Well the break down of the mounted units by species are ...
- Horses = Adaptive in lots of types of units and Fast
- Camel = Good for Desert Combat and Fast
- Elephant = Stronger and Good Jungle Combat
- Llama = Can Cross Peaks.
- Mammoth = Very Strong and Good for Polar Combat
- Deer = Good Forest Combat and Fast
- Zebra = Good for Savanna Combat and Fast
- Giraffe = Good for Savanna Combat and Increased Sight Range
- Bison = Good vs other Exotic Mounts
- Rhino = ?
- Bear = ?
Perhaps we should give the Bear Riders and Knights the ability to "smell" camouflaged units like Dogs can. Bears noses are suppose to better than a dogs. What do you guys think?
Well... with Combat Mod options I've either done or intend to do the following:
- Horses = Adaptive in lots of types of units and Fast
Capable of both heavy and light application - heavy is not so great with pursuit and withdrawal but are strong (and will probably have the benefit of being hard to repel and knockback under the upcoming Heart of War option) whereas the light ones are very good at pursuit and withdrawal. When you can get both defensive abilities and pursuit you have a GREAT unit for city defense against withdrawal units and some horse units have this ability.
- Camel = Good for Desert Combat and Fast
Very good on the 'light' side (withdraw and pursuit)
- Elephant = Stronger and Good Jungle Combat
Elephants will also soon have a set of promos that will enable them to breakdown like rams if they develop the ability. On Size Matters they have a distinction of (along with mammoths) being the largest early age units, thus very strongly damaging when they hit but not so great on their chances to hit. They will have some further benefits (and potential deficiencies) coming from their size soon there as well.
At the moment they can withdraw very well if developed to do so but I plan to remove this ability from them since they've never been the fastest combatants on the field.
- Llama = Can Cross Peaks.
And aren't too bad with pursuit and withdraw on Size Matters but they are among the weaker of the mounted units despite their unusual mobility benefits over peaks.
- Mammoth = Very Strong and Good for Polar Combat
Aside from what's noted above, very similar to Elephants. Mammoths and Elephants also have some collateral damage when they attack right? I'd like to give them some promos to help them develop this further if this is the role you want them to play. (Early age tanks as it were.)
- Deer = Good Forest Combat and Fast
Strongest base early withdrawal - even battle hardened deer can be skittish creatures that can be tough to KEEP in the battle for long but makes them GREAT at wearing down opponents. They'd be perhaps the best at this get in/get out type of strategy so long as they can do some damage during their short fights.
- Zebra = Good for Savanna Combat and Fast
Not as nervous as Deer but the BEST at withdrawing when they mean to. The stripes make it very difficult to follow them as when you think you're following one you find yourself looking at another going the opposite way. They tend to befuddle those who would pursue.
- Giraffe = Good for Savanna Combat and Increased Sight Range
Very good light mounted units with a generally strong skill at getting in and out quickly and doing some damage while there. Giraffes are not pushovers in a fight - those horns can straight knock a person out.
- Bison = Good vs other Exotic Mounts
And overland very fast comparatively to many. They have the 2 movement and aren't bad for setting up as city attackers that can wait outside the range of traps until they are ready to charge in, fully healthy. They fight like a heavy mounted with a little better movement than some other heavy mounted has, such as elephants.
These units, Elephants, Mammoths and Bears are slated to eventually get access to developing the Stampede ability that the Rhino has. Giving it to them will make them rather suicidal but extraordinarily powerful at the same time. Bison would be uniquely capable of developing withdrawal along with it which makes it repeatedly harry the strongest defender one after another until they've finally been killed.
- Rhino = ?
Rhinos have the Stampede ability and at the moment they're the only unit with it and the only unit that can develop it. If made a little stronger to make them a bit more viable (and to let them represent better the kind of amazing destructive capacity these animals have in RL) they'll be given an amazingly powerful niche use throughout the early era, particularly as a powerful counter against the strategy of splitting up units to delay attack forces from taking a position.
Rhinos also cause some collateral so if one can survive the first fight and the units in the stack they're attacking can still within range of being given further collateral damage, a rhino can uniquely inflict collateral to a stack more than once when it attacks.
- Bear = ?
On Fight or Flight, Bears have been given supremacy where pursuit is concerned. They are relentless at tracking down those who have offended them and very good at overcoming any obstacles put between them and their quarry. They have better senses than dogs but don't care to send up an alert when strangers are near so they don't do as canines to point out strangers (with a bark.) But when they are after someone, just about nothing will stop them. Pursuit isn't all about speed... sometimes its about being able to overcome any strategy to 'lose' your pursuer - and bears dominate in this realm. This is why your scouts are pretty much up a creek if they hope to survive a bear attack in the wild. Burrow, they dig. Climb a tree, they push it over. Swim out into a lake they'll get you there too. Cross a river to get them to lose your scent, they're smart enough to cross the river and pick it up again. Don't bother trying to run from a bear if you've really pissed her off.
I'm not sure if they've been given these abilities or not but bears would do very well in combat in the forest (attacking bonus should at least counteract any forest defense level) and are superb at climbing hills to the point that an incline hardly slows them at all - thus they should be good at attacking on hills as well. They're also very strong swimmers and would find a river hardly hinders them at all from getting to their opponent so should not be penalized for crossing rivers.
