New unit - Raiders

[Ortega]

hi guys,
for the next Civ game i want to suggest a new unit: Raiders
This unit will be able to get into enemy borders without open borders and get double the money on pillaging improvments. The attacked Civ will not be able to identify to which Civ this Raider unit belongs to and it will appear as a barbarian unit.
Imagine building couple of these units and destorying your neighbours fields before a major attack!
This correlates pertty good with history as this is what the vikings did, therefore this UU could be a good buff up for Denemark. Unit will replace Warriors.
what do you think?

in addition, privateers should also be able to attack trade routes without DOW and not to be identified. to prevent the complete stop of sea trade this unit hammer cost should be very high. Need to conisder also if privateers could raid upon costs and pillage improvments.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

Isn't this why we have Barbarians?

I do agree that Barbarian Galleys should be able to 'raid'(pillage) coastal tiles - pirates were doing that all the way back to pre-Roman times. But there is no reason to have a specialized 'raider' for a Civ: raiders historically were, in Terry Pratchett's wonderful description: "any group with weapons and a cash flow problem".

Privateers, unfortunately, were identifiable in most cases. It was certainly no secret to the target, be it Spain or England, when England, France or another country was issuing 'letters of marque' to privateers to prey on their shipping. I do think that the Privateer should be a specialized unit, because mod of them were much lighter than the regular warships of the time, and so to good for much except pirate-like raiding. The warships of that Era were the Frigate and Ship-of-the-Line, which should be available to anyone, with another choice provided for an Englich UU.

 

[Ortega]

the idea is to have a UU that can do so, the special about this unit is to sneak into enemy borders without DOW. After several raids the attacked Civ will have to reply and DOW to its neighbour that is suspected with the raids.

 

[redwings1340]

the idea is to have a UU that can do so, the special about this unit is to sneak into enemy borders without DOW. After several raids the attacked Civ will have to reply and DOW to its neighbour that is suspected with the raids.

It's kind of a giveaway if it's a UU... If you want it to be mysterious you'll need to give everyone this unit. Also it's kind of a giveaway if it spawns in someone's borders. It might be fun adding in a sort of hired pirate ship upon navigation, weaker than a privateer, but with the ability to take over ships for unidentified players. That way it could go in the ocean too, and unless you follow it from the time it spawns, you won't be able to tell who's ship it is.

 

[Ortega]

if the UU looks like a barbarian worrior this wont give it away.
eventually the attacked player will have to retaliate and declare war on his "peacful" neighbour in order to stop these raids.
provoking wars will make the game much more intresting as right now there arent many reasons to start wars unless you are going for domination.
in addition if you get this UU from a military CS there i can imagine some nice confusions going on..

 

[Bulldog Bats]

Rather than a new unit, I would like to see, at least early in the game, the ability to attack another without declaring war (not a city, but a unit on the border). Make it a percent chance that you get away with it, and a chance that you get discovered, and not only DOWed, but suffered in rep with civs allied with the attacked civ.

 

[phaethon16]

What about buying off barbarians for a certain number of turns so that they raid a certain opponent, and you get a certain amount of profit at the end of it. There's a chance that the money you get back doesn't cover the cost or that the barbarians die early, but it could balance it out rather than being able to endlessly raid a weaker civ.

 

[Viregel]

What about buying off barbarians for a certain number of turns so that they raid a certain opponent, and you get a certain amount of profit at the end of it. There's a chance that the money you get back doesn't cover the cost or that the barbarians die early, but it could balance it out rather than being able to endlessly raid a weaker civ.

I quite like this! It helps you make use of Barbarian encampments, and also allows you to get a significant lead in the early game.