stealth_nsk
Deity
Some theory first. Civilization V combat system allows losing much less units, so with low upgrade cost it's easy to maintain core army throughout the whole game without building not that many additional units. So, to make unit building more important, there's some sort of "military revolution" concept. Here are they:
1. Gunpowder revolution. By the end of Medieval player should already have balanced army, but heavy need to replace Crossbowmen with Cannons forces player to build more units. There's a problem what it's not fun to convert highly skilled Crossbowmen into noob Rifleman, but this could be solved by converting core promotions and allowing respec on others.
2. Tank revolution. This changes mobile units from horse-based to oil-based.
3. Aircraft revolution.
Actually, the only one which doesn't work now is the second. You often have more Cavalry than Oil, so you could just do make all Tanks through upgrades. And even if you don't, the need of building Tanks is rather small. Lancer isn't so direct, but after it upgrades to Helicopter, it takes the same role.
So I think Infantry would be better upgrade path to Horse units:
1. You need to build (or not build) Tanks and Anti-tanks with a thought.
2. Infantry is a basic unit, so increasing their number is not a problem.
3. Infantry is resourceless, so you'll not be locked with obsolete units.
4. You'll have a strategic choice between faster Cavalry/Lancers and stronger Infantry at first stage.
EDIT: Sorry, this thread is supposed to be in general discussions.
1. Gunpowder revolution. By the end of Medieval player should already have balanced army, but heavy need to replace Crossbowmen with Cannons forces player to build more units. There's a problem what it's not fun to convert highly skilled Crossbowmen into noob Rifleman, but this could be solved by converting core promotions and allowing respec on others.
2. Tank revolution. This changes mobile units from horse-based to oil-based.
3. Aircraft revolution.
Actually, the only one which doesn't work now is the second. You often have more Cavalry than Oil, so you could just do make all Tanks through upgrades. And even if you don't, the need of building Tanks is rather small. Lancer isn't so direct, but after it upgrades to Helicopter, it takes the same role.
So I think Infantry would be better upgrade path to Horse units:
1. You need to build (or not build) Tanks and Anti-tanks with a thought.
2. Infantry is a basic unit, so increasing their number is not a problem.
3. Infantry is resourceless, so you'll not be locked with obsolete units.
4. You'll have a strategic choice between faster Cavalry/Lancers and stronger Infantry at first stage.
EDIT: Sorry, this thread is supposed to be in general discussions.