Gunpowder combat bonus

[Brawndo]

It's ridiculous that knights and longswordsmen are more combat effective than musketmen. Historically knights were phased out explicitly because you could field a much larger group of musketmen for the same cost with a fraction of time necessary for their training. Also, except at long range, armor could not stop musket balls and disciplined arquebus and musket wielding troops would destroy a mounted charge (Japan during the Sengoku Period is the best example). Muskets costing 30 production less than longswordsmen in Civ 5 does not capture this at all, because all this means is that they build in 10-11 turns instead of 13-15 turns (oooooh boy).

The way this can be incorporated in the game is to give +33% strength modifier to musketmen, riflemen, and cannons when they are fighting against units from civs who have not researched Gunpowder yet.

 

[DaveGold]

The Three Musketeers were most famous for their swordplay, not their muskets. There was a time when the the bullet and sword were both used.

You've also skipped one advantage of musketmen. They don't require resources.

 

[Brawndo]

The Three Musketeers were most famous for their swordplay, not their muskets. There was a time when the the bullet and sword were both used.

You've also skipped one advantage of musketmen. They don't require resources.

Of the 5-6 full games of Civ5 I've played, I always had plenty enough horses abd iron (except once when the random map was so poorly created that an entire continent had no iron)

 

[MRM]

In my current game I have no iron, but lots of horses ´( to bad since I play Japan and can't build Samurais

However IIRC the first gunpowder units where used, because they where cheap to train, and not because of their strenght. Remember, those muskets where inaccurate and it took long time to reload. A bow can "reload" faster, but it requires, as well as handling of swords, a lot of training. For muskets you can use a militia of farmers, who fire once and most of them won't get a chance of a second shot anyway ...

 

[DaveGold]

Of the 5-6 full games of Civ5 I've played, I always had plenty enough horses abd iron (except once when the random map was so poorly created that an entire continent had no iron)

Lucky you. I've frequently had to ration the iron for frigates and siege machines and use Musketmen as stock troops.

 

[Argetnyx]

Who said that those musketmen were well trained? Late medieval troops were mostly made up of 'volunteer' servicemen, standing armies that had the time for training didn't really exist yet. Also, a crossbow bolt could pierce the same piece of armor as the musket ball, and it was much more accurate. The only disadvantage was that a crossbow took even longer to load.