                             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

