Do You Build Port Facilities?

[Everyman]

I build them, but not very often.

The reasons I don't build them more often are:

(1) Amphibious Warfare is a low priority research item (I also seldom build Marines).

(2) I find other ways to repair ships and create veterans. I repair ships by putting them to sleep or I sail them into the nearest city, disband them, and build a more advanced ship. I create veterans by trolling the enemy shoreline and knocking off unwitting cannons and other easy targets or by engaging them in battle in the normal course of action.

May I have your thoughts on this?

[Mercantile]

They are a low porfile for me as well. You really only need a couple if any on a small world. Again it depends on the amount of water, whether your in a hot spot etc.... but generally speaking i have little use for them. Ship repair is nice though, but again whats the point if the ship is 70 tiles away from your port like most of mine are

[Dissident Aggressor]

I build them in cities on the ocean- duh
yes because I like to have a navy. I know it is not required to kick the ai's ass, but I just like a well rounded military, pluss it looks cool. And the vet ships come in handy every once in a while.

[Seeker]

I only build them when I have AEGIS cruisers, so that they can shore bombard reasonably well. Non-vet subs are useless.

[Dissident Aggressor]

well all subs are useless. I find it hard to play without some of my units. I usualy put in jet fighters/bombers and nuclear ballistic subs. For some reason they didn't put them in the original game (yes I know there isn't much time to use the prop planes and electic subs if you do this, but oh well)

[kcbob]

If I've got the time, I've already researched Amphibious Warfare, and the AI is harassing me with it's navy, I'll build them in a few select spots close to the AI. Vet ships right out of the blocks are pretty potent.

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Frodo lives!

[East Street Trader]

If I'm playing a democracy based strategy I'll have gone for Shakespeares Theatre in a coastal city so I can support a mercantile marine and a navy from there without happiness problems. Port Facilities have quite a decently high priority in that city.

Sometimes there is a window of opportunity for a battleship to support a period of conquest and I would be willing to rush Port Facilities for the benefit of either or both initial vet status and/or quick repair during such a period. But I think the necessary tech must be off my usual research paths too because I can't remember ever building Port Facilities in those cases.

My games don't seem to last long enough for Aegis to start playing a part but I intuit that Seeker has a good point there. If you are stacking some hefty units or freight filled transports with Aegis vessels you probably want to be extra secure that they'll keep the cruise missiles at bay.

I've never got round to trying out the marines' ability to attack from on board ship. Anyone know of circs where that is useful? Come to that not seen the AI do it either, and it does go in for marines quite a bit. That is a contrast with Alpha Centauri in which I always seemed to be attacking with vet marines (who get to be pretty near invincible I found - a weakness in the game in fact).

[kcbob]

quote: Originally posted by East Street Trader on 11-16-2000 08:45 AM I've never got round to trying out the marines' ability to attack from on board ship. Anyone know of circs where that is useful?

I've only used that feature a couple of times. But, recently, I've been playing on small maps which lend themselves to one large continent putting everything within reach of roads/railroads.

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Frodo lives!

[Everyman]

About Marines -- I seldom build them, but can justify their use.

Amphibious Warfare is a modern technology that is available relatively early. You can use Marines in circumstances where you have researched Amphibious Warfare before your opponents have researched Conscription and Tactics, or have had time to deploy Riflemen and Alpine Troops. In these instances, you can use Vet Marines to attack shoreline cities, then capture and hold them. In other words, Marines can be used like real marines -- to serve as the first assault line and to defend beachheads.

I discovered this in a game where I was "forced" to research Amphibious Warfare. I then trained a squad of Marines, loaded them in a Caravel (yes!) and successfully killed off the Musketeers defending a shoreline city. Again, this is only good if the opponent does not have more advanced defensive troops.

[N35t0r]

only in colonies on islands near the AIs, to repair the fleet that's harrassing them.

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

quote: Originally posted by East Street Trader on 11-16-2000 08:45 AM I've never got round to trying out the marines' ability to attack from on board ship. Anyone know of circs where that is useful? Come to that not seen the AI do it either, and it does go in for marines quite a bit. That is a contrast with Alpha Centauri in which I always seemed to be attacking with vet marines (who get to be pretty near invincible I found - a weakness in the game in fact).

What about on maps where there are a lot of islands? Those situations seem pretty tailor made for Marines. There's a couple of Pacific WWII scenarios where Marines are pretty handy to have - when playing the Japanese I always built them just for amphibious assaults. However, in a real CivII game, I seldom see the AI building on a chain of islands; it seems to stick to large land masses... and you need faster units for conquest there.

IMO, the Marine is pretty pricey for a 1-move unit. Sure, it can attack and defend pretty well, but I think most of us prefer 2- or 3-move units for attack, and there are cheaper units like Alpines or Mech Inf for defense.

STYOM

[ColdWizard]

i rarely build port facilities and almost never build marines

[Blaupanzer]

If the AI opponent is on a different continent, I take one of his cities, slam up walls, and then slam up a port to repair my fleet as we battle along the endless coasts of Civ II. Also use ports for Aegis cruisers, building them as I research that. Not in favor of amphib assaults unless city is a one square island. As noted, that is not common for the AIs.
[This message has been edited by Blaupanzer (edited November 17, 2000).]

[Jim W]

I've taken to building Marines, mostly because the AI eventually does, and Riflemen don't seem to stand up against Marines very well.

I also occasionally build port facilities, if the time and economy permits. (Like the occasions where my capital city can build either a port facility or a food caravan, or a very superfluous military unit.)

Jim W

[debeest]

I rarely bother with a lot of fighting ships, so I don't build many ports.

I hardly ever build marines. By the time you can research amphibious warfare, you can usually build units a lot better than marines. But I have been attacked by offshore marines, and it seems to me that they were more powerful than they ought to be. It occurred to me that the offshore attack might allow them to ignore city walls AND coastal fortresses. Has anybody ever considered this and explored to see whether it's true?