War time mobilisation...

[Arrian]

Draft gives to a crappy unit at the cost of 1 pop point and 20 turns of unhappiness. Not worth it, IMO.

-Arrian

[Txurce]

I have next to no units defending my cities in the industrial age - only what spearmen are left from ancient times - but tend to research steam power ahead of nationalism, so I don't need to draft to defend myself. (Railroads can transport my offensive units to fend off any attack.) I did draft one rifleman in my last game because it was in an isolated city right next to a civ with whom I was at war.

Mobilization is terrific if you need its benefits, but its overall lack of flexibility makes it not worthwhile otherwise.

[The Eliminator]

Mobilization is a fantastic hidden gem. If you use it right, and your empire is the right size, it will make you invincible.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Txurce
I have next to no units defending my cities in the industrial age - only what spearmen are left from ancient times -

Ironic how one major gripe some people have made about Civ3 is that the AI doesn't always upgrade its units. In my experience, the AI actually upgrades as much as most human players. Some players complain because the AI defends with spearmen in the modern age (forgetting that the AI is obviously too poor to upgrade and is probably losing badly to the human's armor blitz). Others complain because no one can get a tech advantage due to AI tech trading (forgetting the first situation, where a superior unit is attacking a very inferior one). And still others complain because they actually are so powerful that they see AI's defending with spearmen and lose a tank (once in a couple of hundred combats).

Me? I always upgrade my units because of my perfectionist nature. So even though most defenders are not essential in interior cities, I'll still have a veteran infantry defending even the lowliest town. With rail, they can be used as a ready reserve, so the cost is not really that high.

[phunny_pharmer]

What exactly is the culture penalty for mobilizing? You lose 50% of the city's culture production each turn, right?

I haven't used it, so I don't know.

[Thrawn05]

I don't draft units myself. I mobilized a couple of times. I did it when I was realy losing (I lost 6 out of 14 cities within two turns). I went mobil and got my cities back. I then deicided make like a russian in WW2, and march into their capital both times. It really makes the game fun.

[Giovanni Wine]

Me too, I never drafted!
If I'm in need of soldier I just go in war-time mobilization, boost up my production and crank out Tank/Infantry in 1-2 turns on my hardcore cities.

Easier, less expensive, less "unhappy", gives me veteran

Saluti

[Txurce]

Zachriel, the perfectionist in me used to be embarrassed about all my outdated units. Then I explained to him that it was not as embarrassing as having half my cities undefended. That shut him up.

[Theseus]

I have fallen in loooooooove with mobilization... my knees are wobbly, and my heart goes pitter-patter.

My application of it is for serious, hard-core war, or wars to be more precise.

I am at war with 7 of the 11 other civs... most of my cities are at or near 12 pop, and I am still fighting off Tanks and Bombers with Infantry, Cav, and Arty.

Mobilization rocks!! First, I set most cities to build NON-military units, at warpspeed. As buildings are completed, I switch to either military buildings or units... when most cities have converted to military construction, I make peace with someone (usually a distant, side-show civ), even if it costs me 100 or 200 gold.

Additionally, I am selectively using drafting as part of the rapid build process, especially for captured cities... a drafted Infantry provides 22 shields, so they're great for kick-starting Temples and Barracks. I only draft at cities that are 12 pop, but not able to go into WLTKD.

So, even my non-optimal cities are building out quite nicely, and my military is in great shape for fighting off the hordes.

[Txurce]

Drafting in large conquered cities also reduces the discontented population. I don't bother to as a rule, evn in this case, but I should.

What I should definitely do is switch to mobilization in the late stages of a domination game, the better to crank out cavalry. I guess I haven't because if it's constant war, I may be in monarchy. However, research becomes moot at the end, and a mobilized republic with low science and high luxuries is probably one mean productive fighting machine!

