A recent foray to the Unique Unit elimination thread made me realize the scant amounts respect I have for most mounted units in Civ V.
Maybe it's me, and I'm just using them wrong...or perhaps it's just that I stubbornly refuse to get Gods and Kings?
Anyhow, from what I can observe, the strengths of Civ V mounted units are that they get more movement points than their foot counterparts AND they have the ability to move after attacking, provided they still have unspent movement points left. They also tend to have more Combat Strength than foot equivalents in the same era.
The obvious disadvantages of Civ V mounted units is that they don't get defensive terrain bonuses and they have penalties to attack cities. Moreover, mounted units tend to cost more hammers than their rough foot equivalents.
I find that the disadvantages of Civ V mounted units far outweigh the advantages. Their lack of survivability means that I'm loathe to put mounted units in real combat environments, which seriously cripples their experience growth and makes the comparative weaknesses of mounted units even more apparent as their foot counterparts rack up experience assaulting cities and such. That means that I mostly use mounted units in situations where hectic combat is unlikely, like mopping up enemy remnants or hunting down lone barbarians that pillage my luxuries while my main army is far away alooting. It seems like such a...waste of hammers for so trivial a duty.
Now, of course I realize that there are exceptions to these statements...for example, the Keshik and the Camel Archer. Still, I feel like mounted units need...something more.
One possible characteristic I suggested in the Unique Unit elimination thread was allowing mounted units the ability to ignore ZOC. Another possible characteristic might be to allow them to use enemy roads/rails and gain the bonus to movement...similar to how the Commando promotion worked in Civ IV.
Do you guys have any suggestion as to how mounted units can be made more useful? Am I completely misusing them? Do you think that the changes I'm suggesting would make mounted units too powerful?
Maybe it's me, and I'm just using them wrong...or perhaps it's just that I stubbornly refuse to get Gods and Kings?
Anyhow, from what I can observe, the strengths of Civ V mounted units are that they get more movement points than their foot counterparts AND they have the ability to move after attacking, provided they still have unspent movement points left. They also tend to have more Combat Strength than foot equivalents in the same era.
The obvious disadvantages of Civ V mounted units is that they don't get defensive terrain bonuses and they have penalties to attack cities. Moreover, mounted units tend to cost more hammers than their rough foot equivalents.
I find that the disadvantages of Civ V mounted units far outweigh the advantages. Their lack of survivability means that I'm loathe to put mounted units in real combat environments, which seriously cripples their experience growth and makes the comparative weaknesses of mounted units even more apparent as their foot counterparts rack up experience assaulting cities and such. That means that I mostly use mounted units in situations where hectic combat is unlikely, like mopping up enemy remnants or hunting down lone barbarians that pillage my luxuries while my main army is far away alooting. It seems like such a...waste of hammers for so trivial a duty.
Now, of course I realize that there are exceptions to these statements...for example, the Keshik and the Camel Archer. Still, I feel like mounted units need...something more.
One possible characteristic I suggested in the Unique Unit elimination thread was allowing mounted units the ability to ignore ZOC. Another possible characteristic might be to allow them to use enemy roads/rails and gain the bonus to movement...similar to how the Commando promotion worked in Civ IV.
Do you guys have any suggestion as to how mounted units can be made more useful? Am I completely misusing them? Do you think that the changes I'm suggesting would make mounted units too powerful?