I would use onUnitMoved, but why is it before the end game? It's not like the Mongols are guaranteed to die. And even then, they don't tend to have few units even early on, and for every movement I would have to check:
1) has the unit moved next to an enemy city
2) are enough units nearby to trigger the effect
That involves iterating all adjacent tiles of the destination tile and all adjacent tiles of the potential city tile.
Yeah, but that seems gamey and immersion-breaking.
Gamey as in stack moves away and comes back and the city is scared shitless again. Or if the implementation isn't city based, even one additional unit entering the vicinity and triggering the effect again.
So I'm currently thinking about changing their UP again to a variant of Rhye's original version. My main problem with that was that it was rarely useful to sacrifice a complete city just to get another for free.
There are two amendments to the old Mongol UP that can make razing cities useful. Based on the size Mongols could get a free Settler (survivors) on the site. Another one is to flip defenders in flipped city. Submission to Mongols meant two things -- you have to pay tribute and your boys have to fight for the Khan. Diverse Mongol stacks with units from conquered lands could look pretty cool!
I don't know if I'm the only one who constantly observes this but in most autoplay games I see a huge Mongol stack sitting in Kaifeng which is completely smothered by Chinese culture
Enemy units suffer Collateral Damage or Defect when your units are next to them.
Collateral Damage means this:
If an enemy unit has health over 80% and a Mongol unit next to it, the enemy unit's health is reduced to 80%. This applies in and outside of cities.
Defect means this:
If a city has more than 1 defender, then one or more (depending on the number of defenders) of the defenders turns into Mongol units (Promotions carry over). This applies only to city defenders.
Next to means adjacent tiles in the case of Collateral Damage, and within a city's BFC in the case of Defect.
2 longbowmen defend a city against 6 barbarian horse archers. The first 5 horse archers die attacking the city. Because the culture is 100% the type of the city's, there is no change. However, the last horse archer destroys one of the longbowmen. This results in a culture flip and the loss of workable tiles for the city. Killing the horse archer the next turn with the remaining longbowmen does not necessarily restore the culture, so the city will end up with unworkable tiles and foreign, barbarian culture that is difficult to get rid of.
Enemy units suffer Collateral Damage or Defect when your units are next to them.
Collateral Damage means this:
If an enemy unit has health over 80% and a Mongol unit next to it, the enemy unit's health is reduced to 80%. This applies in and outside of cities.
Defect means this:
If a city has more than 1 defender, the 2 defenders with the highest Strength turns into Mongol units. This applies only to city defenders.
Next to means adjacent tiles in the case of Collateral Damage, and within a city's BFC in the case of Defect.
I think that would make the Mongols very easy. Move a Keshik next to a city, get the two strongest units from within the city and damage all the rest of the defenders? Taking the city would be close to a pushover then imo, particularly if there are only 3-4 defenders there.
If anything, I'd have said the weakest defenders should turn into Mongol units, as it was usually the militia who surrendered to the Mongols and joined their army before battle was joined. Alternatively, when the Mongols capture a city they should get one trebuchet and a UU of that civ (or a strong unit if it's an independent city or the UU is obsolete, advanced or not relevant). That would simulate the ability of the Mongols to recruit specific soldiers and talents from the cities they conquer, and would lead to a very diverse army.
I think that would make the Mongols very easy. Move a Keshik next to a city, get the two strongest units from within the city and damage all the rest of the defenders? Taking the city would be close to a pushover then imo, particularly if there are only 3-4 defenders there.
If anything, I'd have said the weakest defenders should turn into Mongol units, as it was usually the militia who surrendered to the Mongols and joined their army before battle was joined. Alternatively, when the Mongols capture a city they should get one trebuchet and a UU of that civ (or a strong unit if it's an independent city or the UU is obsolete, advanced or not relevant). That would simulate the ability of the Mongols to recruit specific soldiers and talents from the cities they conquer, and would lead to a very diverse army.
You have a good point about the weakest unit defecting instead of the strongest. And it should definitely be 1 unit instead of 2 - I made a typo in my post.
