My suggestion about Corps, Armies and Combined Arms, to solve 1UPT problem.

[ComradeKroo]

Ideas about using Corps, Armies to make x units per tile is great. But theres still need some modification, polishing and fixing to make it fit and reasonable.

First, we need bigger range of number of units.
-Max 3 units per armies is still small, i think 6 or 10 is much better. More units per armies, less armies to give order, so on, bigger the war.

Factors that affect size of Armies.
1-Tech, Civics, Era.
With certain Techs and Civics, Sizes of Armies are change each Era.
-Ancient Era: 1, means a single unit, not Army.
-Classical: 2, with 2 star.
-Medieval: 3.
-Industrial: 4.
-Modern: 6.

2-Civ, Leader, Units unique abilities and traits.
-Some Civs, Leaders, Units unique ability and traits give +1 for Size of Armies. Example, China Leader +1 to Armies size mean Chinese Armies can stack 1 more Units.

3-Policies
-Some policies +1 or +2 to size of armies. These Armies size from Policies are just additional factor Armies. Example, Professional Armies Policy +1 sized to any Armies, means any Armies in the Empire instantly +1 to their current Size. When Policy is discarded, the additional Size is remove.

4-General
-Some General can use for +1, +2, +3 Size permanently for 1 Army. These armies that used General is more unique and precious.

5-Wonder
-Some Wonders can provide permanently max Size limit of armies, some can give 1 time increase Size of all current Armies (not exceed Armies size cap), ...

Methods for building Armies
1-There will be only 2 options of building units, Build single unit, or Build full stack Armies.

2-Merging Units cost 0 Movement Points. Armies can arbsorb as many time as units or armies still stand adjacent. Make new "join" button for single units to join Armies. One Armies cant absorb another Armies if total size of them over limit.

3-Can increase Size of Armies by Rush Buy (cost Gold, Faith) in side friendly territories. This "Rush Buy" button will immediately increase +1 size of Armies, but cost full 1 turn.

Stat for Armies.
-Bigger Army is stronger.
-Each size increase Combat Strenght. Its constant, linenear number, Im not clearly understand combat strenght mechanic, the detail number can change.
-Each size increase 25 hit points for Armies. With size 5, your Armies HP is 200.
-Each size increase HP regen by 2.

Support Units.
-With the new size of Armies, ratio of SupportUnits/CombatUnits is change, so we should increase cost of Support Units.

Above is my idea about new Armies System.




Below is my idea about new Combined Arms System. I know, its just optional idea, but its sound very interesting, trust me.

Combined Arms
-Combined Armies is a super unit, combined by 2 or 3 armies.
-Number of Combined Armies is limited, may be just 2-6 CA available in an empire.

CA require some condition to be done.
-Need max Size Armies.
-Need Armies of the similiar Tier.
-Need different Armies.

CA Stat, Promotion, XP
-Stat of CA is base on the highest stat of combined armies. There are 3 base Stat, Melee Strenght, Ranged Strenght and Bombard Strenght.
-CA also get the trait of all combined armies, such as Melee bonus when fighting Counter.
-CA get all promotion of combined armies. Take carefully your promotion, to have a ranged unit with Logistic and Ranged promotions, or melee units that can attack twice and move after attack, ...
-CA recive the highest bonus xp of combined armies. Its very important to have high bonus xp for CA, because you need really large number of xp for Promotions.

CA upgrade
-Need tons of gold, of course.

Depend on unit type, we have 6 land unit types now: Melee, Counter, Ranged, Bombard, Light Cav and Heavy Cav, we can make some CA with any of 2 or units.
-CA unit take the slowest unit speed, so, the most important Factor that distinguish different CA is speed. It seem we can have 2 typical CA, fast and Slow.

Combined by 2 Armies (C2A)
Slow C2A Unit: Basic type, Combine 2 of 4 slow units (Melee, Counter, Range or Bombard) for a slow CA Unit that can fight as Melee and can perform ranged attack if needed. This CA use Melee (Counter) stat and still have Ranged stat when fire. Default melee attack by right click, if you want to use range attack, use Fire Icon, the same as Bombard Icon for sieging Cities.
Fast C2A Unit: Just only 1 type of CA, combine Light and Heavy Cavs. Of course, some civ with unique Mounted Archer units can have Mounted Archer CA, maybe the strongest Units in Pre Industrial Era.

