Civilization III Conquests: The Army unit

An Army is a group of ordinary units that move and fight together. To form an army, you must build the Army unit and then 'load' other units into it. You can load up to three units, though the Pentagon increases this limit to four, if you have built it.

Armies can be built in cities that have the Military Academy or a Leader in them. But you must have at least four cities for every army you create.
An army uses one, some, or all its internal units to fight a battle, depending upon the course of the fight.
An army can "see" up to two squares away, due to its intrinsic scouts.
Armies are the military forces of a nation, commissioned to defend the security of their country, as well as to protect its interests across the world. Complex organizations, armies are capable of supporting extended campaigns in lands far from home. They are frequently large groups of soldiers, though armies can be comprised of diverse combat specialties. Since these organs wield considerable force, their integration and power within a nation's ruling body is heavily scrutinized.

Besides the abilities listed in the Civilopedia, an Army unit also has the "Blitz" capability (it can attack twice in the same turn), its movement rate has been increased by one, and units in an Army heal faster than they would if they were not within the Army unit.

There are two types of Leader units in the game: Military and Scientific. It's a Military Leader that's expended to create an Army unit.

The units within an Army share their collective hitpoints as if they were one unit.
If the unit or units loaded into an Army have enough attack and defense strength, then the Army gains additional bonus strength. The new values for attack and defense are increased with 1/6 of total value for the combined units inside the Army. If the Military Academy small wonder has been built, then the increase is 1/4 of the total value. The bonus increase is rounded down to a whole integer value, which is why there might not be any bonus increase.

Note: If any bonus increases are given, they aren't displayed in the game interface when checking the Army unit's properties.

E.g. 2 Horsemen in one Army won't gain any bonus attack or defense strength, since their total values are less than 6. An example with a +2 bonus attack strength increase is 2 Cavalry units in an Army. 6 * 2 / 6 = 2, which means that the Cavalry unit's attack value of 6 is increased by 2, so that the Army gets an attack strength of 8. If the Military Academy has been built, then the bonus increase becomes 6 * 2 / 4 = 3, giving the Army an attack strength of 9. The maximum bonus increase is 100 %, which is given when there are four units inside the Army, which is possible after having built the Pentagon, and the Military Academy also has been built. The bonus is then X * 4 / 4, which means that the new attack or defense value becomes 2X.

Army units have the Blitz capability, which means that they can attack multiple times in a single turn. The maximum number of attacks per turn is equal the number of available moves, which usually is one more than the slowest unit inside. Since Army units gain one extra move, it means that they can attack at least twice, and up to four times if Cavalry or Modern Armor units are loaded.
Army units can retreat when not fighting another fast unit.
Army units can heal inside enemy territory, even without building the Battlefield Medicine small wonder. They also heal faster inside cities, regardsless of the Barracks improvement.
Army units can pillage without losing any movement points.
Army units have the Zone of Control ability.
Army units can be loaded onto naval transports. The Army requires one free slot for itself in addition to the units inside it.
Army units gain the abilities of its units, but only if all of them are of the same type. This means that Army units with amphibious units can attack from transporting units. Enslavement also works for units inside Army units. Exceptions are Paratrooper armies, which can't airdrop. Army units can't gain any worker function, so Crusader armies can't build fortresses. They also can't perform a Stealth Attack.
Units in an Army can get battlefield promotions to Regular, Veteran and Elite levels. This mostly happens to the unit that was loaded first, or the strongest unit if they're unequal. If all units are equal, then it's the first unit that fights most of the time. If they're unequal, then it's the strongest unit which fights most of the time.
The Army unit itself as well as the units in the Army require support every turn.

• Only combat units are able to join armies.
  
• Cannot unload or upgrade its units.
  
• Empty Army unit movement along roads is reduced by 1.
  
• Victorious elite units don't produce Military Leaders.

Army units are worth 50 shields to the city you disband them in, regardless of what or how many units they contain, but only when building improvements or units. They don't add shields to construction of wonders, not even small wonders.

The Army unit can give human players an advantage over the game AI opponents, because the game AI isn't good at neither using Army units, nor at fighting against them. One of the reasons for the latter is because the game AI evaluates the battle odds between individual units, without consideration of coordinated attacks by several units against a single strong unit like an Army unit. This means that a single Army unit sometimes isn't attacked by the AI civs in situations where human players would do so.

The Civilopedia information is from the Civilopedia in the game. The Readme information is from the Readme file included with the game files. The Additional information and The Game AI are based on experience with Army units in the game, plus sources found on the Internet, especially this page, The Basics of Armies - CivFanatics[www.civfanatics.com], and the related forum dicussion, The basics of Armies - Civilization Fanatics' Forums[forums.civfanatics.com].