But I think the goal is to make Mongols conquest much easier.
If we're trying to make the conquest easier but also more realistic, then what do you think about getting a free trebuchet and UU after each city conquest, as the Mongols effectively did IRL. Would make it easier than just Keshiks, as you'd get some Cho Ko Nu to fight pikemen, and also some trebs to suicide against tough cities to wear the defenders down. Add your 80% collateral damage idea and that should make it much easier to win but still requiring a good strategy.
If we're trying to make the conquest easier but also more realistic, then what do you think about getting a free trebuchet and UU after each city conquest, as the Mongols effectively did IRL. Would make it easier than just Keshiks, as you'd get some Cho Ko Nu to fight pikemen, and also some trebs to suicide against tough cities to wear the defenders down. Add your 80% collateral damage idea and that should make it much easier to win but still requiring a good strategy.
The foreign UU is the core of the idea. If you just flip the weakest defender, you will probably end up with an army of archers and spearmen, which won't be much use for anything. Whereas if you get the trebs (or even bombards) and UUs you'll get a much more diverse army which will be more fun (and useful) to play and conquer with.
The foreign UU is the core of the idea. If you just flip the weakest defender, you will probably end up with an army of archers and spearmen, which won't be much use for anything. Whereas if you get the trebs (or even bombards) and UUs you'll get a much more diverse army which will be more fun (and useful) to play and conquer with.
If the Mongols take a Russian city around the year 1250, do they get Cossacks?
So exceptions need to be made in the case that the Mongols do not have the Tech requirement to construct said UU. In that case, they get Keshiks instead.
Another problem with spawning new UUs instead of defecting is the lack of experience/promotions - which would make them probably as weak as any of the weaker units in the defender stack.
We could go with a mixture of these two.
If the city population is <4 prior to conquest, the Mongols only get 1 random defender (which cannot be the strongest defender) to defect.
If the city population is >= 4 and <8, the Mongols get 1 defector and 1 enemy UU (or Keshik, in case the UU tech requirement is not met).
If the city population is >=8 and <12, the Mongols get 1 defector, 1 enemy UU, and 1 Keshik.
If the city population is >=12, the Mongols get 1 defector, 2 enemy UUs, and 1 Keshik.
If the Mongols take a Russian city around the year 1250, do they get Cossacks?
So exceptions need to be made in the case that the Mongols do not have the Tech requirement to construct said UU. In that case, they get Keshiks instead.
Personally, I would consider going with the strongest unit that the defending civ is able to recruit. Which would probably end up being a Keshik anyway, as you'd get a knight but the Keshik would be the default version for the Mongols, but maybe a chance of getting Macemen / Musketeers if the civ has the appropriate tech, as they may be more useful for city attack / defence.
Another problem with spawning new UUs instead of defecting is the lack of experience/promotions - which would make them probably as weak as any of the weaker units in the defender stack.
Is the game engine able to maintain promotions when a unit flips? Every time I've seen a new civ flip a unit, or a city flip to the independents, all the promotions were lost anyway. And the weakest unit in an AI stack is often inexperienced / unpromoted anyway.
I'd have thought the best solution to that would be to give the flipped unit the XP it would have if it had actually been built. So +2XP if the Mongols are running Vassalage, and another +3XP if the city had a barracks. That way the new unit would usually have +5XP, which would make it very useful, particularly if you flip a Maceman and can give it CRII straight away.
Sounds good, although I still think some siege units should be mixed in here. Trebs and bombards would make the biggest difference when attacking cities with high culture, and would be historically accurate as the ability to build siege equipment was probably the biggest thing the Mongols appropriated from the cities they conquered.
Btw, is there actually any historical evidence of city defenders defecting to the Mongols before the city was attacked? Seemed like the cities attacked by the Mongols either surrendered outright, or fought to the last man.
That's true. I always wanted to try giving everyone a limited version of the Turkish UP, because they're the only civ where limited expansion isn't such a PITA.
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