                             Concept : Land Units

NAME
   Land-units - How to use land units

Level: Basic

Land  units  are organized collections of mil (militia). They are considerably
more effective and cost-efficient than militia, and have many extra abilities.
With  the  addition  of  land units, mil are now more or less considered to be
militia instead of military, and are less important.

The way that military are incorporated into units are that the mil  are  load-
able commodities of the unit.  The offensive or defensive

Commands  for  land  units are generally similar to those of planes/ships, and
will usually start with 'l'.

Land unit characteristics

Land units have some characteristics of  both  ships  and  planes,  plus  some
unique  ones. Like both ships & planes, they have efficiency & mobility.  Like
ships, they can carry cargo, may have/use fuel, and may be able to  fire  guns
at  distant targets. Like planes, they have attack and defense values, and may
be able to act automatically to defend your country.  Let's look at a  typical
land unit:

   [##:##] Command : land *

      # unit type             x,y   a  eff mil fort  mu  fd tech retr rd xl ship
      0 inf   infantry        8,0      96% 100    0  93  24    0  42%  1  0
   1 unit

This  land  unit  is an infantry unit, located at 8,0. In many games, you will
start with 1-2 basic land units of this type. Some of the things about it  are
familiar. It is 96% efficient, has 93 mobility units, carries 1 food, no fuel,
and is tech 0 and currently contains 100 mi. It carries 0 extra-light  planes,
and  is  not  on  a  ship. The 'a' stands for army, and is just like fleets or
wings, i.e. a way of grouping your units. (See info "army" for  more  informa-
tion)  Fort  is  the  level  of fortification of the land unit. The higher the
fortification, the harder the unit is to hurt.

The 'retr' stands for retreat percentage. This land unit  must  begin  rolling
morale  checks  in combat whenever its efficiency goes below 75%. This is user
settable in a range determined by the happiness of  the  owning  country.  The
happier  your  people  are, the more determinedly they fight. If, on the other
hand, you "want" the unit to retreat easily, you can set this to 100% or  some
other  high  number.  (For  information  on setting this, see info morale. For
information on morale checks, see info attack)

The 'rd' field is referred to as the unit's 'reaction radius', and is the dis-
tance  to  which  the unit can react to defend your country.  Basically, if an
enemy attacks a sector close enough to the unit, it will go to the  threatened
sector and fight, like a plane intercepting. If it survives the attack without
failing a morale check, it will return to the sector  it  started  from,  just
like  a  plane would. (For more information on reacting and morale checks, see
info attack) Just as you can use rangeedit to change the range of your  planes
and  control  how  far  away they'll intercept, so you can change the reaction
radius with "lrangedit". Units with a base reaction  radius  of  0,  or  those
whose radius you have set to 0, will not react.

Cargo

Each land unit can carry cargo. The cargo display for land units is very simi-
lar to that of ships, and is gotten with the "lcargo" command.

   [##:##] Command : lcargo *

   lnd# unit type     x,y    a   eff  sh gun pet irn dst bar oil lcm hcm rad
      0 infantry      8,0        96%   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0
   1 unit

The land unit is not carrying anything. Potentially, land units can carry  any
of the commodities listed above. Unlike ships, they cannot carry mil, civs, or
uw's. Land units are loaded and unloaded using the lload command, which  works
pretty much like the load command for ships. (See info "lload") Units on ships
can transfer supplies to/from the ships with the "ltend" command.

HQ's & Building land units

Like planes and ships, land units are  built  in  special  sectors.  For  land
units,  the  sector  is  the  headquarters  sectors, designation !. Like other
units, they may require hcms and lcms, and will generally require money.

Some land units may require guns to build. All this info can  be  gotten  with
the "show" command.

   [##:##] Command : show land build

                             lcm hcm guns avail tech  $
   inf   infantry             10   5    0    40    0  $500

The  infantry  unit  takes  a  total of 10 lcms, 5 hcms, and  0 guns to build.
Like ships and planes, units are built at a lower percentage, and 'grow' up to
100%,  and  any  unit  with an efficiency of less than the build percentage is
dead. For land units, this minimum efficiency is 10%.  The build  requirements
for  land  units,  like  those  listed  above,  are for a 100% unit. Thus, the
infantr1 would require 1 lcm and .5  hcms  (Fractional  amounts  are  randomly
rounded...  i.e.  .5 has a 50% chance of being 1 or 0. It'll all even out over
time)

When 'growing', land units require materials which must be present in the sec-
tor.  The  amount of growth is calculated in the same fashion as planes/ships.
Generally a land unit can grow by up to 2x the ETUs per update. (See the "ver-
sion"  command  for exact maximums, as these are deity-settable) So, for exam-
ple, in a 32 ETU game, a land unit could possibly grow by 64% per update.  For
the  infantry  unit shown above, this would require 6.4 lcms and 3.2 hcms.  If
any of these things aren't present in the sector, the unit  won't  gain  effi-
ciency.

