Wonder Units?

Throughout history, there have been some millitary breakthroughs that gave the nation who invented them a huge advantage. These include dreadnought ships, the Roman legions, Greek fire, the earliest tanks and the atomic bomb.

Would it be a good idea of civ represented these developments by adding a 'wonder unit' system? Here is how it goes:
1. Discover the required tech, for example metal casting (for greek fire)
2. Start work on the wonder unit, as you would a regular wonder. The first unit would cost a lot of productivity like a wonder.
3. Once you finish the wonder unit, an animation plays and you score points. Like a regular wonder, no other civ can work on this unit anymore, and are awarded gold for their wasted production.
4. Your wonder unit would pop out of the city. It would have some kind of special advantage, more than a unique unit does. For example, a ship with greek fire would have a strength increase and the ability to do collateral damage. The early tank wonder unit would be an armoured unit that only requires steel. Or a dreadnought might have a big bonus against battleships, destroyers and ironclads.
5. Unlike a regular wonder, however, you can build as many as you like after this, with only a normal amount of productivity required. It would be, in effect, a second unique unit.
6. The unit would go obselete with a particular tech, much like a wonder. After this it cannot be built again. You also loose the ability to build the unit if the city that the first one was built in is captured by the enemy, in which case they gain the ability to build it.

Hmm, I like it, not sure about losing it to the enemy if they capture the city though. What about Trojan Horses, that would make a cool unit, they might have an 80% chance of removing the effect of walls, without actually destroying them, so if you manage to take the city then you're nice and protected once inside. Subsequent use against the same enemy might reduce the chance of success 80%, 30%, 10%. And it should probably become obsolete quite quickly, although only once it is used really, rather than with a tech, so perhaps the sliding scale is better.

I like it too, but what about Empires that were not known for military might? JUst a thought...

You could have other unit units, maybe a spy satellite, although that only really helps military countries. hmm, it would seem that most units are military, hard to think of a non militaristic one. Perhaps a super great person, they would allow you to do three of the things a normal great person can do. But you wouldn't be allowed to build lots of them, and its a bit hard to explain why they can be "Built"

I was just throwing out an idea,( I can't even think of a non-militaristic Empire! )

I think you should only be able to build one. Otherwise, it would be easy to exploit. Imagine the Persians/Sumerians/Romans with early siege!

I like the only one idea better( Wonders ie. ONLY ONE )

Aye I guess, but as a wonder it isn't that powerful, I mean after a few turns with a catapult or trebuchet you can destroy a wall anyway, and they have the bonus of being able to cause collateral damage and they're reusable. There for the only benefit of the Trojan Horse would be that it leaves the wall intact, which I suppose is quite useful. It would be nice if you could use it against another civilisation too though. Ie if two civs aren't on good terms/aren't near each other then there is a chance it'll work against both of them. I envisage attacking multiple cities at the same time (no mean feat) so that this technique works. You could say that once a Trojan horse has been used the chances of success reduces each turn there after. So the first one is 90% effective, the next turn 70%, 45%, 15% after four turns there is perhaps still a 1% chance it'll work against a different civ to the one the first was used against. Of course these could all be fiddled. My thoughts are of the speed the news spreads. Nowhere else in the game is the speed news travels at implemented, and rightly so, it would make the game incredibly annoying, but I think this is somewhere it could work and add a bit of functionality. That way, instead of the first person to build a Trojan horse being the "winner" its the first person to use one. And if others have built them then they'll still have a use for a short while after.

Scilly_guy said:

Aye I guess, but as a wonder it isn't that powerful, I mean after a few turns with a catapult or trebuchet you can destroy a wall anyway, and they have the bonus of being able to cause collateral damage and they're reusable. There for the only benefit of the Trojan Horse would be that it leaves the wall intact, which I suppose is quite useful. It would be nice if you could use it against another civilisation too though. Ie if two civs aren't on good terms/aren't near each other then there is a chance it'll work against both of them. I envisage attacking multiple cities at the same time (no mean feat) so that this technique works. You could say that once a Trojan horse has been used the chances of success reduces each turn there after. So the first one is 90% effective, the next turn 70%, 45%, 15% after four turns there is perhaps still a 1% chance it'll work against a different civ to the one the first was used against. Of course these could all be fiddled. My thoughts are of the speed the news spreads. Nowhere else in the game is the speed news travels at implemented, and rightly so, it would make the game incredibly annoying, but I think this is somewhere it could work and add a bit of functionality. That way, instead of the first person to build a Trojan horse being the "winner" its the first person to use one. And if others have built them then they'll still have a use for a short while after.

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when you put it that way, I see your point, but some of the "wonder units" should only be used once though.

lutzj said:

I think you should only be able to build one. Otherwise, it would be easy to exploit. Imagine the Persians/Sumerians/Romans with early siege!

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i'd have no problem with that, if it beggared their economy to do so so they were gambling everything on that and would be easy prey if it failed; only needs the cost balanced right.

idea for wonder unit:
Tell me, what is the exact point of a wonder unit if it can easily be redone to be a 2nd UU?

Indeed that is what some wonder units could be, unique units but with a race to get it, perhaps there could be two varieties, ones you can only have one of or ones that you can build lots of.

Vandal Warlord said:

idea for wonder unit:
Tell me, what is the exact point of a wonder unit if it can easily be redone to be a 2nd UU?

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Seems to me that a wonder unit that nobody else can ever make is an even more unbalancing thing than getting a serious tech lead and throwing tanks against pikemen (for example), so I vote no. At least with a regular Wonder that one civilisation gets another civilisation can make capturing it a priority if they really want it; I don't see how a comparable mechanism could work for a wonder unit.

To answer the OP's original point, I think the best way of simulating military breakthroughs that give the nation who invent them a huge advantage is by increasing the differences in attack and defence strength between units at different tech levels, so that the first person to get tanks reliably wins a very high proportion of their battles against older units, until someone else gets tanks. That solution is simple, transparent, and can be implemented entirely with existing mechanics.

I thought military breakthroughs in this game was getting a military tech before everyone else, building some units and smashing your foes with them?

Such as building a tech lead and getting tanks first, building abunch and overrunning your enemy before he can build choppers/tanks of his own to counter your tanks

I agree.