Do the land units in Civ V "swim"

[RockTheGreat]

I haven't played the demo yet, but I was reading in this review....

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...entertainment-ars-reviews-civilization-v.ars/

that land units can cross water without boats.

"Perhaps one of the grandest additions to all units, but especially to combat units, is the ability to travel on water tiles. Once the right (relatively early) techs are researched, any unit may "embark" on water tiles, turning them into a bunch of boats ready to seafare. Realistic? Maybe not. Useful? Definitely. While initially the units can't traverse deep water, the ability is enough to allow them to get around to a lot more land mass a lot earlier."

Like I said I haven't played the demo yet, but this seems kind of ridiculous... I'm having a hard time imagining an armored division in the field spawning/carrying ocean going vessels for itself. Does anyone think this was a good addition to the game?

 

[sevventh]

When they embark onto the water they turn into an armed transport suitable for the era you are in. It takes one turn to embark, disembark. I really like this addition to the game and have been having a great time attacking enemy transports at range with my Ships of the Line. It is very much possible now to push enemy units into the ocean if they are retreating, but they are extremely vulnerable to ranged fire because they loose a turn to embark.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I haven't played the demo yet, but I was reading in this review....

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...entertainment-ars-reviews-civilization-v.ars/

that land units can cross water without boats.

"Perhaps one of the grandest additions to all units, but especially to combat units, is the ability to travel on water tiles. Once the right (relatively early) techs are researched, any unit may "embark" on water tiles, turning them into a bunch of boats ready to seafare. Realistic? Maybe not. Useful? Definitely. While initially the units can't traverse deep water, the ability is enough to allow them to get around to a lot more land mass a lot earlier."

Like I said I haven't played the demo yet, but this seems kind of ridiculous... I'm having a hard time imagining an armored division in the field spawning/carrying ocean going vessels for itself. Does anyone think this was a good addition to the game?

Good addition, and it is very easy to imagine an armored division in the field coming to get loaded onto the multiple chap, slow, vulnerable transports that All empires with Optics have. (and having to wait practically 1-20 years to get underway)

 

[dannythefool]

The tech you need is Optics.

I do think it's a good idea. It seemed a bit weird at first, but then I remembered how much fun transport ship logistics were in previous Civ titles. NOT. (Also, in theory, this makes things much easier for the AI.)

 

[Ahriman]

I'm having a hard time imagining an armored division in the field spawning/carrying ocean going vessels for itself.

They're not, they're just using off-stage military transport ships that you don't have to micro-manage. Just like how your roads and railroads transported goods with off-stage invisible carts or trains, and how your naval trade routes used invisible freighters.

Its good for gameplay. Inter-continental warfare is much more fun.

 

[PChildress]

I do think it's a good idea. It seemed a bit weird at first, but then I remembered how much fun transport ship logistics were in previous Civ titles. NOT. (Also, in theory, this makes things much easier for the AI.)

Agreed. It is a good idea, one of many in Civ5. But my only qualm is that it too cost free. There should be a charge in treasure. Shipping an army overseas, from the time of William the Conqueror to D-Day, involved mass expenditures, organization and preparation.

 

[sevventh]

The computer appears to have a few favorite spots that they embark from and units will not embark if there are ships off the coast. I have been hammering away at units on a beach for about 40 turns now from Ships of the Line and the AI doesn't seem to want to move them away, or bring in ranged units to shoot back.

 

[Bridger]

Agreed. It is a good idea, one of many in Civ5. But my only qualm is that it too cost free. There should be a charge in treasure. Shipping an army overseas, from the time of William the Conqueror to D-Day, involved mass expenditures, organization and preparation.

The cost is in building the navy to escort them. They are extremely vulnerable while embarked (and my guess is that they are slow too).

 

[dannythefool]

Agreed. It is a good idea, one of many in Civ5. But my only qualm is that it too cost free. There should be a charge in treasure. Shipping an army overseas, from the time of William the Conqueror to D-Day, involved mass expenditures, organization and preparation.

Oh, you still have to buy a ton of other ships, unprotected embarked units are not a very good idea unless you only quickly cross one or two tiles of water. But in that case, getting a transport there would be even more annoying.

 

[caelon]

I don't consider it cost free - the fact that these ships have no defense puts risk/reward into play. At least with transport ships, they had limited defense that might resist a little.

 

[Smips]

I love this feature. I do wish that there were still transport ships though. They could have held more than one unit and avoid the embark/disembark turn penalty. Not really a huge deal there though.

 

[Mac2411]

I didn't know how I would like this feature upon first reading about it, but I really do like the way it is implemented. I'm liking the game more and more in fact, except for some of the annoying bugs that just about always accompany these titles and other games when they are first released.

 

[sevventh]

I don't consider it cost free - the fact that these ships have no defense puts risk/reward into play. At least with transport ships, they had limited defense that might resist a little.

Embarked units will fight back, but they do not have ranged attack which means they will have a difficult time hitting targets that don't want to be closed on,.

 

[TheArsenal]

I love this feature. I do wish that there were still transport ships though. They could have held more than one unit and avoid the embark/disembark turn penalty. Not really a huge deal there though.

Holding more than one unit might make it a bit tricky, and kind of goes against the spirit of, 1UP.

I haven't used this embark method much, in one battle to flank an army on the same land mass, but I like it quite a bit.

 

[kattana]

im finding it kinda neat so far myself. have even used a warrior embarked to explore the seas, once i got astronomy i think. there are slow, but usefull

 

[ZimbuTheMonkey]

This was a feature I was really negative about. I thought it would make invasions so much easier.

But in practice, it works fine and it's difficult to abuse. By the time a force can traverse deep ocean and become a threat you will have had time to prepare for it.

 

[Corvak]

Also - consider the sheer mindless unit management required if you had to build a transport for each unit, and try to get all of them into position to load a unit onto them?

Embarking is the only way this could work with 1upt.

 

[smileylad]

Can anyone confirm if you play as the English and enter a land unit in a water tile, it travels with their movement bonus or not?

 

[DanaLea]

but it'd still be nice to be able to load a scout or someone on to a trieme, or galley for exploring.. I was going around my landmass and found THREE ruins... it took forever to send someone to go get them. If I had someone on the ship, that would have been much faster.
(one was a settler, one was a worker, and the other a map. so two great ones, one worthless.)