Combined by 3 Armies (C3A)
Slow C3A Unit:
-The same as Combined by 2 Armies. Now we need 3 Armies instead to create much stronger, multi purposes super unit.
-Can only create C3A in Modern Era, represent the WW1 style.

Fast C3A Units:
Slow Units from WW2 onward are mechanized and mobile, so we can have more combination for fast C3A.
-Melee (Counter) + Light Cav + Heavy Cav. Basic for Blitz.
-Light Cav + Heavy Cav + Bombard. This Unit represent mechanized, armored divisions with Tanks, SPGs, and later with Helicopters.

Strenght of CA.
-As i said, i just not truly understand combat strenght mechanic, so detail about stats of units need more time and research.

Thx for reading, and sorry for my bad English .

 

[Abade69]

I believe your system is top notch (on paper). You should start making a mod to test the idea, as soon as the tools are available (i would feedback as much as i can).

Some present issues must be solved first though:

- How well is the A.I in using the army system right now?
- How is the A.I going to handle the benefits of having single units vs having armies?
- The A.I should be able to measure stack size to counter other armies (above 3).

If you limit the max number of deployed units/armies the carpets of doom can say goodbye (ie: 1 per city). If you don't limit that number in some way we may still see flooded maps (with tall armies), you could also use a production re-balance.

 

[ComradeKroo]

Thx for reply, i will answer your questions.

- How well is the A.I in using the army system right now?

Armies Units still are just 1UPT in control. AI still do it like 1 UPT.

- How is the A.I going to handle the benefits of having single units vs having armies?

AI, with their cheat on production capability, upgrade cost reduction and purchase cost reduction will be set focus on having Armies unit, ignore single units. Its very effective for them, and more challenging to human player.
So, with that idea of Armies, AI will focus on Build armies, as soon as Build Armies option available, and upgrade recent units to armies as fast as they can. While Armies Units are available, they will count single units as "unfinished" units and will not use single units for combats.

- The A.I should be able to measure stack size to counter other armies (above 3).

I think AI should no need for measure anything, they just always attent to max out the size of Armies. If they have some problem about maxing out their Armies, just give them some cheat about rush buy and reduce production cost of building Armies.

I agree with you the biggest differences between Armies and single units is the cost and strenght of Armies. Somehow, as you say, Size of Armies is the "tall" factor, or quality of units.
As before, another factor that decide the quality of units is XP and Promotions and Tech, and it work in Civ 5. But the main problem of this factor is XP and Promotion is it gained through war, or Tech gained by Science, and both of them not gained by empire economic, by production.
Now with Armies system, open economic, and therefore strategic way to increase quality of units, way of quantity to quality, combine many to 1 stronger unit. This is the biggest point. Combine 10 units to 1 super units, and late game, instead of micro carpet of doom of 100 units, you simply can still joy playing with 10 Armies units which cost the same as 100 units.

 

[Abade69]

AI will focus on Build armies, as soon as Build Armies option available

How soon would that be? By the classical era i can see some carpets already

Combine 10 units to 1 super units, and late game, instead of micro carpet of doom of 100 units, you simply can still joy playing with 10 units which cost the same as 100 units.

This is exactly what is needed.

I think AI should no need for measure anything, they just always attent to max out the size of stack. If they have some problem about maxing out their Armies, just give them some cheat about rush buy and reduce production cost of building Armies.

I see but, wouldn't this mean the A.I may declare war blindly on someone who has most powerful stacks? (in case it is not measuring nor comparing anything). The cheat seems a little bit harsh, but may work.

 

[ComradeKroo]

How soon would that be? By the classical era i can see some carpets already

As my Idea, in classical era, we can have size 5 Armies, from +2 (from Tech/Civic) + 1 (from Policy) +1 (from Wonder) + 1 (from General). I think its soon, and tall enough for classical Empire.
The cost of building Armies will growth multiply, not only by the number of units to maximize Armies size, but also the cost of higher tier units.

 

[Abade69]

As my Idea, in classical era, we can have size 5 Armies, from +2 (from Tech/Civic) + 1 (from Policy) +1 (from Wonder) + 1 (from General). I think its soon, and tall enough for classical Empire.
The cost of building Armies will growth multiply, not only by the number of units to maximize Armies size, but also the cost of higher tier units.

You should definitely mod your idea. Just don't listen to the carpet lovers, they are very afraid of a competent A.I and the impossibility of taking out thousand units with an archer on a hill.