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 capabilities of each unit are given by the show command. The headings are as follows. For the building data:
[##:##] Command : show land build
The lcm required to build the land unit.
The hcm required to build the land unit.
The guns required to build the land unit.
The avail (work) required to build the land unit.
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
the attack multiplier of the land unit
the defensive multiplier of the land unit
the vulnerability of the unit to bombing/shelling (1-100)
the distance/mu for moving (in relative units)
how visible the land unit is, (relative units)
how far the land unit can see, (i.e. how good the reconnaissance equipment is), again in relative units
the unit's reaction radius
twice the distance the guns can fire, The range formula is (rng/2) * ((tech + 50) / (tech + 200))
the firing accuracy of the unit
the number of guns that fire when the unit fires
ammo: the number of shells the unit uses when fighting or firing
the AA fire rating of the unit
The number of extra-light planes the land unit can carry. (If the XLIGHT option is enabled)
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 capabilities. 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
the unit can lay/sweep mines, work on sectors/fortifications/etc.
the unit can supply other units
the unit is good at fighting guerrillas and shooting helpless civilians
the unit can be carried on ships that don't have supply capability
the unit is good at assaulting
the unit is good at gathering intelligence. It will do better using llookout, and will report enemy units in battle better.
the unit has radar capability
the unit may be used in assaults
the unit can fire 'general unit flak' (see "info Flak")
the unit is a spy
the unit is a train, and can't be loaded on land units (see "info Railroad")
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 p
att def vul d s y d g c m m f l
War band 1.3 1.0 99 23 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Supply Wagon 0.1 0.2 100 15 6 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
GPG Commandos 1.0 1.0 70 30 1 2 1 0 0 0 5 1 0
artillery 1 0.0 0.5 50 15 6 1 0 6 40 4 5 15 0
Jump infantry 5.0 6.0 20 55 1 4 4 0 0 0 5 35 5
marines 1 1.0 2.0 70 23 3 3 2 0 0 0 5 5 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