Do you like the new embarkation?

[Haig]

Ok, first I was kind of excited to learn that Civ5 would have "automatic" embarkation for units that have the necessary tech, but now I'm not sure if I like it.

It's maybe simpler that you don't need to build the galleys/transports yourself, but in a way I feel it takes away some epicness of the navy.

(I'm currently playing Civ IV archipelago map with Vikings, and I had a crazy invasion into zululand where I pillaged the lands and disappeared into the night with half of my invaders left dead.)

Now I'm building an even larger terror fleet, and now when I really need to build the galleys myself, it gives me the feeling that there's a grand invasion coming and I need to take time and effort to build my fleet, so when it's ready it feels more epic/important in a way.

I kinda understand that some people don't want the trouble to build the transports themselves, but for me it actually adds to the atmosphere of the game and when the coastal cities are pumping out transports they can't be building other stuff, so there's a bit more consequences too.

 

[testdummy653]

I like it how it is.
I believe your wrong in saying that there are more consequences with transport, i think there are less when using transport, in that you only need one or two to store units, and they can defend themselves, while now you actually have to a navy to protect those units embarking.
Also if you lose a unit, that aleast 5-10 turns of production or 300-1000 gold. I pretty sure those are some mighty big consequences, and make up for the missing transports feature.

I do miss my little green transport from Civ III.

 

[ElephantRider]

I'm half and half with it. I like not having to build transport ships. But I wish your units could cross the water a bit faster. Well, honestly I can't remember how fast transports were in Civ IV. It just seems like it's forever to cross the water. And it's rather odd to just embark and move down the coast faster than moving across land. Overall, I don't really love nor hate it. I'm just impartial to it.

 

[Tatran]

The problem I've with embarkation; transporters are completely defenseless, except when you're playing the Songhai.

 

[DaveGold]

I'm not sure if embarkation will ever be a sound idea, and even if it will be sound one day it's a long way off at the moment. The AI can't use it sensibly. I expect human players will come up with defensive formations for escorting vulnerable embarked units and I expect other equally smart human players will come up with ways to break any escort pattern and cause havoc anyway. Some people seem to dislike the CIV4 transports but I found them fit for purpose.

One thing that really annoys me is that you need to send an embarked unit to destroy a barbarian camp that is making triremes off your coast. The embarked unit is vulnerable to triremes and you're sending the embarked unit exactly because there is camp making triremes. Hmm. Escorting the embarked unit with your own triremes is just annoying too.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Now I'm building an even larger terror fleet, and now when I really need to build the galleys myself, it gives me the feeling that there's a grand invasion coming and I need to take time and effort to build my fleet, so when it's ready it feels more epic/important in a way.

That seems to be the entire crux of the game. It doesn't feel epic.

 

[ElephantRider]

One thing that really annoys me is that you need to send an embarked unit to destroy a barbarian camp that is making triremes off your coast. The embarked unit is vulnerable to triremes and you're sending the embarked unit exactly because there is camp making triremes. Hmm. Escorting the embarked unit with your own triremes is just annoying too.

Exactly. If I'm not at war, I always have a navy roaming around killing barbarians. It gets annoying to move an embarked unit real slow across the water to take the encampment when a destroyer can cover 2-3 times as much territory. I kinda wish there was some kind of unit that could go in your naval vessel just for the purpose of taking encampments and ruins. Hell, being able to carry a scout in naval units would be kind of awesome... just to get them there faster and to help explore...

 

[Bandit17]

I like the new embarkation. It is easier for the ai to cross water and the weakness of these units puts more importance on a navy. Having a barabarian tireme destroy your knight is very frustrating thus the lesson is to build an escort next time. Now, with the latest patch, the ai is building more ships but if we can only get them to apply them in a more logical manner but that's another issue for another day. I like embarkation.

Btw, travel over water was, at one point, the fastest mode of travel.

 

[Luckystrike77]

The transporter sailing time needs to be slow. You have to let other players have a chance to respond on invasions from the sea. It also makes you to have to plan your naval invasions extra carefully. I think they made the system absolutely perfect.

