How many unit types you use?

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Dis

Naval units I use best offensive and defense. This is a waste I know, but old habits die hard. Because even with the best defense, I often die when attacked.

Of course they die-- There are very few and very short points in the game where raw armour values equal those of weapons. At sea there are no terrain modifiers so its weapon versus armour. Unless the defender has a HUGE morale advantage it dies.

To me, if you want to fight a naval war ( and IMHO this is not possible once there is airpower), the key is numbers. I build as many cheaper ships as I think it will take to outnumber the enemy. Usually *-best and best-* combos (where * represents the highest free available weapon or armour). I also will build silly units like the very cheapest ship possible to send out as a scout. I KNOW it will die so I don't bother spending minerals on it initially. Its only role is to gatehr intelligence. . . if it does that and saves a more expensive unit when I kill that which killed it, so be it

[Chaos Theory]

Going off on a tangent, it would be nice if pacifism drones were based on losses among your units (particularly in enemy territory), more than simply having units in enemy (or unclaimed, or a pactmate's) territory. Vietnam triggered riots in America, whereas few care that troops are stationed in Germany.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Dis
not very many, and I try to keep my units pruned so I don't have useless designs in them.

Do you turn autodesign OFF?

I find the annoyance of having to design the few units I want is far far less than having to prune out all the crap that the game will design for me

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Going off on a tangent, it would be nice if pacifism drones were based on losses among your units (particularly in enemy territory), more than simply having units in enemy (or unclaimed, or a pactmate's) territory. Vietnam triggered riots in America, whereas few care that troops are stationed in Germany.

Interesting thought. So if a troop died, you get pacifism drones in its home city?

Downside is that it makes FM even stronger unless you made these drones on death even more numerous-- Rehoming could be key and it could lead to interesting decisions ( I'll suicide attack with these guys from my punishment sphere base and keep these other folks alive)

OR a death could cause a certain number of random drones throughout your empire-- that would be tougher-- Lose a unit and see 5 drones appear for 5 years or something

[Mead]

Originally posted by dmm1285


If I remeber right, infantry formers cost 20 minerals, and speeder formers cost 40 minerals. If my numbers are right, I'd much rather in effect have 1 former that moves half as fast but can terraform twice as fast over move twice as fast but terraform at half speed.

True.

Primarily, it's laziness on my part. It takes more keystrokes to do the same thing if you just have one move formers.

Although if you mix up the two move units with the one move units in a reasonable ratio, it can be more efficient. (turn one: two move former goes onto square- makes road, one move units follow on same turn and complete teraforming. turn two: two move former goes to next square- makes road, one move units follow on same turn and complete teraforming. and so on turn after turn)

Because you primarily use the rover formers to lay down roads for the other formers you don't have to give them the same special abilities you would to the other formers (like clean/fung). This should make the rover formers cheaper than they would be otherwise. And, because the infantry formers will be doing most of the heavy lifting you'll have a lot more of them, so having them clean will be more beneficial than having the rover formers clean.

Generally, if I was really paying attention to the ratio
(which I don't), I would likely go with something such as a 4 infantry clean former to 1 non-clean rover former.


Mead

[Chaos Theory]

Does anyone actually use fungicidal, ever?

[Ghidorah]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
Does anyone actually use fungicidal, ever?

I find it's useful when colonising new islands where you don't have the benefit of your former army and you can develop faster than you can form. Even six former-turns is a long time when you've only got one or two formers available. Or if you've got the Ruins in your territory.
Even generally, a couple of fungicidal formers who go to a fungus square and clear the fungus, lay down a road and move on and leave it to be worked on by a regular former gang can save some fairly serious forming time.
And if I'm feeling lazy, I'll sometimes upgrade a couple of formers to fungicidal and set them to auto fungus removal.
But yeah, fungicidal is hardly of earth-shattering importance. Or planet-shattering. Or whatever.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Flubber



Of course they die-- There are very few and very short points in the game where raw armour values equal those of weapons. At sea there are no terrain modifiers so its weapon versus armour. Unless the defender has a HUGE morale advantage it dies.

To me, if you want to fight a naval war ( and IMHO this is not possible once there is airpower), the key is numbers. I build as many cheaper ships as I think it will take to outnumber the enemy. Usually *-best and best-* combos (where * represents the highest free available weapon or armour). I also will build silly units like the very cheapest ship possible to send out as a scout. I KNOW it will die so I don't bother spending minerals on it initially. Its only role is to gatehr intelligence. . . if it does that and saves a more expensive unit when I kill that which killed it, so be it

I rarely use my ships anymore anyways. I keep them in port or close to port. I only use them to destroy annoying AI navies that are around my coastal bases or sea bases. And a lot of times I have a tech advantage, so my chips can survive if I'm fighting one of the lesser tech factions.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Flubber


Do you turn autodesign OFF?

