Troops - stack or not?

[big_canuk]

Grail Quest:

Ouch, it wouldn't have worked *at all*.

Not your fault though, it is a *great* idea. It's just you have stumbled upon two bugs.

The first is that the transport repair bay is broken. It does not work. I have not confirmed this myself, as I read it may times in threads, therefore have never built one.

The submarine special ability, does work against human opponents in MP. However, it does not work against the AI. They still know exactly where your units are, and if in range might sink them.

Too bad. Those are two nifty special abilities.

bc

[Blake]

Whats peoples opions on self-destructing conventional missiles? This causes all units adjacant to the missile to die, regardless of armour, reactor and other stats. It's the ultimate low-cost solution to destroying both stacks and swarms.

[Mongoose]

Choppers are better. Cheaper and have a greater effective range, as long as you don't get caught between turns. Any unit will do in a pinch. I once took out >80 Usurper Needlejets in SP by self destructing two or three impact tacticals.

Pagan and I got a rather large invasion force of JAMiAM's that way in MP once, too.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Blake
Whats peoples opions on self-destructing conventional missiles? This causes all units adjacant to the missile to die, regardless of armour, reactor and other stats. It's the ultimate low-cost solution to destroying both stacks and swarms.

Actually how about a conventional missile with a chemical warhead, which does damage to all units within a certain radius (upwind less damage, downwind more damage).
Also, getting back to stacks, specifically how I am currently observing the AI to stack units: I'm in a game now where the AI is sending wave after wave of infantry against my city. I've got speeders in the base, and am just knocking them out as fast as they can get up to the base. Now here's the catch: the AI has a choice of putting its troops in a rocky square or a flat earth square when coazying its troops up close to my base for the next turn's attack. Invariably the AI chooses the flat earth square, meaning my speeders get the open ground attack bonus, and the defenders get moot for a defensive bonus! After 2 of my speeders attack the stack, there is nothing left of the stack, thus letting my other speeders rest and heal for the next wave of attackers the following turn. I think that it was poor programming to have the AI select as a known defensive position the poorer of the 2 locations.
IMO regarding my use of stacks: read the terrain, know the enemies strengths and tendencies, gamble if necessary, and stack (or don't) accordingly.

D

[Blake]

Whats twice as bad (IMO) is when the AI enters a forest tile adjacant to your base, then pillages it into a nice flat tile. This is such the wrong thing to do on several counts:
It converts a +50% defense bonus to a -25% defense penalty (vs rovers).
The unit could have attacked instead of pillaged, possibly taking the base.
If it did take the base, the base could have then worked the forest tile.