Concept : Unit Types
NAME
Unit-types - Description of the different types of land units
Level: Basic
Some of the units currently available in Empire are:
infantry The Bloody Infantry. Lotsa guys on foot with guns. They're
slow, and they carry their supplies in horse-drawn wagons,
which slows them down even more. Slow. They're also not
terribly good at scouting. They don't attack very well,
with a multiplier ranging from 1 to 1.5 or so with better
tech. However, they really shine on defense, with a multiplier
from 1.5 to 3.0. If you want to hold a line... use infantry.
They're fairly resistant to shelling and bombing, with the
later types of infantry units being better.
cavalry Empire starts just at the end of the age of cavalry. They're
quick, and they scout pretty well. They're better at attacking
than defending. They are pretty easy to kill with shelling or
bombing. Still, if you want a low-tech unit to go somewhere
quick, they're the guys.
supply Supply units range from horse and wagon to truck units. Early
supply units are slow, but the later supply unit types are
motorized and are faster. Supply units carry a bunch of stuff,
but try your best not to get them in combat, because they don't
enjoy it, and they're REALLY bad at it. Supply units can give
supplies to land units, as well as forts/ships/sectors. See
info supply.
lt armor Armor units may be light, medium, or heavy. Light armor units
armor have much the same uses as cavalry, although they are a good
hvy armor bit less fragile. Medium armor is medium-fast, good for general
attacking, while heavy armor is slow, but good for assaults,
any situation where you need to destroy a heavily-defended
fixed point.
All armor is better at attacking than defending. Higher tech
types of armor units are better at defending, however. Armor
gets much of its combat advantage from its mobility, being
able to attack and move in, severing supply lines & blocking
reaction & reinforcements.
Armor is fairly resistant to shelling/bombing.
artillery Artillery is a long range killer. You can use it to shell
lt artillery sectors, but it can often be more effective when used as
hvy artillery support for your attacks. Lt artillery has more mobility,
mech artillery but less damage. Hvy artillery has less mobility, but more
damage. Mechanized artillery gives you good damage and good
mobility, but is very expensive.
The better the accuracy of the artillery, the better it is
at assisting your troops or shelling ships. The better the
damage rating, the better the damage done. High-damage, low
accuracy artillery is mostly good for shelling sectors, while
high-accuracy artillery is good at supporting your troops,
or shooting at ships.
All artillery is bad at attacking, but can usually defend in
a not-horrible fashion. Artillery units are, however, pretty
vulnerable to shelling and bombing. (except for mech artillery)
engineers Engineers are the most versatile unit. They can lay mines,
mech engineers clear mines, defend well, attack well, work on sectors, etc.
The drawbacks? Well, they're VERY expensive and not very
big. Mech engineers have vehicles and are much faster and
more resistant to damage.
mech infantry These two types of infantry are faster. Mech infantry is
motor infantry also more resistant to damage and even better on defense.
marines These units are like improved infantry, but more expensive and
harder to make. Their best use is for assaulting beaches, but
they do make superior infantry if you have to use them that
way.
security These units are good at fighting guerrillas, but not for
much else. They fight about as well as low-tech infantry,
and their smallish size makes them not worth much.
They do help you when shooting helpless civs (see info shoot),
and fight guerrillas during the update. The security troops
get a chance to 'raid' the guerrillas and kill some of them
before the guerrillas fight. This will reduce your casualties
from guerrilla war.
radar units These units are high-tech. They give you the ability to
map the enemy easily as you advance. Try not to get them
into combat, as they're horrible at it, and they're very costly.
They're generally motorized, so they're pretty fast, and they
all get shelled/bombed hard.
aa unit These units are good defensively, and fight planes well. They
are a mechanized unit, and move & survive pretty well. Only
units with the FLAK ability can fire AA.
Use the "show" command to see units stats and capabilities.
These units types differ in their fundamental capabilities; some can fire
guns, some cannot; each has it's own specific abilities & roles. The capabil-
ities of each unit are given by the show command. The headings are as fol-
lows. For the building data:
[##:##] Command : show land build
lcm The lcm required to build the land unit.
hcm The hcm required to build the land unit.
guns The guns required to build the land unit.
avail The avail (work) required to build the land unit.
tech The minimum technology required to build the land unit.
$ The cost of the land unit.
The headings for the stats listing are
[##:##] Command : show land stats
att the attack multiplier of the land unit
def the defensive multiplier of the land unit
vul the vulnerability of the unit to bombing/shelling (1-100)
spd the distance/mu for moving (in relative units)
vis how visible the land unit is, (relative units)
spy how far the land unit can see, (i.e. how good the reconnaissance equip-
ment is), again in relative units
rad the unit's reaction radius
rng twice the distance the guns can fire, The range formula is (rng/2) *
((tech + 50) / (tech + 200))
acc the firing accuracy of the unit
fir the number of guns that fire when the unit fires
amm ammo: the number of shells the unit uses when fighting or firing
aaf the aa fire rating of the unit
fc/fu The land unit's fuel capacity & usage. (see info fuel) (If the FUEL
option is enabled)
xpl The number of extra-light planes the land unit can carry. (If the
XLIGHT option is enabled)
lnd The number of land units the unit can carry (no 'heavy' units)
Each land unit can carry a certain amount of products and has certain capabil-
ities. These are listed under the cargoes & abilities section. The cargoes
give the number of each product that can be carried. The abilities are as
follows.
[##:##] Command : show land capabilities
xlight the unit can carry xlight planes. (If the XLIGHT option is used)
engineer the unit can lay/sweep mines, work on sectors/fortifications/etc.
supply the unit can supply other units
security the unit is good at fighting guerrillas and shooting helpless civil-
ians
light the unit can be carried on ships that don't have supply capability
marine the unit is good at assaulting
recon the unit is good at gathering intelligence. It will do better using
llookout, and will report enemy units in battle better.
radar the unit has radar capability
assault the unit may be used in assaults
flak the unit can fire 'general unit flak' (see "info Flak")
spy the unit is a spy
train the unit is a train
heavy the unit cannot be carried on land units or ships, not even supply
ships
Some examples of the output:
[##:##] Command : show land build
lcm hcm mil guns shells avail tech $
War band 5 0 100 0 0 1 0 $500
Supply Wagon 5 5 50 0 0 2 0 $500
GPG Commandos 15 15 25 1 2 5 150 $800
artillery 1 40 60 70 20 40 17 100 $1000
Jump infantry 35 25 100 5 10 9 400 $3000
marines 1 20 10 100 2 4 5 200 $2000
[##:##] Command : show land stats
s v s r f a d a a x
p i p a r c a m a f f p
att def vul d s y d g c m m f c u l
War band 1.3 1.0 99 23 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Supply Wagon 0.1 0.2 100 15 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
GPG Commandos 1.0 1.0 70 30 1 2 1 0 0 0 5 1 10 1 0
artillery 1 0.0 0.5 50 15 6 1 0 6 40 4 5 15 0 0 0
Jump infantry 5.0 6.0 20 55 1 4 4 0 0 0 5 35 10 1 5
marines 1 1.0 2.0 70 23 3 3 2 0 0 0 5 5 0 0 2
[##:##] Command : show land cap
capabilities
War band 5f engineer light recon
Supply Wagon 50s 5g 100f 200l 100h 100r 200d 10b 100i supply light
GPG Commandos 5f security
artillery 1 5f 10g 20s
Jump infantry 5f 2g 10s xlight
marines 1 5f 10s xlight light marine
SEE ALSO
land, LandUnits