I know, I know, if I want them I should mod them in...but seriously, there are a few very simple unit additions that could be made that I think would make this game so much more engaging. Namely:
More Sea Combat Units
Right now, sea combat is all ranged combat. Why this is perplexes me, especially when oceangoing warfare was ram-and-board for millennia. Wouldn't "melee" naval units enhance the depth of naval warfare anyway? Why not add these? I'm thinking:
Ancient/Classical/Medieval:
Trireme (Melee)
Galley (Ranged)
Not sure about new medieval sea units, but the rest is coming in the expansion - although galleys will probably remain barbarian only. Carthage is getting a unique Trireme replacement.
The barbarian naval unit could be renamed "longship."
I was disappointed the 1066 scenario didn't rename its triremes longships, not just for flavour but because they had different rules despite using the Trireme graphic.
(I also think that the medieval era needs separate naval units from the ancient and classical so naval combat would actually scale with land combat, but I already posted about that in another thread.)
While that seems good in principle, there genuinely was a dearth of innovation at sea during the medieval period, at least in Europe - boats were still mainly mobile transports or fighting platforms designed to operate in shallow seas. At a Civ scale it makes sense that the greatest diversity of ships would come during and after the Renaissance, since this was the first period when ships could really leave shallow waters - do we want a whole bunch more shoreboats when the Trireme is sufficient? You could conceivably add units like the junk for the medieval period, but that wouldn't fit with the Eurocentric focus of the Civ tech tree, in which universal units are those that either were historically universal, or those developed and mainly used in Europe. Granted, an English junk isn't any stranger in concept than a Chinese caravel, but it would raise eyebrows given the game's major market.
Renaissance:
Brig (Melee)
Frigate (Ranged)
Caravel (Scout)
The Privateer (a melee ship) and a Dutch unique equivalent are coming in the expansion.
And secondly...
More Scouts
I think scouts could easily become an interesting element of warfare in this game. A well-positioned scout with a scout promotion or two is already very helpful for assessing nearby threats, but they don't scale at all as the game goes on, making them extremely hard to keep alive. I'm not saying they should ever be as good as real combat units, but I do think a dug-in scout should be able to take a hit from a contemporary unit without keeling over, and should be able to finish off crippled or outflanked units with relative consistency. My suggestions for what these scouts should be in each era:
Just add scouts to the upgrade chain without having to get the archer upgrade from a ruin. I slightly miss the Explorer unit from Civ IV, but I don't think new scout units are very necessary. Most later skirmisher-type units were after all ranged units (as your suggested names testify). I have no problem with adding the scout visibility promotions to the archery chain.
But only Vikings used longships. All of Europe used galleys.
Longship was a generic name for the ships of Germanic Europe in the Dark Ages - groups like the Saxons and Jutes also had longships. The longship can't realistically be used as a replacement name for the galley - longships were medieval, while barbarian galleys are an ancient era unit that gets replaced by barbarian triremes in the classical period. They were also primarily transport ships, designed specifically for speed and navigation - they didn't bombard enemies, ram or engage in naval combat.
Of course there's no very clear need for barbarians to have a unique unit at all, or at least one that's actually unique rather than renamed (as a Brute is a renamed Warrior). Just make the Galley available with Sailing and move the Trireme to Optics so that early ships scale better.
The barbarian naval unit could be renamed "longship.
What if the Vikings are DLC'd in some day?
What if Firaxis were to release an expansion in the next couple of months including melee naval units, a full ranged upgrade path for crossbowmen into the modern era, missionary units, privateers, biplanes...?
Nah, could never happen.
slaves (probably the marketing dpt would like these ones), etc. Your idea of Battleship is also nice.
Slaves should be some kind of tradeable resource that increases production.
