Idea : Making naval raid units war immune

[Arraz]

Hello, while playing on civ6 I was surprised with how unimportant naval superiority is in this game.
I think it could be fixed with a simple change : making naval raid units war immune.

Basically if a privateer attacks your units or steals your trader/pillage your tiles, there is no "declaration of war".
On the other side, you could also attack privateers while avoiding declarations of war. It would be seen as a barbarian (pretty much).

This would make things much much more interesting. In order to benefit from international trade, you'd have to make sure your trader is safe and you'd have to either ask the sea dominating civ to do it in your stead or send your own navy to do so.

The sea dominating civ can have a group of privateers maintain their monopoly on international trade while bringing back money from fools who'd try getting in without paying a tribute.

This would also immensely penalize civs that are landlocked because their inability to produce naval units would prove to be a liability.

I think it can be done through a mod but I have no idea how difficult it is to code and also I dont really know whether the AI (as it is) can adapt to such change. (technically its like we added more barbs...)

 

[Zaarin]

I assumed the Privateer (which I've never built) already did this. Am I imagining things or did Privateers not do this in an earlier Civilization game? At any rate, letters of marque were a big deal in the Age of Exploration. I agree that this would add a lot to the game.

This would also immensely penalize civs that are landlocked because their inability to produce naval units would prove to be a liability.

Actually I think it would be a tradeoff. Con: a landlocked civ is unlikely to have a strong navy. Pro: a landlocked civ's trade routes are less likely to fall victim to pirates. Con: land routes are less lucrative. Pro: land routes are (usually) safer.

 

[Terminacarnival]

I assumed the Privateer (which I've never built) already did this. Am I imagining things or did Privateers not do this in an earlier Civilization game?

I can verify that this mechanic does exist with at least civ 3 privateers. Either way it is a niche feature but a cool one.

 

[Arraz]

I assumed the Privateer (which I've never built) already did this. Am I imagining things or did Privateers not do this in an earlier Civilization game? At any rate, letters of marque were a big deal in the Age of Exploration. I agree that this would add a lot to the game.

In this civ game, they (sadly) dont do this.

I havent played any civ game before this one so I cant say about them.

Actually I think it would be a tradeoff. Con: a landlocked civ is unlikely to have a strong navy. Pro: a landlocked civ's trade routes are less likely to fall victim to pirates. Con: land routes are less lucrative. Pro: land routes are (usually) safer.

The situation really depends on the map. In a pangea map, your reasoning would be mostly true.

But you are on a 2 continents map, linked only through sea and 2 civs per continent.

If you control the sea, you can prevent the person sharing your continent from trading with any person other than you. This means that he'd end up either forced to trade with you or give up on international trade all together.

This gives you an enormous leverage over him/her.

Not only that, the 2 civs on the other continent would both need to either ally with each other or with you to be able to access international trade. If there is a territorial conflict going on, you'd probably reap quite a few benefits.

 

[AntSou]

I like this idea, but the AI already has so many issues this would just add to the pile. But if they could make it work, it would be great.

The most likely result would be this: The player would dominate the seas to pillage trade routes and the AI would just keep on spamming Traders every time it lost one.

Without the penalties associated with military aggression, the player would just be able to farm gold.

 

[Arraz]

I like this idea, but the AI already has so many issues this would just add to the pile. But if they could make it work, it would be great.

The most likely result would be this: The player would dominate the seas to pillage trade routes and the AI would just keep on spamming Traders every time it lost one.

Without the penalties associated with military aggression, the player would just be able to farm gold.

I think you re right... For AI, such a mod is like cheating...
I wonder whether it'd be used in multiplayer though?

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

The Privateer was an 'anonymous' Unit in prior Civ, not this one. It is unique in that it comes from a Civic rather than a Tech and it is an 'additional' Naval Ranged Unit alongside the conventional Frigate.

What would make it all work would be to tone down the factors of the Privateer considerably (very few of either privateers or pirates ever survived a fight with a regular warship) and make it a vessel available to either Barbarians or Civs in the Renaissance. Basically, you could not tell if it was your random Barb or an Enemy who was attacking your Trade, which was the whole point of Privateers in the first place.

That would make the Privateer a distinctly Unique 'warship', only really suitable for attacking Trade, but not very effective at protecting Trade or coasts against attack - for that, you'd need a 'regular' navy of Frigates, Caravels, and such.

One other thing that needs to change, though, is that ALL Barbarian ships and all Privateers should also be able to attack Improvements, Districts, and civilian Units on coastal land tiles. Barbarian raids on coastal villages were a serious problem in the Ancient and Classical world, they describe the primary depredations of the Vikings, and, among others, Henry Morgan the pirate and John Paul Jones the 'privateer' raided coastal ports. Actually, that change alone would make it necessary to have some kind of navy to protect your coastal constructions.