How do I break up an Army???

[Smitty258]

Hey guys. I'm new here, but a LONG time Civ geek. I have a question on Civ3...

I'm generally a builder in my play style, but those pesky Persians were on my continent and in the interests of Manifest destiny, I had to expel them

I got a leader in this war, and built an Army with him, but after the war was over I had no real use for the Army so I wanted to break it up and save the leader for a rainy day. I searched and searched but could not find an option for this.

The dumb mistake I made was I put the Army in a city, and thought maybe the "Disband" option might just break up the Army into it's individual units, but POOF, there goes 3 knights AND my leader! That Barrack sure got built quick though

So tell me, how do I split up an Army?

[Jon Shafer]

You can't.
Sorry.

[Coracle]

That's why a lot of us don't bother with Armies. You can't even upgrade units in them.

Before 1.29 I heard of a trick to use one of the key commands (was it J?) to move a unit out of an army. Anyone remember that? As I don't build armies, at least not until the very end of the game, I don't recall.

[Elagabalus]

Sad to say, units can not be extracted from armies.
Thus, armies can not are not very useful. I try to build one (1) army per game, only. Then that army tries to win a battle, thus allowing me to build:
1) Heroic Epic; 2) Military Academy.

The Military Academy is wrothless, save for it's culture contribution.

P.S. I have build armies 'by accident', i.e. when pushing the wrong button when trying to hurry an improvement with a Great Leader (the indicated keyboard shortcut does not work, instead seemingly moving map focus to your capital - in the ensuing confusion, I managed to "build army" with the Leader.. )

[zulu9812]

Supposedly, upgradeable units in armies was rejected during game deveopement because it was too powerful. I can see how it would be 'poweful', but would you expect anything less for 40 shields?

[Sabre2th]

Originally posted by Elagabalus
Sad to say, units can not be extracted from armies.
Thus, armies can not are not very useful. I try to build one (1) army per game, only. Then that army tries to win a battle, thus allowing me to build:
1) Heroic Epic; 2) Military Academy.

The Military Academy is wrothless, save for it's culture contribution.

P.S. I have build armies 'by accident', i.e. when pushing the wrong button when trying to hurry an improvement with a Great Leader (the indicated keyboard shortcut does not work, instead seemingly moving map focus to your capital - in the ensuing confusion, I managed to "build army" with the Leader.. )

It's actually control-H to hurry an improvement. Or you could just click the button...

[DeepO]

People who think armies are not worth it are playing the wrong difficulty level, they should move up at least one level. When your MAs are facing MIs, your cavalries are facing infantry, your knights are facing riflemen, etc. an army is what saves the day. But this only becomes apparant when there is a real challenge, if your tanks face spearmen you, indeed, don't need armies.

DeepO

[Smitty258]

Thanks for the response guys. It's a pain you can't do much with the armies. It doesn't really make any sense. Firaxis are you listening?

[Proserpine]

Some people like armies A LOT. There is a thread but I don't have the link right now. Personally I think they are pretty powerful, and useful esp. when attacking strongly defended positions. I usually try to build a few.

[DeepO]

You can't do much with armies? You should read Aeson's posts more, or any other of the warmongers which basically live by the armies.

References? head over to the strat forum, and read any of the larger threads, e.g. the MT IV, Babylon and on spoiler thread, the Oh so cold (of the map generator) thread, the ultimate power (TM) thread. Then come back here and tell me no-one has any use for armies

DeepO

[Theseus]

Wait for MP.

[Venger]

Armies blow. An army with three Modern Armor may never lose a battle, but they'll never win the day either, with a single attack, you'll have to have hordes of them. Screw that. Give me the same three Modern Armor, and I'll take a small city with them.

Why, oh why, did they not simply build off the CTP armies, which were so well done?

Venger

[Theseus]

MAs should generally not be put into Armies. Even Tanks are questionable, although useful as an MI nutcracker, and can often add some real punch to a remaining 3X Cav Army.

Venger, you feeling OK today?

[N. Machiavelli]

'Armies' as Civ3 percieves them, are *generally* not cost-effective. Instead, they may be used to create a souped-up version of a specific unit. I generally have one or two of them at any given time: one with the most powerful offensive units, the other with the best defensive units availible at the time. The attacker makes an excellent crack-troop. Fortified enemy infantry in key mountain territory that just won't move? Use the shock-army to take it out. Just took some key territory and know that the enemy has a ****load of units ready to counter attack? Put in the defender army.

Civ3 armies are, without a doubt, inferior to CtPII armies. That does not mean that they are completely without merit or worthless. Underpowered? Of course. Over-costly? Absolutely? So adapt. Use them in roles where they make the most use.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by Coracle
That's why a lot of us don't bother with Armies. You can't even upgrade units in them.

Before 1.29 I heard of a trick to use one of the key commands (was it J?) to move a unit out of an army. Anyone remember that? As I don't build armies, at least not until the very end of the game, I don't recall.

Yeah, I made a post about that. There was a bug with the stack movement.

I guess they fixed that... I never got a leader since 1.17f from a goody hut. I find armies dumb since firaxis alowed stack movement.