Drop Units and/or Orbital Insertion

[TheSmitty]

In one of my games I have drop unit capability. My question is, how do I "use" the drop ability? Will I be able to drop these into sea based cities?

Also, what about orbital insertion stuff, what is it and how do I use it?

Thanks,
TheSmitty

[Chowlett]

It is a well documented bug that, by right-clicking on dest base and then drop here, you can perform multiple airdrops in one turn. This is usually considered cheating

[Scott Johnson]

As lame as the AI is, don't get sloppy once your foe picks up drop ability. I accidentally left an interior base vacant one turn. Ooops!

Also, one of the jobs I like to give to the odd, unimportant captured base (esp. seabases) is to build cheap scout drop troops. It's very nice to have these emminently expendable cheapies on hand for miscellaneous jobs: terrain pillaging, blocking enemy movements, exerting ZOCs where helpful, screening, etc. If you've got Hunter-Seeker you needn't worry about them being bribed. Even if you don't, no harm in letting the enemy waste his dough in bribing the suckers.

[YT]

to execute an air drop: Hit the i key (which turns your icon into a parachute), and select a square to air drop into within 8 squares. Alternately, choose a square withing 8 squares and right click on it. On of the options on the right click menu is 'Air drop here'. I guess I should back up and say that you can only drop with a unit you have designed with drop pods.

effect: Unit drops into the desired square and takes damage (20% I think), unless the square is your base. In addtion, the unit still has full movement points (unless a probe team), but if it attacks anybody it suffers a -50% attack penalty that turn.

limitations: As far as I know, you CANNOT drop into a sea base that you own. I belive that an enemy aerospace complex prevents a drop withing the base radii of that enemy base (someone else want to back me up on that?). Probe teams cannot drop into the radii of an enemy base at all. Range of an air-drop is 8 squares until the discovery of Orbital insertions, after which it is unlimited range.

Orbital insertions are available after the Space Elevator Secret Project, of after the discovery of the Gravitronics Technology (I think).

Usefull ability in some games. I haven't ever played a game where it was a vital ability, but I'm sure it'll happen one day.

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Yours Truly

[LoD]

quote: I belive that an enemy aerospace complex prevents a drop withing the base radii of that enemy base (someone else want to back me up on that?).

You're right, YT. BTW, units with Air Superiority in a base do the same thing.

And one cannot drop his unit in any ocean square, regardless of the fact that there's a base, a carrier, or just open sea.

LoD

[sunchaser3]

I think it is good to note that you can make a drop from a sea base. So don't be afraid to build them there. Also I remember a game a long time ago where it told me my drop units could not perform a drop until I built a Psi-Gate. Turns out my Caps-lock was down. Yea, I felt like I looked.

[Enigma]

The radius of the "no drop" zone for ALL units exerted by a base /w an aerospace complex is 2. Non combat units have huge restrictions on making drops, which I have learned when I was trying to make drop transports. Non combat units can not drop in any enemy ZOC.

Drop transports are a great way to pick AA's when you are running FM and don't want to deal with the pacifism drones.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Nigma,

What a nice idea on collecting all those pods!! Simply drop a transport with a former on it all the way around the world hopefully you get an artifact. Unload your former and build an air base, return to homeland with artifact intact. Sweet.

Alternatively, accompany with a colony pod instead of former. Base and artifact. Doubly sweet.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Nigma again,

Now heres another idea. Send that drop transport accompanied with a worm and colony pod. If the pod opens up full of worms your little beastie will ensure that colony pod and transport are not attacked. Risk free world wide pod popping, weeeee!!!!!!

Regards

Ogie

[Enigma]

Unless there are a huge number of worms in that pod my drop transport usually survives. The model that I was working with was - 0-5-1*2 drop clean and cost somewhere around 50 or 60 minerals. I run FM for so long in the game that there are huge numbers of pods lurking around in the late game.

Brainstorm, try to make a game where I transcend mostly from pod popping.

Anyway the drop transports are also very nice since you can return the artifact to a base the very next turn. I was building them in the last 10 years before transcendance and I managed to shave 5 years or so off my time.

Plus just load clean units into the drop transports and you do not have to pay for extra drop pods on every unit.

Although no one every builds psi gates, drop transports are MUCH MUCH more effective, and accomplish the exact same purpose. But again the fact that non combat units can't drop in enemy ZOC's really hurts the potential of drop transports.

[Adam_Smith]

One way to use drop troops to take sea bases is to put amphibious pods on them to. More than 50% of sea bases are just off the coast so you can take most of them this way. The others you will have to take with navy.

You can drop you troops (combat and non-combat) into enemy territory, but you have to first establish ZOC. The easiest way to do this is with aircraft. Once I droped a bunch of drop probes on to Aki-Zetas land under air cover. The next turn I was all caught up on tech

[MichaeltheGreat]

Ogie - native worms will attack a stack of normal units and faction controlled worms. Wild IoD's will also attack human controlled IoD's, whether they have a normal unit with them or not.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

MTG,

Ahh but the question assertes itself are they attacking the worms or the conventional unit lying underneath. I haven't ever observed an attack on a stack (planet life cuts me slack. Oops I think I just went off track.... Dang one to many Dr. Seuss books in my child hood ).

Seriously though a native unit on land is never attacked by worms. Have you observed this when you designate the worm as the defender?

I have not and will often worm hunt with worm and empath rover in tandem. Worm for pod pop and cover the rover. Rover for maximum chance of native life capture and best attack. Never experienced a planet reprisal.

IoD's and locusts are a completely different matter. Natives in air or sea are fair game for attack by planet regardless of native or coventional.

[Helium Pond]

I thought someone once posted that transports with drop pods did *not* carry their cargo with them when they dropped. That's not true? Also, you're building land transports, right, which can only carry one unit?

[Vi Vicdi]

A transport will air-drop its cargo if you load the cargo onto it; this entails putting the cargo into "board / sentry" mode. You have probably failed to do this to your intended cargo and thus been disappointed by the resulting "deadhead" airdrop.