Airlifting Armies

[Mr Justice]

so effectively an airlift is a transport with capicaty of 1 which can go anywhere(that has airport).

a helicopter is a transport with capicity of 3 (thus can carry 2 man army) and range of (10 is it?)

thought that only really means that u can carry over newly created armies, as ur long established armies will definately be atleast 3 units strong.

but u should (imo) be able to airlift a unfilled army. as its equivelent to 1 unit

[WarriorPoet]

Thought you would like to know that the C-5 Galaxy can airlift a company of Abrams Tanks...I think that's roughly 5 tanks. Hardly a full unit for C3C purposes but you get the picture...Does one airlift equate one plane? Don't think so, so you should be able to airlift an Army of MA, especially, given that one turn is a year or longer.

IMHO

[Mace]

C-5's and C-141's can also airlift lots of artillery pieces.

The rules must be the way they are for game balance purposes.

[timmy84]

By what I can figure, a airlift in the game isn't the use of one plane, but the use of all planes at the airport, which would be a very good explanation on why a airport can only do one airlift a turn, because all the planes are at the other airport.

[WarriorPoet]

Probably has more to do with the AI's inability to properly mobilize, and it's inability to use Armies...I wonder if both could be corrected in a Mod....Antrine?

[Chemical Ollie]

I tried to load an empty army into an helicopter, but it didn't work. Then I loaded 1 and 2 TOW infantry, and suddenly the helicopter accepted it. Seems like a bug exploit to me. But then an AI jet fighter splashed it when I tried an air inseration. Perhaps it's a trap set by the AI?

This was under AU rules, but I think it's the same under C3C 1.15 and 1.22.

[Kuciwalker]

You can put an army with one or two TOW's in it into a 'copter? That sounds like a bug - an army with one unit in it should take up two slots

[WarriorPoet]

Chemical, you were bamboozled!!!

That definitely sounds like an exploit...

[Jaybe]

Kucinich, in C3C a helicopter has a carrying capacity of THREE foot units.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
I tried to load an empty army into an helicopter, but it didn't work. Then I loaded 1 and 2 TOW infantry, and suddenly the helicopter accepted it. Seems like a bug exploit to me. But then an AI jet fighter splashed it when I tried an air inseration. Perhaps it's a trap set by the AI?

This was under AU rules, but I think it's the same under C3C 1.15 and 1.22.

First time I've seen this claim. Can anyone verify? Is there a save Ollie?

[WarriorPoet]

Maybe this isn't a bug, but a forced work around that the programmers had to compromise to? Perhaps an empty army is one foot unit, since an empty army is counted as a military unit when calculating the support costs, and when moving, etc...However, the Army also has the ability to load units. This could cause a conflict with the helicopter's loading capability, which the game designers may not have been able to avoid without jeopardizing other aspects of the game?

For example, let's say you had an empty army in an empty helicopter, then moved units onto the helicopter and pressed "L" to load them into the helicopter. How would the game know you wanted to load them into the helicopter and not into the empty army???

However, your method worked, because there wasn't an issue anymore. Simply put, by loading two units into the chopper first, then the empty army (also viewed as a foot unit) the chopper was full and would no longer have the afore mentioned hang-up.

I would like to here from someone who has the time to experiment with this.

Does this only work if you put two units in first? Could you put an army loaded with two units into the helicopter? Can you unload units from the army prior to unloading the army from the helicopter? Can you put the empty army in second and then a third unit into the helicopter?

My guess is that you can only load empty armies, and that you can only load them in as the third unit.

If so, then this isn't an exploit really, just the best compromise the programmers could make. After all, what is an empty army but a few dozen high ranking officers and their staff?

JMHO

[Aqualung71]

Originally posted by WarriorPoet
For example, let's say you had an empty army in an empty helicopter, then moved units onto the helicopter and pressed "L" to load them into the helicopter. How would the game know you wanted to load them into the helicopter and not into the empty army???

I haven't experimented with Helicopters at all, but when you try to load a unit into an Army in a coastal city that also has a transport type ship, you will be asked to specify whether you want to load the unit into the Army or the ship. Seems to me this is a similar situation, so I would guess there is another reason for the phenomenon that CO experienced.

[Jaybe]

Personally, what I have done to make sure that I do not load a unit into an army when I do not intend to, is:
Move the army out of the city (on a rail) while I load the unit into a helicopter or transport.

My main problem is when I have multiple things of the same type I can load into with the same number of vacancies, and some of them have moved already. With transports or helos, you can unload them and reload into another without penalty, so it may be time-consuming but the job gets done. Of course, with armies there is no unloading if a mistake is made.

[alexman]

Armies consisting of identical units take the properties of those units. For example, Marine Armies are amphibious, even though empty armies are not. Similarly, TOW Armies are foot units, even though empty Armies are not.

So since only foot units can load into helicopters, you can load a TOW Army, but not an empty one.

[DrSpike]

Interesting. I bet many have never tried either way.