Caelum a bit cheap?

[Kamamura]

I have noticed that the less resourceful (read "dumb as a rock") PD commanders do not compensate for flying units - they let the infantry rush forward, and the flier then telefrag the commanders causing massive rout. This makes PD less useful when fighting caelum (unless you leave a contingent of infantry where you think commanders will be stationed, but that is a guesswork).

Anyway, the flying unit mechanics in the game seem a bit strange to me.

[BesucherXia]

Flying PD has its own edge.
Most experienced players will set order with retreat for their scouts at the border provinces, and flying PD is the best way to hunt them down at battlefield before they escape.

Besides, can someone clarify if the flying PD also get the patrol bonus?

[Taqwus]

Flyers make good raiders, so long as no other air power has cast a global storm.

They're one size class more than ground-pounders, meaning that they both eat more and have less troop density per square, hampering them a bit in melee.

[Foodstamp]

BesucherXia said:
Flying PD has its own edge.
Most experienced players will set order with retreat for their scouts at the border provinces, and flying PD is the best way to hunt them down at battlefield before they escape.

Besides, can someone clarify if the flying PD also get the patrol bonus?

I am 99% certain they do not get the patrol bonus because I believe the game counts them as the pd value worth of generic units until combat ensues, then the appropriate units are loaded. If they received the bonus, it would mean the game was storing an instance of that unit, which would carry affliction, experience and have to be tracked by the game towards the unit cap. Also, if units did receive the bonuses they normally get, certain nations would be at a severe disadvantage concerning catching scouts, spies, assassins and so forth.

[Sombre]

In my experience the flying infantry don't target the commanders. Instead they fly into the enemy infantry and generally die horribly in melee.

Not sure how you're getting yours to go after the commanders and ignore the troops.

[ologm]

Certain nations get archers and infantry for pd. The commander generally stays behind the archers, while the infantry rushes forward. I guess if you set Caelumn warriors to hold and attack archers, you can kill enemy pd commanders easily.

[Meglobob]

Sombre said:Not sure how you're getting yours to go after the commanders and ignore the troops.

Hold, attack rear? Or perhaps just attack rear?

Of course they after have high enough morale I believe to bypass the enemy troops to strike at the commanders on the back row.

[Amhazair]

Foodstamp said:

I am 99% certain they do not get the patrol bonus because I believe the game counts them as the pd value worth of generic units until combat ensues, then the appropriate units are loaded. If they received the bonus, it would mean the game was storing an instance of that unit, which would carry affliction, experience and have to be tracked by the game towards the unit cap. Also, if units did receive the bonuses they normally get, certain nations would be at a severe disadvantage concerning catching scouts, spies, assassins and so forth.

Hmm... what you says makes sense, but I had the impression my scouts got caught a LOT more often by moderate PD of Caelum and the monkey nations. (loads of high AP markata's) I've allways thought this was because the troops were far better at patrolling, and saw it as the saving grace of these otherwise poor PD's. Anyone else knows for sure?

[B0rsuk]

Tips between turns say that units that are
-fast
-scary
-flying
are better at patroling.

[Sombre]

I'm also 99% sure the troops in national PD make no difference in terms of autopatrol - it's just based on the numbers.

If you really want 100% sure,.. well I don't know what to tell you. There aren't many things people will say they're 100% sure about, especially in dom3.