Compensatory promotion lines

[SullySaltlicker]

This might have to be moved to strategic discussion, but does anyone use Drill on mounted units or Field on siege units? Having played for a while, I never really touch these promotion lines outside of really niche situations. They just feel like I’m wasting xp to compensate for the unit’s weakness rather than play to its strengths.

It got me wondering if mounted units should have their Drill tree replaced with, maybe, something that encourages using them to break through enemy melee formations, or a bonus for not taking damage the previous turn, or something that makes them stronger on roads, even when the road is going through rough terrain. Whatever it is, my main issue is that the penalty to cities just pushes me to the flanking bonus tree every time, unless I’m playing a civ with a niche unique mounted unit.

The same with Field for siege units, but on rare occasions I’ll use this one when I feel like parking a cannon in a coastal city for naval defense. Otherwise, it’s all Siege for siege units. Would making splash a bit easier to access through the Field line be too OP?

 

[notaspambot]

I use Drill pretty extensively- Drill/Blitz/Stalwart is just more versatile than Shock/Overrun/March for the most part. Also, modifiers are additive, so that penalty against cities isn't really that bad. Drill more than compensates for it.

Field is a bit rare for me though. If I'm going to pick Field, might as well just pop out a ranged unit instead.

 

[stii]

I use drill as even with mounted units I don't really want to attack that much. So I just want to get Stalwart as quickly as possible.

I pretty much never take field as like you say it makes the unit into a bad archer, so why not just build an archer then?

 

[Delvemor]

I will sometimes use Drill on a few mounted units, especially with Byzantium or Songhai, but normally Shock works better because I do use them to attack units and Charge is just very good.

I will use Field on artillery the rare times I don't have any ranged units with Range, otherwise I only pick Siege.

 

[bonniepbilly]

I use field on artillery when I use them to defend against boats (since range units have a penalty against boats).

 

[Stalker0]

Drill is great on cataphracts and conquistadors.

I use field on field guns and especially artillery, at that point siege packs a punch

 

[azum4roll]

I use drill as even with mounted units I don't really want to attack that much. So I just want to get Stalwart as quickly as possible.

I pretty much never take field as like you say it makes the unit into a bad archer, so why not just build an archer then?

Archers don't have Indirect Fire, and are worse than siege against ships (and fortified units in open after Gatling).

 

[lunker]

I find that the flanking bonus doesn't come up often when defending so I go Drill 95% of the time on all my melee units for the better T4 promotions.

 

[SullySaltlicker]

Archers don't have Indirect Fire, and are worse than siege against ships (and fortified units in open after Gatling).

Archers can definitely get indirect fire.

 

[notaspambot]

Ranged units can get Indirect Fire but they have to pay for it.

Anyway, since it seems that people do have uses for both Drill and Field, and we're talking about promotions anyway, might I bring up Infiltrator? I heavily dislike Infiltrator for non-skirmishers- it feels like a skirmisher promotion that just happens to be slapped on for other units, and the penalty feels really annoying for ranged/siege units not only because you generally don't use those units alone, but also because it can actively screw the unit over with how it affects its defensive CS too.

 

[stii]

Yeah I can't imagine taking infiltrator. Even when I literally out of other upgrades I still wanted a pretty useless air defence over it.

 

[Zanteogo]

Field on siege units is almost always a waste.
Early to mid siege units are really only good for taking out cities why you would not want to max this ability of theirs is lost on me.
To make it worse, field only makes the unit better at attacking units in "open terrain", it honestly should be changed to "all units" (so not cities) I still think it would be garbage promo line, but it would be slightly better.
Field becomes very slightly better on the more end game siege units, mostly due to the built in powers these units have (like indirect fire). This to me is more to do with how ranged units start to become weaker late game and just get worse and worse. I have never built a bazooka for example, but will mass build rocket artillery.

As far of city attack bonus vs flanking bonus, IMHO all the flanking bonus are kind of overrated. The promos don't add much to the natural flanking bonus, which really only means a few more hitpoints in damage, that you ONLY get if you can attack next to each other. Melee units are almost ALWAYS better taking the city damage bonus. You really see the difference when they attack a city with a couple promos.

 

[Zanteogo]

Now.. what would I change to make both promo lines better?

Though I suggested changing "open terrain" to "all units", which would be an improvement, I think adding some sort of defense bonus as well would be nice. It would at least make the line a choice between having siege units that focus on "staying home" vs siege units at "go after cities".

As far as the flanking bonus, they just need to be increased. You need to reward commanders who situate their units better. I would say at least +5% more per promo.