Why doesn't Battleship upgrade to Missile Cruiser

Scirocco16V said:

Missile cruisers don't need missiles stationed on it to attack. It can carry up to 3 missiles, but it also has 100 strength, range 3, ranged attack independent of any missiles it is carrying. It can also see submarines, has 100 interception and +100 vs submarines. The only thing battleships have that missile cruisers don't is indirect fire. Really, missile cruisers are by far the best naval units and probably over powered.

A naval railgun would be something IRL, though it seems unlikely it'd have more range than a missile and modern missiles seem to have plenty of punch... I suppose amo would be smaller and thus more could be carried or the ship could be smaller....

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It is the speed of the railgun that is so impressive. The tests they have done (early stages however) the speed of the projectile is 5.400 mph. Compare that to a Tomahawk cruise missile´s 550 mph.
There is really no defence to something that travels that fast and that is that small. And the impact is so big even with out any explosives and thus no need to store a lot of dangerous and explosive ammo on board.

I kinda preferred the previous path. Swords all the way up to robots was the resource units while spears/pikes and their followers were more of a makeshift ''do with what you got'' kinda thing. Wasn't perfect , but i liked it. Now , i don't like battleships being stuck there , same for mech infantry. Not like i fight all that much in very late , near future era , but still it's kind of a let down for your 6000 year old super units to completely be outmatched by fresh off the boat better units. At any rate , i get a lot of GPT from iron lol.

Scirocco16V said:

Is there any reason why the Battleship doesn't upgrade to a Missile Cruiser? It seems like a stupid oversight to still be in the game after so long. That and the Pikeman -> Lancer -> Anti Tank Gun -> Helicopter Gunship nonsense are about the only remaining problems with the military unit paths. Of course it would be nice if there were more chances to use Information Era units, especially XCOM squad, giant death robot, and stealth bomber.

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Battleships have Indirect Fire, and can fire over hills and trees. Missile Cruisers do not, and can only fire on things in their direct line of sight. Battleships, ultimately, are more useful for shelling cities and units, while cruisers are better at destroying ships and subs.

Scirocco16V said:

How about making missile cruisers require aluminum? Battleships need oil & Frigates need iron.

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(at the risk of needlessly continuing the topic)

I think this would be appropriate.

Some of the arguments against on this thread just don't cut it for me:

"with promotions they would be OP" - yes, like stealth bombers that have seen a lot of action in previous incarnation; or Chus/Longbows becoming gatlins/MGs etc. etc.

"they are different ships with different abilities" - well galleases can't go on ocean tiles but frigates can, they are both the ranged naval units of their time - seems reasonable enough to me that upgraded battleships could have better air defence and see subs etc.

Obviously I'm well aware that air power effectively called time on battleship fleets, but CiV plays fast-and-loose with historical accuracy all across the game. For those of us who enjoy naval empires this just feels a perfectly reasonable proposal.

That's all I have to say on that one!

Vidszhite said:

Battleships have Indirect Fire, and can fire over hills and trees. Missile Cruisers do not, and can only fire on things in their direct line of sight. Battleships, ultimately, are more useful for shelling cities and units, while cruisers are better at destroying ships and subs.

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Indirect fire can be earned. It just requires Targeting II. I've had frigates with indirect fire. Since it isn't unique to battleships it would also carry over when battleships upgrade to missile cruisers.

Vidszhite said:

Battleships have Indirect Fire, and can fire over hills and trees. Missile Cruisers do not, and can only fire on things in their direct line of sight. Battleships, ultimately, are more useful for shelling cities and units, while cruisers are better at destroying ships and subs.

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However, if Missile Cruisers required Aluminum and upgraded from Battleships, then they could have indirect fire added quite reasonably.

(and the whole air power shutting down Battleship fleets would be reflected in the fact that they have to get upgraded to a form that has AA)