[GS] I rarely build Military Engineers and these changes would change that.

LUCIUS VARENUS

Chieftain
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
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One of the main reasons I don't build military engineers immediately is that it costs charges to build plain roads. And honestly I don't really build them until I want airstrips which are extremely useful.

Although I admit to sending traders to/from new cities just for the roads between all my cities, I find it inefficient when getting the gold/science/faith/culture from routes to city states or foreign civs provides much greater benefits.

1. Roads built by MEs should cost 0 charges. MEs should be able to build them in enemy territory too.

Military engineers are expensive in terms of production or gold to build and they come at a time when so many other things need to be built and all provide superior and more numerous advantages. IMO they are far less productive than builders and yet they cost more! Base cost of builder = 50 production / 200 gold. Base cost of military engineer? 170 production/660 gold!

2. Military engineers cost too much to produce and buy. Their cost should be reduced to mimic and increase like builder prices.

I find it mad that a ME has only 3 charges (which AFAIK cannot be improved upon) and to build something as basic as a road costs 1 charge when you have Hero units that can 1 shot units, create and destroy resources and instabuild districts with just 1 charge - AND AFAIK the Hero costs less.

3. The number of base charges should remain at 3. However, Serfdom and Public Works policies should include MEs.

Another thing I find about the ME is the lack of ability to build forts inside enemy territory. I know the types of situations I want to build a fort in my territory or near it as a defensive hotspot, but frankly these situations rarely arise in my games.

While it would make forts significantly more powerful, there's no reason why an attacker wouldn't want to build forts in enemy territory and this has happened in history. If it is too powerful, the defensive bonus could be halved and the improvement renamed something like Siege Encampment. This would make fort or a weaker variant of forts far more common in game and therefore make MEs far more viable and valuable in terms of prioritisation.

4. Either MEs should be allowed to build Forts in enemy territory as is OR MEs should be able to build "Siege Encampments"/insertbetternamehere in enemy territory. This improvement should provide +5 defence strength (Forts provide +10 defence strength), allow +10 healing when a unit is healing within it instead of +5 that's normally allowed in enemy territory. The improvement cannot be built within open borders of a civilization that is at peace with the would-be-placing-a-fort civilization. Forts themselves should provide +10 healing when a unit is healing within it and should in this scenario be otherwise unchanged.

Other than the issues I have raised with MEs here I don't think there are any other problems and if my ideas were implemented in addition to other ME functions I think they would be perfected.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk. What do you think about these ideas?
 
I like them.
 
4. Either MEs should be allowed to build Forts in enemy territory as is OR MEs should be able to build "Siege Encampments"/insertbetternamehere in enemy territory. This improvement should provide +5 defence strength (Forts provide +10 defence strength), allow +10 healing when a unit is healing within it instead of +5 that's normally allowed in enemy territory. The improvement cannot be built within open borders of a civilization that is at peace with the would-be-placing-a-fort civilization. Forts themselves should provide +10 healing when a unit is healing within it and should in this scenario be otherwise unchanged.
Something that I'm surprised we haven't seen in the civ games is any references to trench warfare. I think maybe unlocking a trench improvement in the Modern Era as a better fort which could be built in enemy territory would do the trick and could be linked together like the Great Wall.
It could also initially do damage if enemy units occupy the tile.
 
I like all those ideas except one detail:
However, Serfdom and Public Works policies should include MEs.
Serfdom should not impact MEs, or should not be called Serfdom. The title of the card should still have some meaning. There's so few little small roleplay in governments & policies, let's keep the consistency in the wording at least :)
 
I usually don't need them until I need them. I probably should plan ahead more :(

Those dams and flood barriers really really need production boosts from them.
 
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