Transports

[coolhandgoose]

I tried this the other night hope it helps someone out there, hopefully it doesn't seem like it's cheating too much.

I was looking for a way to link my continents together for quick mobility of my troops. For quick mobility I mean I could transport lots of troops to another continent in one turn.

To do this I created about 10 transports, split them up into groups of two and placed them at their maximum distance from eachother that they could move in a single turn, starting at one of my port cities and ending with the last two transports at their max distance from the port city on the continent I wanted to go to.

I then loaded about 8 tanks into the transport at the starting port city and left for the other two transports stationed in the ocean. When I got there I selected the tanks and reloaded them onto the fresh transports. The fresh transports then went to the next transports where I reloaded the tanks. You can do this as many times as you want.

When I got to the final destination in port, I could select my tanks and they are ready for combat that next turn!!

Thanks for reading the post, I was so excited about this I had to tell someone

[Dis]

I didn't think the tanks could move again after being loaded onto a transport? I thought they lost their movement points.

[Quillan]

They do, but the transport still has the ability to move, and you can select and click on the load/unload buttons. You have to move both transports into the same square, click on the tank (which has no movement points left) and then load it onto the other transport. The other transport can now move its full distance. If you sail the last one into a city, you can unload the tank there. The next turn it will get a full move.

[SandMonkey]

This was definetely a tactic i remember using in Civ2, i believe it was called transport chaining or something like that. Definetely effective for moving a lot of troops quickly across the ocean, although it was a lot easier in civ2 since transports could carry 8 units (IIRC)

[rjmatsleepers]

Originally posted by SandMonkey
This was definetely a tactic i remember using in Civ2, i believe it was called transport chaining or something like that. Definetely effective for moving a lot of troops quickly across the ocean, although it was a lot easier in civ2 since transports could carry 8 units (IIRC)

The ship chain definitely was (and is) widely used in Civ II - particularly for getting vans to their destination quickly. It seems to me to be a bit of an exploit. In RL the mechanics involved in changing ships in mid-ocean would slow things down rather a lot. Mind you, considering it an exploit never stopped me using it.

RJM at Sleeper's

[Hayek]

A said before, it's a classic dating from Civ2 times (maybe even the original civ, but I never played that ). Worked in 3 as well, and still does in 4.

Added benefit of this is that carrying troops across the ocean becomes a lot less risky: you may loose transports, but you'll rarely loose units this way. I must say however that while it may seem an exploit (it's certainly unnatural, I dont think any navy has ever tried moving entire battalions of armored vehicles between ships midsea ), the actual gain is not that great. You can ship the initial units a lot faster, but you still need to sail back with the empty transports, making the overall gain rather low - which is probably why the trick is still in the game. The advantage mainly consists of getting the second wave of an invading force - the one that has just left your factories - on the shore a lot quicker, which can often make the difference between holding on to new conquests and loosing them again.

[johnmcd]

I could see it being a useful way round transit time on civ limited units like spies and missionaries. If you can only have three missionaries, you want them spent as fast as possible.

To my mind though it's a total exploit.

[couerdelion]

Does this mean that it is possible to load units into a ship, move the ship to a city and then unload the units in the same turn. This would imply that those units could then defend that city in the next turn. For a small overseas foothold, this could be a very quick way of getting support straight into action in the event of a sudden attack.

As for exploits (whatever they are), ny own rule is that I can do whatever the game allows me to do. It is the referee and since it gives the AI such huge bonuses, any tricks that I can find to cheat it of victory is fine by me.

[Hayek]

Originally posted by couerdelion
Does this mean that it is possible to load units into a ship, move the ship to a city and then unload the units in the same turn. This would imply that those units could then defend that city in the next turn. For a small overseas foothold, this could be a very quick way of getting support straight into action in the event of a sudden attack.

That's the idea. If you start loading the units in a city and unload them in a city you could even tell them to fortify, cause they wuld still have movement points.

For them to defend a city, they only have to be unloaded. I'd have to check if that would be possible when they've already spent their movement points, but it might be.

[SebP]

Originally posted by Hayek
I must say however that while it may seem an exploit (it's certainly unnatural, I dont think any navy has ever tried moving entire battalions of armored vehicles between ships midsea ), the actual gain is not that great.

I think it's a big (even if the results are not so big) exploit, not because of the un-/loading on sea thing, but because it is totally destroying the illusion that, even though you technically move your units one after the other, they really all move more or less at the same time (combat excluded). it throws a lot of light on the problems of the civ-way of order execution as opposed to the one known from tactical games where you would give orders for all units, and results were generated between turns, following a fixed execution order (ordered by type of event, so in this case, all moving would be either before or after all loading ships)
not that i think civ should be like that, mind you. i like it the way it is, and it is better suited to the kind of game it is. i just don't like doing things that will highlight those problems... perhaps tehy should fix the chain thing by just disallowing embarking at sea

then again if you really want to go the realism route, it certainly is odd for fleets to take decades to cross the atlantic, but that's on another level. i never thought this was a problem

[eris]

I think it is an exploit. It could be very useful in some situations, but somewhat expensive to set up. However, as it has been pointed out, it breaks some of the illusion of the game. To my mind, the simplest answer is you load and unload ships in cities only, where the imaginary docks are. The only addition to that I can think of is that loading and unloading requires a harbor, otherwise the city is treated just like any other square for disembarking.

[raguas]

I have not done the chain-transport thing as of yet, but I do not consider it an exploit.

I'd rther think of it as "re-fueling" en route -- similar to what some planes do, or even the space shuttle.

And besides, it really should not take decades for my transports to get there anyway -- they're no longer sail- driven.

From a game standpoint, they had to abstract combat, movement, intercontinental transport, etc. And since Civ isn't a war game, there are very few discrete units (movement points, hitpoints, etc.) such that it becomes next to impossible to accurately model the progression in transport capability that new technology brings.

Besides, it's not like it's free -- that's a lot of transports!

[fed1943]

I don't think it is a exploit,too.And it is a risky gambit;the ground unities are under no risk of drowing,but the navy is in a very weak position,before and after the shiping.
Best regards,

[Dis]

Originally posted by rjmatsleepers


The ship chain definitely was (and is) widely used in Civ II - particularly for getting vans to their destination quickly. It seems to me to be a bit of an exploit. In RL the mechanics involved in changing ships in mid-ocean would slow things down rather a lot. Mind you, considering it an exploit never stopped me using it.

RJM at Sleeper's

not to mention it's impossible to move a tank from one ship to another out at sea. . We could move supplies and fuel oil from one ship to another easily enough out at sea. But I'd imagine moving entire divsions would be nearly impossible.

[Dis]

Originally posted by raguas
I have not done the chain-transport thing as of yet, but I do not consider it an exploit.

I'd rther think of it as "re-fueling" en route -- similar to what some planes do, or even the space shuttle.

And besides, it really should not take decades for my transports to get there anyway -- they're no longer sail- driven.

From a game standpoint, they had to abstract combat, movement, intercontinental transport, etc. And since Civ isn't a war game, there are very few discrete units (movement points, hitpoints, etc.) such that it becomes next to impossible to accurately model the progression in transport capability that new technology brings.

Besides, it's not like it's free -- that's a lot of transports!

the main exploit is it does not allow the AI a chance to sink your transports. Yes it is unreallistic for transports to take years to cross the ocean. But since it is a turn based game, there has to be an opportunity during the AI's turn to sink your transports. But in an all human game, this would not be an exploit.

That said, I never really do it. I have done it in civ2, but not very often in this game. I don't like conquering things on other continents unless they have oil, and I don't. In civ2 I conquered the whole world. But I don't do that in this game.