New Units??

[Shadow717]

So is anyone else dissapointed by the new bomber being named "World War I Bomber"? This makes me think we are also likely to have "WWI Fighter" and maybe even "WWI Infantry". In a game about playing out an alternate version of history why do we have units named for their use in a real-world war? That just seems odd, and even a little lazy to me. I understand "Bomber" and "fighter" are already taken, but there must be something better. right?

"Early bomber/fighter"?
"Biplane"?

 

[Pouakai]

Why not use the name 'Bomber' for WW1, and then call the Bombers something like 'B-29' or 'B-52' (I forget which one America has)

 

[Louis XXIV]

Why not just Biplane Bomber and Triplane? That strikes me as being very intuitive.

I'd rather not invoke a specific nationality's units with the generic units. Of course, I'd also rather not invoke a specific war.

 

[SuperWaffle247]

I absolutely agree. I think the fighter can be Triplane and the Bomber can be Biplane. The infantry can be differentiated too. I think they did a good job of coming up with the supposed "Landship" so I believe that they'll do something for the remaining units.

If they don't, it's moddable right?

 

[Pouakai]

What about Line Infantry?

 

[nokmirt]

I think the reason that it is called WWI bomber is because there were so many designs during the war. Biplane bomber could work as a name though. So to me biplane bomber and triplane sounds better, than WWI bomber and triplane.

A typical WWI biplane bomber such as the Handley Page HP.12 (O/400) had 2 engines

The Handley Page Type O was an early biplane bomber used by Britain during the First World War. At the time, it was the largest aircraft that had been built in the UK and one of the largest in the world. It was built in two major versions, the Handley Page O/100 (H.P.11) and Handley Page O/400 (H.P.12).

As early as December 1914 during the First World War the Royal Navy's Director of the Air Department, Captain Murray Sueter requested “a bloody paralyser” of an aircraft from Frederick Handley Page for long-range bombing. The phrase had originated from a Commander Samson who had returned from the front

Handley Page responded to the Navy's requirements with a biplane with a wingspan of 100 ft/30 m (the original source of the O/100 designation). The first prototype flew on 7 December 1915 and featured a glazed cockpit and armor sufficient to protect from rifle fire around the crew compartment and engines. The aircraft proved somewhat underpowered, so the glazing and armor were deleted on the second prototype that flew the following April and formed the basis for series production of the machine. A total of 46 of the O/100s were built.

Handley Page Type O
Type: Bomber
Country: Great Britain
Manufacturer: Handley Page
First Flight: December 1915
Introduced: 1916
Number Built: 600
Wingspan: 100 ft (30.48 m)
Length: 62 ft 10¼ in (19.16 m)
Height: 22 ft (6.71 m)
Wing Area: 1,648 ft² (153.1 m²)
Empty weight: 8,502 lb (3,856 kg)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 13,360 lb (6,060 kg)
Engines: 2× Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII water cooled in line piston, 360 hp (268 kW) each
Maximum Speed: 97 ½ mph (84.7 kn, 157 km/h)
Range: 608 nmi 700 mi, ( 1,120 km)
Service Ceiling: 8,500 ft (2,600 m)
Rate of Climb: 23 min to 5,000 ft
Endurance: 8 hours
Crew: 4 or 5
Armament:
Guns: 5 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis Guns (2 on nose Scarff ring, 2 on dorsal position and 1 at ventral hatch)
Bombs: Up to 2,000 lb (907 kg) of bombs
Avionics: Drift Sight Mark IA, an early mechanical bombsight

Now a heavy bomber such as the Handley Page V/1500 was a premiere bomber of the war. This monster had 4x engines.

The Handley Page V/1500 was a British night-flying heavy bomber built by Handley Page towards the end of the First World War. It was a large four-engined biplane, which resembled a larger version of Handley Page's earlier O/100 and O/400 bombers, intended to bomb Berlin from East Anglian airfields. The end of the war stopped the V/1500 being used against Germany, but a single aircraft was used to carry out the first flight from England to India, and later carried out a bombing raid on Kabul during the Third Anglo-Afghan War. It was colloquially known within the fledgling Royal Air Force as the “Super Handley”.

While the V/1500 had a similar fuselage to that of the O/100, it had longer-span, four-bay biplane wings and was powered by four 375 hp (280 kW) Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines mounted in two nacelles, so two engines were pulling in the conventional manner and two pushing, rather than the two Eagles of the smaller bomber. Construction was of wood and fabric materials. A relatively novel design feature was the gunner's position at the extreme rear of the fuselage, between the four fins.

