Dromons, huh, yeah, what are they good for?

[ExpiredReign]

Absolutely nothing! Uh huh, Say it again. Apologies to Edwinn Starr for corrupting his lyrics.

Seriously though, dromons are only good for clearing barbarian camps from the sea, and even then only if protected from galleys.

As early coastal city bombardment they are useless. A catapult or bowman in a city will sink it after only its first volley. Surely we can have an early sea based unit for coastal bombardment comparable to a catapult?
They do very little damage yet take very little to sink them, the expenditure in building them is simply not worth it. To get one to have extra range is going to take a bit of effort but even then you will still have to plink away at the enemy city for ages.

Early war should be just as possible as after researching into the Medieval or Renaissance eras.

 

[Gazebo]

Absolutely nothing! Uh huh, Say it again. Apologies to Edwinn Starr for corrupting his lyrics.

Seriously though, dromons are only good for clearing barbarian camps from the sea, and even then only if protected from galleys.

As early coastal city bombardment they are useless. A catapult or bowman in a city will sink it after only its first volley. Surely we can have an early sea based unit for coastal bombardment comparable to a catapult?
They do very little damage yet take very little to sink them, the expenditure in building them is simply not worth it. To get one to have extra range is going to take a bit of effort but even then you will still have to plink away at the enemy city for ages.

Early war should be just as possible as after researching into the Medieval or Renaissance eras.

There was a bug in which range v. range attacks from land->sea were using CS instead of RCS. This punished naval ranged units quite a bit. Fixed last patch.

Are Dromons still dying as easily? They shouldn't be, not with that change.

G

 

[Atlas627]

I actually find Dromons disgustingly OP against everything but cities. They do significant damage against units of their era and take nearly none.

 

[kiwimaster]

I actually find Dromons disgustingly OP against everything but cities. They do significant damage against units of their era and take nearly none.

Agreed. They're great for defending against an early rush, and it's the unit I dread the most when executing an early war.

 

[ExpiredReign]

...
Are Dromons still dying as easily? They shouldn't be, not with that change.

G

In my games, yes, far too easy to kill them.

I actually find Dromons disgustingly OP against everything but cities. They do significant damage against units of their era and take nearly none.

Agreed. They're great for defending against an early rush, and it's the unit I dread the most when executing an early war.

Agreed, against units, except barb galleys, these units can be effective but it isn't very often that the AI is so accommodating as to be next to the coast all the time.

I think this may actually be why their ineffectiveness against cities is so glaring.

 

[tompliss]

I feel like they're especially good with the new City-state quests :
They can quickly rack up XP with the city capture quests, to get the extra range promotion. Then, they can easily harass coastal cities and units.

(unless XP rewards have been severely reduced since the 3/12 beta)

 

[Funak]

They die in two hits from pretty much everything, but they're better at taking down cities than catapults, so I think that's fair.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

Dromons UP?


Are you from the bizarro universe or something? Those things destroy all units of their era (except triremes), are decent against (relatively undefended) cities, there's not a single thing they're bad at. I'd be more inclined to call them OP and in need of a nerf rather than underpowered, really, but that extends to pretty much all ranged naval units.

 

[glaivemaster]

I'm also experiencing dread-of-Dromons. Sure, your enemy isn't always going to be by the coast, but what's important is that when they are, Dromons are supreme.

 

[Bromar1]

Crazy idea: remove the difficult target penalty from siege units, and increase the difficult target penalty on archery units to 35% (50%?)

 

[Tomice]

I also find them extremely useful.
As a usually peaceful player, they are way better at "police" duties than Triremes. They can empty barb camps so any unit (including scout, settler, worker,...) can clear them. They can help defend coastal cities. They are better at escorting settlers.

When attacking cities, they are helpful by assisting your melee ships, especially if attacking cities in narrow bays (when only a single melee ship can attack simultaneously). Not to mention they can get 3 range making them almost immune against land attacks.

I'm just playing as Carthage again (which I do quite often because I love naval gameplay).
And I actually find the Quinquereme too narrow in its use and build mostly Dromons (again, i prefer peaceful expansion). Quins are for warfare, but they have very limited use during peacetime.

Ceterum censeo:
The Quin should be a ranged ship. It would make it more versatile for goodie-two-shoes like me who don't attack without being provoked. Still, it would be useful enough for early naval rushes, but not as focused on it.

 

[Atlas627]

And I actually find the Quinquereme too narrow in its use and build mostly Dromons (again, i prefer peaceful expansion). Quins are for warfare, but they have very limited use during peacetime.

Well that's why they have reconnaissance, no?

 

[Stangle Khan]

I've been slaughtering with Dromons. The whole point is being able to project force beyond where you land units can go. If you can march a catapult to a location you should. It's also not hard to get the range promotion on them, after which they can whittle a city down at their pleasure.

 

[ExpiredReign]

Are you all saying that a bowman in a city being able to sink a dromon after it only fires one volley is acceptable?

If that's the case we are playing two very different games. Have a look at the way embarked units are almost invincible when they move too close to a city, it takes at least city bombardment and 2 or 3 other units firing to sink those. Why are purpose built naval units weaker than those?

We need an early naval equivalent of the catapult to round out the city siege units.
Trebs and galleass are good, so too all the later naval ranged + siege units, its just these dromon that take too much damage.

 

[Funak]

Are you all saying that a bowman in a city being able to sink a dromon after it only fires one volley is acceptable?

If that's the case we are playing two very different games. Have a look at the way embarked units are almost invincible when they move too close to a city, it takes at least city bombardment and 2 or 3 other units firing to sink those. Why are purpose built naval units weaker than those?

We need an early naval equivalent of the catapult to round out the city siege units.
Trebs and galleass are good, so too all the later naval ranged + siege units, its just these dromon that take too much damage.

An archer deals around 50% of a dromons hp in one shot, a dromon deals around 95% of an archers hp in one shot, Yeah i think that's pretty fair.