Command : MARCH

Basic

[##:##] march <LAND UNIT/ARMY> <ROUTE|DESTINATION>

The march command is the move command applied to land units. You can control one unit or an entire army with it.

Land units may only move into sectors you own, sectors of countries you are allied with or deity-owned sectors with 1 exception. Spies. Spies may move anywhere, with a chance of getting caught. See "info Spies" for more information.

If you are moving an army and the lead unit stops, the army stops; (the lowest numbered unit is always considered the lead unit).

The program will prompt with the mobility of the lead unit, the minimum mobility value for the army, and the current sector coordinates in the form:

<57.0:23.5: -6,4>

which means the lead unit has 57 mobility units, some other unit in the army has 23.5 mobility units and the lead unit is in sector -6,4. You may indicate the direction you would like the army to move by typing a string of letters consisting of any combination of the following:

y  for up-left
u  for up-right               y    u
g  for left                    \\\  /
j  for right               g  --  --  j
b  for down-left               /  \\\\
n  for down-right             b    n
r  for radar
l  for lookout
m  to sweep landmines
h  for end of movement

The radar option will cause the lead unit to use it's radar, if any. You may also give a unit number or army or group of units on the same line: "r 12/13/14/73"

The lookout option works in the same way as radar, i.e. it will cause the lead unit to do a lookout.

Note: the lookout and radar commands use BTU's, just as if you'd typed them separately from the command line.

You may also use the 'm' command to have engineers in the marching group search for mines in the current sector. Example: "m 12"

Since the <ROUTE> can be specified in the command line, simple unit movements are often typed as a single line, such as:
[##:##] march 19 jjjh

Or some movements may be done partly on the command line and partly interactively:
[##:##] march 18 yy

<112.7:112.7: -4, -2> l
Your capital 100% efficient with 549 civ with 10 mil @ -5,-3
Your highway 100% efficient with 549 civ with 0 mil @ -4,-2
Your harbor 100% efficient with 549 civ with 109 mil @ -3,-1
<112.7:112.7: -4, -2> yh
war band #18 stopped at -5,-3

You may also simply specify the destination sector on the command line. In this case, empire will set the path to be the cheapest path (in terms of mobility) that currently exists. The unit(s) will move to the destination sector, and then ask for more input.

For example,
[##:##] march 18 -6,-2

<104.2:104.2: -6,-2> h
war band #18 stopped at -5,-3

Note that if you are marching multiple units, you may only specify a destination sector on the command line if all the units start in the same sector.

See "info Mobility" for the mobility cost to march land units.

At the update, units with negative mobility have their mobility halved before new mob is added. For example, in a game where units got 32 mob per update, a unit with -100 mobility would have -18 after an update. (-100/2 = -50 + 32 = -18) This helps inefficient units be not quite as slow.

Moving a unit through a sector that has been mined introduces a chance of mines/(mines + 50) that you will be damaged. Units with engineering capabilities can remove up to five mines per pass through a sector (indicated by the message Sweep...). Such units also take 1/2 normal damage from mines. See info lmine for more details.

Hostile land/sea/air units may fire at/bomb your units, if they're on interdiction missions (see info mission). If your enemy has a stack of missiles on interdiction mission, then they will automatically fire one after another until 100 damage has been done. Missiles and pinbombers have a 100% chance of hitting their target (provided they make it through plane/missile defenses). Collateral damage will be done to the sector that the units were marching into. See also : Unit-types , lmine , LandUnits , Moving , Spies