How do armies really work?

[vmxa1]

BTW this is another one of those things that is not documents well. You cannot get the data out of the editor either as the MA just says increases the value of amies.

That is nice, but why not tell us how much?

[Aqualung71]

Basically with the MA and Pentagon built, a 4-unit army has its attack and defence values doubled, extra movement, blitz and pillage. They are awesome now with C3C and you will find a lot more players amassing large numbers of armies than they perhaps did in PTW.

Also as vmxa1 points out, the healing improvement is vast, which means that you usually only need to pause for one turn for your army to heal during a major invasion and you're cooking with gas to continue your invasion at full strength.

This also makes the use of MGL's pretty much a no-brainer (with the one exception of the rushing of your FP).

[Rommel2D]

Originally posted by Arrian
Armies do get +1 move, blitz, and free pillage (pillage w/o using a movement point. Somebody has pointed out that this means a Conquistador Army could pillage 8 tiles at a time - 3moves, ATR, free pillage. I'm not counting the tile it begins on).
-Arrian

Just noticed armies also get a sighting range of 2?

[Jaybe]

Yes, Armies have Radar.

[vmxa1]

I sw that in the editor, but failed to realize it was a bonus to sighting.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by Arrian


I once got an IW right next to my FP that was capable of 100spt (with factory & hoover), and built the MA there. 4-turn armies, like clockwork. It was PTW, so those armies weren't quite as impressive as they would be now, but it was still cool.

-Arrian

Along those lines, playing with Germany, I just finished my factory in Smolensk (the Russians got uppity early and my FP wound up in Moscow ), which built Hoover's the turn before and already held my MA. Pop a few workers in and boom, 4 turn armies there, too. As soon as this dang police station finishes, I'm going to start churning them out... just in time for my Panzers to make all those cavs obsolete.

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Rommel2D
How does this work with hybrid armies? I got my first MGL at an awkward time and tried out 2 midieval infantry with a [edit:musketman]. The stats show 3.3.2, but it seems to attack better than that. Are the displayed stats the base that the bonus modifiers are added to?

Arrian covered the basics quite nicely.

For mixed unit Armies, the bonus is applied to each unit sequentially. So, using your example (pre-Mil Academy), on offense each MedInf would attack with 5 followed by the Musket at 3, and on defense the Musket would defend with 5 followed by each MedInf at 3.

[Akaoz]

So, in a mixed army, the unit animation that is doing the fighting has no real effect on the battle? The A/D values are now just averages? Right?

Also, what happens if you put a SAM unit with an army?

[Akaoz]

Am I right in figuring that 4 Modern Armor amount to:

24+(24*4/4)=48 Attack
16+(16*4/4)=32 Defense
3+1=4 Move

With Blitz, Radar and insta heal inside a city with barracks?

48.32.4 that ain't half bad. Esp with 20HP...

[Rommel2D]

From what Theseus just posted, the animations have everything to do with the battle. Each unit uses it's own base A/D values, modified by the bonus calculation. This seems to agree with my experience. I think the animation also indicates which unit is tested for a promotion if the battle is won.

Continuing my example, when I added a third MedInf, the attack bonus increased to +2, while defense remained +1? If I had added another musketman instead, it would have been +2 for both?

[Akaoz]

Ah! I just got it now. *feels dumb*

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Rommel2D
Continuing my example, when I added a third MedInf, the attack bonus increased to +2, while defense remained +1? If I had added another musketman instead, it would have been +2 for both?

Correct for both questions, which is a good point. I think the real question is the intended use of the Army... I'll typically try to hold off and add a Rifle or Infantry to those ones.

[Rommel2D]

The first intention was to get my Epic. Then it was my spearhead unit to crack open AI cities as I systematically rolled over them. I had a few other pure cav armies by the point of the pentagon, so this one wasn't that useful anyway.

It seems like the epic game was won once I got an army, moreso than compared to previous PtW games also played at Emperor. I agree with your sig Theseus, the AI needs to make some use of armies. I don't agree with the Amphibious request, armies don't need any more buffing!

[Just to clarify, armies don't have any amphibious ability now do they? Its not clear if you're talking about inheriting the ability for pure armies, or just extending it to hybrid berserk/marine ones.]

[Arrian]

Just the hybrids. As I understand it, a pure berserk or pure marine army is amphibious, but if you mix the two units it ISN'T amphibious.

-Arrian

[vmxa1]

That is how I heard it works. Never made one though.