Military Unit Building 101

[Hombre]

I offer this as a prerequisite for Military Strategy 101, which will be almost definately be written by someone else later. The idea being that before you can start thinking about which troops to use, how to move them around, what to use in defense of your cities, etc. you need to know how to build those troops. What resources do you need? What are the buildings and wonders that can make the units you build stronger? What are the advantages you can get from the different leaders? This "course" is intended to answer all of those and a couple other related questions by just putting the information in easy to read lists.

Code - Sciences listed in Blue, Resources in Green.

Military Buildings.

Non-wonder

1. Barracks - New units get +4 XP, Required for Heroic Epic
2. Drydocks - New naval units get +4 XP and are built 50% faster. Requires steel.

National Wonders

1. Heroic Epic - +100% unit production. Requires literature.
2. Red Cross - New units start with Medic 1. Requires medicine.
3. West Point - New units get +4 XP. Requires military tradition.

World Wonders

1. Chichen Itza - +25% defense in all cities. Requires code of laws.
2. The Pentagon - New units get +2XP in all cities. Requires assembly line.

Leaders.

There is only one leadership trait that directly relates to building military units, and that is Aggression. It gives a free Combat 1 promotion to all melee and gunpowder units. It also doubles the production speed of barracks and drydock. Here is the lowdown on all of the leaders with the Aggressive trait.

Alexander - Greek - Agg & Philisophical, starts with hunting and fishing. His unique unit is Phalanx, which replaces Spearman.

Phalanx - Str 5, Mov 1, +100% v. Mounted, +25% Hills Def
Spearman - Str 4, Mov 1, +100% v. Mounted

Genghis Khan - Mogol - Agg & Expansive, starts with hunting and wheel. His unique unit is Keshik, which replaces Horse Archer.

Keshik - Str 6, Mov 2, +50% attack v. catapult, no defensive bonuses, 1 First Strike, ignores terrain movement cost.
Horse Archer - Str 6, Mov 2, +50% attack v. catapult, no defensive bonuses, immune to first strike.

Kublai Khan - Mongol - Agg & Creative, starts with hunting and wheel. His unique unit is also Keshik.

Montezuma - Aztec - Agg & Spiritual, starts with hunting and mysticism. His unique unit is Jaguar, which replaces Swordsman.

Jaguar - Str 5, Mov 1, +10% city attack, +25% jungle defense.
Swordsman - Str 6, Mov 1, +10% city attack.
The Jaguar does not require iron like the swordsman does.

Napolean - France - Agg & Industrious, starts with agriculture and wheel. His unique unit is Musketeer, which replaces Musketman.

Musketeer - Str 9, Mov 2
Musketman - Str 9, Mov 1

Tokugawa - Agg & Organized, starts with fishing and wheel. His unique unit is Samaria, which replaces Maceman.

Samaria - Str 8, Mov 1, +50% v. Melee, 2 first strikes
Maceman - Str 8, Mov 1, +50% v. Melee

Resources needed.

This lists each resouce required to build any military units followed by the units which require them. All of the units listed after copper can be built with iron instead. This doesn't work in reverse, the ones listed after iron cannot be built with copper. Similarly, all of the units listed after uranium may be built with oil, but not vice versa. Units which require more than 1 resource to build are in red and listed under each resource needed.

Aluminum - Jet Fighter, Modern Armor, Stealth Bomber
Coal - Ironclad
Copper - Axeman, Maceman, Phalanx, Speaman
Horse - Cavalry, Chariot, Cossack, Horse Archer, Immortal, Keshik, Knight
Iron - Cannon, Cho-Ko-Nu, Conquistador, Crossbowman, Frigate, Ironclad, Knight, Pikeman, Praetorian, Samarai, Swordsman.
Ivory - War Elephant
Oil - Bomber, Fighter, Gunship, Jet Fighter, Modern Armor, Panzer, Stealth Bomber, Tank
Uranium - Battleship, Carrier, Destroyer, Submarine, Transport




*This is a work in progress. I plan to do the full UU vs unit replaced comparison chart for all civs in here later if people find this post valuable. Please let me know if you see any errors so I can correct them.

[Tventano]

Remark that West Point need a unit with level 5 experience. This will only be available when an agressive war has been fought.

Red Cross requires a number of Hospitals, depending on map size.

It requires some thinking ahead where to build what national wonders. I like to build Heroic Epic and West Point in the same high production city. Preferably not in my capital.

[Strollen]

Heroic epic requires a level 3 unit (10 XP), which means you have had to had a lot of experience fighting barbarians or an early war.

I also like Heroic Epic+West Point. Although Heroic Epic+Ironworks, or Heroic+Red Cross are also very viable combos.

Question does any one know if you are required to have a level 3/5 unit at the time when you start building them, all of the time, or just at some point had a level 3 or level 5 unit?

[Arrian]

You have to actually have a live unit.

I love West Point. City Raider III Tanks rollin' off the line while running Bureacracy & Free Religion.

-Arrian

[Modo44]

If I can afford to loose one Tank (or -- later -- MA) per city, I give a few of them Collateral Damage III. Two of those go first, usually taking the strongest defenders down to a "manageable" HP level (meaning: no other losses). Usually only the first one dies. Yes, this does make Artillery all but irrelevant (Bombers take over the other part of its duties).

[Arrian]

I find that Bombers + CRIII Tanks (or MA) = almost no losses. Provided you have a lot of bombers.

I have City Raider II and III Modern Armor chewing up enemy Mech Inf in my current game - the city defense bonuses are gone due to stealth bombers (despite many of them getting intercepted by fighters).

There is, however, a certain logic to using collateral damage tanks as 2-move artillery.

Speaking of artillery, I got back-to-back ridiculously lucky combat results last night:

1) Attack full-strength Mech Inf in city (city defense 1 promo?) with City Raider II Artillery. Artillery WINS.
2) Attack 2nd mostly-full strength Mech Inf in city (CD I promo?) with City Raider II Artillery. Artillery WINS.

Both of my arty should've died short, nasty deaths. I bet the AI sure is pissed at the RNG.

-Arrian

[Modo44]

I bet you get equally angry at times. I know I do.

Originally posted by Arrian
I find that Bombers + CRIII Tanks (or MA) = almost no losses. Provided you have a lot of bombers.

Yeah, there is no such thing as "enough Bombers". And with stacked attack this is more true than ever in CIV.

Originally posted by Arrian
There is, however, a certain logic to using collateral damage tanks as 2-move artillery.

On attack they are most useful if you do not have enough Bombers on the spot (i.e. a huge map and the air force not shifting fast enough to keep up with the invasion ) or when attacking cities on Hills. Otherwise you can use Air Strikes to damage defenders (collateral damage included), with the same effect and probably less losses. If the goal is just taking some border cities, you will probably not need such specialized units.

On defense, those guys can have longer range than normal Bombers, so they might be useful as the first thing to hit an enemy stack. I am talking huge maps, of course.