[GS] New units in Gathering Storm

[jddods]

I agree.

... but yeah, I want a giant death bot.

Yeah if you have to have future units then I want fun ones.

 

[fail-deadly-]

Although I used to lean towards 9 + 9, recent posts have me thinking it might actually be 9 +18. We’ve accounted for 2-3 (did we determine if the heavy cav icon was for the Huszár?). That leaves somewhere between 6-15 unaccounted for. I can easily imagine upgrades in future eras for:

1. Recon
2. Light cav
3. Bomber
4. Fighter
5. Ranged
6. Melee naval
7. Raider naval
8. Standard infantry

We’re already pushing close to the limit, but I’m willing to guess there’s going to be new classes of units (military, support, or civilian) as well, including possibly:

1. Combat drone
2. Upgraded environmentalist for terraforming
3. New terrain-based support unit (like a military engineer, but more integrated in combat).
4. Mech unit
5. Orbital platforms
6. New units involved in new culture victory
7. Diplomats

We won’t get all of these obviously, but I think there’s more in the future era than what’s been mentioned so far. Based on the integration of the favor system from Rising Tide, I’m sure that they’ll bring some other systems from Beyond Earth as well, and the satellite system was one of the novel systems that worked really well. That game was more than just a spin off, it was a testbed for new ideas.

There could also be a new religious unit. However, if we only have six (or maybe even less depending on if another civ has two UUs), then I think the best six unit balance would probably be

Future era
Melee upgrade
Light cav upgrade
Recon upgrade
Ranged upgrade
Bomber upgrade
Naval melee

the worst six unit balance would probably be

Future era
Melee
Heavy Cav
Siege
Naval raider
Naval Ranged
Support (mobile SAM)

With more units allowing for better balance.

 

[Metecury]

Any chance we will see more WMD's/ area of effect weapons? I mean we do have nukes so it's no taboo. Anyways I agree most will probably be in the new era and i diuvt they are 27 thought i wish they were.

 

[Haig]

Riflemen were unlocked with Nationalism in Civ 4, so if we get them in GS they could be in Nationalism on the Civic tree... but like Arioch wrote it would be pretty close to infantry so infantry should be moved later.

My bet for the 9 new units

Corsair - Fourth unit for the naval raider line, one leaked photo has this ship (could be some UU too)

Skirmisher - Fourth unit for Recon line CONFIRMED

Courser - Fourth unit for light cavalry line CONFIRMED

Cuirassier - Fifth unit for heavy cav line Probably the mystery unit on Ballistics going between Knights and tanks

Riflemen - Not shown on tech tree before future era, could appear in Civics tree. Although rifling of guns goes back to.. 16th or 17th century (?) they became the standard weapon of massed infantry only in 19th century.

Future era unit 1

Future era unit 2

Future era unit 3

Future era unit 4

 

[AriochIV]

Why would Riflemen appear in the Civics tree? Rifles were a technological, not a cultural innovation. The only military unit in the Civics tree, the Privateer, is not technologically any different from the Frigate (it's just used differently), so it kind of makes some sense.

I don't know if this has been mentioned before, but prime candidates for Future era unit upgrades could be units that didn't receive an upgrade in the Information era. Those would be:
Cavalry (Light Cavalry)
Machine Gun (Ranged)
Carrier
Destroyer (Naval Melee)
Modern AT (Anti-Cavalry)

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Riflemen were unlocked with Nationalism in Civ 4, so if we get them in GS they could be in Nationalism on the Civic tree... but like Arioch wrote it would be pretty close to infantry so infantry should be moved later.

My bet for the 9 new units

Corsair - Fourth unit for the naval raider line, one leaked photo has this ship (could be some UU too)

Why would Riflemen appear in the Civics tree? Rifles were a technological, not a cultural innovation.

Riflemen if they were coming would appear under the rifling tech.

I do like the idea of a corsair unit as a melee medieval naval raider.

I think the rest will be future era units as all of the other major gaps have been filled in.

