1-1-1 Clean Police

[Black Sunrise]

Also remember that when you upgrade the defenders in a base being attacked, there are dozens and dozens of units in other bases whom you _didn't_ upgrade, because they weren't being attacked.
In that sense, building cheap units for upgrade as needed is MUCH cheaper.
Plus, scouts are as good as 16-16-1 units against native life, and MUCH more replacable. Just watch out for choppers, those multiple attacks can be a MAJOR pain.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
=That's not possible. The absolute maximum number of specials a unit can have is 2, and you're talking about using 3. (are you using a custom faction that gives you one of those specials for free?)

Good point. I use drop transports (Infantry Transport, clean / drop) to get these guys (clean / non-lethal) into the captured base. That provides two armored defenders to hold the base, plus whatever fighters I can fly in to help defend it. This is unnecessary in most cases, but if the AI faction has a really high population and I don't want to starve them all down by making most or all of them specialists I will use cops to keep the lid on the drone riots. Most of the time as I said there is no point.

[johndmuller]

Regarding trained units devolving when upgraded, there may be some other factors responsible for the lowering of morale which may or may not involve the trained attribute at all. I think that units may lose morale if they are rehomed, say from a base with a creche to one without a creche (this may also require some other thing - such as running wealth - to come into play as well). I sometimes rehome units in conjunction with upgrading them and in that instance, one could easily blame (perhaps in error) the retrograde on the trained attribute.

I recently gave a pactmate a unit which I had built under wealth in a base with a CCreche, CmdCenter and BioEnhCenter and it went down one morale level; he was running wealth at this point too, IIRC and the differences I could see were the lack of those facilites in the base of transfer (previously, while he was running power, or at least not wealth, units I gave him [not necessarily in that base] went up in morale). This unit was not Trained.

I was not previously aware of the possibililty of losing training if upgrading with the DW, but I generally refrain from upgrading with the DW unless I want to clear the Design itself to maintain free slots (I am convinced that using all the slots can trigger some bugs - such as mysteriously losing units), although I do (I guess it may be "did" from now on) try to upgrade the last unit of its type with the DW way to save a step,

[Enigma]

I use clean cops in the late game just because they are so cheap, but I think you guys worry too much about making your units clean. Lets admit it, we are all (except MariOne) talking about SP games here, and in these games battles are usually short. It is good to make your garrisons clean, and EXTREMELY good to make your formers clean (20 EC per former to go from a basic former to a clean former)- but losing some minerals for supporting a military unit doesnt matter.

Sikander I usually just rush in trained inf to a base and then upgrade it to whatever, I find infantry droppers to be a waste of minerals- they are usually expensive, more of a luxury than a necessity.

MariOne I really wanted to play MP games but they usually fell apart for one reason or another... I remember starting a 7 player game at ACOL but it disintegrated- I was really looking forward to that.

If I have caught your ear could I request that you give us a few tales of fun games you have had, or possibly some .SAV files?

[Sikander]

Enigma,

On the contrary, I find clean to be a very worthwhile investment anywhere beyond the early game, and drop infantry transports are pretty cheap really, and you don't need many of them. The reason that clean units make sense is that I tend to lose very few units in combat. This is because I usually have a lot of units, and tend to vaporize any enemy units which could react to my movements by attacking on a broad front and in depth. The reason I can afford to have a lot of units is because they are (almost) all clean. This pays off in the long run, though if I am pressed I'm not above building really cheap disposable units to suicide themselves against an enemy horde.