City Specific Units

[sir_schwick]

Here is a model to make units more interesting and add some uniqueness to the game. Instead of all units of a certain type being the same for a civ, some cities would gain special bonuses for their units. Spartan Hoplites were considered superior to any other Hoplites, for example. Here is how city specific unit bonuses would work.

For this model, units would have to be able to track their home city. The players should not know so they cannot abuse this system. Whenever a unit performs a certain 'great feat' the city now produces whatever upgrade that 'great feat' creates. Also, the units are named 'city-name'ian 'unit type'. Here is an example of what I mean.

Delphi builds a Swordsman. This Swordsman has stats 3/2/1. He is fighting Legionaires which are 3/3/1. He is in a stack that is badly damaged, but so are the legionaires. He attacks, but his HP is less then that of the Legionaires. He wins and does the same the next turn. He has just completed a Great Feat. THe Great Feat was defined as "Winning two attacks against units with equal to or greater than defense vs. his attack and his HP was less than the defender."
Now Delphi will produce Delphian Swordsmen, with the stats 4/2/1. If the city had been Memphis, they would have been 4/2/1 Memphisian Swordsmen. Only Delphi can produce these special Swordsmen. Also, no other city can gain the ability to produce a 4/2/1 Swordsmen(besdies the Persians of course). Also, if Delphi is taken from the Greeks by the Egyptians, for example, Egypt can now make Delphian Sworsmen. City specific units are not dependant on the Civ.

This could also open up possiblities for more interesting mercenary model. Whenever a unit is created, a 1/2 mercenary unit of the same kind is added to the mercenary pool. Whenever 2 1/2 mercenaries are in the pool, they form a full unit.
Also in the Mercenary pool would be a mercenary leader. THese leaders would all have their own unique army needs. Once their army was filled out, they would be on the Mercenary Diplomacy screen. You would negotiate with them as you would any other Civ. The only difference is they are contracted as units to use, but only last as long as the contract.
With City specific units, the Mercenary pool would look and fihgt more diversely.

 

[Bibor]

Hmm, a good idea, but I'm afraid it would be 2 complicated for many players.
Also, mercenaries fall into two categories:
a) independent fighting force that bear no national flags (nowadays illegal)
b) a nation's army or part of army (like the whole U.S. army or the French Foreign Legion)

Both types fight for money, except independent mercenaries can switch sides if they want to.

 

[Colonel]

i like this idea but isnt a great feat as you put already used to create leaders in CIV3

 

[sir_schwick]

Great Feats wouldn't always be on the ttack. Some might be ont he defense. One mgiht be, won 2 combats with less HP when attacked by unit with 2x times attack. The attack example was just for simplicity. Their might be more intersting ones too.

 

[sir_schwick]

not tied to experience.

 

[SwitchbladeNGC]

I like that Idea.

 

[SwitchbladeNGC]

Lets say for example that you got a Delphi Spearman with +1 defence, would the +1 defence remain if it upgraded to a pikeman and would Delphi produce pikemen with +1 defence or would it only apply to the spearmen?

 

[dh_epic]

I like this idea. It's not that complicated, either, since most of it is handled by the system and not the player. Think of it as a second barracks in a city that has a heroic victory. Now units built in that city are extra cool.

 

[Colonel]

though this applies great to pre indutrial units what abouit tanks what the Delphi Tank seems odd or this just me???

 

[sir_schwick]

Well, maybe in the more modern era of Defense Contractors you could still have city unique units, but they would be named like current tank models. Delphi Tanks would become one of the popular Greecian tanks(I know nothing about non-US/Soviet Militaries). Same with Infantry, etc. Panzers and such not.

Lets say for example that you got a Delphi Spearman with +1 defence, would the +1 defence remain if it upgraded to a pikeman and would Delphi produce pikemen with +1 defence or would it only apply to the spearmen?

It really should only apply to the spearmen, since having a monopoly on defensive units or any units woudl overpower this ability. Maybe when you upgrade the individual Delphi Spearmen, they get a +1 Defence, but loose the special name. This way you can't keep the same 20 Delphi Spearmen and eventually have +1 defense rifelmen and infantry.

 

[aaron_burr]

This is a sweet idea; it's a lot like the Medieval Total War system. But the stats would have to be multiplied to stop it from from being abusive - to give the system more mathematical gradations.

What I mean is that, for example, cavalry would have to be like 18/9/9 instead of 6/3/3 so that a moderately better city unit wouldn't make a civ's whole UU less special. That way, The sipahi could still be 24/9/9 (in proportion), and not lose a lot of subjective quality to a CUU that could be 19/9/9.

Otherwise there would be too much overlap, even if CUUs completely replaced regular UUs. The sipahi, at 8/3/3, would be a lot less fun if some other civ's cities could make a 7/3/3 cavalry. And the earlier units, with lower numbers, would make the math worse.

In the aforementioned Dephian Swordsman example, the Persians would be really devalued by that. But, a 9/6/3 basic swordsman, 10/6/3 Delphian Swordsman, and a 12/6/3 Immortal might be fun.

 

[sir_schwick]

Actually, the multiplication of unit stats would make it easier to gradually increase unit stats. Also, I think having some CUUs that were near each other in stats would be cool, as you would have to adjust tactics accordingly. In MTW terms, compare Kwharzmiam Cavalry to Kataphractoi. They are roughly the same, but are produced by completely different factions.

Also, CUUs weren't supposed to be super-powered like htey are in Civ 3. They were supposed to provide variety to combat and civ vs. civ combat. Fyrdmen aren't that much better then Round Shield Spearmen, but that difference is noticeable over lots of combats. Same with Genoese vs. Archers.