I don't decide to go for a domination win until I see that I'm on a continent large enough to make it feasible within range of my own record (not to mention doing well enough to consider it). But the next time that I find myself in that situation, I will go with the "duh" mobilization strategy and see if I can shave a few turns off my record. I think the advantage here will be having the means to pre-emptively build a second, seaborne force to hit the magic square mileage, if the main continent falls a little short.

(I never bother to research communism, because domination games tend to end soon after its potential discovery. Again, with a religious civ, it may be worth it, even at the end.)

[Jethro83]

Back when I was a peacemonger, I tried mobilization once. Problem was, it was in peacetime and I had a whole continent to myself. Though I was definitely short on firepower, so it actually invoked a massed production of military units that I never would've carried out originally. To get out of the mobilization (since my forces were now sufficient), I had to go to another continent and wipe out most of England (I was France).

Ironically, since turning warmonger, I haven't needed mobilization at all, since I'll still have a huge standing militia left over from my early horseman rush (up to Cavalry of course. When I get to tanks, its a different matter).

Next time I play a game and get that far, I might as well try mobilization when I get to the point where I need to replace my cavalry with tanks.

[MiloMilo]

I just tried mobilization, in part due to reading this thread. I am coming up on Replaceable Parts (3 or so techs away), so I decided to annex some of Rome's jungles. The Babylonians pre-emptively attacked me first though,and it turns out Rome has gotten Nationalism and Military Tradition a bit sooner than I thought they would. So I'm up against forces equal to mine, on both (actually three) fronts. What to do?

Mobilize.

Boom. Cavalry up the wazoo. I even had to set some cites in the heartland to wealth because it was starting to become too much to handle.

So everything is going well, I've taken 2 of 4 cities in the jungle, which is on a peninsula far from my heartland. The problem is that I can't build temples or libraries or anything over there! The conquering of the other 2 is going slowly because it's too far away to properly reinforce my troops. These guys have got 2 rifles and 2 muskets defending each city, and all I've got attacking is 4 cavs and 2 rifles. They get the job done, but it's slow. I'm paranoid about my cities flipping back, and there's nothing to do about it until I make peace. I figure on doing this with the Babs, so I can still smack Rome around some, but I can't yet, because I'm moving to take a Babylonian port city and give it to the Iroquois (I'm very generous with my vassal, um, I mean "neighbor" civs).

Lesson learned: Mobilization is powerful, but you've really got to mow through the enemy with overpowering numbers and just keep pushing back their borders, fast. If you take your time it could hurt you.

[Catt]

Originally posted by Zachriel
One thing not mentioned is that any peacetime improvement started before mobilization will continue to build during mobilization. So if you have started, say a Wonder, it will continue to build, but at furious rate.

Originally posted by Theseus
Mobilization rocks!! First, I set most cities to build NON-military units, at warpspeed. As buildings are completed, I switch to either military buildings or units... when most cities have converted to military construction, I make peace with someone (usually a distant, side-show civ), even if it costs me 100 or 200 gold.

Are you guys really getting the benefits of extra production on non-military units? Unless I'm mistaken, only cities building military units (and maybe military buildings) get the shield bonus of mobilization.

I's been a while since I mobilized, but if I get extra production on cities working on hospitals / universities / wonders / etc., then this is a huge bonus.

Catt

[player1]

Originally posted by Catt
Are you guys really getting the benefits of extra production on non-military units? Unless I'm mistaken, only cities building military units (and maybe military buildings) get the shield bonus of mobilization.

I's been a while since I mobilized, but if I get extra production on cities working on hospitals / universities / wonders / etc., then this is a huge bonus.

Catt

You always get shield bonus from mobilization, but you can't build civil. buildings while mobilized (but you CAN FINISH wonders & buildings STARTED before mob.)

[Catt]

Originally posted by player1
You always get shield bonus from mobilization, but you can't build civil. buildings while mobilized (but you CAN FINISH wonders & buildings STARTED before mob.)

I'm at work and can't test with a saved game, but if mobilization allowed faster builds of non-military improvements (i.e., ones started just before mobilizing, including wonders), this would strike me as a huge exploit available to the human player.

Catt