What's the deal with paratroopers?

[Prot]

What are you supposed to use them for?

Only possible use I could see is maybe dropping them in next to a city, bombing that city to the point of no defenders and then march in, but I rarely have that many bombers to spare.

Could someone tell me their intended use?

[Tattila the Hun]

They'd be usefull, if they could drop'n roll to a city in the same turn, or drop on to a hostile unit.

But now... not much use.

I modded the paratrooper to be able to carry foot units. That way, you can paradrop to an area, and then activate the unit "inside" the trooper, and attack/defend/whatever with it. Think of it as giving you basic foot unit a parachute. And I quess one can make them 0/0 Attack/defence, and 0 maintenance...

Unfortunately, I doubt AI can utilize these...

[Modo44]

Re: What's the deal with paratroopers?

Originally posted by Prot
Only possible use I could see is maybe dropping them in next to a city, bombing that city to the point of no defenders and then march in, but I rarely have that many bombers to spare.

Well, that's one good way to use them. And you never can have enough bombers. Ever.

Other than that, you can drop paratroopers to take out resources. The reason for this is, it takes longer to rebuild the road if you have to kill some units sitting on the resource.

They can also create a diversion for the AI. Drop them on a mountain in a region that is not your main objective, to pull enemy troops away from you arttack. And be sure to bomb some RRs and roads around the mountain.

Having said all that, the paratroopers are just an addition and hardly ever an important factor in a war. Only time they can do real damage is when they face weak defenders/attackers. And even then, expect to loose most of them.

[Tattila the Hun]

Well, if you disallow airlifting of MA/MI, they have a purpose, of helotransporting them to a ill defended city beyond your naval influence, and to a city without an airport. Though, TOW infantry has diminished that use somewhat.

[gunkulator]

Re: Re: What's the deal with paratroopers?

Originally posted by Modo44

And you never can have enough bombers. Ever.

Oh, I can. It's called the boredom/frustration factor after I tell the 20th bomber in a row that, yes, I'd like it to also bomb the same city that the previous 19 did. Where's the bomb-in-a-group button! Grrr!

But paratroopers? Worthless.

[Modo44]

What's the deal with paratroopers?

Originally posted by gunkulator
But paratroopers? Worthless.

Possibly, but they do reduce the boredom factor.

[gunkulator]

Ok, I'll fess up! I do build them once it's obvious I'm gonna win anyway. It's kinda fun to watch the AI chase them around inside their territory and ignore my stack of tanks sitting just outside their border.

[Theseus]

I've used Special Forces (the upgrade to both Marines and Paratroopers in the AU Mod) to great effect in several games.

Among other reasons, the AU Mod prevents direct non-road access by wheeled units onto mountains... so those crap little AI islands acting as annoying Bomber bases... ya know, one tile for the city next to one tile of mountain, and that's it... require an, eh, alternative solution.

If only SF Armies could fly...

/me has a new pet peeve about special Armies.

[Solomwi]

This thread may have a few possibilities you want to explore.

[/blatant self-promotion disguised as altruistic attempt to help]



T, I ran into that very thing while conquering Russia in my current game. They weren't basing any bombers there, but were using a just offshore, one city island to hide their ships. My transports were seven turns away and I really didn't want to rush some in harborless cities, so I simply built an airfield and dropped the 1st Airborne Division in, then hit it hard with re-based bombers. They had to fight, but took it with plenty of room to spare. Tailor-made situation for them.

[Harovan]

Paratroopers in a nutshell:

Coolness factor: high
Usefulness factor: near zero

I remember to have posted this some time back, before Conquests came out. Since then, an attempt has been made to improve things by introducing Modern Paratroopers, but I reckon without any countable success (which does not come as surprise).

[Solomwi]

Check the thread I linked, SR. That's where you posted in, and spot on at that.

[Dr. A. Cula]

On the other hand, the automated governor loves building paratroopers (and mobile SAMs, but I'm trying to keep on topic), or at least this is what happens in my current game. If I'm not careful, one third of my cities would build paratroopers, then switch to mobile SAM, while another third would build mobile SAM and switch to paratroopers. I think I noticed a pattern: if the city has been building an air unit, the next one is paratrooper, if it has been building a ground unit, the next one is a mobile SAM.

[Roman]

Paratroopers are only useful in specialized situations. This is the case both in Civ III and in real life. I spoke to several paratroopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne divisions and they all agreed that the time of mass paradrops has now passed. They said that those tasks are now better carried out by air assault divisions such as the U.S. 101st divisions. Paradrops will still be useful in some situations, but these paratroopers claimed that it will never be necessary again to use paradrops above the brigade level, so the 82nd should take a cue from the 101st and adapt to the circumstances by becoming mostly an air assault division and maintain only one brigade of paratroopers.

Note: For those who do not know the difference: Airborne troops are basically paratroopers, while air assault troops are helicopter based.

[Theseus]

BTW, much like Mass Bombardment, I figured out how to handle multiple airdrops... similarly, hold down 'a' and click the mouse on the destination at about one second intervals. It's pretty cool watching about 20 parachutes in a row.

Death from Above!!

[Shr3dZ]

" It's called the boredom/frustration factor after I tell the 20th bomber in a row that, yes, I'd like it to also bomb the same city that the previous 19 did."

Turn off battle animation and it aint so bad...

As for paratroopers, there only use is landing them on enemy mountians or resources.