'll build a very few marines when I have a chance, but the others are more important.

[MotownDennis]

This change was made in CIV to negate the exploit where a player lines their entire coast with units (known as "the picket fence strategy"), thus making it impossible for a potential invader to land troops. Of course, the AI isn't smart enough to do this, so it really wasn't a problem in SP games. In MP games, however, this exploit was being used quite often. You could bring 20 transports full of cav to your opponents shore, and find it to be all in vain as he has 1 warrior on each coastal square. Frustrating to say the least!

I think CIV has fixed this problem just about perfectly.

[Broken Hawk]

I see what you are saying. Makes sense for MP.

[joncnunn]

Marines and especally Navy Seals are not useless.

It would normally take several promotions to reach Amphious, which also negates the bridge crossing penalty in addition to the normal attacking at sea penalty.

In addition, both have +50% bonus attacking Artilery and Machine Guns.

The US Naval Seal's aditional advantage is the free March [recover strength while moving] + 1-2 first strikes.

[Kuciwalker]

If only Commando weren't so far down the promotion path... March + Commando is fun.

[Broken Hawk]

Originally posted by joncnunn
Marines and especially Navy Seals are not useless.

I did not mean to imply that Marines and Navy SEALS are useless, just that some of there uniqueness has been lost since other units can now make amphibious assaults.

Thanks for pointing out their special abilities. I love to use them.