I am quite confused about what I can use the transports for. I just lost a game to somebody who used transports very efficiently - carried mortars, tanks, and even rocket launchers. In my case I only had been able to carry tanks (bio-T's) and robots. When I tried to load a mortar or a scorcher on a transport it would do it but then when I click on the transport it show the mortar with a red X on it and refuse to unload it anywhere. Same with rocket launchers and LAV's. What's the deal? Can anybody tell me which and how many of each unit can a transport carry? Can it carry mixed units? (as in a tank and a mortar?) Can it pick up units along the way? (as in if the units were not in the immediate proximity initially?) Are there circumstances under which some units cannot be carried and how can I know in advance? Thanks.

Also, if there are green circles ahead (instead of yellow ones) how many steps can the transport go?

A land transport can carry any land unit except another land transport, and a naval transport can carry any land unit period (including land transports...but only empty ones). The reason that the red 'X' appears is because it is telling you that the unit has used up its movement for that round and can no longer be moved, thus it can not be unloaded until the next round. Slow units like LAVs can be loaded, but must wait until your next turn before unloading, which is an advantage that tanks, mechs, amphibians, and (in the case of loading onto a naval transport) land transports have.

The red 'X' appears regardless of the unit, just so long as it has 0 movement left. To see what I mean, try placing a land transport 2 hexes away from a tank or mech ((LT) - (empty) - (tank)), then moving the unit towards the transport, and then into it. The tank or mech will have a red 'X' on it as well.


As to terrain, each color circle represents the terrain type in its corresponding hex. The colors are:

None: Cliff/mountain. No movement
Yellow: Open terrain. Normal movement.
White: Road. Slow units (LAVs, Mortars, RLs) get an extra movement point.
Green: Forest. Fast units (LTs, Tanks, Mechs) require/use 2 movement points to enter (effectively have movement cut in half). Slow units move normally. Amphibians cannot enter forest hexes.
Orange: Desert. Fast units require/use 2 movement points to enter (effectively have movement cut in half). Slow units and amphibians move normally.
Blue: Water. No land units except Amphibians may enter.

To answer your specific question, Land Transports can move 2 spaces through Forest.


I hope this helped.

Thanks, it did help a lot. However I still have more questions. Can a transport carry 2 robots? 2 rocket launchers? More than 2 LAV's? Can it pick up units as it moves along. For example, if a tank is 3 hexes away, can the transport move 3 hexes, pick up the tank, and then unload it 2 hexes farther? Can the transport move after it unloaded the units if it didn't exhaust all of its movement? For example, pick up a tank, move 3 hexes, unload, and move 2 hexes back? Thanks.

A land transport can carry just 2 units at a time. A naval transport can carry 4



Yes to all of the above. Units can load and unload from a transport at any time, as long as they have movement left. So if a tank starts next to a transport, it can enter, the transport can move 5, then the tank exits, giving the tank an effective movement of 7. Amphibians can move even farther, as they can enter 2 tranports and then exit, as they have a 3 move.

Any 2 units? Can it carry 2 rocket launchers? 2 robots? What about 1 robot and 1 rocket launcher?



Damn! I wish I knew all this before I started playing! By the way, since the naval transports can carry 4 units, how do you get them all in? Do you have to pick them on the coast as the transport moves along?

Also, is there a way to see whether there are units in the enemy's transport?

Yes, it can carry 2 ANY units. You can click mouse over transport (your or oponent's) and see units in this transport.

This is incorrect, a white square indicates that the above units need only use half a movement point... it's an important difference as they can't move one on a road then one onto a yellow space, nor can they move one on a road and then move into a transport.



Everything is open in MA, clicking on an enemy transport shows you the contents, just as clicking in an enemy country gives you its financial situation.

as for picking up 4 units with ur naval transportt, this can be done in many ways, either by having untis alrdy on the sea transport, having units that can move more than 1 space will let them reach the naval transprot form further away. You can line alot of units along the coast and ahve the naval transport pick them up on it;s way past. Or u can use land transports to bring in units from further away. note that units need 1 movement point remaining after they move onto the land transport to move from it to the naval transport.

After playing for a month I got some additional questions.

What if the terrain is mixed? For example, what if there 2 normal hexes and then 2 forrest hexes before the land transport? How far can it go?

What if there are 3 normal and 1 forrest/desert and then again normal?

What if the transport is standing on a desert hex and has tanks standing next to it on normal hexes? Will my opponent be able to load and unload the tanks in one turn?

Thanks.

Transports have 5 move points. To them, forests, deserts, and crater walls take 2 move points each hex, while normal and road hexes take 1 movement. So in the case of travelling through a forest, a transport can make two moves, then have 1 movement point left it can't use to travel to any neighboring forest hex.

When units are loaded into a transport, it takes 1 move from them. So you can load a tank, move, then unload it into any hex that only takes 1 move. But if you are moving through forest for example, you can load a tank, move, but can't unload it because it has only 1 move point remaining.

That all make sense?

It all makes sense, thanks. However I still would like to make sure I can predict my opponents movements correctly for these specific situations:

1. If a transport is standing on a desert hex surrounded by normal hexes it will be able to move 5 hexes, correct? Now, if tanks are loaded on it (standing on a desert hex), will they be able to be unloaded in the same turn? The logic behind this question is, since the transport is on a desert hex, wouldn't moving tanks on it be equal moving them onto a desert hex as well? Hence cutting one movement point? From your previous post it looks like my assumption was wrong. Too bad I already sent in a turn based on it.

2. If a transport has 2 normal hexes ahead of it and then 2 forrest/desert, will it be able to move 4 hexes or 3?

Thanks. Your help is greatly appreciated. And I am still waiting for your turn.

Don't think of it as moving the tank on to the hex, think of it as simply loading the transport. Regardless of the type of terrain the transport occupies it always takes one full movement point to load a unit on it, no more, no less.



The simple answer is 3. Moving the first two normal hexes will reduce the transports movement from 5 to 3. Then moving onto 1 forest tile will cut that from 3 to 1. With the remaining 1 point of movement you won't be able to move onto another forest tile but you could still move 1 more space onto a road or regular tile.

In fact naval transport loaded with amphibians is a threat for carriers. transport has attack range of 9 than while carrier with planes only 9.

On the topic of transports...

Does the AI not use them ever? I seem to recall some comment from way back that the devs were working on incorperating transport use for the AI. Does this still stand?

As far as I know, the AI does not use transports in MA or MAN. I have no idea what the case will be in MAPR.

atm the ai dones't use trnasports, the devs ahve got them using them well but atm the ai's turn takes about 10mins, so they are working on reducing this before releasing upgraded ai.

well, now it takes at most 2 mins at turn 13-14 on a large map with some "side effects" that are noticeable to experienced players, and it's possible to make it 45-50 sec on the same map and turn with larger "side effects" (noticeable to intermediate (singleplayer expert) player). Seems like both modes will be available in MAPR.

Times are for 1.4Ghz P 4 with PC133 memory.

On small ground maps or when AI has no extra resouces in any part of the map they add little time to turn calculation.