Cavalry & Infantry Unit Balance

[staplovich]

Overall I am enjoying Civ VII quite a bit; as someone who played both Humankind and Millenia, it's interesting to see Firaxis pull some (good!) ideas from those games. And I think their implementation of the different ages is actually excellent, allowing for 3 mini games in one (as someone who always enjoyed the early game in Civ, I'm a big fan of this).

Now Firaxis also clearly decided to simplify and streamline aspects of the combat: especially in reducing the number of unit types (no dedicated anti-cavalry, as well as no light and heavy cavalry, which had featured in previous games). I don't mind this, but, I feel like the balance between infantry and cavalry units is off. It seems that cavalry units are just better in basically every situation, with the only reason to build infantry their lower cost and maintenance. It seems to me that there should be a more sophisticated balance here, with infantry being better on defense and in rough and vegetated terrain, with cavalry maintaining their advantage generally when attacking and in open terrain.

But perhaps I am missing something? I am curious as to what you all think, or if I have missed an important mechanic here (as always, they need to add more detail to the civilopedia!), or if you know of any planned updates to these systems...

 

[Krikkit1]

They are working on that... previous patches made Cavalry cost more (both produce/buy and maintain)

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

It appears that Firaxis stood with Rock-Scissors-Paper counter systems. Now the Counter is that Infantry counters Ranged but countered by Cavalry. Cavalry Counters Infantry but countered by Ranged. and Ranged counters Cavalry but countered by Infantry.
still not what I likes, while two sub classes deliberately gone. it still remains simpletons not unlike Civ6.

Under which grounds did Cavalry being vulnerable to Ranged units? (Archers, Crossbowmen, Fieldguns) but lancers are still grossly advantageous against pikemen or soldiers with bazookas still vulnerable to tanks?

is the existence of Antitank Guns the only reasons ?

 

[Bootstrapbilly]

Felt Civ V city attack penalty was pretty good balance check. Feels thematic with infantry fighting in enclosed places and requiring less logistics for a siege and being better at taking cities. Stays thematic in the modern era too.

I feel horseman civs can be given other bonuses to reflect how good they were at sacking cities to offset the penalty- Bulgaria already does this with pillaging focus, some civs could get a straight reduction in the penalty or have it eliminated when adjacent to siege or something.