Paratroopers are bad

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by tsubame
I'll say this, Paratroopers won me one game already- got flight, had an inferior navy, their army wasn't that great- using a combination of fighters and paratroopers I was able to get my beachhead and that won it for me.

If you're within paradrop range you don't need to worry about their navy, your transports can reach the enemy shore in one turn.

[=DrJambo=]

Yes, their paradrop range should have been scaled to map size as should the movement of ships and range of aircraft. That said, I still think 5 is a little on the small side. Maybe 6 or 7 would have been more warranted.

It's a good point about the bonuses. If the defender has more than one class of defending unit (e.g. infantry and machine gun) then the bonuses are moot. The more suited defender is always selected, i.e. marine faces infantry. In that respect maybe a flank attack is the better option. This would discourage larger stacks more but would also make city attacking easier, something I'm not sure about.

[ColdPhoenix]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Regarding whether or not paratroops should be able to attack the same turn they land, the best solution might be to allow them to do so, but with a penalty akin to amphibious assault if they do (reflecting the fact that they haven't had time to get fully organized). That would give paratroops a chance to do some damage before the enemy has a chance to swarm them, but only to targets that aren't too heavily defended.

Agreed!!

[Brutus66]

It's one of those decisions Civ forces on you - you either decide to pursue the strategy of using a certain unit or you don't.
If a human opponent used paras against you, I think you might come to appreciate their power and build them more. I like to give one or two of them them in a stack hill or woodsman promotions and drop them where they can be difficult to attack.
An amphibious attack by marines from a different direction a couple turns later really pulls a defender off balance.

[Kuciwalker]

It's one of those decisions Civ forces on you - you either decide to pursue the strategy of using a certain unit or you don't.
If a human opponent used paras against you, I think you might come to appreciate their power and build them more.

Or I could discover that they're not terribly important except in special situations, so I should just ignore them except when I have to pick off the few that drop into my territory

[snoopy369]

I think the point is that Marines, and Paratroopers, are useful in specific situations, like Brutus said. If you made them more useful, you'd have to make them a lot more expensive... the point is to have a reasonably priced unit that you can use to do a naval invasion with (and it's QUITE good at that). Combining the two would have to be too expensive.

Besides, Paratroopers are far too easily overpowered, and thus need to be weak units. Their ability to move a long distance instantly is quite powerful inherently...

Ultimately the point is that marines, and paratroopers, are not SUPPOSED to be valuable except in specific situations. That's what makes it a strategy game... giving you the choice of the more 'useful' infantry, or the more focused marine, depending on the terrain, map type, and whether you rule the seas or are stuck on land...

[GePap]

Marine forces and Paratroop forces are relatively rare because they are specialized forces. That you are forced to spend money specifically building these types of units, as opposed to some catch all "special forces" unit is the right choice in my opinion. They remains what they are in reality, specialists, rare but valuable in the right situation.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Ultimately the point is that marines, and paratroopers, are not SUPPOSED to be valuable except in specific situations. That's what makes it a strategy game... giving you the choice of the more 'useful' infantry, or the more focused marine, depending on the terrain, map type, and whether you rule the seas or are stuck on land...

These are situational. Marines come at the same time as Tanks; if you have Oil, you're going to want toou use tanks as your primary attackers. But with Commandos, you would have the option to build a viable attack force (that can take on MGs) even without Oil, but it would cost more and require more strategy.