question about armies

[mmthomps]

I have some questions about armies. The manual describes armies like a transport, and you load units into them. Is it then possible to unload the units? If so, how do you do this? Is it possible to upgrade the units in the armies?

I have an army with an longbowman, a musketman and a cavalry. I would love to replace the first two with my new infanty, but am stuck trying to figure out how to do it!

Thanks for your help!

[smellymummy]

You can't unload the units. Once they are in they are stuck there...

The manual does say you can load/unload, but the readme updates that, and says you can only unload in the city of creation or something. I never figured out how to unload the units though. So what I do is suicide my outdated army, or if theres no fighting, disband it...

The units can't be upgraded though. I've done "upgrades to all" while my army was in a town with the resources and baracks, but they didn't update.

It's strange, the army advisor lists the units in the army, and lists the army units themselves, but you can't unload the contents or upgrade them.

The good thing though, is that the units inside the army can get experience. I'm thinking that they might also be able to produce great leaders but it never happened to me yet.

[mmthomps]

So do you think this was intentional or a bug? I can't imagine why you shouldn't be able to unload or upgrade them - it costs enough to make an army once you have the military academy. I am hoping this is a bug that will be fixed with the first patch...

[smellymummy]

I hope it's not a bug. It is a pain though, because sometimes you might mess up when loading and end up with the wrong units.

IMO Armies are way to powerful at times. Being able to keep one from ancient days all the way to the end gives you a really great advantage, instead of having to build them or earn them.

This is what the readme.txt files shows:

* Armies: Armies now function slightly differently from the description in the manual. When an army is created (either through a leader or military academy) you can load or unload units into the army as described in the manual. Once that army leaves the city of it's construction, you cannot add or remove units from the army. Armies now literally share the hit points of the units within it. For example, an army of 3 regular spearman would have hit points equal to 9. To kill any unit in the army, the entire army must be eliminated. Armies heal at the regular rate of the units, which means that an army will appear to heal faster than a regular unit. The only unit abilities that an army can inherit is mobility, and only when all units in that army have that ability.

[macrae]

...or you can go in and add Blitz and Unload to them in the editor, thus allowing them to attack as many times as they have hit points (yes, this makes Mounted/Mechanised armies more effective...that almost sounds reasonable, huh?), and to unload the units (I hope...haven't tried this, yet) to upgrade/replace them.

Personally, I have no problem with an army having a long and glorious history...just look at some of the British units in existence today--more than a few battled Napolean, etc.

Even as they are in the default rules, ancient armies are an excellent way to peel that top entrenched spearman off a city defense pile, allowing your archers and extra units to finish the job. I was planning to use my leader this past game to finish the pyramids, but the computer beat me to it, so I beat it up...:-)

Later...Stephen (who is trying his hand at a Regent game on a Huge map with 16 civs, using his personal mod)

P.S.: I've even seen computer run armies, though I have never had to fight them.