Making Armies useful

[ahenobarb]

I was thinking about the utility of armies and with only 3 units in them (and no way to switch out units), they are not very effective.

Given that organized armies are the *only* way that warfare is fought between peer opponents (that is, those with roughly equal military capabilities), it seems short sighted to make armies this weak in the game. the way the game works, its simpler and more effective to send a maniple/squad/platoon (whatever) to do your fighting rather than combining in an army.

The solution I believe would be to allow armies to have 5 units, 10 with the Pentagon. And make them less rare!

In warfare situations, the game should focus on armies fighting armies, or armies attacking cities, rather than squads attacking squads. It wouldn't unbalance the game if everyone had them.

I just don't understand the thought that went into this. Here's great idea, but they give it to us in a half measure!

[Spatzimaus]

First of all, it appears that the Pentagon, like the Lighthouse or Magellan's, is hard-coded as a +1. That is, if you make Armies hold 5, with the Pentagon it becomes 6.

There are better ways to make Armies useful that don't involve making them huge.

1> Remove the "victorious army" requirement from the Military Academy, so that you can build them without spending your first Leader on an army.
2> Add a new Small Wonder, the "Palace Guard", dirt cheap, low tech, requires the Palace, and has the same effect; the result being that your capital will always be able to make Armies. You could find a way to add this to the Palace, probably, but it'd require some tweaking.
3> Lower the cost of Armies.
4> Give them abilities. I gave them Blitz and a Zone of Control, but you could also try Radar, See Submarines, Airlift, and so on.

I did 1 and 4 in my mod. It makes a HUGE difference; the AI makes them now, and they're a threat. Plus, with the retreat chance thing they added, it's the best way to attack a fortified city unless you want to bombard it to rubble first.

[alexman]

Actually, you can have loads of fun with armies as they are now.
See this thread.

[AJ Corp. The FAIR]

This place is a Labyrinth ... People repeating what others have mentioned ages before ... Same questions being asked all the time ... Same (topic related) threads starting all over again and again ...

Don't blame anyone though

Well, here is a very recent (but small) thread on the subject:

click here

AJ

[ahenobarb]

Originally posted by AJ Corp. The FAIR
This place is a Labyrinth ... People repeating what others have mentioned ages before ... Same questions being asked all the time ... Same (topic related) threads starting all over again and again ...
click here

AJ

It's circular reasoning, it's a lbyrinth because people repeat and people repeat because they can't sort through everything or don't have the time.

Also, I cling to the naive belief that if a suggestion is made enough time Firaxis will decide to both make money and a better game.

[Spec]

Making Armies useful

Imo, impossible.