Paratroopers - do you use them (and how) ?

[Blaupanzer]

Many paratroppers suffered broken limbs and occasional punctures due to the chutes snagging on things. That's why I noted night jumps were essentially out of the question. The Russians did some during their long counteroffensive, mostly into territory devoid of trees and buildings over one story high.

[Ming]

Makes me remember the scenes from Red Dawn when all the Russians are paratrooping in

And the Longest Day is one of the best all time "old" war movies. A true classic. (Unlike Red Dawn)

[Theben]

I still have in front of my eyes the scene from this old war movie where there is this guy dropped on Sainte-Mère Eglise whose chute is caught by the church steeple and he's hung up there unable to do anything and the germans machine gun him ... yet it must have been 25 years since I've last watched this movie on my old b&w TV set ...

Which is not unlike how my great uncle died, though he bailed from a flaming B-26 and got caught on a tree.

[TimeTraveler]

Crazily enough, I've never found sufficient reason or motivation to send in paratroopers OR marines. At that stage in the game, I'm instead sending in tanks. Plus a bunch of infantry, much of which used to be riflemen that used to be a bunch of melee and archery units. And will become mechanized infantry. I guess I have more preference toward units that are (or have the potential to upgrade into) the best units in the game.

EDIT: And by "best" I of course mean have the highest combat strengths and most all-around advantages. That mostly equates to mechanized infantry, modern armor, and maybe mobile SAM and radar artillery.

[Ming]

Yeah... true enough.
But Marines are great for attacking seaside cities from boats. With no penality, they can be more effective then some of your promoted units. There is a window when they are great to have. Even later, after superior units are available for sea attack duty, I then just use a marine as the last unit to take the city if I'm not going to keep it. That way, even if it dies, who cares

[Ming]

Yeah... true enough.
But Marines are great for attacking seaside cities from boats. With no penality, they can be more effective then some of your promoted units. There is a window when they are great to have. Even later, after superior units are available for sea attack duty, I then just use a marine as the last unit to take the city if I'm not going to keep it. That way, even if it dies, who cares

[SpencerH]

Its like deja vu.

[Ming]

The server was acting up yesterday

[Blaupanzer]

Sure, blame the server ...

[SpencerH]

I just played a domination style game (1st time ever I think) and found that a mass paratrooper drop combined with bombers was a great way to quickly take cities with normal AI spacing.

[wodan11]

Mass anything combined with bombers is a great way.

[rah]

Dat True

[Dinner]

Do I use them? Nope. They're just not that useful by the time they become available and I prefer to put my units into a stack of doom.

[rah]

I have never used one either. I hear the graphic is kinda neat.

[Blaupanzer]

Paratroopers are useful for blocking reinforcements on the city your SOD is approaching. IIRC, both marines and paratroopers upgrade to mech inf along with the riflemen. With marines taking coastal cities is as fast as your transports can go, outrunning most SODs. Incidentally, the Viking UU can do the same in the days of galleys and early galleons. Right handy on a fractal map.