GhostSalsa
Emperor
Ok I made an invalid point RE real life pikemen.Well they've got significantly better armor from what I can tell than the basic warriors.
Limiting the point to in-game pikemen: Armor made of what?
If your civ doesn't know what iron is, how can their pikemen be armored? For that matter, what's on the end of their sticks? Very very sharp library books?
It's an improvement that more stops on the middle of the tree are required for Civil Service now, but we all seem to miss the strength of the bottom half compared to the too.
Actually, Pikemen is just one of four spots where really high-powered units appear on the top of the tree and are packaged with pivotal game-progress bonuses: pikemen come with extra food, gatling guns with factories (just like in real life! who can forget the seamstresses of 18th century London mills and their brutal conquest of Big Ben with cheap hand-cranked belt-loading guns*, or something), modern infantry come with research labs, and SAMs come with Apollo.
Fine for the last two in terms of matching history, but it just makes you wonder why any player would bother with the bottom of the tree at those points. (And I'd note I never have rifleman wars anymore, either).
Maybe those units should just stay on the bottom. Or maybe more eco bonuses should stay on the bottom (like give the riverside farm boost to aquaducts and the less immediately valuable carryover bonus to Civil Service).
*Which the seamstresses are loading without knowing what gunpowder is.