Handley Page V/1500
Type: Heavy Bomber
Country: Great Britain
Manufacturer: Handley Page
Designed by: George Rudolph Volkert
First Flight: 22 May 1918
Entered Service: 1918
Number Built; 63
Length: 64 ft 0 in (19.51 m)
Wingspan: 126 ft 0 in (38.41 m)
Height: 23 ft 0 in (7.01 m)
Wing Area: 2,800 ft² (260 m²)
Empty Weight: 17,600 lb (8,000 kg)
Max Takeoff Weight: 30,000 lb (14,000 kg)
Engines: 4× Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII V-12 water cooled, 375 hp (280 kW) each
Maximum Speed: 99 mph (159 km/h) at sea level
Range: 1,300 mi (2,090 km)
Service Ceiling: 11,000 ft (3,350 m)
Endurance: 17 hours
Climb: to 10,000 ft (3,000 m): 41 min 25 sec
Crew: Eight or nine
Armament:
Guns: 3 × 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Lewis guns each in nose, dorsal and tail positions
Bombs: Up to 7,500 lb (3,400 kg) of bombs (30 × 250 lb/113 kg carried internally)

This is one type of German Gotha heavy bomber. The one I think is represented in the game. This is called heavy bomber, but only has two engines.
Which makes no sense, because of its light bombload of only 1100 lbs.

The Gotha G.IV was a heavy bomber used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. Experience with the G.III showed that the rear gunner could not efficiently operate both the dorsal and ventral positions. Hans Burkhard's ultimate solution was the "Gotha tunnel," a trough connecting an aperture in the upper decking with a large opening extending across the bottom of the rear fuselage. The Gotha tunnel allowed a gunner at the dorsal position to depress his gun into the aperture and fire through the fuselage at targets below and behind the bomber. A ventral 0.312 in (7.92 mm) machine gun could still be mounted, and there was even a provision for a fourth machine gun on a post between the pilot's and bombardier's cockpits, although this was rarely carried due to the weight penalty it imposed on the bombload.

The G.IV introduced other changes. The fuselage was fully skinned in plywood, eliminating the partial fabric covering of the G.III. Although it was not the reason for this modification, it was noted at the time that the plywood skinning enabled the fuselage to float for some time in the event of a water landing. Furthermore, complaints of poor lateral control, particularly on landing, led to the addition of ailerons on the lower wing.

Gotha G.IV
Role: Bomber
National Origin: German Empire
Manufacturer: Gothaer Waggonfabrik, Siemens-Schuckert Werke, LVG
Designed by: Hans Burkhard
First flight: 1916
Introduced: February 1916
Operators:
Germany: Luftstreitkräfte
Austria-Hungary: KuKLFT
Produced: 1916 to 1917
Number built: 230
Powerplant: 2 × Mercedes D.IVa, 260 hp (193 kW) each
Wingspan: 77 ft 9 in (23.7 m)
Wing area: 563 ft² (89.5 m²)
Length: 40 ft 0 in (12.2 m)
Height: 12 ft 10 in (3.9 m)
Empty weight: 5,320 lb (2,413 kg)
Gross weight: 8,042 lb (3,648 kg)
Maximum speed: 83 mph (135 km/h)
Service ceiling: 16,400 ft (5,000 m)
Endurance: 6 hours
Range: 434 miles (700 km)
Crew: Three
Armament:
Guns: 2 or 3 × 0.312 in (7.92 mm) Parabellum LMG 14 machine guns
Bomb Load: 1100lbs (500kg)

This is the most advanced German WWI operational heavy bomber, which bombed London during the war. With 4x engines, Germany rarely built four engine bombers. In WW2 Germany had a few designs with four engines, but few of these were built. They typically stuck to two engine designs in both world wars. German bombers had unusally light bombloads when compared to their opponents in both world wars as well. Kind of interesting.

This aircraft was mainly used for night bombing raids on London. The plane had enclosed crew cabins and the engines could be worked on during flight.

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI was a four-engined German biplane strategic bomber of World War I, and the only so-called Riesenflugzeug ("giant aircraft") design built in any quantity.

The R.VI was the most numerous of the R-bombers built by Germany, and also one of the first closed-cockpit military aircraft (but the first was Russian aircraft Sikorsky Ilya Muromets). The bomber was reputedly the largest wooden aircraft ever built until the advent of the Hughes H-4 Hercules built by Howard Hughes, its wingspan of 138 feet 5.5 inches (42.20 m) nearly equaling that of the World War II B-29 Superfortress

Zeppelin Staaken R.VI
Type: Heavy Bomber
Manufacturer: Gothaer Waggonfabrik AG
Designed by: Hans Burkhard
First flight: 1917
Introduced: August 1917
Produced: 1917 to 1918
Number Built: 36
Powerplant: 2× Mercedes D.IVa water cooled inline, 260 hp (191 kW) each
Length: 40 ft 8 in (12.42 m)
Height: 14 ft (4.5 m)
Wingspan: 77 ft 9 in (23.70 m)
Wing Area: 963.6 ft² (89.5 m²)
Empty Weight: 2,739 kg (6,039 lb)
Max Takeoff Weight: 8,745 lb (3,967 kg)
Maximum Speed: 87 mph (140 km/h)
Service Ceiling: 21,325 ft (6,500 m)
Range: 840 km (522 miles)
Crew: 3
Armament:
Guns: 2 or 3 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) Parabellum MG14 machine guns
Bombs: 1,102 lb of bombs, 3 machine guns

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

About Druids, their unique ability would be ability to spread to more cities, you can spread to 2 cities with one missionary. atleast that's what i Read in one of the articles.