Repair of Land units

Ships  can  repair themselves in any sector, and can use work from their crew,
or from a harbor they are in. Planes can only be  repaired  in  airports,  and
only  use  work  from the airport. Land units can be repaired in HQ's, "or" in
fortresses, and use the work of the HQ or fort.  This  means  that  front-line
units in forts will repair themselves each update, assuming that the necessary
materials and work are available. They can also gain efficiency in other  sec-
tor types, but at a much reduced efficiency (1/3rd normal gain)

Land unit statistics

Each  land  unit  has certain vital statistics which show how it will operate.
These are obtainable from the show command:

   [##:##] Command : show land statistics

                                          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
   infantry                  1.0 1.5  60 23 15  2  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0

The infantry unit has an attack multiplier of 1.0, and defensive multiplier of
1.5.  It  has a vulnerability rating of 60, a speed of 23, a visibility of 15,
spy value of 2, reaction radius maximum of 1, no firing range, no accuracy, no
firing  damage,  uses  no ammo, has no aa fire, doesn't carry of use fuel, and
can't carry extra-light planes.

When attacking, a unit's value is expressed in 'mil-equivalents', i.e. 1  mil-
eq  is  as  strong as 1 mil. To find a unit's attack value, find the number of
mil currently in it, and multiply by the attack multiplier and efficiency.  In
the   case  of  our  infantry  unit  the  unit  has  an  attack  value  of  96
(100*1.0*.96), and a defense value  of  144  (100*1.5.96).  Some  units,  like
tanks,  will  have  high  attack  multipliers, and medium defense multipliers.
Some, like most infantry, will be better at defending  than  attacking.  Some,
like artillery units, will be bad at both.

As  time  goes  on, and your tech increases, the stats of your land units will
get better.  This reflects the technological breakthroughs you  have  made  in
that you can now build better units of the same type.

The  vulnerability  of  a  unit  determines how easy it is to hurt the unit by
shelling it, bombing it, or when it encounters land mines. The lower the  vul-
nerability, the better. Values range from 1-100.

Spd  is  the relative speed of the land unit. Land units move by marching (see
info "march"), and use mob depending on their speed and the terrain  they  are
moving through. For more info and formulas, see info "march".

Vis  is  the  visibility  of  the unit. This is a measure of how easy it is to
see/detect the unit. Lower is harder to see, and the numbers  can  range  from
1-100  or so. When a land unit tries to use the "llookout" command to look for
enemy land units/planes, its chances of success are  affected  by  the  target
units' visibility (see info "llookout" for more details).

Spy is the other side of the equation, i.e. how well can the unit find things?
A unit with a low spy won't be very good at locating other units, and won't be
able to report much when it encounters them in battle. A high-spy unit will be
able to use the "llookout" command with more chance of success,  and  will  be
able  to  more  accurately  report information about the units it runs into in
battle. (See info "attack" for information about intelligence  reports)  Units
with  radar  capacity  also  use their spy value to determine how far they can
see. Spy values range from 0-127, with low numbers being most common.

Don't confuse this spy value with the "spy" capability of a unit.   See  "info
Spies" for more information.

Rad  is  the  maximum  reaction radius for the unit. When built, the unit will
have this as its reaction radius. If you change the reaction radius  by  using
the  "lrangedit" command, you will be able to select any value that is between
0 and the maximum.

Frg is the unit's firing range. The unit can fire as far as the frg,  modified
by  the  unit's  tech.  Accuracy  is  the unit's firing accuracy, and helps to
determine how much damage it will do, along with the dam  of  the  unit.  When
firing  at  sectors,  damage  is  based  solely  on the damage. When firing in
defense of a sector, or firing at ships, damage is based on both acc and  dam.
(See info "fire" for more information)

Ammo  is the number of shells a land unit uses every time it fires or partici-
pates in combat. If the unit does not have enough shells when  firing,  damage
will be reduced proportionately. If a unit does not have enough shells in com-
bat, it will be out of supply, and have its combat strength cut in half.  (See
info  "supply"  and info "attack" for information on supply and how it affects
combat.

Aaf is the unit's anti-aircraft fire value. The higher  the  value,  the  more
damage the unit will do to planes flying overhead.

Fc/fu  are the unit's fuel capacity and use. If the fc/fu are 0, the unit does
not need fuel to gain mobility. If the fc/fu are non-zero, the unit will  need
fuel  to  gain  mobility,  and will use fu fuel whenever it fights.  (See info
"fuel" for information on fuel)

Xpl is the number of extra-light planes the unit can carry. Planes can operate
from  a  land  unit  in  the  same fashion as if it were a carrier.  Normally,
extra-light planes are SAMs, so units can carry  SAMs  for  air-defense.  This
particular unit can't carry any.

