The Explorer: What's the Use?

[Flinx]

Not that this is a major issue, and you either never use the Explorer or can easily mod a solution into the game. Personally even on a huge map I know (almost) all of the world by the time I can build an explorer so I never use them.

Vote on a Poll I created: http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=58320

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Barchan
Another fun use for explorers is to have several move with a defensive army through enemy territory. Each turn, the explorers fan out and pillage everything within a two-square radius (two out, pillage, two back to the safety of the army). It’s like Sherman cutting a path to the sea.

That goes straight into my 'strategies for builders' book. If you hate war, make the AI hate it too.

[Arrian]

Barchan,

My problem with that is that I am almost always in a war to conquer the enemy. Like you said, extensive pillaging would only make more work for me once I won.

But recently there was a situation where it could have been useful. Playing on an achipelago map makes it difficult to project power, at least until airports. I was fighting off my home landmass and the best I could do was take a couple of cities and raze a couple more. I didn't really touch the enemy's core area. Some explorer pillaging would have been good there.

-Arrian

[Rasputin]

fantastic usage of the explorer, i had never seen the purp[ose of them til lyou guys posted this... thanks

[Theseus]

Great ideas guys!! I like Catt's idea of having a couple around just in case.

I used them in MT V to razed my own forward fort positions.

I can very much envision them for those situations where I like to set up a forward defensive position (w/an Army of course) to try to generate GLs... I typically pillage the area into a war-torn hell, and extending that one tile further is fine by me.

[mwaf]

I think the biggest problem with the explorer is its incapability to deal with Barbarians...
Colonizing an unsetteled continent (with no maps abailable to be traded) using explorers makes sense, but the fact that there are probably lots of barbarians on the continent makes them useless (or will at least give you a headache once your third explorer ends its turn next to a barbarian camp). Escorting a explorer is completely pointless.

[Coracle]

Originally posted by NeoStar
Consider it an extra unit slot all ready to be easily edited

Edited into a PARTISAN unit coming with Industrialization, and with enough combat points to be quite a nuisance.

What is sad is there is no use for an Explorer as there is nothing left to explore by the time we get it. That was part of the FUN of Civ 2.

[Deathwalker]

Nah I never use them

[Optimizer]

You could give him the Sub flag, making him invisible. That would make him a little more useful.

[Menkerios]

But that is the best use for the unit. I dunno if it's an exploit.

-Arrian

nahh, it aint an exploit. The A.I. does things YOU could never do. It cheats to make up for its limited intelligence. Like Bush.

[Theodrik]

I never realized you could pillage with them, thanks guys. I mainly use them to do recon on a civ that I know will attack me shortly, so why worry about antagonizing them? Get some current info, and when lined up down a road, can act as speed bumps. The enemy units lose their attacks killing/capturing them, meaning that another unit has to kill the secind one, etc., cutting down the 1st turn firepower.

[HappySunShine]

nahh, it aint an exploit. The A.I. does things YOU could never do. It cheats to make up for its limited intelligence. Like Bush.

You really should not insult the intelligence of those that are smarter than you Menkerios. Nor should you insult the president of the most powerful nation in the world.

[Catt]

The biggest problem with the Explorer is its name. If it were named "Saboteur" would others find it more useful (hint: you don't use it to "explore").

Catt

[YC4B4U]

Gee, Explorers are such useful units that I can't remember the last time I even considered putting them in the build que...

Actually I didn't even know they were in the game until I read this thread...

[Cookie Monster]

Build lots of explorers and disband them in fringe cities that have low production power. Works great for me. Anyone else think of this?

Explorers, like all other SUV's, are gas guzzlers so that's why I stick to cars. Oops wrong forum....