 

[Deggial]

Maybe I am wrong, but wasn't the druid system a political one with druids as political advisors at courts?

If that is true, druids maybe could have an impact on SC diplomacy (or diplomacy in general).

As we don't know much about the new CS system, I can not propose a special ability. How are embassys established? If it is done by units, druids could have this ability, too.
Alternatively, if gifted to CSs, druids could produce influence (more than normal military units would but far less than a GM with his special ability, of course).

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, I'm sure their role changed over time. I'm used to them in Roman times, where they organized resistance to Rome. Julius Caesar said he invaded Britain because the Druids were using it as a base to organize support against him. Roman General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus invaded the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) to destroy the power of the Druids, burning sacred groves and things like that (after having to fight the Druids since they acted as warriors in their own right).

Of course, while he was away doing this, Boudicca led her uprising against Rome that resulted in Camulodunum, Verulamium, and Londinium getting burned to the ground.

 

[nokmirt]

The riflemen look like they have different hats or helmets on. The backpacks etc look the same though. hmmm

 

[Deggial]

I'm used to them in Roman times, where they organized resistance to Rome. Julius Caesar said he invaded Britain because the Druids were using it as a base to organize support against him.

Well, this seems to support my vague memories. Sounds very political to me...

 

[nokmirt]

I am not sure what to think about having melee naval units and ranged naval units. I hope some have both abilities.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Well, this seems to support my vague memories. Sounds very political to me...

Well, it's political but it's also military. That's why I suggested a Great General type effect.

 

[storical]

I am not sure what to think about having melee naval units and ranged naval units. I hope some have both abilities.

Bro, I hear they are going to be seperate. I suppose we'll have a boat with modern day Swahili pirates jumping out of it. They yell out, "MAMBO POA!" and gun you down.

Ready for some hot seat when this comes out? Then maybe some multiplayer vs our buddy Mr. Pink from Canada? Who we have been whooping in multiplayer games since Call to Power 2. We can pretend we don't know each other as usual and gang up on them when they least expect it. By the time he finds out its us again, it is far to late for him to do anything about it.

Good civ player, and Bad civ player!

 

[storical]

I think the reason that it is called WWI bomber is because there were so many designs during the war. Biplane bomber could work as a name though. So to me biplane bomber and triplane sounds better, than WWI bomber and triplane.

Nice write up kid! WWI aircraft I have been asking for that for twenty dang years man!

 

[nokmirt]

Bro, I hear they are going to be seperate. I suppose we'll have a boat with modern day Swahili pirates jumping out of it. They yell out, "MAMBO POA!" and gun you down.

Ready for some hot seat when this comes out? Then maybe some multiplayer vs our buddy Mr. Pink from Canada? Who we have been whooping in multiplayer games since Call to Power 2. We can pretend we don't know each other as usual and gang up on them when they least expect it. By the time he finds out its us again, it is far to late for him to do anything about it.

Good civ player, and Bad civ player!

Patton and Rommel that old trick. They always believe we absolutely hate each other. You always were crazy.

Nice write up kid! WWI aircraft I have been asking for that for twenty dang years man!

Yeah I can't wait for this thing to come out. We have both been asking for a biplane forever.

 

[vonbach]

Originally Posted by AriochIV
What kind of unit would the "druid" be a replacement for?
I was thinking Missionary replacement. Maybe one that also boosts combat like a Great General.

There was a mod that added a druid unit it acted as a great general with the medic promotion simple and effective.

 

[Noah Kidd]

So far we have little knowledge of the 27 new units to be added in the Gods and Kings expansion. Here are the units we know shall be added in Gods and Kings....

1. Pictish Warrior (Celts)
2. Polder (Netherlands)
3. Sea Beggar (Netherlands)
4. World War I Bomber (???)
5. World War I Tank (???)
6. World War I Artillery (???)
7. World War I Plane (Not sure)

Please tell me if I missed out anything!

The World War I units are probably just standard, not unique... they are also not confirmed, but many sources have said that World War I bombers, tanks, artillery, and some others things were added.

 

[TheMarshmallowBear]

Holy Warriors, Missionaries, Inquisitors are also probably counted as "new units"

Spies however are not as they are not actual units. Just to have it out there.

There's a new unit that comes with Penicillin I believe.

 

[blackcatatonic]

Haven't we got a confirmed Machine Gun as well?