Encampments ?

[Woundweaver]

Hi all.
So its that time again that comes every few years when a new Civ title is due to hit our Pc`s and I must say I do actually feel quite exited by this one (started with CiV2 waay back!)
It looks great and has definitely got a good feel of depth from what ive seen in all the videos and reviews.
The one thing that I'm slightly mixed about are the Encampments. Whats the point in them other than taking up yet another tile outside your city? ( I'm worried that the new Citys are going to look so messy with all the districts annexed onto the sides of them!) I know that land units trained from the city come out of them but why bother? Whats wrong with the land units coming out of the city in the first place, surely it would save a load of production to just build them from the city itself??
I must be missing something here so please enlighten me someone

 

[Khalid]

You place barracks, armory, etc. in the encampment. So you can build units in the city center, but with no upgrades.
You need more strategic resources to build a unit if you do not have an encampment.
Militaristic city states provides bonus to unit production in the encampment (with the 3+ envoys).
Once you have city walls, you can shoot units from both the encampment and your city.

 

[Plus Ultra]

Funny enough, the encampment and harbour are probably the only districts that everyone agrees make sense to have in a separate tile in the map.

Are you aware encampments have their own defenses and can bombard once walls are built in the city? If positioning encampments strategically in the map (choke-points / borders) doesn't seem appealing to you, I guess your problem might be with the whole district sistem, rather than the encampment itself.

 

[Woundweaver]

Ah so does that mean that you can be building units in the Encampment as well as building other city improvements in the City itself at the same time?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Ah so does that mean that you can be building units in the Encampment as well as building other city improvements in the City itself at the same time?

No, you can't.

 

[dturtle1]

A) they reduce the Strategic resource cost to 1, so instead of 2 resources in your empire you only need 1.

B) The only place to build military buildings is in a district. Military buildings give boni to xp gain of military units. Firaxis could of allowed military buildings to be built in the city centre, however most buildings specialised buildings require a district and this implementation makes this bonus more valuable. You can build a unit in any city however those built inn encampments will become better...faster

C) Once you build Walls in your city the Encampment is a secondary source of City attack allowing a city with walls and encampment to fire twice a turn( 1 from each). This is obviously useful

The production cost is not really that much of concern, it will be the district limit that makes stop and think about it. Strategic Resources have changed in civ6. There are far less copies and sources available but you only need 1 to build x amount of units(2 if building in a city without an encampment). You will want at least 1 encampment and probably two....(you cannot have a barracks and a stable in the same encampment, you have to choose.). Military buildings dont give raw xp anymore, rather they give % increased xp gain. If you want the promotions at a reasonable speed you will want properly trained units. The extra bombard is of course amazing

 

[AinEiken]

Ah so does that mean that you can be building units in the Encampment as well as building other city improvements in the City itself at the same time?

No - you still have one production queue (at least I think it will be a queu). But units will spawn in the encampment.

 

[Haggbart]

A) they reduce the Strategic resource cost to 1, so instead of 2 resources in your empire you only need 1.

B) The only place to build military buildings is in a district. Military buildings give boni to xp gain of military units. Firaxis could of allowed military buildings to be built in the city centre, however most buildings specialised buildings require a district and this implementation makes this bonus more valuable. You can build a unit in any city however those built inn encampments will become better...faster

C) Once you build Walls in your city the Encampment is a secondary source of City attack allowing a city with walls and encampment to fire twice a turn( 1 from each). This is obviously useful

The production cost is not really that much of concern, it will be the district limit that makes stop and think about it. Strategic Resources have changed in civ6. There are far less copies and sources available but you only need 1 to build x amount of units(2 if building in a city without an encampment). You will want at least 1 encampment and probably two....(you cannot have a barracks and a stable in the same encampment, you have to choose.). Military buildings dont give raw xp anymore, rather they give % increased xp gain. If you want the promotions at a reasonable speed you will want properly trained units. The extra bombard is of course amazing

D) They give points toward Great Generals

 

[Cyberian]

In the early game better build actual units than waste precious production on an encampment.
I would probably start building one in the early medieval age or a bit earlier depending if I need the defense.

Of course you want to place it where conflict happens. Cities with a defense setup like this:



are extremely easy to defend with walls. With minimum city spacing you could even do a line of these across your whole border potentially even reinforced with additional fortresses.

 

[glaivemaster]

As well as providing a boost to military in the form of production and unit XP gain, and beside their defensive bonuses, Encampment buildings tend to provide housing which other district buildings don't. The bonus 1 or 2 housing from Barracks and Armories can actually be pretty useful in the early game to keep a city growing.

 

[stealth_nsk]

In the early game better build actual units than waste precious production on an encampment.
I would probably start building one in the early medieval age or a bit earlier depending if I need the defense.

I'd say classic. It's really unlikely to have 2 Horses and 2 Iron. If you need Horsemen and Swordsmen you need an encampment at Classical era... pretty much soon after it's available.

 

[nitedemon]

Can encampment be pillaged or will it have to be taken down like a city center ?

 

[Woundweaver]

Ok thanks for replys. They kinda make sense now.

 

[Cyberian]

The thing is currently you can just build warriors and upgrade them to swordsmen with 1 iron.

But I agree that this might be a valid reason to build an encampment earlier. Still as the main combat units are archers and crossbowmen and also going wide with 8 or 12 or more cities is the new meta now you might not have that problem. My issue with housing is that there is the granary for that which is a better option and also you have to spam out many settlers so it does not seem that you will grow very big early in your capital. If you do however then that makes encampment a more worthy option as being housing capped is very bad and should be avoided wherever possible.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Can encampment be pillaged or will it have to be taken down like a city center ?

Other districts can be pillaged, so likely the encampment too.

The thing is currently you can just build warriors and upgrade them to swordsmen with 1 iron.

Yes, but that's very expensive. And doesn't work with Horsemen.

 

[homan1983]

Encampment acts like a city, it cannot be moved on and pillaged. The enemy needs to reduce an encampment to 0 and then take it, after which it will be pillaged.

The biggest problem with encampment as it stands is that units upgrading need only 1 resource. So you can bypass one of it's main points by simply building warriors then upgrading to Swordsmen, or chariots and upgrading to knights - this is on top of the fact that upgrading is cheaper than building afresh.

On the other hand, for all these weaknesses, they have the advantage of giving the most game-hanging great person early on. And with great people limited to the world rather than per-civ, then it's a huge advantage that your foe couldn't get ever.

 

[Promethian]

Just to have a ready list of encampment bonuses.

2nd city bombardment (when available)
Great General points
Build units with one less strategic resource requirement
Increased unit experience gain
District buildings provide production and housing

It seems to me having at least one city specialized for creating military units is a good idea.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The biggest problem with encampment as it stands is that units upgrading need only 1 resource. So you can bypass one of it's main points by simply building warriors then upgrading to Swordsmen, or chariots and upgrading to knights

Building a lot of early units could be a problem or just a delay. Also - doesn't work with light cavalry.

this is on top of the fact that upgrading is cheaper than building afresh.

It's cheaper than buying fresh units. Building them is totally different and overall much easier than upgrading.

 

[spfun]

I don't think I'll be building encampments, the opportunity cost seems to high.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I don't think I'll be building encampments, the opportunity cost seems to high.

Very strange decision, actually. It gives a lot of things.