I'm wondering if anyone here has tried out some of the more outlandish unit types. In my case, I stumbled upon the combination of Artillery + Amphibious pods. Now I'm aware that standard foils and cruisers can be used to bombard coastal cities; however, after doing so they end their turn and risk counterattack?

With the Maritime Control Center in place, and assuming that you have extra production to kill, I'm guessing that transports can now be turned into powerful bombardment vessels; able to end their turns within the safety of friendly bases. It should also be helpful against annoying fungal towers on island chains; I'll have to test it out to confirm though.

I never tried it.

Possibly a helicopter on a carrier could be nice too but never tried that either.

I don't usually waste time harassing with small forces. I am either playing defensively or launching a large scale attack.

The artillery + amphibious gives you the ability to attack from a transport? The interesting part is; ships can only damage 50% on land units, but these amphibious bombard units would be able to damage until 99%. Does this actually work?

As soon as Air Power completes on the Mission Year timeline, try mounting a ship transport chassis on a jet chassis to create a quick shuttle for infantry units... and yes, you can make air drops on terrain but not into bases.

--- or ---

Try mounting a Probe Team's instrument onto a ship chassis to enter a base along a coastal area.

Interestingly, you cannot add a probe unit to a needlejet.

The transport unit can also be put on infantry, creating a 1 movement unit that you can give strong armor, but which can carry an attacking infantry unit; giving you +25% against bases; but 2 movement points in total. It is also the only way to create mind worms that can effectively attack with 2 movement points. By the time of hovertanks, the transport has (I believe) 2 movement points. Putting it on a rover just gives it 1 movement point, which is no use. Of course you can also put a rover on a troop transport, creating a unit which can 'lift' a rover over a rocky tile, after which it still has 2 movement points, for a total of 3.

I think in terms of cost, there are a few windows where armored (ground) troop transports + attacking units are more affordable than attacking + defending rovers (which do not get the +25% and are weak against ECM). I have never really gotten to use this much in MP.

Transport on a needlejet removes (I think) 2 movements points, which really takes down the range before Fusion, and units can only embark en disembark from it in a city (so no drops... I tried).

The "Berlin Airlift" Needlejet transport is an interesting concept for island-hopping if you don't have sea superiority; my problem with it though is that the air transport at reactor two only carries one unit at a time, plus it's an expensive unit.

One thing I especially like is submersible sea transports for carrying marines, but granted the effectiveness is dependent on the layout of your ports. Narrow channels and weird spacing can be an issue if you don't have the oceans fully locked down-- conversely more adjacent sea tiles makes an enemy blockade more difficult to pull off.

Probe Foils are amazing for stealing techs and pinning the blame on other factions-- sometimes you can break up pacts and gain new trading partners this way.