Land unit capabilities

There  are  many  different capabilities that land units may have. They may be
seen with the show command:

   [##:##] Command : show land capability

                             capabilities
   infantry                  5f light assault

The command shows the cargos the unit can carry (5 food in this case), and its
abilities.  See  info  "Unit-types"  for a complete description of the various
capabilities.

Moving

Land units move with the "march" command, which is  pretty  identical  to  the
navigate command. Marching units can run into land-mines, be interdicted, etc.
See info "march" for more info. See info "mission" for information  on  inter-
diction.

Units & ships

Each  type  of  ship  is rated on the number of land units it can carry.  Land
units that are 'light' can be loaded onto ships using the normal  "load"  com-
mand  (see  info  load).  Units that also have the 'assault' ability (see info
"show" and info "Unit-types" for explanations of abilities)  can  be  used  in
assaulting sectors. (See info "assault").

Supply

Units  need  supplies  in  order  to  attack.  Each update, and each time they
attack, units will attempt to draw supplies. See info "supply".   Really,  I'm
serious.  If  you don't read info supply, you'll die a horrible death. I'm not
kidding.

Fortification

Land units are able to "fortify" themselves  to  better  resist  damage.  Each
point  of mobility spent increases the fortification level by 1, up to a maxi-
mum equal to the maximum mobility of a land unit. A fully fortified unit takes
one  half  the  normal  amount  of damage. Fortification is lost when the unit
moves or retreats. (Note that a reacting defending unit "can" have a  fortifi-
cation value. This is an abstraction) Read info "fortify" for more details.

Looking

Land units can use "llookout" to look around. This command is analogous to the
look command used by ships. When llooking, land units have a  chance  to  spot
other  land units and also planes. Recon units tend to have better spy values,
and so are better at this.  (See info "show" and info "Unit-types" to find out
more about recon units).

Radar

Some  units  can  use  the "lradar" command. This command works like the radar
command. Radar range is determined by the unit's spy value.  (See info  "show"
and info "Unit-types" to find out more about radar units).

Engineers

Some  land  units  have  the 'engineering' ability. These units can do several
things. Engineers are the only units that can lay  land-mines,  and  the  only
units  that  can  sweep them when moving (like a minesweeper). Attacking engi-
neers also halve the defender's mine bonus. Engineers can also use the  "work"
command,  which allows them to raise sector efficiency. (See info "work") They
also tend to be quite expensive.

Attacking & defending

Info "attack" has a complete treatment of this, but  I  will  summarize  here.
When  you  decide  to attack a sector, you can use mil and units from adjacent
sectors. The attack value of your forces is the combined attack values of  all
attacking  land units, plus the number of mil coming in from adjacent sectors.

The defense value is equal to the  mil  in  the  defending  sector,  plus  the
defense values of any defending units in the sector, as well as any that react
and move there.

Friendly ships/forts/artillery units/planes can contribute "support".  Support
starts  at  1.0.  Each  friendly ship/fort/artillery unit/ plane that can help
adds its damage/100 to the support. For example, if you were attacking a  sec-
tor,  and  a friendly battleship was close enough to fire there, it could sup-
port you. If it would normally do 23% damage when firing, it  would  add  +.23
support, making your support number 1.23. The enemy also gets support from all
his stuff.

When all support is totaled,  the  attacker  strength  is  multiplied  by  the
attacker's  support  to  get the total attacker strength. The defender's total
strength is determined similarly. Both sides have their strength  modified  by
the  terrain. (show sector stats will show the defensive value of a sector) He
can also get support by having mine-fields in the sector (see info "lmine" and
info "attack" for more information). Planes support only if assigned to a sup-
port mission. See info "mission" for information on support missions.

Combat is done fairly normally, with a series of rolls for attacker/  defender
casualties,  until  one side is dead or retreats. Land units take damage after
all mil on their side are dead, and each 'hit' on a land unit does 1 mil  dam-
age.  (Therefore, a unit that takes 100 mil to build would take 1% damage when
it suffers a casualty. A unit that takes 50 mil would take  2%,  etc)  When  a
land unit's level of damage taken in a battle reaches it's 'retreat level', it
must begin taking morale checks. When it fails one, it will retreat.  Retreat-
ing attacking units go back to the sector they came from. Defending units will
attempt to retreat to an adjacent owned sector. If there are  none,  the  unit
will take extra damage and continue fighting.

If the attacker wins, he captures the sector, and his mil/units will move into
the sector if he ordered that. If the defender wins a combat, his units in the
sector  stay  there.  His  reacting defending units that did not fail a morale
check return to their starting point.  Defending  units  who  started  in  the
sector stay in the sector.

In both cases, retreated units end up in the sector they retreated to.

Units and retreating

Ships can use the "retreat" command to specify when and how they will run away
from trouble. Land units use a similar  command  "lretreat"  to  do  the  same
thing. See info "lretreat" for more details.

SEE ALSO
   Unit-types, show, supply, LandUnits

