Questdog
Prince
In the thread on policies I mentioned that a large map felt rather empty of Barbarians.
I went back and tried a tiny map with 7.2 to see if maybe you just toned down the Barbs, but by turn 35 my front yard is filled with three Brutes and three archers. You mentioned that you don't usually build much military early, but on a tiny map you ain't doing nothin' with no military. You can't even explore, unless you send two or three Warriors out together; one unit will be quickly turned into sausage. And Barbarian archers are a royal pain in the wazoo for Warriors when 1 shot from them cuts their HPs in half. Find an Archer in his camp and it's an easy pot of gold, 'cause he won't shoot and the warrior can grind him up, but find an archer roaming about and the warriors need to run away and hide! Warriors can't even think about approaching archers for a kill, since two hexes away they lose 5 HP and then the next hex they are dead or left with 2 HP and will be dead next turn with nowhere to run and hide, since in rough terrain he can't move out of range of the archer and in open terrain, 9 times out of 10 he'll run away only to bump into another Barbarian who puts him out of his misery. It takes at least two warriors to take out an archer and you have to sacrifice one of them to do it, but even two usually isn't enough because rarely is the Barbarian archer alone; he nearly always has a few friends by his side.
One complaint about archers (which I am sure has nothing to do with your mod): Many times my archer has been bombarded by an enemy archer that my archer is not allowed to shoot back at. I mean, if he can see me, I can see him, but that is not the case apparently....
That reminds me of one area that Civ V is MUCH better than Civ 4: The AI is excellent at cutting off all retreat for a wounded unit. In Civ 4, you never felt like your units were ever really in danger, because you could always just move them away, but Civ V chases you (at least sometimes, especially if you are wounded).
Anyway, long ramble, but you should try a tiny Perfect World or Continents map and see if you can play without building much military!
I went back and tried a tiny map with 7.2 to see if maybe you just toned down the Barbs, but by turn 35 my front yard is filled with three Brutes and three archers. You mentioned that you don't usually build much military early, but on a tiny map you ain't doing nothin' with no military. You can't even explore, unless you send two or three Warriors out together; one unit will be quickly turned into sausage. And Barbarian archers are a royal pain in the wazoo for Warriors when 1 shot from them cuts their HPs in half. Find an Archer in his camp and it's an easy pot of gold, 'cause he won't shoot and the warrior can grind him up, but find an archer roaming about and the warriors need to run away and hide! Warriors can't even think about approaching archers for a kill, since two hexes away they lose 5 HP and then the next hex they are dead or left with 2 HP and will be dead next turn with nowhere to run and hide, since in rough terrain he can't move out of range of the archer and in open terrain, 9 times out of 10 he'll run away only to bump into another Barbarian who puts him out of his misery. It takes at least two warriors to take out an archer and you have to sacrifice one of them to do it, but even two usually isn't enough because rarely is the Barbarian archer alone; he nearly always has a few friends by his side.
One complaint about archers (which I am sure has nothing to do with your mod): Many times my archer has been bombarded by an enemy archer that my archer is not allowed to shoot back at. I mean, if he can see me, I can see him, but that is not the case apparently....
That reminds me of one area that Civ V is MUCH better than Civ 4: The AI is excellent at cutting off all retreat for a wounded unit. In Civ 4, you never felt like your units were ever really in danger, because you could always just move them away, but Civ V chases you (at least sometimes, especially if you are wounded).
Anyway, long ramble, but you should try a tiny Perfect World or Continents map and see if you can play without building much military!