 

[Myomoto]

Any chance we will see more WMD's/ area of effect weapons? I mean we do have nukes so it's no taboo. Anyways I agree most will probably be in the new era and i diuvt they are 27 thought i wish they were.

Would be nice to see an EMP, basically a nuke that didn't cause anything apart from infrastructure damage - and would not carry a heavy diplomatic penalty. Basically a diplomatic nuke to shut down warmongers while you're going for the Diplomatic Victory.

 

[AriochIV]

I do like the idea of a corsair unit as a melee medieval naval raider.

The problem with the corsair is that we've seen the tech tree and it's not there, so it would have to be in the civics tree.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

The problem with the corsair is that we've seen the tech tree and it's not there, so it would have to be in the civics tree.

Where the Privateer is, to which it may upgrade? Maybe it's not a melee naval unit.

 

[AriochIV]

Where the Privateer is, to which it may upgrade? Maybe it's not a melee naval unit.

Well yeah, I'd expect it to be a Naval Raider class unit.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

The problem with the corsair is that we've seen the tech tree and it's not there, so it would have to be in the civics tree.

Mercenaries or Naval tradition perhaps was my guesses anyway as I don't believe there are really naval based techs in the medieval era, unless it has changed.

 

[FXS_Sarah]

Maybe @FXS_Sarah or @FXS_MisterKevin can clarify: do these numbers include the uniques or not?



In other words, are there nine new global units and nine new unique units? Or eighteen new global units in addition to the nine new unique units?

Thanks!

Those numbers include civ-unique units, improvements, etc.

 

[Deggial]

Thank you, Sarah, for the clarification!
It's good to stop such (unreasonable, if you ask me) speculation early in order to prevent dissapointment later.

 

[WillowBrook]

Those numbers include civ-unique units, improvements, etc.

Thank you for the clarification!

 

[bbbt]

The problem with the corsair is that we've seen the tech tree and it's not there, so it would have to be in the civics tree.

I thought to the assumption was the corsair would be an Ottoman unique unit?

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Would be nice to see an EMP, basically a nuke that didn't cause anything apart from infrastructure damage

An EMP does not destroy buildings, it only shutdowns down all electronics. So an EMP bomb unit could work by cancelling the yields or effects of all buildings but not damaging the buildings. Basically, the EMP bomb unit would not damage the target city at all but the buildings and districts would produce zero. That would actually be a cool late game unit to have in the game.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I thought to the assumption was the corsair would be an Ottoman unique unit?

My assumption was they would get the janisarry again while the ship could be a new medieval naval raider unit or a graphical update of an existing privateer or barbarian ship.

 

[bbbt]

My assumption was they would get the janisarry again while the ship could be a new medieval naval raider unit or a graphical update of an existing privateer or barbarian ship.

Oh that's right, they've already got the model as well from the Poland scenario, and we know no one else has two UUs.

 

[steveg700]

An EMP does not destroy buildings, it only shutdowns down all electronics. So an EMP bomb unit could work by cancelling the yields or effects of all buildings but not damaging the buildings. Basically, the EMP bomb unit would not damage the target city at all but the buildings and districts would produce zero. That would actually be a cool late game unit to have in the game.

The only effective counter against the GKR, of course!

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

An EMP does not destroy buildings, it only shutdowns down all electronics. So an EMP bomb unit could work by cancelling the yields or effects of all buildings but not damaging the buildings. Basically, the EMP bomb unit would not damage the target city at all but the buildings and districts would produce zero. That would actually be a cool late game unit to have in the game.

The problem with a weapon that relies on EMP for effects, is that it is almost impossible to Limit the area of the effects. If the EMP is powerful enough to shut down all electronics (except 'hardened' electronics, which various militaries have been building for over 30 years now) it is liable to damage electronic equipment over a good portion of a hemisphere. That means Everybody's electronics over a good part of the globe get hit. Kinda like using a shotgun on a mosquito - you'll probably get him, but the collateral damage could be prohibitive...