I find the annoyance of having to design the few units I want is far far less than having to prune out all the crap that the game will design for me

I never use auto design. (not since my newb days)

[#endgame]

Same Here. I like to handcraft all my units.

[Blake]

My primary forces in the later game are Super Clean Formers (about 10% rover, the rest standard) and Best-1-1 Infantry (not clean - no mods at all usually, maybe empath on a few), with a few 1-Best-2/3 Defender units, usually with AAA and COMM mods (no clean). Also a very few Best-1-2/3,SAM,Clean and Best-Best-2/3, AAA,COMM, nearly always elit.

The cheap infantry are mass produced from raw minerals (the rovers are usually upgraded from trained shells) and the formers lay magtubes up to hostile bases, the infantry pop out the factories and often attack in the same turn. Captured bases churn out 1-1-1 Drop,Police (and slight variants) which keep newly captured bases under control, they sometimes get upgraded to defensive infantry but usually the offense smashes everything in it's path, and if a base gets retaken it's a simple matter to recapture it.
The offensive rovers are used to smash junk units to save infantry turns. The defensive rovers are placed on top of the stacks of formers/infantry that have expended all thier movement points, to help defend against aircraft.

Aircraft are hardly used at all because they can't keep up (no repairs at monoliths is a real drag), just a half dozen choppers scattered around the homeland, usually Empath Clean or something. I use a few basic best-1-x choppers to smash up junk units in the wildnerness between bases, these are usually kamikazi choppers because it's quicker to just build new ones than wasting a whole heap of movement points & turns going back to repair.

I nearly never use clean on my units because they are expendable, sometimes my formers don't even get clean if they are being mass produced to replace high frontline former losses.

[Senethro]

Wouldn't choppers do the nasty to you? They could kill 10 units a turn and sit there blocking up with ZOC. And a few carefully chose arty or bombing run to your magtubes slow you down? Its the lack of air units thats really puzzling me here...

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Blake
My , they sometimes get upgraded to defensive infantry but usually the offense smashes everything in it's path, and if a base gets retaken it's a simple matter to recapture it.

I have a similar attitude when attacking Its all about killing all their stuff on the attack and its very little about defending. Thats the reason I actually place very few ECM abilities , I just don't expect a rover to be able to get at my troops usually

[Commy]

Originally posted by Chaos Theory
If you can win a war without losing units, your opponent was at your mercy long ago. Don't expect to have much success with this against competent opponents.

I don't ever attack or declare war on the AI, only defend myself...part of my "make the AI more challenging" list...I build very few military units, because I know that even half-asleep, I can still beat them...rather, I like sitting around, just watching the AI exhaust itself...if I wanted too, I could easily conquest the whole map (who couldn't?), but I find it much more fun not too

Originally posted by Chaos Theory Clean is even more wasteful if you upgrade units. A clean unit costs just as much to upgrade from as a non-clean unit, but a clean unit costs quite a bit more to upgrade to than a non-clean unit, all else equal. If you produce a clean deathsphere that costs 100 minerals, plus 50 for being clean (100+X energy, plus 50 for being clean, if you upgrade to this), and you upgrade it 20 turns later, you only saved 20 minerals over 20 turns by paying 50 up front. Bad deal.

You have a point, I have often considered not putting clean reactors on units, but I'd rather not have to have an excessive amount of minerals just to cover support...I figure, since I usually hurry my military (have one only during war-time), clean reactors are expensive, but atleast a war won't cripple my industry...and, since I don't build many boreholes (limit myself to one per base), minerals can be a bit tight...

[Commy]

Originally posted by Flubber
Against a competent opponent, all those super expensive clean units will die before they pay out.

I don't believe any of the units I build are super expensive, in fact, most of them are relatively cheap...

Also, I think the key word in your quote is "competent"...if I was playing a competent player (not the AI in SP), then I wouldn't limit myself like I do in Single Player...first off, I would actually start wars with neighbor; second, I would actually build a military, since little is needed to defend against the AI; third, if I was playing a human, I would change my playing style, as the AI provides little resistance between me and victory (as it does for all decent players)...

I don't play MP very often, but if and when I do, my playing style is vastly changed...