 

[Aldor]

You should try playing England...the +movement goes for embarked units too

 

[Rohili]

I would like it more if not for the fact that movement across sea is highly buggy at the moment, requiring lots of micromanagement.

1) If you ask your unit to cross from land into water, the game will count movement across each water tile as requiring one turn, when that is not the case.

2) It also counts each tile in unexplored water areas as requiring one turn.

3) Due to 1UPT, the order in which the units move is also important, and can affect how long it takes for them to get there (e.g. the units in front need to move first to make space for those at the back). Furthermore, you need to keep your frigates out front to pierce the fog and scout for enemy units.

The upshot of all this is that when you are launching a naval invasion, you need to micromanage every single unit, every turn, in order to get them to move to their destination properly and safely. It gets quite annoying after a while.

 

[mihaifx]

I like embark feature apart from 2 points:
- embarked units speed in the modern era is too slow, there should be another +1 movement bonus from a modern era tech
- social policy and wonder movement bonuses do not apply to embarked units, it really sucks

 

[JLoZeppeli]

The most annoying thing is that i have to create some sort of shell to defend my units, becasue a trireme can destroy my modern transport...

 

[aimlessgun]

Other than the pathing irregularities and maybe 1 move too slow in modern era, embarkation is something they got right, imo.

 

[Biz_]

yes, but without stacks it's pretty dumb for escorting stuff

 

[LegionSteve]

I wish they had made embarked units civilian units, so they could share a tile with a naval unit. Other than that I really like it

 

[Teodosio]

1) If you ask your unit to cross from land into water, the game will count movement across each water tile as requiring one turn, when that is not the case.

This is definitively a bug and should be fixed.

2) It also counts each tile in unexplored water areas as requiring one turn.

This is not a bug actually, it represents the fact that if an area is unexplored it could be anything... water, land, hills. Since you can't predict what is there the game simply shows you the worst-case. The game could show the best-case instead but there are no reasons why one should be prefered to the other.

3) Due to 1UPT, the order in which the units move is also important, and can affect how long it takes for them to get there (e.g. the units in front need to move first to make space for those at the back). Furthermore, you need to keep your frigates out front to pierce the fog and scout for enemy units.

The units in front don't need to move first because the following units can move over them, as long as the destionation tile is empty. This could be an issue only in extreme cases, i.e. if you have a serious congestion with almost a unit in each tile but that's never the case since armies are smaller in Civ5.

Actually in my opinion it is a good thing that you need to send frigates/destroyers to patrol and scout the water in advance. You should have total sea control if you want to launch a sea invasion, so you should send warships in advance, clear all opposition and protect the flanks.
I find sea invasions to be much more interesting now, they were a no-brainer in Civ4.

 

[BlizzardGR]

I don't really mind they way it is now but I think it would be a little better if embarkation required a single turn before the unit could go into the water, kinda like setting up siege units before firing (only you wouldn't be able to go in the same turn even if you had movement points left).

This way land chokepoints would be little more important because the enemy wouldn't be able to move around you through water so quickly and you could also see what they are about to do and prevent them (there should be a special animation for this so you can actually see they want to embark).

Also I think there should also be a seperate transport unit in case you actually want to use them for faster transportation.

 

[DavidPBacon]

I don't like it. It's imersion breaking and it's the same as if to cross mountains my units built a helicopter out of nowhere and cross it.
As for stacks(Responding Biz), I'm in favor of at least a transportation mode for stacks, like to move and defend you could use stacks, but when atacking, you should go 1UPT. This would allow to transport units making sense again in the new combat system. As you said, it doesn't make much sense having transports in the 1Upt system.

 

[shattergod]

Embarkation is a wonderful thing but you do need some means to effect the land a "Marines" upgrade if you will that creates a situation like an aeroplane leaving from a carrier, and all units outside of civilians should be able to defend themselves, even at a penalty. That trireme shouldn't be raping my crack team of Paratroopers.